The former lead developer behind the discontinued MMO Warhammer Online, Mark Jacobs, is now taking a jab at his former employer Electronic Arts.
Mark Jacobs is currently working with a team on the spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot called “Camelot Unchained“. For this, he is reliant on Kickstarter and the support of fans. However, some are skeptical of him because he allegedly hyped the game excessively during his time at Warhammer Online, portraying it in an overly positive light. This has cost him some trust and may now deter potential fans of the game.
In a forum comment on massively, Jacobs speaks candidly. “Since I left Electronic Arts, I got off the hype train, and I have no intention of getting back on.” Jacobs apologizes to all players who were disappointed with Warhammer Online. He himself was also disappointed, but not with the team that worked hard to meet and exceed others’ expectations.
After his departure from Electronic Arts and once the confidentiality agreement lapsed, he did not hide the fact that while Warhammer Online had some great elements, it was overall not “ready for prime-time” to compete with the big players.
For the future, Jacobs promises complete transparency to the Kickstarter backers and fans. He wants to communicate at all times what is going well and what is not going so well. And he wants to accept fans’ money only if they are willing to give it to him, ensuring he does not get it through false hype or false promises. Jacobs aims to convince through his work and gameplay videos in the future.
The vicious circle of failure
My MMO says: This is a post from which one can read between the lines a lot of criticism about the current status quo of the MMO industry. With WAR (as the game is also called), one can unfortunately see the mechanisms of the MMO industry. A few months ago, a short report from a former WAR co-developer surfaced, describing how it felt to work on a game that was doomed from the start.
Unfortunately, Warhammer Online consistently fell short of financial expectations. When an MMO starts weakly, it loses more and more players over time. This leads to increasing layoffs and makes it harder for the game to get back on track. However, this cannot be communicated outwardly; instead, the impression must be created that everything is going well, so that remaining players do not leave as well. As WAR is by no means an isolated case, it often creates growing distrust among MMO veterans.
