If you've been around the MMO scene for a while, you'll remember Mark Jacobs as the co-founder of Mythic Entertainment and the force behind Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online.
He's been out of the gaming industry since his departure from EA, but according to an exclusive interview with Forbes.com, he's back with a new company. "Jacobs revealed that his new company is called City State Entertainment, and [...] the company aims to create games for the mobile, tablet and social networking space," says Forbes.com's Tracey John.
Mark tells Forbes that social game development allows for a faster development cycle and lower costs, which equals more freedom to simply have fun making games. "We don't have to worry if the hardcore gamers are going to get incredibly upset because we're doing something a certain way. We don't have to worry if our game is going to sell another 20 copies. We're just looking to make fun, enjoyable games."
Check out the full interview at Forbes.com
Reader Comments (24)
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:03PM nimzy said
Yet more proof that the corporate culture of publishers is killing gaming innovation.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:13PM Space Cobra said
@nimzy
Agreed with that. And its one reason I worry for Biowareunder the EA aegis.
Reply
Agreed with that. And its one reason I worry for Biowareunder the EA aegis.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:21PM SnarlingWolf said
@nimzy
I'm sure he will make a great product.... oh wait did we say Mark Jacobs? HA that game will suck.
Reply
I'm sure he will make a great product.... oh wait did we say Mark Jacobs? HA that game will suck.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:07PM Seffrid said
Oh dear.
On so many different levels.
On so many different levels.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:15PM Faith said
That was his and his teams problem with Warhammer all along, they tried to hard to cater to every other type of fan except the fans of DAoC they already had hooked and the fans of the Warhammer franchise, that saw what they did to the lore as a lighthearted parody of it. It didn't help them any that they changed their minds each month during development in what they wanted the game to be.
In the end the WoW players they coveted hated it, DAoC players saw it as a huge step backwards and hated it, and the Warhammer IP fans loathed it.
In the end the WoW players they coveted hated it, DAoC players saw it as a huge step backwards and hated it, and the Warhammer IP fans loathed it.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 5:53PM Eric Francis said
@Faith
I remember Mark Jacobs from the warhammer debacle.
So he sends out his glitter boy pep machine (cant remember his name, the one with the glasses doing promos) to get us all excited about open PVP and he designs a game where all the xp are inside battlegrounds (IE scenarios, things you had to grind so hard to level up through pvp) and the "hardcores" are to blame for past failures?
Get real.
Reply
I remember Mark Jacobs from the warhammer debacle.
So he sends out his glitter boy pep machine (cant remember his name, the one with the glasses doing promos) to get us all excited about open PVP and he designs a game where all the xp are inside battlegrounds (IE scenarios, things you had to grind so hard to level up through pvp) and the "hardcores" are to blame for past failures?
Get real.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:31PM Unshra said
The human side of says "Good luck with your new project!"
The troll in me say"Koster, McQuaid, Garriott, and now Jacobs, social gaming must be where all overhyped MMO developers go to die..?"
The troll in me say"Koster, McQuaid, Garriott, and now Jacobs, social gaming must be where all overhyped MMO developers go to die..?"
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:40PM Skyydragonn said
@Unshra
I was going to post a comment similar to this, but you did a better job by far :)
No offense to Mark he really is a great guy, but yeah. WAR singlehandedly ruined his career.
Reply
I was going to post a comment similar to this, but you did a better job by far :)
No offense to Mark he really is a great guy, but yeah. WAR singlehandedly ruined his career.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:55PM Fabius Bile said
@Oyjord
dunno wtf your tlking about. EA didnt purchase Mythic, they RESCUED them. Mythic was on the edge of bankruptcy and WAR would have had to be releaed in the state it was at the beginning of the beta...
in case you are wondering that means terrible animations, half the careers missing, no BOs nor keeps, prely scenario driven gameplay.
EA bought Mythic, injected a hefty sum of money for the WAR project, and gave Mythic 1 more year to get their shit straight.
they used that year and all the extra funding...to make WAR as we know
Mythic fully deserved to be absorbed and killed. EA didnt do anything wrong, actually they got the short end of the stick in that deal, because they purchased an studio filled with incompetents, asslickers, yessirs and zero redeeming qualities.
Reply
dunno wtf your tlking about. EA didnt purchase Mythic, they RESCUED them. Mythic was on the edge of bankruptcy and WAR would have had to be releaed in the state it was at the beginning of the beta...
in case you are wondering that means terrible animations, half the careers missing, no BOs nor keeps, prely scenario driven gameplay.
EA bought Mythic, injected a hefty sum of money for the WAR project, and gave Mythic 1 more year to get their shit straight.
they used that year and all the extra funding...to make WAR as we know
Mythic fully deserved to be absorbed and killed. EA didnt do anything wrong, actually they got the short end of the stick in that deal, because they purchased an studio filled with incompetents, asslickers, yessirs and zero redeeming qualities.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 1:29PM Faith said
@Unshra
I probably wouldn't put Koster in with those others, he's at least doing social media stuff because he refuses the offers he gets from companies if he can't have complete creative control on the project, which I wouldn't blame him after SWG got rushed out before he could ever finish it.
Reply
I probably wouldn't put Koster in with those others, he's at least doing social media stuff because he refuses the offers he gets from companies if he can't have complete creative control on the project, which I wouldn't blame him after SWG got rushed out before he could ever finish it.
Posted: Oct 3rd 2011 1:16PM Vandal said
@Unshra - How true. And now we'll get to see what was always obvious with these old-school MMO developers, that they are and have always been terrible game designers.
They will not do any better in the social gaming market because it is a still modern gaming market. These developers will no more be able to adapt to it than they were able to adapt to the modern MMO market.
Reply
They will not do any better in the social gaming market because it is a still modern gaming market. These developers will no more be able to adapt to it than they were able to adapt to the modern MMO market.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:36PM real65rcncom said
I feel sorry for him after reading that.. he sound so angry.
he's kind of got a point about hardcores though in that that type of player demands the best and most complicated schemes in mmos, which most of the time developers only seem to know how to answer by making raids.. 10, 20, 40 man raids. Over and over.
That's gotta be stressful when the only thing you can think of is eaten up so fast and then asked for more on top of it.
Thank goodness games like GW2, ArcheAge, SWTOR, and TSW aren't ALL about the raiding (although some is okay, but not like RIFT-like amounts) and more about open environments, emphasis on story lore, exploration and cooperative server play as opposed to old school "leet guilds".
This is the seachange that is coming.. more open content and less hardcore focus. FTP feeds in exactly to that type of play.
he's kind of got a point about hardcores though in that that type of player demands the best and most complicated schemes in mmos, which most of the time developers only seem to know how to answer by making raids.. 10, 20, 40 man raids. Over and over.
That's gotta be stressful when the only thing you can think of is eaten up so fast and then asked for more on top of it.
Thank goodness games like GW2, ArcheAge, SWTOR, and TSW aren't ALL about the raiding (although some is okay, but not like RIFT-like amounts) and more about open environments, emphasis on story lore, exploration and cooperative server play as opposed to old school "leet guilds".
This is the seachange that is coming.. more open content and less hardcore focus. FTP feeds in exactly to that type of play.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:39PM FrostPaw said
Good luck to him.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 12:47PM Oyjord said
BOOOOOOOOOO!
First Garriott, now Jacobs, being lured in by the dumbed down platform which is social network gaming. Bah! Double-bah!
What a waste of quality talent. Both Garriott and Jacobs are freaking great game makers.
Sadly, social networks are SHITTY gaming platforms.
First Garriott, now Jacobs, being lured in by the dumbed down platform which is social network gaming. Bah! Double-bah!
What a waste of quality talent. Both Garriott and Jacobs are freaking great game makers.
Sadly, social networks are SHITTY gaming platforms.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:33PM Omegamaniac said
I am personally glad hes banished to farmville. Put him, Koster, McQauid, Kaplan, Ass-Frasiabi etc all of them into retirement. Take Trials of Atlantis with you, Mark. They all end up ruining the very games they help create. May they only develop 8 bit cell phone games from here on out.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 7:17PM Resurge said
the man's gotta eat! what else is he supposed to say? "i F'd up bad, and now i have to take this crap job running farmtownvillehood-a-mania on facebook" ?
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 8:07PM (Unverified) said
Haven't forgiven nor forgotten the lies around the launch of WAR ("exclusive" CE bonuses that weren't, grace period to enter your pre-order key that was cut short with nonsense excuses). I won't be buying anything from any company he's involved with.
Posted: Oct 1st 2011 1:15AM Seldra said
Well it's pretty obvious that he wasn't that great at the helm of MMOs but maybe he'll be better off with these smaller scale games who knows. No one's gonna forget how badly WAR was handled I'm sure, but I can say good luck Mark.
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