Folks,
Well, the title pretty much says it all. Since EA and I parted ways last summer I have been on an enforced vacation (contracts are a b**** aren’t they?) and as always, I honored mine to both the letter and spirit of the law. Well, they have now expired, been made extinct, gone buh-bye and I’m free to do and say whatever I feel like. However, as has been made clear by some of our political leaders, there is a wide gap between having the freedom to do something and actually doing it. So, for now I’ll do as I have done in the past and take the high road whenever possible.
So, what does this mean? Well, I don’t know actually. I think it’s time to get back to work and maybe do a little writing here. I still have some thank yous to get to (I’ll sort of explain the delay in an upcoming post) and try to find the time to comment on a few things that have been going on in our world.
For those that have wondered where I’ve been, who have wished me well, who have sent me their thanks and yes, even those that have thrown some rotten fruit my way, you all have my thanks.
Mark
Aug 18, 2010 @ 00:18:36
Welcome back Mark.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 00:37:46
Thanks Stephen! Good to be back.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:17:21
Good to see you back Mark, hope to things are going well.
I hope your next endeavor (if it’s in the persistent online space) allows you the freedoms to break the mold of the current MMO state where games are forced out the door by executives who only seem to care about the bottom line.
DAOC was simpler times, I think most of us online gaming vets want those times back.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:23:37
Thanks! I couldn’t agree more about the need to break the mold and simpler times. As to executives, well, the high road and all that.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:33:40
I think I can speak for the rest of the WAR community when I say “welcome back to the internets Mark, we’re glad to see you again”.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:38:58
LOL. Which part of the WAR community? The “OMG, MJ was the root of all evil!!!!” part, the “OMG, MJ is a genius part (okay, this about the same size as the infinitesimally small particle that the Hadron Collider is searching for)” or all the other varied parts!
I thank you for the kind words though, as I said earlier, it’s good to be back.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:56:48
The good side! Personally I miss what you brought to the table for the game. Instead of light-footed changes that took forever to improve the game, you dipped in and got it done. It’s easy to tell you’re missing from the picture when you see just how much gold spam there is these days! I don’t mean to sound like I have pictures of you in my wallet, but I for one don’t have any trouble seeing how you were a great asset to bringing us the greatest RvR games ever.
Don’t be afraid to do it for us again
Aug 18, 2010 @ 02:14:59
Thanks again for the kind words. One of the many things I said to EA many times was that WAR was a group effort, for better or for worse. As such, we had a lot of dedicated and talented people working on WAR and my contribution varied from the very clever (Public Quests) to the very dumb (overly ambitious crafting system). As to what the future may hold, we’ll just have to see what happens. I know one thing, the MMO industry has changed a lot since 2001 and one of the things I’m very good at is info dives and analysis. I’ll leave it at that for now.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 02:18:56
Evil Genius IMO
WAR like many games before and after it had potential, but unfortunately in this day and age, you usually only get one impression to make on a potential customer when it comes to a subscription based game. Most either curl up and die in the corner or go F2P these days.
I think too many developers fall into the trap of trying to do too much at once and forget what got them there in the first place, well executed original ideas. Instead we seem to either get good ideas that are half implemented and pushed aside by the “next good idea” or you get the good old why can’t your game be more like that other game that is doing pretty well >.>
Aug 18, 2010 @ 02:25:45
Gospel.
Aug 17, 2010 @ 23:17:32
Very well said Jeff, and WAR is in the niche within the bigger niche, but I think it has a chance to get back in the game. Even if these RvR games are actually doing decently well with player-bases in the thousands, seeing them do better than that is always a fantasy we all have in us.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 02:06:43
Hi Mark. Glad to see you around. I still play war from the beta and I never left the game you helped create. You guys did an amazing job! I hope you can find your way back to your passion. Some times a break is the best way to reinvent or return to yourself. GOOD LUCK!
Aug 18, 2010 @ 02:17:25
Yeah, I’ve been around this past year. To paraphrase the great EF, “I was wery, wery quiet. ” And yes, I needed the break. Thanks for the good wishes.
Aug 17, 2010 @ 23:21:32
Hey man, I’m glad you’re able to speak freely again. Despite not currently being subscribed to WAR I think you’re a stand-up guy and wish you the best with your career.
Why Game Developers Should All Come To Australia | Stropp's World
Aug 18, 2010 @ 00:18:29
Aug 18, 2010 @ 00:54:19
Thanks for the post and link. Just commented on your site.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 08:20:44
Welcome back Mark!!
You and your team at Mythic did an AMAZING thing when you created Dark Age of Camelot. I read a post-mortem in a magazine about it. You had something like 18 months and very little money. Yet DaoC was an awesome game right out of the gate (for the time) and remained awesome for a very long time.
If you choose to do another MMO game, perhaps you should have a small, tight team like you had with DaoC. Instead of a massive 100+ team size, huge budget and3+ years of development.
As a developer I was always impressed by Mythic’s technical ability in regards to DaoC. Everything from the patcher, to the the quick turn-around for patches, and how very very rarely did the patches screw anything up.
I look forward to reading your future posts.
Once again, Welcome back
Aug 18, 2010 @ 09:12:49
Wow. Great to see you back. I stared in a bit of shock when Google Reader registered four new posts from your site, hah.
I think many of us longtime MMO gamers (and MUDders before that) are interested to see what you’ll be up to next. Good luck!
Aug 18, 2010 @ 15:18:56
I’ll be interested, along with many others to see what you intend to do with your new found freedom (Obviously dependant on what your previous contract said).
Aug 18, 2010 @ 15:35:27
I’m free, I’m free and freedom tastes of reality.
Aug 18, 2010 @ 18:47:22
Nice to hear from you Mark. I hope that you’re doing okay for work despite what happened with EA. At least now you can do what you want without any strings attached.
Have you heard anything from Paul Barnett? He seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth, is he alright?
Aug 27, 2010 @ 07:25:01
Welcome back from vacation Mark! It’s great to see you getting your thoughts out here on the interwebz again. Thanks for doing the Q&A with Massively, I enjoyed it. They’ve been sprinkling DAoC with some well-deserved love as of late, and it’s been awesome reminiscing with some of the Camelot vets there about our favorite memories of yesteryear.
As the game lover that you are – I’m curious to know what you’re excited about and looking forward to on the upcoming MMO scene.
Thank you for everything that you’ve done. I take a little heat from some fellow gamers for saying it, but I do believe the genre is better because Mark Jacobs was…IS here.