Mark Jacobs elaborates on departure from EA Mythic

@FrostPaw

It's like how John Smedley is personally responsible for every bad decision made in every SoE game.

@FrostPaw Well the thing about Mr Jacobs is how two-faced he seemed. Before EA bought Mythic, he had come out and said that there was no buyout attempt and Mythic would remain an independent developer, to a chorus of internet cheers. Then not even 2 months later he happily announces that EA has acquired Mythic.

So many people feel EA just increased the numbers on the buyout check and Mr Jacobs folded. Shortly after many long term public members of Mythic suddenly left the company. Doesn't bode well.

Then Bioware comes along and well he's the Odd Man Out, since DAoC is losing subs due to no advertising or development. The former EA-Mythic Division of MMO's is now the EA-Bioware Division of MMO's so Bye Bye Mr Jacob your services, or lack thereof, are no longer needed.

He had a great company with Mythic that communicated well with the players, developed their own MMO with a unique twist on pvp and he threw is away for a fat paycheck.

THAT is why so many people dislike him.

@nimzy

Do you mean the clause that prevents both parties from saying bad things about each other after a severance package was agreed upon? Because that's what it reads like to me. I'm not sure Jacobs and EA truely feel that way about each other in reality.

@nimzy

Sorta thinking this too: It is part of most such contracts that end this way; not only does it involve non-competition, but you can't talk about the break up, especially in detail, and can't bad-mouth either party.

It would go to explain why he's making Mobile games (not too much competition with EA there), but I would think, since Mobile gaming is pretty "new" in the sense of none of the restrictions that have slowly creeped upon the online/MMO world, either overt or subtlety.

@SKYeXile

As I said above, going away from the thing that made his name in this industry. With as many folks clamoring for an experience akin to what they got in DAoC across ALL these MMO gaming sites, and knowing that they are represenatative of a larger population, I'm willing to bet he could head another team and recreate that type of success or even more.

Yet, he takes off into a very different direction, one that probably won't touch the lives of many of his past fans (we game on our computers, not our phones) and those fans are even still left without the kind of game they desire.

So many other companies in other industries continue to stick with their award winning formulas and provide value and entertainment to their loyal customers. They don't reinvent the wheel. They just add a little chrome, a little more polish and refine techniques to make the rubber more durable.

Why can't they do the same in this industry?

@Khal

I'd imagine it's because the industry has changed without them. When MJ and Garriot got into MMOs you tended to find much more tight knit communities. Players had pride in their realms in DAoC; PvE raids would intentionally wipe and rush to the frontiers once a call to arms was raised with no questions asked. Roleplaying wasn't as openly disdained as it is now then (at least not on roleplaying servers). The very mechanics of the game encouraged people to be social; today you join a group (depending on the game, you might just be randomly assigned group members with an automated system) and rush to the end of the instance, barely saying a word. In DAoC you picked up whoever was in the area, found a fast spawning camp, and farmed it for hours straight. And in between pulls when you were resting there wasn't anything to do BUT talk to eachother and get to know the people you were grouped with.

I absolutely think MMOs have improved, but when it comes to community I do feel that things have gotten worse. And considering where these guys are moving onto (social gaming), it wouldn't surprise me if they felt the same. I don't blame these guys at all of they feel they don't belong in the industry anymore.

@Ehra

Well, I'm of the camp that believes that if one of these guys would recreate those past experiences, polishing up the bugs and so forth that were there, they might just be surprised at how many of us oldies are still around waiting for it.

Include those harsh mechanics and "tedious" time sinks that the majority of the newer MMO gamers complain about and that many of us who grew up with them miss. That would just further define who the game is for and who it is not. Give it a subscription, heck, charge $18-20 for it. We'll sub.

Vanguard's early development is proof there is a substantial desire for that type game. The thing that hurt Vanguard came late in its beta, and that was SOE picking up publishing rights. People just didn't trust them and so close to the NGE thing, SOE=bad was fresh in their minds.

But the concepts drew in over half a million plus pre-beta community. So, yeah, the ideas can still be profitable. Just do them well and don't associate with a company with a checkered past.