Mythic's Mark Jacobs on Building a Successful MMO

[GameBanshee News]

MTV Multiplayer is offering up some commentary from Mythic's Mark Jacobs about the financial commitment necessary to develop an MMORPG capable of competing with World of Warcraft.

Mythic VP and lead “Warhammer Online” designer Mark Jacobs said it wouldn’t take a billion dollars for a competing MMO to take on “World of Warcraft” — maybe only $100 million.

...

So why is $100 million the magic number?

“The reason [you need $100 million] is that no real first-timer has ever succeeded with these games,” he said. “And when I mean succeeded, no first-timer has gone in and said, ‘Okay, I can do this in two or three years and actually do it where it comes out on time and on budget. So it is really tough.”

...

With EA and the resources backing “Warhammer Online,” I asked Jacobs how one would measure a successful MMO in the age of “WoW” with its 11 million worldwide subscribers. “I would say we don’t have to get anywhere near that number to be considered successful,” he said. “Would I like us to be number one? Well, of course. Do we have to be number one to be successful? No. I want us to be no less than number two; that would make me very happy.” For the number two spot, Jacobs reasoned that “Warhammer” would need at least a half-million subscribers, which he guessed was close to what “Final Fantasy” and “EverQuest 2” have now. “Let’s just say north of half a million would mean we’re successful. Now how a far north? I wouldn’t mind being a little bit cold.”

According to Jacobs, another way to measure success is to look at the number of servers a game has added in a six-month period. “The corollary to that is if you’ve seen a game consolidate servers, you know it’s in deep, deep trouble — that’s not a healthy sign for an MMO,” he said, citing Sony’s January-released “Pirates of the Burning Sea” as a recent example. “It will be the same for ‘Warhammer.’ Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

[Siberys]

Except...Mythic isn't successful as it's still in beta and so is Warhammer, so unless he has some experience designing an actual successful and already out on the market MMO, why should we listen to him?

I mean Books can tell you what a successful MMO is, but sometimes that information can be false, experience in the industry itself is what REALLY tells you the truth.

[Xandax]

Mythic have previously made (and still running) Dark Age of Camelot which was quite "successful" in its days until Mythic themselves ruined it in many of the "at that time players" point of view with a specific expansion pack. Development is also still done on DAoC these 7 years later.
It was - and is - "known" within the MMOG communities for its RvR implementation (a version of PvP), and exactly that aspect is why you'll find many DAoC veterans in WAR.

So they have loads of experience. Mythic isn't a novice and WAR isn't their first MMO.