Mythic: Warhammer Online Needs to Succeed for the Good of the Industry

[Tammarion]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54530

As the September 18 launch of Mythic Entertainment's PC MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning draws near, studio VP Mark Jacobs has commented that the game needs to succeed or else "it's not going to be good for the industry."

"We need to show the world that it's not just Blizzard who can make a great game, and that the audience is absolutely willing to try new things and to play a game other than WoW," Jacobs explained to MTV Multiplayer.

"If we don't succeed with EA behind us, the Warhammer IP behind us, with one of the most experienced teams in the industry, that's not going to be good for the industry."

Like. Words fail me.

[Golmacmourna]

There isn't room for more of the same. There's only room for different, damnit.

Maybe they'll get religion and their first expansion will involve pvp improvements that just blow the mind of rational people.

[Tammarion]

Why do you hate video games Golm? :D

[Slicks]

why doesnt he just come out and say "if we dont succeed EA is going to close mythic and lay everyone off"

[lijien]

Well on his blog he explained it more. But basically he is saying investors for MMOs are getting harder and harder to come by. Because of all the failures. Where as after DAOC investors thought if a small company like Mythic can do it anyone can.. now they are like only a company like Blizz can make it work

[Riddick]

This is the same type of conversation that is going on regarding core vs. casual games.

People say that studios and producers are no longer willing to invest the time and money into the big games like Final Fanstasy, Half-Life, or StarCraft. It takes a studio that can front its own money and shipping contacts to get it done when they can make a casual game (most of the Wii games for examples) that are very simple and take less development time but many people still eat up.

MMOs certainly fall into that second category and if people see that they can't make it then only the big companies will make them... big corporate companies. A corporations only do what can make profit... which means no innovation in the market. Just rewritten crap that they call innovation.

[Golmacmourna]

it's putting tension on the industry which is essentially good, I think. There is a little bit of bloat. Sometimes mod makers screwing around in their spare time can beat the shit out of a major studio, and basically do it for free. Sometimes the core of a good idea can get proven in a low cost quick and dirty game, and then later developed into something polished like Portal. There's also always going to be a smallish group of people like Jonathon blow who make their Braid out of love and at great personal expense, and the community picks it up. Dwarf Fortress is another oddball.

But honestly, the game industry needs the film industry's screw-job structure where scripts are shopped around like cattle until something looks promising, and then a comparitively small number of established people with proven records apply *their* knowhow to get it done, and if it explodes on them (not good, Michael Bay explosions, but bad no money explosions), then they lose their standing in the industry.

Being a real artist sucks. But based on my experience as being utterly unable to get in the industry despite not completely sucking, and loving games, and the creation thereof, I'd say that something is deeply wrong. Especially considering some of the turd classmates of mine who *did* get in.