Warhammer Online's Mark Jacobs Interview

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Eurogamer: What sort of stuff can we expect in the future?

Mark Jacobs: What we're doing is two things really - well, three. I keep doing that. Number one is looking at what we didn't do right with the game: what did we miss? The first thing we need to do is look at everything that's in the game and ask what did we not do right? What can we change?

Number two is looking at what we didn't have time to put in, because look, we didn't want to do this game in six years like WOW. What else could we get in in the short term? That might be new Scenarios or little things to make people's lives easier: new UI improvements, that sort of stuff. Then there's the bigger things, things like the classes that we cut, or maybe the cities - look at what we can do there and when we can do it. And with bugs being part of number one, that's going to keep us busy short-term.

We're already getting lots of good feedback. Here's another good statistic: the first 24 hours that the game launched - I just love this number - we had 0.5 tickets [requests for help] per hour per server. That's Crazyville! No one's got anything like that on the day of the launch. My customer service team were playing WAR more than they were answering tickets, because nobody was complaining and saying, "Hey, I'm stuck," or, "Hey, I lost my stuff," or any of the things you expect to happen in an MMO.

Eurogamer: How long before someone gets to the top level, or are they there already?

Mark Jacobs: No! God no! Boy if that happened I would be really kind of upset. No, it will be a bit. We'll see; there's always a race to the top, and we'll just see how long the guys take.

Kill the elf! The elf!

We've given the players so many ways to level up their character and get the loot that they want that I think they're going to find it... Not necessarily quicker than other games, but that it will feel less grindy. You don't have to stop and run to that other town or search forever for quest guys. There are so many things around you that the downtime you have in so many other games is not there. Players are going to find that a really refreshing experience. So I think they're going to level a little quicker than they're expecting, which is going to be great.

Eurogamer: Happy days!

Mark Jacobs: Yeah, happy days! And then you're all set to sack a city and push the front so you can get to the real end game. I can't wait until that happens.

Eurogamer: How long do you think before someone attacks a city?

Mark Jacobs: It should be weeks unless we really messed up. We've laid everything out in a manner that your side has to accomplish a lot, so it's going to take time. We've seen the other games out there where people can do things late at night while nobody else is on, but it doesn't work that way in WAR. It's impossible. You can take your guild and entire realm but you still can't sack a city in one night. So I think it'll be weeks, which is great. We want it to be Epic and something that's exciting, that's challenging, and when you finally get to do it, it's like, "Yes, this was worthwhile."