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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!

I wrote up a Daily Grind question over at Massively this morning but I thought it might be fun to discuss the same idea from a slightly different angle with you. My question to our readers was "Once you've played (and enjoyed) MMORPGs, can you ever go back to (and enjoy) single-player RPGs?"

When I look at both RPG-types, I see three S's and three C's that differentiate them:

SPRPGs emphasize story, stats, and strategy
MMORPGs emphasize community, collaboration, and competition

Due to their more limited focus, SRPGs tend to really excel at the three S's. Have you ever had the story in an MMO actually bring tears to your eyes or really evoke any other strong emotion (other than anger and frustration due to bugs or imbalance)? SRPGs really let you dig into your character as well, micromanaging stats, abilities, and characteristics to a greater degree than most MMORPGs. Finally, the PvE strategies for boss fights generally trump those found in most MMORPGs, however, I might call this a draw if the MMO supports PvP/RvR and PvE (e.g., WoW).

MMORPGs have all three S's found in SRPGs, but usually to a lesser degree. To make up for this, they focus on three C's. Your only friends in an SRPG tend to be NPCs whereas MMORPGs give you real live players to interact and bond with in game and out (e.g., guilds and alliances). Collaboration takes this a step further by allowing you to actually work with others towards a common goal. Competition allows you to take your stats, strategy, community, and collaboration and test it out against others, while the only competition in SRPGs tends to be against yourself (e.g., beating FFVII in 45 hours vs. 70, while unlocking entirely new zones, summons, and chocobos *bwwwwark*).

Another major difference is a sense of accomplishment versus a sense of the "Neverending Story." It felt great beating a game like FFVII but I also felt like I had wasted an immense amount of time because I completed it completely alone in my parent's basement (hey, I was a teenager!). There really is no end-game in an MMORPG and any time you reach the cap it is usually only temporary as they unlock new content and challenges for you to experience. Don't take that comment to mean I'm a fan of vertical progression/mudflation as an expansion strategy, because I believe you can accomplish the same thing with horizontal expansion.

This is all basically coming down to the same conclusion as my Daily Grind piece, which is that I really can't bring myself to play SRPGs now that I've experienced MMORPGs. It's all fine and good until you consider the final difference I see between both game-types. MMORPGs always seem to suffer from polish issues, which I see as a huge flaw with the genre. I realize the complexities of MMORPGs, but I still believe we can improve in this area by leaps and bounds.

I think there will always be a place for SRPGs but as more and more folks get online, I predict MMORPGs will eventually take over as the dominant form. The only thing really holding them back right now is story and polish, but once developers can crack that nut, I think the floodgates will open. As instances, zone phasing, and solo viability become more mainstream in MMORPGs, why would anyone but the most introverted "hardcore" person bother playing an SRPG anymore? Heck, I'd even call myself pretty introverted and a mostly solo gamer and I still play MMORPGs over SRPGs.

I'm looking at you to prove me right, BioWare! *cough cough*