A ex-developer, who remains anonymous, has said he received no credit in the development of
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and may sue EA.
Mark Jacobs, the Lead Designer of the game and VP of
Mythic Entertainment, wants the guy to reveal himself, saying "If you really think that we’re doing something wrong, at least have the balls to stand up and go 'Hi, my name is so-and-so.'"
MTV and Jacobs also discussed how MMO developers should get credit for their work. Jacobs thinks only people who were working on the game when it launched should receive credit. He also said that since there are so many more people working on MMOs then other games, it's almost impossible to credit everyone.
“Show me one MMO that has been up for seven years that has kept the credits for every single person who’s worked on the game as long as they’ve had a large team," said Jacobs.
Jacobs and I discussed this during a longer conversation about just how creators of an MMO should and should not get credit.
Jacobs also told me that he’s heard from former staff members who have called to say that it wasn’t them. “If the three years is correct, there’s only a few people it can be. But I don’t know if the three years is correct because I know who was working on it three years ago, and most of those people are still with the company. Maybe this person was fired from Mythic and they don’t want to say who they were publicly.”
He admitted that there may have been some people who left the company on less than amicable terms. “In some of the cases that people left, some of them hadn’t done a great job for us,” he said. “Or some left just in a lurch. Do I feel badly for that? No, I don’t feel badly at all. I’m not going to shed a single tear for any of those guys.”
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