Gamesutra has posted an engaging interview with Mythic Entertainment’s Mark Jacobs. He covers a wide range of topics related to the MMO industry. He makes some predictions about the future of the industry, comments on the success of WoW and the state of the industry now, talks about EA’s acquisition of Mythic, and more. There were a couple of points that really stood out to me.
First, regarding Ulitma Online:
I think that Ultima, both the RPG and the online game, are two of the most important games in the history of the game industry. I mean, look at what Richard Garriot did with Ultima. Fantastic work. Ultima Online was the first MMO to ever have 100,000 subscribers, it was the most successful online game for a number of years, and I think the IP is one that, as an IP that is owned by EA, is one that we should look at, to see what we can do with moving forward.
Being an avid fan of Mythic (though I no longer have the time to play DAOC as much as I would like), I was worried that EA would ruin them. Several great game development shops have been swallowed up by EA over the years and never seen again. Several comments in the interview give the impression that EA is headed in a new direction, one that seems like it could result in good things. If a new Ultima MMO developed in conjunction with the Mythic team is comes out of the marriage, that’s a great thing. I would love to revisit the world of UO, particularly if it has that Mythic touch.
The other point is on the subject of RMT (Real-Money Trades for the uninitiated):
One of the things I’ve talked about is let’s say you’re buying some fluff in the game. You want your suit of armor to look a little different from everyone else’s, or you want your guild to have its own banner or tabard, or little things that don’t affect balance – great, fantastic, why should I have a problem with that? But what I have a problem with is like if you know that you spend five dollars more than somebody else, you can kick their ass, that’s not good. That’s bad. That’s a message to the player that it’s not skill anymore, it’s not a willingness to play the game, it’s just a willingness to spend more money. And then they’ll know they’ll never have a chance because you will always be able to spend more money. So for that I’m dead set against it. One of the nice things I’ve heard from my meetings with EA is that they’re against it too.
It’s no surprise to me that MJ thinks RMT is the spawn of satan. It has been made clear on the CamelotHerald a few times that Mythic are not fans of the practice. The problem is that it’s going to happen anyway unless the game is explicitly designed to prevent it. Players will always post their items on EBay and other sites. This problem was rampant in DAOC during its popularity peak. From my point of view, I have no problem with games that have build-in support for RMT — I can simply choose not to play them. When I play a game that doesn’t support it, from a company that is opposed to it, but it is actively practiced by the players anyway — that’s what can ruin the play experience. It would be nice to see a game that actively prevents RMT through one mechanism or another, or at least has a built-in system to discourage it.
Overall, a great interview. I’m sure some of the points brought up will spur discussions in several MMO design forums across the net.
Technorati Tags: MMO, Mythic Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer, Ultima Online
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