After yesterday's announcement that EA Mythic would be delaying the launch of their upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood spoke with VP Mark Jacobs about the move.

Yesterday, EA Mythic announced that they would be delaying the launch of their upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, until Fall of 2008. Reaction to the announcement has been somewhat mixed with some applauding the move in the name of a fully polished product, with others suggestion that the move may mean doom and gloom for the IP game. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with EA Mythic VP Mark Jacobs about the move.

The first question that I asked Mark was whether or not this delay should be seen as a sign that their game is in some kind of serious trouble.

“Oh God no,” he responded in his usual candid way. He went on to tell me that if the game was actually in trouble, we would have been more likely to see one of two things happen. First, we would have seen changes at the company, most likely starting with Mark himself and second, EA wouldn’t have granted the time extension. Since everyone is still employed, and the delay was announced, we can assume that the game isn’t in trouble. In answering the question, Mark also pointed out that if the game were in trouble, it would be far more likely to go the way of EA Mythic’s last project, Imperator, which was “postponed indefinitely”.

Read the whole thing here.

I want it when its 100% done. Not a day before. Anyone whining about not buying the game, because of a pushed back date is childish.

Are people not going to buy GTA4, because it was delayed? No. Did people not buy Oblivion, because it was pushed back? No.

Anyone who has been a gamer for more than 5 years knows that every single game is pushed back. Especially the great ones.

I am still waiting for Oblivion to get to 19.99 - 30.00 before I bite.

I'm actually surpised that Mythic gave a launch date to begin with...a "when it's done " Would have served them better.

Just work on the game until it's done and just then release it, stop saying  the game will released on a certain date and then delay it again and again, making people angry. It's better you work on the game and release a great product like Blizzard did instead of just working by dates, in the long run, if you want alot of money and success like Blizzard you have to create a game that actually will last and not only  gain money just from the hype about it.

Although I'm screaming out for a decent new mmorpg I'd rather wait for a finished game than end up with the dross that was Dark and Light or the definately nowhere near finished Vanguard.

They are trying to give people some idea of when it's due out but obviously they are so commited to producing a quality product that they are not prepared to release it unfinished, this only makes me want to play it more. As with all IT projects delays are inevitable as it's so damn complex.

I've preordered my collectors edition. ;)

I'm guessing that this is good news for AoC, frankly, as now it will get a hefty head start over the other big MMORPG contender of 2008. Assuming WAR keeps to the new release date, I assume it will end up launching at about the same time as Stargate Worlds, which I also think may hurt them a bit.

Of WAR and Stargate, the latter MMO interests me more.

Am I disappointed that the game was delayed? Yes. Am I angry about it? No. There's plenty of other things to play.

Saying it would be released in Q2 2008 was not giving a date for release, but instead a time frame when they expected to be able to release. Just like saying Fall of 2008 could be Sept, Oct and maybe even Nov. That's not giving a set date but instead an estimate. Giving an estimate and then changing it is one thing, giving a specific date and then pushing it back is another.

Think about it like this, you take your car to the shop to get fixed and they tell you that it will be ready in 15 minutes because they know it'll make you happy. In 15 minutes they tell you that it'll take another 20 minutes and they keep doing that for two days. You'd be angry as hell! But if they are up front and say that they aren't sure how long it'll take but should be ready in a couple of days. They call you in a day and say it's going to take longer. You are upset but not  near as upset as you were in the first scenario.

I respect them for not giving a specific date but instead an estimated release time even though they realize it's going to upset people. These guys are building something that could very well determine whether they have jobs two years from now. I'd be really careful to get it right before I released it too.
 Responsibilty ultimately rests with the leader for a failed project and it seems Mark Jacobs is determined to make sure things go like they should and deliver a quality game.

If they are saying the same thing this time next year I'll figure this was all just a scam to get more pre-order money.

          I hope the game is all it can be. I am saddened as i have nthing I really enjoy playing. Wow as polished as it is  did not hold y interest as UO and DAPC did. I have preordered but I also will tey AOC as I have nothing to play. All my friends are playing war so I will but this is a reason I will buy a game I never would have tried. it does give AOC a chance to really get me hooked hat thye never would have.  All the space games have been poor so Stargate or Star Trek or Star anything has my interest at all.

They pretty much have the upperhand on the genre for their title, anyway. May as well delay it for the better..!

Anyone know what specific areas of the game they are hoping to improve with the extra time?  I'm curious.

I  H-A-T-E the way these guys handle the PR on Warhammer online - constantly dishing out new releases instead of just shutting up about it and starting a solid PR-campaign about 6 months before the realistic release date. This is just a big pile of bullsh*t - if there was a problem with development, then it was OBVIOUS the last times the game was pushed back for 3 months...

What i mean is: imagine you're a dev and you don't see your game getting ready as scheduled - do you delay it for 3 months, then again for 3, and then again for half a year at least?

No you don't because either you see that your game will not be ready for a year, in that case its just PR - and making a lot of people angry and/or frustrated by the way. OR you think it'll be ready in 3 months and have t odelay another 3 months because you see you just need another bit of time... but it just doesn't make sense to sell it as if the devs were going "Whoops! Well, there was this little thing you know, and now we need a year *at least* instead of 3 months for fixing it".

The argument that they're "making the game better" and "will not launch a game that is ready and polished" is wearing off - i believed it once, even twice... but not three times. Not if the last delay means the difference between a summer release with a lot of people in holidays and a christmas release  ( "fall" normally means december when people want to sell anything) with a lot of people shopping presents for their beloved and themselves.

This really sucks - not because WAR is delayed, but because you end up feeling bullsh*tted.

Hmm, even more development time, this game better be good.

Time to pre-order AOC in the mean time.

IM SICK OF WAITING! BUTTTTTTT I would rather have a game completely polished than a game full of bugs and halfway finished!

/cry

Originally posted by brostyn

Are people not going to buy GTA4, because it was delayed? No. Did people not buy Oblivion, because it was pushed back? No.

Anyone who has been a gamer for more than 5 years knows that every single game is pushed back.

Exactly!  

The MMORPG community has so many weird  "traditions" that there are those who have forgotten how the rest of the gaming industy works.

For example, it's been traditional for old MMORPG developers to meet their deadline by pushing out a half-backed piece of junk and expecting players to pay to beta-test it.    The old MMORPG community let them do this and accepted it.  This practice was made worse because patches are part of the MMORPG model, so developers used that as an excuse to pay even less attention to the bugs. 

The MMORPG market has changed, players are no longer willing to pay to beta-test and wait for patches to fix the bugs.   That's a good thing but it means MMORPG players will have to get used to delays in release dates.

Just like mainstream gamers have for years. 

It's good to see that most of the posts in this thread seem to understand this, something else we can thank for MMORPGs becoming more mainstream.

I was actually worried it wasn't going to get delayed. Makes it seem much more like a definite hit now that it's been pushed back.

Originally posted by Gnomig

I  H-A-T-E the way these guys handle the PR on Warhammer online - constantly dishing out new releases instead of just shutting up about it and starting a solid PR-campaign about 6 months before the realistic release date. This is just a big pile of bullsh*t - if there was a problem with development, then it was OBVIOUS the last times the game was pushed back for 3 months...

What i mean is: imagine you're a dev and you don't see your game getting ready as scheduled - do you delay it for 3 months, then again for 3, and then again for half a year at least?

No you don't because either you see that your game will not be ready for a year, in that case its just PR - and making a lot of people angry and/or frustrated by the way. OR you think it'll be ready in 3 months and have t odelay another 3 months because you see you just need another bit of time... but it just doesn't make sense to sell it as if the devs were going "Whoops! Well, there was this little thing you know, and now we need a year *at least* instead of 3 months for fixing it".

The argument that they're "making the game better" and "will not launch a game that is ready and polished" is wearing off - i believed it once, even twice... but not three times. Not if the last delay means the difference between a summer release with a lot of people in holidays and a christmas release  ( "fall" normally means december when people want to sell anything) with a lot of people shopping presents for their beloved and themselves.

 

This really sucks - not because WAR is delayed, but because you end up feeling bullsh*tted.

People generally have this reaction to delays, it's a well known PR tactic in games.  The idea is that you give the community a proposed, 'date' when the game will roughly hit.  This generates a lot of interest and word of mouth publicity the sooner the date arrives.  Then all of a sudden, maybe a month or two before the said period of release, it's annonced the games 'delayed'  for 'polishing', or some other optimisation.  Reaction: community gets annoyed but because there following the game and are fans there not going to drop it.  Then a new date is announced and the whole process starts again, but as in theory you've retained those fans who've invested your fan base will grow with new fans as more people will hear how the die hards are desperate for it and wanna check it out.

Bottom Line in my view is this: Mythic never expected to release in the summer, it's more likely to appear next year I feel.  It's already been agreed with EA a long time ago, which is why there's no talk of problems at that end.  The reason we get these, 'prospective release dates', is for the reason i gave above and as an attempt to keep themselves in the picture before one of their rivals releases, (AoC).

It's basically PR bull***t, so try not to believe it till you see it on the shelf

---

Originally posted by Hexxeity

Anyone know what specific areas of the game they are hoping to improve with the extra time?  I'm curious.

---

Oh well, another delay.  We should all be used to this by now as this is par for the course on any MMO developed these days.

See you in the WAR universe Christmas 2008, or spring 2009 

As a side note, I personally feel this will push the AoC date back as well.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I always suspected that they were trying to release their product as close as possible to the WAR release.

I'm going to buy this game whether it comes out tomorrow and gets patched up to a very polished version, or whether it comes out 3 years from now, the point is, I WANT TO PLAY

Beta Access plz

far better for them to get it to a point where its merchandisable . non of us want another vanguard . personally i m going to try either conan or if thats delayed lord of the rings . am totally bored with warcraft now .

I am less likely to play WAR now.  Not because I am angry, I just have become very melancholy with all MMO's and their early, always delayed, announcement dates. 

The longer I know about an MMO, and the more times it gets delayed, the more the excitement levels seems to wane, and there is just a point where it drops low enough that I lose interest...  they funny thing is that the same thing happened with another MMO...  I lost interest after many delays, and started following WAR. 

Crazy, just stick with this one, it's very promising

Originally posted by Stradden

 

“Oh God no,” he responded in his usual candid way.

Read the whole thing here.

In journalism, people write "he said, she said" for a reason - it does not inject hidden judgements about the veracity of the claim into the piece. In my experience, when people say things like "oh god no" its a prepared answer to an obvious and anticipated question, planned in talking points well before the interview.

Originally posted by Crazybear

 

I am less likely to play WAR now.  Not because I am angry, I just have become very melancholy with all MMO's and their early, always delayed, announcement dates. 

The longer I know about an MMO, and the more times it gets delayed, the more the excitement levels seems to wane, and there is just a point where it drops low enough that I lose interest... 

 

It's funny, but I know what you are talking about, and I don't know why that is with me either.  They build the excitement level up so high with a game, you anxiously await the release date (even if it’s an approximate one), then they pull the rug out from under your feet. You say, “ok, no problem”, and wait for the next supposed release date, it gets close, then they pull the rug out from under you again.