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[Interview] General: Catching Up with Mark Jacobs
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Mark Jacobs has some interesting things up his sleeve as witnessed by recently released teaser videos hinting at...something. We caught up with Mark to chat about what he's been up to lately. See what he's got to say before discussing the interview in the comments.
MMORPG: It’s been a while since we chatted, Mark. How’ve things been going over at City State Entertainment since Oz launched?
Mark Jacobs: Things are going great; thanks for asking. March on Oz was released for the iPad in October and we’re in the middle of a major content and platform push (iPhone, Kindle, Android and PC) that we hope to have completed by spring. So, not so bad for a small studio’s first game, eh?
Read more of Bill Murphy's Catching Up with Mark Jacobs.
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Comments
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Probably not Jeff "EA greasy pole climber" hickman though, eh?
Jacobs... just like the cracker.. crumbles easy and soon as you have taken a bite you realise how dry and lumpy it really all is..
no im not bitter about warhammer online
Mark, you probably don't remember me (using this same name), but you launched into a personnal and scathing attack on me in your forums when I pointed out that DAoC was going to lose subs because you said the world was going to be zoned, and many others were agreeing. Then a month later you were talking about your new "bubble" techology to remove zones.
But I don't hold grudges. Just wanted to say that DAoC was one of the better Themepark games, and some aspects of it were very well done. If it hadn't been Themepark and force marched me past zones I liked very much, I would have considered it one of the great games.
The PvP system was a good one, the best I've seen for a game that isn't "open world". Even in a Sandbox game, it's a solid option to control the brutal outcome of ganksquads such as UO had. Just not the best option, IMO.
Your customer service was the best I've seen in all of MMOdom. Both in-game as well as on the boards, you guys had this nailed!
The bigges shame was the Themeparkiness, the zoning of content. You guys had a great world, and I didn't want to be forced to move on from many areas. Would much rather have done that by choice, when I wanted to, and return to a "home zone", if you will. Of course, that would mean alternate game play to keep things interesting while staying put in an area. I really wished DAoC had done that. The lore was a fantastic choice, and in this it could have been more developed to accomodate it. I'm sure I'm ot the only player that spent a lot of time trying to figure out meaning to the runes, looking for deeper mysteries in the game.
From what it sounds like, you seem to be in a good place. Congrats, and best wishes. Maybe all of the past challenges has done some good, eh?
Once upon a time....
Blame hickman for warhammer online and his clown like sidekick paul barnet.
Well yes I can agree there, but....
Mark made a ton of videos praising the game, and how things were going to be, only to then have the hype he geared up shattered from under everyone suckered in... You at all remember the crafting waffle and info he gave out how it was going to be and it ended up nothing like it?
I just think he would do really well in marketing alone and nothing more.
Yea, nevermind the poorly implemented RvR, the bug ridden PvE, the over abundance of rewards from scenerios (levelling), the lag so bad they had to take out that end castle siege (forget the name), the PvE instanced capital sieges...
i could go on...
it was a lot of things, not taking anything away from what you said.
The game had a ton going for it pvp wise but again left in the hands of the non listning types lol..
running around looking for battles with my green gobo healer was fun though, I have friends that tend to just log in for the free low level stuff to do some pvp fix now and again.. I stopped playing mainly when i started seeing people floating in the air at one of the pvp spots on the coast, forgotten what it was called, but the low level 10 ish area, and firing shit at us from 100ft up..
Those messing about with hacks and then the devs would not pay attention like it was not really happening was the final nail in the coffin.
Again EA, mythic had excellent support / cheat bashing when they were independent.
Trials of Atlantis expansion was one of the worst expansion in the history of MMOs and probably led to the destruction of DAOC, and Marc Jacobs was primarily responsible for it. It's not like he didn't have plenty of feedback about how bad it was going to be and how it would ruin PvP....Oh no, they were going with it regardless.....well congrats.
Then of course, we have the wonderful hit known as Warhammer. Oh, you say you have tons of tools this time around to help with class balance in PvP......and then you see the army of Bright Wizards approaching and everyone runs and quits the server. Yeah, wonderful job there. Those must have been some great class balancing tools you developed.
Laugh.
How you keep getting employeed in this industry is amazing.
you obviously havent the slightest clue what went on at mythic before and after warhammer online released.
This guy fought tooth and nail to keep mythic afloat while others were doing bedtime deals with EA. He just hinted that directly without getting disrespctful to rob denton whom btw is a complete and utter moron. Jeff Hickman and Rob Denton killed mythic period look where Im from if you think I do not know what Im talking about to. EA Louse put it out there when warhammer crashed and called swtor out as well. If you think EA didnt TAKE this studio you are lost period and need to learn more about business. Mark made the HUGE mistake of trusting his "friends" Rob and Jeff to run his company and dealt instead with making deals with talent and other studios. That is why he is so hated today because he vouched for design decisions made by two idiots that do not even deserve to be in the industry to this day let alone feed their families from their mistakes.
Mythic dying did not just effect mythic , it effected all the side projects in fairfax and woodbridge VA as well like nothingisimpossiblestudios with blue exile. People pointing the finger here at mark are ignorant to really what was going on in virginia trust me.
This..
yeah and I am the president,
Everyone knows everything, here is an idea, actually look up the history in news articles about Mythic and you will see what killed the company. Finally Warhammer was a failure for the main two leads believed in a WoW vision, not a daoc one. Simple as that. Nothing more needs to be said.
As far as mark, well he barried his company by his own doings, again look it up, I won't argue with the know it all's here , get the facts from the news articals that lace the internet on the company that was known as Mythic Entertainment. Mark you messed it up and one day, you might actually admit to it but I doubt it, I think app development is where you should stay.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
Daoc has way more in common with older themeparks like EQ and Ao than it does sandboxes like eve.
I love daoc, try not to take themepark as av insult. But back then games like daoc and EQ were themeparks, hell the phrase was coined to differentiate EQ from uo.
You can make a good fun themepark, daoc is testimony to that. Themepark doesn't mean a boring instanced to hell shitfest like swtor. That's just a game that takes themepark to the extreme.
Eve Online is a Themepark.. right up there with WoW.. I fail to see your point.
truth. and we all know how good Rift pvp is... /sarcasm
In reality tho, the entity to blame for WAR is EA. They pushed the game out too early when it needed another 1-2 years in development.