So much speculation…

Folks,

Hmm, this post was supposed to be added two years ago. Since I’m back here now, I might as well put it up…

Mark

From 2013———————————————–

And that is a good thing of course. Kind of the whole point of putting up a series of teasers. Lots more info to come in the next few weeks…

In the meantime, a few quick hits for a lazy Saturday afternoon:

1) Thanks to everyone who has expressed an interest in our next project. Speaking for everyone at CSE, we really appreciate it and hope that your interest and support will grow as we release more information.

2) To those who have asked if I’m willing to “spill the beans on EA/Mythic/etc.”, no. I still prefer to take the high road as I have always tried to do when it comes to other developers/publishers. My time as CEO at Mythic and then GM at EA wasn’t perfect and while 2006-2009 were the worst three years of my life, I can’t and won’t blame EA for all that unhappiness even if it would garner me some support. Readers here know that those years included my mom’s diagnosis and death from cancer and that, to be frank, didn’t help matters one little bit. Over the years at Mythic I made some mistakes and I’m more than willing to stand up and admit that. Fortunately though I can say that I never did anything for personal gain at the expense of other people (quite the opposite as *everyone* who was part of the EA/Mythic negotiations knows). While I have never knowingly lied to the community and never will; I still won’t spill the beans other than to say the same thing that I said a few years ago and that in the end, what it really boiled down to is that EA & I split because we disagreed on the best way to move forward with Mythic/BioWare/EA/etc. While there is a lot more to the story, those details would involve me doing what I detest and unless I’m given a reason, I’ll keep those details to myself. As per above, it still boiled down to the same thing, I was unhappy at EA/Mythic and the direction EA/BioWare/Mythic were going, in my opinion, was wrong on so many levels and I made no secret about it.

3) As part of (2), a number of people have speculated/asked (in the past & currently) about whether EA & I split over what EA thought WAR was going to do in terms of sub numbers. That one makes me chuckle a little since prior to the acquisition by EA (which is why I can talk about this), Mythic’s internal projections for WAR were in the 300K per month range. That, was a number I told them several times (as readers here know EA & Mythic went back and forth on a M&A for about 5 years) to which one senior EA executive said “You’re sandbagging aren’t you?” I laughed and said a little bit but not much but I said if EA will really support us, 400K is doable. It was my belief then and now that RvR-centric MMORPGs could not attract the same numbers as PvE-centric MMORPGs and that WoW’s numbers were untouchable and back in 2005, we were making a RvR-centic MMORPG. Nothing I’ve seen since then has changed my opinion on that.

4) For those who are wondering about whether this new game is another tablet/mobile game, I’ll simply say that I’m a big believer in how tablet and mobile games have changed the game industry but I’m a also a bigger believer that PC gaming is not on the brink of death (which makes me odd man out in some circles).

That’s it for now.

Mark

The week ended (is ending) very well…

As CSE’s time in crunch winds down and we bid a fond farewell to long days and occasional Saturdays, take-out/delivery food and lots and lots of items in Mantis, this week is ending on some very positive notes.  Last week were able to begin talking about Formation Crafting™ (albeit in its most basic form) and at the end of this week, our punch lists are looking rather small and puny. As development winded down we had a couple of rather common issues come up, the ever-popular slow memory leak and overall performance degradation. On Thursday, just as we thought we had looked down every back alleyway in the code, the team crited their perception roll and found a hidden passage that got us over those humps (and did so in style). While MoO on the PC runs at a fabulous frame-rate, the iPad versions have been steadily losing FPS as we’ve added more features, textures, effects, etc. to the game. With all the changes we made over the last few weeks our frame-rate is getting back to where it needs to be on the iPad.  The team has also been working diligently to decrease the overall memory footprint of the game as well as the download size and we’ve made a ton of headway (we’ve cut the downloaded size by more than 1/3).  Additionally, based on the end of the week testing by the team, we’ve squashed the one stability issue that was still bugging (sorry) us and now instead of being able to play through 95%-99% of the game (at one seating) without crashing, you can now play 100% without a hiccup.   So, it was a very good week and if all continues to go well over this weekend and early next week we will be submitting MoO to the App Store by week’s end.

As always, I am thrilled to be working with a small, independent team of very dedicated and hard-working guys and gals, many of whom had never worked in the games industry before. Even during crunch, everybody has stepped up and done what was asked of them, time and time again. No politics, no prima-donnas but just a bunch of people making a game of which they are very proud. And as proud of the game I am myself, I feel an even greater sense of pride in the team that we have built here and the effort that they have made on MoO.

Mark

The March On Oz™ Begins!

Folks,

Finally, after 3 long years of both forced and self-imposed silence, I can begin talking about my studio’s first game, March On Oz ™.  City State Entertainment was formed in March of 2011 and early last summer we began working on the first of what we hope will be a series of games based on the Worlds of Oz ™ the aforementioned March on Oz.  For a new and mostly young team (I really throw the curve off, sorry kids), this game represents a major undertaking. We weren’t content with doing “JAICG” (Just Another iOs Clone Game) but set out to accomplish two rather significant goals. The first was to begin a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum’s Oz and create enough unique IP that, as I and the team at Mythic did with Camelot and DAoC, create enough non-cannon IP that we can protect it while at the same time making it more relevant to today’s audience. The second goal is to create a game that we can be proud of upon its release and that is worthy of the talent and effort than is going into the game. While I know that we can accomplished the first goal, I won’t know if that is true until after the game is released and you, the players, tell us what you think. No matter what happens though, I am proud of the effort that the entire CSE team has made on this game and I expect even better results from us as we mature as a studio.

March is also the first in a planned series of what we are calling Road Defense ™ RTS-style games. These games are, at their core, RTS-style but they also include elements of RPG-style gaming as well as other types of games. March On Oz doesn’t represent the end of the road for CSE’s journey through the Worlds of Oz rather it is just the beginning and as we all know, every journey begins with a single step and today we took our first public step on what we all hope will be a long and fascinating road. I hope that we will have a long journey together walking down this and other roads together.

www.marchonoz.com

Mark

Baby it’s cold outside

As we continue our march towards our game’s official announcement, here’s a rather cool customer.

Once again, with feeling

More teaser goodness from all of us at CSE. This time a look at the environment of our first game with a few interesting tidbits added to the original screenshot. 🙂  More good stuff coming in the next few days…

Gosh, it feels like 1995 all over again!

Folks,

There’s an old saying that you can’t go home again.  While I still believe that to be mostly true, the last few months have had an eerily familiar feeling to them.  As to why, well, here’s a look at some of the stuff that has happened in CSE during the Fall/Winter:

a) While CSE was desperately looking for a first-rate modeler to join our team, he appeared.  Eerily like when Mythic needed another artist ASAP and the talented Lance Robertson simply walked our door and asked for a job. Since joining our team, Mike has frankly, kicked serious ass;

b) I  drafted and executed a Term Sheet with another company and then wrote a first draft, hog-choker of a contract with said company.  We have a fine attorney, as we did then, but saving some significant money by me doing the grunt work is always a good idea;

c) Worked on a “Vision Document” and presentation  for two new games to show to our partner.  We were always “presenting” things to partners or potential partners back in the day.  The difference is this time, we don’t need to, as I used to say, “put on the Presidential kneepads” and beg for funding, now its to talk about JVs or distribution;

d) Got to work and hang out with an outstanding bunch of guys and gals, a team composed of a mix of industry veterans and less experienced folks who, working together, are focused on building a new studio and who are all excited about all the interesting opportunities in a growing gaming space;

e) Me, smiling broadly as the entire team contributes to our game both from within their work discipline and outside of it.  Our last two major design ideas came from our artists. That’s one of the many things that make CSE different from many (not all) other studios.  Everybody is part of the design, incubation and development process whether they are a programmer, artist, finance, HR, etc.  Lucas, one of our industry vets, confirmed that this was the first place he has worked at where everyone truly has a voice in the process;

f) The studio hired what should be our last major team member for a while, we now have everyone we need to be successful, now we just have to deliver.  It was the same back at old Mythic, we had a small team and we simply had to go out and make games that were fun to play;

g) Nerf guns firing within the office as people bring their kids and pets (including one very cool Bearded Dragon) to our space and bad jokes, puns and other assorted witticisms flow like water from the Nile (during its flood stage of course);

<<<drum roll please>>>

h) Back hurts again, not as bad as when I was walking around various E3s with a walker/cane/crutch but painful enough.

So, while this is not exactly the same as 1995, it is pretty damn good and I’m one happy camper.  As a matter of fact, I’m happier than I’ve been since the middle of last decade (way before the EA acquisition). And that alone makes it all worthwhile.  All in all, I consider myself truly blessed.

Mark

P.S. I’ll have a follow-up post that will focus on the guys and gals of CSE and why I think we have a real shot at success.  No guarantees as usual in this business but we are off to a great start.

P.S.S. More teaser goodness tomorrow.

Almost there!

Folks,

We’re putting the finishing touches on the teaser now and have the 2nd and 3rd almost ready to go as well for next week as well. As per my earlier post, the next few things we will release are truly teasers but we’ll have a lot more to show as we get closer to our release date.

It’s so great to not only be making games again but also, to do so while being part of a team consisting of hard-working, dedicated and talented folks. Hmm, maybe I should go into more detail about that at some point. 🙂

Mark

They will be coming from the mountain when they come, they will be coming from the mountain when they come…

Folks,

Well, it has been a lot of fun and a lot of work but our studio is getting close to “shipping” our launch title.  So, in the time-honored tradition of releasing as little information as possible at first, we will post a really small tease (is saying the phrase “a really small tease” the equivalent of George Carlin’s bit involving “jumbo shrimp”?) this Friday on the City State Entertainment site. As we get deeper and deeper in winter, we will release more teasers, some actual information about the game and a honest-to-goodness, in-game, non-rendered trailer. The game’s planned release date is “Sometime before the Ides of March” but if all goes well, you’ll be able to play this game while still enjoying the occasional snowflake failing from the sky, even here is Virginia.

Mark

It is alive…

Folks,

Yep, believe it or not, the blog is back.  Lots of explanations coming but the key things are:

1) We announced our relatively new studio today (we were actually formed on March 7th 2011).  The studio’s name is City State Entertainment and I’m going to have a blog piece explaining the name (and the long absence) within the next few days.

2) One of my favorite journalists wrote a really nice piece about us today.  Her name is Tracey John and besides being a fine writer, she’s also a total gamer.  Tasty linkage here.

3) Our website is live.  Check us out on Facebook as well here.

4) I’m as happy as I’ve been in quite a long time.  I’m surrounded by a great group of guys and gals and the co-founder even made me “meat cupcakes” for my birthday.  Nice…

So, this will be a short entry, more coming down the road.

Mark

Fan Mail From Some Flounder

Well, time to fire up another R&B special feature, Fan Mail from Some Flounder.

Jeremy writes  “Wow…Mary Kate and Ashley Online? Sometimes I wonder what goes through peoples heads. Not only would it have been a bane on the mmo industry as a whole, I cant even begin to imagine the fallout after people realized it would have been a candy store for sexual predators. That aside, I’m SO glad you helped talk them out of that. No one would have ever taken MMOs seriously at that point. Side note: Welcome Back Mr. Jacobs. I look forward to hearing about your future projects. Glad to see you back in the swing of things.” You nailed it in one my man.  The whole “sexual predator” bit was something I brought up to them at the meeting.  As to the side note, well, I’m not back in the swing of things yet (this blog is a just a warm up I hope) but I expect to be.  I ain’t the shy and retiring type.

Robert writes “Marry Kate and Ashely – The MMO!  ROFL!  You should keep track of the moron that thought that was a good idea. Make sure that if he’s gone to another company, and has been put into a position of power, that you avoid that company like the plague!” LOL, I don’t need to do that, the “old” Acclaim went bankrupt and as far as I know, the guys who wanted us to do MKAO are no longer in the industry.  Unfortunately, they took a lot of jobs with them when they imploded.

James writes “I hope subscriptions in mmo’s aren’t dead. I really don’t like the micro transactions. The trends I am starting to see in mmo’s as player is adding more linear flow to them like a single player rpg’s and a move to low the difficulty so everyone can play. I personally can’t say I like either but oh well.” I truly don’t think that sub games are dead but they are not the “Take cash, add team, bake in oven, release game and make GIANT BAGS OF PHAT LOOT” that some investors thought that they were (and some think social networking games are now).  A few years ago I sat on a panel where I argued that RMT games weren’t the future any more than subscription games weren’t the future, there’s room for all types of games and there isn’t a silver bullet out there.  I hate silver bullets (unless you are killing werewolves) and I always get a chuckle out of people who think that the “Next Big Thing” will be the “Ultimate Big Thing”. That’s one advantage of having been around the block a few times, you’ve seen and heard this type of stuff many times before.

Alexis Muhly writes “I still get teary eyed when I think about all the good times I had playing Island of Kesmai via Compuserve on my Apple //c over 1200 baud at $6/hr. My first introduction to the world of MMORPG’s(well not so massively but still). I wonder what happened to Snafu? Probably the first real online addict lol. I was a total AW junkie myself. I played some of the other games too but Kesmai really had their mojo going great guns back in the early days. And when you consider the hoops we had to jump through to make a game work on those services (and from what I was told, CServe was even tougher to write games for than GEnie), man oh man, it’s a miracle that anything got done.

Silverel writes “Oh you beautiful genius of a man. Looking forward to following your blog for any bits of wisdom and inspiration that fall upon your path. Mythic is a win in my book under your leadership and it really is their loss that you’ve been thrown under the bus. Kudos sir, I wish you the best and thank you for all you’ve brought the MMO community.” As to being thrown under the bus, obviously I have no comment on that other than to thank you for the kind thoughts about myself and Mythic. We did some pretty great stuff together over the years but one of the things I am proud of is that we never did anything with malice aforethought. Stupid, yes, epically STOOPID, yes but never out of malice towards the players. And as always, success or failure depends on many people getting things right or even getting things wrong and it was always a team effort at Mythic. Like anyone involved in the creative process especially as CEO/GM, I made a lot of choices. Some of my choices/design elements worked, some didn’t but as anybody who worked on DAoC/WAR can tell you, lots of creative/design authority was delegated to a wide range of people as it is in every MMO. It’s why I’ve never taken all the credit for DAoC/WAR and never will (even if I do another MMO) but it’s also why I never have thrown any of my guys/gals under the bus publicly, even when they screwed up truly epically. I’d rather the community hate on me, blame me for every bug, bad design choice, coding error, poor communication, etc. than some team member(s) who was trying to do the best they could but still screwed up. That’s actually one of the few good things about no longer being at Mythic, I don’t have to be mocked, screamed at, etc. when I tell something to the community that was told to me and then it turns out to be wrong. Makes things a lot more relaxing to be me or to be around me. 🙂