Just before the launch of Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the game. We covered a lot of ground in our short interview, and in this half, we talked about talking about everything from the finished product itself to the GOA head start issue to Mythic's decision to forgo official forums and his thoughts on accountability.
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I started out my conversation with Mark by asking him a question that I asked both Jeff and Josh before him. Was there anything that got into the finished product of the game at the last minute that you were worried wouldn't make it? His answer was the same as Jeff's. %26quot;I'm glad the auction house got in on time,%26quot; he answered with a bit of a chuckle. %26quot;That one was touch and go there for a while.%26quot;
After the auction house, Mark told me a little bit about some of the other kinds of issues that needed last minute resolving before launch beyond the shiny and obvious features. Specifically, he wanted to tell me about the crash to desktop issues that people had been having throughout beta and into head start. He said that just before launch, a fix had been implemented that would take the already small number of these, and cut them in half before the official launch.
%26quot;While they [the CTDs] were low to begin with in the Head Start, they were still higher than I'd like,%26quot; he said. %26quot;So getting rid of 50% of them now is a really good thing.%26quot;
From there, I wanted to ask Mark about the issues that European players had been experiencing with GOA in terms of everything getting started on time and a myriad of other issues.
So, how does Mark feel about how that situation resolved?
%26quot;Right now,%26quot; he answered, %26quot;I feel great. I mean, GOA had a ton of people playing and everything is running beautifully. They've turned it around nicely.%26quot;
%26quot;There were issues,%26quot; he said. %26quot;As I posted on the forums, we were in constant contact with them. We had some very meaningful discussions with GOA over that time, and the results now speak for themselves.%26quot;
He continued to comment on the fact that ever since the major issue was resolved, things have been running smoothly and they're doing a much better job of community management and Mythic is happy with this renewed effort.
From there, we talked about the decision to give those players who were inconvenienced by the whole ordeal a free week of play. Originally, I had thought that the decision had been Mythic's to make, but it turns out that it was entirely GOA's move.
%26quot;It's their money,%26quot; he said. %26quot;We can talk, but in the end, it's their money and we didn't force them to do it. Did we talk about the issue? Absolutely, but in the end, they made the decision.%26quot;