Mythic VP Talks Hellgate: London, Age of Conan

MTV Multiplayer continues its usual fragmented handing out of interview tidibts as they talked with Mark Jacobs about why some MMOs fail.
First, we discussed (Hellgate: London,) the online action-RPG was made by Jacobs' long-time friend Bill Roper. Though Roper had experience as VP of Blizzard North working on the (Diablo) series, his company Flagship Studios recently closed its doors following the release of (Hellgate,) its first title, last October. So what went wrong?

(I know for a fact that sometimes just having talent is not enough,) Jacobs said after a long sigh. (You need leadership and you need patience. And what's most important something that so many developers forget is you also need to deflate the ego a little bit. You really have to remember that as good as you were then '˜Diablo' was a great game you're not always going to be right. I think for '˜Hellgate,' that was part of the problem.)

He also said that no matter how great you think your game is, developers must listen to the community. (It doesn't mean you have to follow what they say, but you always have to listen,) he said. (The test of greatness is to know how to look at it and either incorporate it or learn from it. We might listen to the wrong advice, but we always listen. That's how I think all developers have to be because nobody is that smart and nobody is right all the time.)