The EA/BioWare/Mythic shake-up
Posted by: Snafzg
On: Jun 24, 2009 at 12:43pm
THIS is pretty crazy.
As a huge fan of WAR leading up to its release and a longtime player of DAOC, I've leveled my fair share of citicisms at Mark Jacobs. I've personally questioned his leadership in the company and didn't agree with a lot of his design directions. I also felt he did a lot of talking but didn't always fully deliver. That said, I experienced a bit of a sinking feeling when I read today's news.
To me, Mark Jacobs = Mythic. They go hand in hand. I have never really known a Mythic where Mark wasn't a predominant factor. WAR may not have succeeded to his or EA's standards but given all his interactions with the community, you kind of got to know Mark, and it's sad to see another human being not reach their full potential. Heck, a lot of us aren't reaching our full potential but we aren't in the spotlight and most of us aren't dealing with those kind of pressures.
I'm not writing this post to drool all over Mark or make excuses for him but there's one key thing we should keep in mind. I'm sure many people are going to be shouting that he got canned or realized he couldn't hack it with the big boys or whatever else, but we don't really know what happened here. Maybe he got canned. Maybe he stepped down. Maybe he got a job somewhere else. Maybe the reasons aren't what you or I think.
Let's just try to show a bit of sensitivity to the guy and wait for a bit more info before being too harsh?
As for the new as-yet-unnamed studio that will be formed by a BioWare and Mythic merge, I have to say, it sounds exciting. Like I said, I didn't really agree with what Mark did all the time so I'm hoping some new, fresh, and awesome games come out of this. It's nice to see a Canadian company (originally) getting more responsibility and spotlight.
I'm also curious to see how this will affect WAR going foward. Here's hoping it's for the better!
As a huge fan of WAR leading up to its release and a longtime player of DAOC, I've leveled my fair share of citicisms at Mark Jacobs. I've personally questioned his leadership in the company and didn't agree with a lot of his design directions. I also felt he did a lot of talking but didn't always fully deliver. That said, I experienced a bit of a sinking feeling when I read today's news.
To me, Mark Jacobs = Mythic. They go hand in hand. I have never really known a Mythic where Mark wasn't a predominant factor. WAR may not have succeeded to his or EA's standards but given all his interactions with the community, you kind of got to know Mark, and it's sad to see another human being not reach their full potential. Heck, a lot of us aren't reaching our full potential but we aren't in the spotlight and most of us aren't dealing with those kind of pressures.
I'm not writing this post to drool all over Mark or make excuses for him but there's one key thing we should keep in mind. I'm sure many people are going to be shouting that he got canned or realized he couldn't hack it with the big boys or whatever else, but we don't really know what happened here. Maybe he got canned. Maybe he stepped down. Maybe he got a job somewhere else. Maybe the reasons aren't what you or I think.
Let's just try to show a bit of sensitivity to the guy and wait for a bit more info before being too harsh?
As for the new as-yet-unnamed studio that will be formed by a BioWare and Mythic merge, I have to say, it sounds exciting. Like I said, I didn't really agree with what Mark did all the time so I'm hoping some new, fresh, and awesome games come out of this. It's nice to see a Canadian company (originally) getting more responsibility and spotlight.
I'm also curious to see how this will affect WAR going foward. Here's hoping it's for the better!
I'm a huge fan of Mark Jacobs. He can take the crap he'll get for this and he knows he deserves it. He KNEW the problems WAR faced and steered the game right into them (or didn't do enough to steer them away).
I still like Jacobs and as much as he will take for this, it doesn't change the facts that the man knows the MMO market better than most. Its the Raph Koster problem though. You can know everything about it, but be damned if you can get a development team together to execute.
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4226831&postcount=53
Let's face it, it's much easier to release new content than to fix bugs or balance classes (esp. if the content is only done half-assed in the first place). It doesn't matter what MJ did or didn't try to do. Big corps like EA love to get rid of the founders of the companies they buy out. People who found and run their own companies with any amount of success tend to be hard to control. They like to do things their way, and the big corps don't like that.
I don't think MJ wanted WAR to be released as it was. EA knew that it could make more money if they got WAR out before the WoW expansion, and enough people would stay with WAR long enough for EA to make some bucks. Sure, you can bring up that WAR subsribers have decreased from 700k to 300k. Look at it this way though. 300k subsribers times $15 a month equals $4.5 million a month, and that's not counting the money the other 400k people paid before they quit. It's all about money, and as long as EA gets it they will invest as little as possible into fixing what is wrong with WAR.
and squirt if thats true its a little harsh on MJ but hey he didn't deliever what his employees (namely paul barnett) promised and let alot of people down with the game so i can't say i'm surprised tbh but still you got to feel for the guy