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Mark Jacobs expunges the mystery of WAR's crafting
We've been receiving a lot of information about all things Warhammer Online for some time now, but the one topic that hasn't been touched on is crafting. The veil of silence has been lifted as you can now go and read Gamespy's recent interview with Mark Jacobs. It's all about the very different and astoundingly intriguing crafting system being developed for the game wot's got gobbos 'n stuff. It's typical for MMOs stick close to the tried-and-true crafting system we've all come to know and oft-lament. Yet that's not something EA Mythic is up for this time around. No, this time they want to challenge the status quo. Lets not mince words, though. By choosing to create a more in-depth crafting system for Warhammer Online, they've given up a certain amount of profession variety upfront. If the discussed system works as intended it could be very well worth the risk of reduced crafting diversity -- and there's always content updates too. Hopefully EA Mythic can pull it off so we can see other MMOs experimenting with their crafting systems as well. Wouldn't that be nice?
Mythic expects WAR beta apps to reach one million
Forumites at the Vault Network boards started a thread speculating as to whether or not EA Mythic's Warhammer Online will reach one million beta apps when all's said and done. Mythic CEO and WAR lead designer Mark Jacobs promptly responded (as he's been known to do), assuring everyone that he and the WAR team have every expectation of achieving that goal."I'd be surprised if we didn't hit 1M once we start taking beta apps for our Asian partners," he said. "Even without Asia, based on our current sign-up rate, we should blow through 750K and we have a decent shot at 1M." He also noted that his original goalpost was 500,000 in North America and Europe, a goal which EA Mythic has "far surpassed."Maybe Funcom should take this as a throwing down of the gauntlet. Age of Conan's 500,000 beta sign-up number is impressive, but it looks like Funcom will have to do better than that to beat Warhammer![Via Keen and Graev]
Mark Jacobs tanks forum trolls for WAR team
Those of you who have followed our WAR coverage for any significant period of time might wonder why we always seem to have something to say about Mythic maven and designer Mark Jacobs. Truthfully, much of it has to do with the fact that, with the possible exception of Paul Barnett, Jacobs is the most visible person currently working on the project. Warhammer Alliance's dev post tracker might as well be Jacobs' personal version of Twitter, he's always in there amongst the fans, posting about something. The other reason we fancy Jacobs is that he's just a stand-up guy.Case in point: the WAR fan community has been doing some serious grumbling ever since it was announced that the game's release was being pushed back to the Fall. When that grumbling started to turn nasty, and some posters turned their disgust towards the developers themselves, Mark threw down the gauntlet, and called out the trolls as both misguided and misinformed. It was touching the way he puts himself out there for the sake of his team; it's not something you're liable to see suits at a lot of other companies do for their employees. So kudos to you, Mark Jacobs, for taking the troll aggro and shield slamming them back into their place.
WAR's delay: from the fallout come further details
While we can't say that we didn't see it coming and we know that it's probably for the best, the recent delay of Warhammer Online from Q2 2008 to Fall 2008 has many of us in the Massively offices in low spirits. It's a sentiment that's reflected across the community, from what we've seen. In an effort to put out the fires in the community and remind us that the development team is on our side, WAR bigwig Mark Jacobs has been spending a lot of time in the Warhammer Alliance forums today, answering all sorts of player questions as a gesture of good will. Here are some of the meatier details: Newsletters, video podcasts, and previews will not only continue until the new release date, but will probably increase in frequency to keep up the buzz. To the question of how he felt about releasing so close to Wrath of the Lich King, Jacobs stressed that they would rather take a page from Blizzard than be afraid of them. He would rather release the game when it's ready than worry about being gobbled by the competition. The "head start" that people get by preordering the Collector's Edition will be "more than a day," but no exact amount of time has been decided yet. The recommended system requirements should be similar to or slightly below the requirements for the beta. They're still working on optimizing the game, so they don't even have a ballpark for the minimum specs at this point. He made a point of not even hinting at when the open beta might start And finally, when asked what type of "mud" would allow WAR's release date to slip so far, Jacobs conceded that it was both wet and sloppy. As ornery as players have gotten over the delay, you have to at least respect the fact that the guy is willing to answer all these questions, from his home at 7 in the morning, no less.
Warhammer Online delayed to Fall 2008
var digg_url = 'http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/03/26/warhammer-online-delayed-to-fall-2008/'; Well, it looks like many a prediction have come true with the official news that Warhammer Online has been delayed to a Fall 2008 release window. Mark Jacobs has said the main reason for the delay is to, "Invest additional time and effort in implementation and polish to make WAR great" which is a sound line of reasoning if we've ever heard one.In other words -- WAR needs more time to cook and EA Mythic has recognized that fact. The news is all good to us, especially since we've already said this was the correct road for WAR to travel down in order for it to succeed in the massively multiplayer online game market. There just wasn't enough solid looking stuff coming from the Warhammer Online camp to convince us that launching anytime before fall would be a smart choice. Thankfully, it appears as though fans of the upcoming successor to the RvR throne need not worry -- your game is being taken good care of and at least now there are more chances to get in on that ever-elusive beta.Also, Mark Jacobs has started a thread to address any worries and questions that players might have -- we recommend checking it out.
WAR Europe's countdown not what we'd hoped
When an ominous countdown appeared on Warhammer Online's European site last Friday, speculation surged that the Mythic team might be on the verge a major announcement. Are we finally going to see a release date set in stone instead of mud? Are they going to announce the open beta that we've all been waiting for so long? Is the NDA finally going to be lifted? Left to their own devices, WAR fanatics are liable to start expecting all sorts of things.Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is far less exciting. No, as Mark Jacobs indicated in an overtly *hint hint* forum post, players should be able to read the writing on the wall and figure out what the countdown is for. To start, it's only on the European site, so it couldn't be something like a global release date or NDA lift. Second of all, photos of the European Collector's Edition were leaked last week. Third, developers have been talking rather openly about the content of the CE on fan forums. Without explicitly saying it, Jacobs indicated that the announcement would be the details of the Collector's Edition. Not as exciting as a release date, but what can you do?
The long goodbye to Gary Gygax continues
The death of Gary Gygax earlier this month is still sinking in for the nerd nation. Despite some viciously cruel (and completely off-base) commentary on his legacy, it's fair to say that his work had an enormous impact on gaming as a hobby. Videogames in particular have been affected by his work, and to explore that the Newsweek games blog LevelUp has been chatting with various industry paragons about how D&D affected them. As you might imagine, the MMO developer crowd is well represented; NCsoft's Richard Garriott, EA Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs, and Sony Online CEO John Smedley all weigh in with a few words about their time with pen and paper.Mr. Smedley and Mr. Garriott are well-known D&D players, with the game's influence on the Ultima and EverQuest titles a fairly open bit of gaming trivia. Mr. Jacobs, though, had an especially interesting take on what has been lost since the early days of tabletop gaming: "I think we've lost some creativity, challenge and true social interaction. If you go back to the heyday of table-top gaming, you had an amazing variety of games, worlds, etc. to explore ... while games like EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc. have their own magic and wonder, some of the pen-and-paper gaming sessions that I participated in were a lot more fun, intense and immersive than anything I've played on a computer."
Mark Jacobs rails against official forums
The issue of whether major MMO releases should be accompanied by official forums is a hot topic in the industry these days. While some recent games like Tabula Rasa have opted to without official forums, to mixed results, others like Lord of the Rings Online have shown that they can still be a valued resource. It seems like discussions on the topic are ever-present. We've known for a while now that Warhammer Online was opting out of official forums, but general manager Mark Jacobs chimed in on the Warhammer Alliance forums to reiterate Mythic's position on the subject.He lays out a mock-schedule for the way player (mis)behavior would develop as the game moved closer to release, poking fun at the schizophrenic nature of official forums - how the community as a whole can be both loving and hateful, cynical and naive, reactionary and... well, usually just reactionary. He also says that he doesn't want to have to put himself or any of his community team through that kind of hell, and that's what informed their decision to stay away from official forums. It's not like it stops people from flaming the game though, and community reps still need to wade through community forums anyway, so why not put it all in one place? I almost wish they'd just admit it was the money...
The Digital Continuum: A fork in the road for WAR
The recent upset over at the Warhammer Alliance forums over the supposed push-back of Warhammer Online got me thinking about choice facing the game in the coming months. The official statement made by Mark Jacobs is essentially that EA Mythic is committed to their Q2 release schedule and to think of the date as, "Set in mud" Well, what's it going to be Mr. Jacobs, is the game coming in Q2 or not? That's the choice EA Mythic is going to have to make and it will lead Warhammer Online down two very different roads, in my opinion. Neither of these roads are inherently bad, but only one of them is the right choice for WAR -- which means the hard part is figuring out which road is best.
WAR's Q2 release date "set in mud"
There was a big uproar recently on the Warhammer Alliance forums when one astute forumer noted that gaming mega-retailer Gamestop had updated the release date on Warhammer Online to September 2 of this year. Retailers are sometimes privy to information that gamers are not, so every now and again we'll get an update on a release date from them long before publishers are willing to make a peep. We put the emphasis on sometimes, because there are occasions where the date they set is almost completely arbitrary. Or, as is evidently the case with Warhammer Online, as part of some sort of typographical error.WAR big-wig Mark Jacobs stepped in to assure gamers that this was a mistake on Gamestop's part. Or, according to Jacobs, "Actually what happened was that GameStop got confused between the various EA release dates for September and put another games release date in for WAR. At least that's what they told us when we called them to ask WTF?" WTF, indeed. Jacobs went on to reiterate that while no release date is set in stone, they're sticking to their Q2 guns. As an alternative, he suggested that the release date is "set in mud" instead. While we appreciate his dedication to finding the most appropriate analogy, perhaps he could have thought of one that wasn't quite so... dirty?
Cryptic Studios announces its Game Developers Conference schedule
It looks like Cryptic Studios is set to take GDC by storm this year as they just announced their plans to send five of their people to speak at the San Francisco based event being held from Feb. 18th through to the 22nd. The team members from Cryptic are Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert (formally Jack "Statesman" Emmert), Character Artist Matt Highison, Director of Game Programming Shannon Posniewski, Audio Director Michael Henry and President of Cryptic Studios Michael Lewis.We are very interested in hearing what these Cryptic members have to say on the subject of massively games. Hopefully we'll finally get some answers on what to expect in their future if not some hints at the very least.
WAR designer says they could ship without all classes
The life of a developer can be arduous. As we've explained in the past, players (and bloggers!) have a habit of scrutinizing every public utterance of a developer, real or imaginary, and conjuring up all sorts of elaborate doomsday scenarios. Developers who have the cajones to brave the forums with any regularity really have to bite their tongues, lest they say something that will really get the players into a panic. So imagine our surprise when Warhammer Online designer Mark Jacobs openly posted in a thread stating that he wouldn't be distraught if he had to ship a game minus a couple of classes if it meant they could hit their target date.And then, in the same breath (or whatever the forum equivalent of a breath is), he says that Mythic and EA are committed to shipping the game when it's ready, citing Blizzard's model for their continued success. It's all a bit confusing. For my part, I take more comfort in the philosophy espoused in the second post. As much as it would pain me if they did, they're not going to lose players by putting off the release date a month or two. You will lose players if they buy your game and find it is less than they were expecting.
EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs on Warhammer Online delay
In case you missed it, Warhammer Online's October State of the Game, released the other day, dropped the fact that the game had been pushed back to a Q2 2008 launch. Since that announcement, Gamespot had an opportunity to talk with developer EA Mythic's VP and general manager, Mark Jacobs, to allow him to elaborate on the decision to delay the highly anticipated title.Jacobs goes into a lot of detail with his responses to Gamespot's questions, but the main message he would like to get across is that his studio would not have been satisfied with the game's state, at release, if confined to their previous schedule. They have received a lot of helpful feedback, both positive and negative, from people in their beta testing program, and now wish to take the time to better the game based on that -- although, Jacobs emphasizes that the beta was not brought down solely to address issues in the negative feedback, but that the shutdown had been in their plans all along.
Waiting for Warhammer Online? Keep waiting
Warhammer Alliance have gotten their hands on the October State of the Game for Warhammer Online, and it contains some news that you may have suspected, but didn't want to believe would come true. Yes, the game has been pushed back, and is now expected in the second quarter of 2008. Okay, so that's really not too bad if we're being honest. If EA Mythic want to take a little extra time to make sure that the game lives up to people's enormous expectations, then that's fine with us. Mark Jacobs, VP and general manager of EA Mythic, said that they could either release the game with fewer than planned features, or push back the release and complete development to their satisfaction.There's also confirmation in the State of the Game that the beta will be reinstated in December, with new content for testers to experience. They are hoping to introduce more people to the test too, so if you haven't signed up yet -- go now!
