'Who is Jack?'

Ah, thank you for clarifying.

You should add that to Urban Dictionary.

Well, isn't that true of all of us? Or maybe it's just me.

--NT

Fixed, for more accuracy.

Which he seems like he'll be doing it again soon in CO .

The man just hates Regen...think it smacked him around when he was a young developer or something...

Saying Jack "did" GDN and ED is probably giving him too much credit (or blame). Other people did those, and at best he signed off on them.

I think his biggest failing as a designer (arguably his only serious failing) was a crippling inability to grasp the importance of details, particularly but not exclusively mechanical details. I don't think Jack ever had a particularly good understanding of how this game actually works, and I'd bet he probably doesn't have a much better grasp of how CO actually works.

If you substitute "Big Picture" for "Vision" I think it's easier to see where he's coming from. Looking at The Big Picture is an important and valuable skill. The problem is he liked to look at the Big Picture all the time, which is rather like trying to play Sim City 4 zoomed out to max distance, trying to respond to problems without zooming in or, say, checking the traffic grids.

Time and again he'd say things like "the numbers aren't important" or "we want this to feel foo," but often I don't think he knew or cared how feeling foo was achieved, or grasped that numbers are in fact important (and often integral to feeling foo), because ultimately without numbers you don't have a game at all, but just some costumes and a series of free-floating text blocks

I dont.

The guy's been gone for years, if people want to know what he is all about they can play his game. This aint his game no more, and theres always Wiki if someone wants the overview of what he did for this game.

I just mash buttons. I dont know Jack.

You're missing one IMPORTANT part here.

Jack didn't cut back the staff.

The relationship between NCSoft and Cryptic cut back the staff.

They both owned part of the game, so they shared revenue, but NCSoft also PAID cryptic for additional development under a traditional publisher-studio model. If NCSoft didn't pay for it, the resources weren't allocated to it.

What was the motivation for NCSoft to foot the bill for a huge sustainment budget when they split the proceeds with their co-owner?

Why would Cryptic invest MORE than they were being paid to?

Stalemate.

It was probably something neither of them wanted- Jack's gone on the record with saying that he was "blindsided by the reality of the business" by CoV's staffing decline- suggesting that he figured Cryptic would keep the ownership revenue AND get paid from NCSoft to sustain a large team. NCSoft probably expected that there would be "partnered investments" in expansions or they'd slowly begin to own more of the product if they invested "above and beyond" sustainment levels.

In this case, the stalemate was broken by buying Cryptic out. Now NCSoft has full ownership and full revenue, so it makes full sense to really push development.

or regen really is a particularly tricky thing to get nailed down into a safe zone between completely overpowered and completely useless. erring on either side will require attention, but that attention will rarely be viewed as positive.

Answers in (( )) above. Can you come back when you've fully thought this out?

Jack is the guy who blames NCSoft for developer cuts post CoV.

(Reference)

If you read the forum post this originates from, it's about a feature I remember them describing prior to CoH's launch.

I don't think that quote about slashing the development team is about the Freem 15 at all. I think it's about cuts prior to CoH's release. Castle made a comment a while back about how amazed he was that the powers system was put together by something like 3 people-- Geko, an animator, and one other person (don't remember if it was an animator or a powers guy). (edit again: here's Castle's post-- Geko, an animator, and a particle FX artist)

Also, back when we learned about the Freem 15, Positron said that the identity of who was responsible for the cuts was covered by an NDA between Cryptic and NCSoft. If Jack is talking about the Freem 15, he just broke that NDA. (edit: okay, not just broke, this post was made a year ago).

Here's what Zombie Man said later in that thread (and I agree with him):

Sorry, no time. Check for posts here and interviews with Jack at the time of the split. It really comes from both sources, if you piece them together. There's talk about NCSoft "paying for" x development, for example... and that does fit the known studio-publisher model.

I researched this once, but pretty sure that all the old forum links are broken. if I find some, or at least quotable text, I can PM you.

Not at all. Cryptic was an independent studio that partially owned City of Heroes. When MUO was planned- and while Cryptic still OWNED CoH, he was on record in video interviews on how he wanted people to "pay for both games." He was seeking unique gameplay, focusing tightly on the Marvel experience, and focusing on the console, so he hoped to have two different sustainable markets, and has said as much.

It was only after MS pulled the plug (as they did for many of their console MMO efforts... for both underlying tech and market study reasons... haven't seen Age of Conan console yet either, after all) that Jack really had to make a choice.

That was WELL AFTER the crew had been narrowed to 16.

as noted above. If I have time and you're honestly curious, I'll try to research it again.... it really is a breadcrumb series of posts to put together. Please, though, I'm wary of wasting the time on something where people have already decided what they wanted to hear is the truth, regardless of the facts. If you honestly want to learn how it was, I'll help. If you just want to continue to hold onto your belief and have your bad guy, then let it drop. I've got enough going on already and really DO want to do an I16 comic this time.

Very much so... and assuming otherwise is missing very basic business practices.

Pretend Cryptic and NCSoft are 50/50 co-owners. NCSoft also pays for continued development. If CoH brings in $30million. each side gets $15m. NCSoft then pays cryptic an additional $5m for additional development, leaving it with $10m.

It wants to boost sales with an additonal $20m development project over two years. That's the rest of its revenue. At the end of that, they earn a whopping $60m... split 30m each. They're ahead $10m, right? Still sounds good...

...except they have other titles that, if they invested that same amount, they'd get ALL that $60m of the return. What's a better investment?

Now, that's an overly simplified example, but hope you can see where the business logic creates the problem, not just one person.

You missed the whole point. Jack claimed to be BLINDSIDED by the staff reduction. He expected to keep the assembled production team. MANY MMO's at the time did the traditional "really small sustainment team" model post-launch and Jack *claimed* that he expected the cash to keep rolling in for larger production-level teams.

That was a massively interview, IIRC.

1) I'm not suggesting that Cryptic expected a free ride, but they didn't like the "deal" that was offered for continued investment.

2) Here, you're showing an lack of understanding of the basic business arrangement that was ALWAYS crystal clear. NCSOFT WAS NOT A PARENT COMPANY. Cryptic was a totally independent entity- it prided itself in that until Atari bought it. It WANTED TO develop CoH in-house, but ran low on cash. NCSoft gave them the $$ to finish the product for PARTIAL ownership of the product, not the company. It also published it, hosted it, and managed customer support services for it.

Perhaps that's what you missed in all of this. That's what defined the whole strained business relationship. While they remain (I hear) on good professional terms, they had their own separate business interests at heart... and until they could make SURE that their own cash investments would result in their own interests being fairly met, they were reluctant to put more than what was needed in the product.

Once NCSoft bought it, the problem was gone.

--

DISCLAIMER
I may be biased... I met Jack once at conference. He was a bit of an aloof academic, and seemed more comfortable talking to people that hadn't played CoH than people that were admitted fans (I think he expected me to jump out with a "YOU NERFED MY REGEN SCRAPPER" attack). We really didn't get along- not badly, mind you, but not like the other colleagues I met there.

One thing was VERY clear. He LOVED this game. He spoke about it with the energy in his body language and the sparkle in his eye that a father has for his kids. I've known other game developers, and they all have some affection (sometimes a love/hate relationship) with their products, but Jack was practically BOUNCING about CoH. This was not callous salesmanship. I don't think that selling the rights was easy for him to do. He had to accept, like any good parent, that a kid grows up and goes its own way.

Perhaps that's why I look at the grains of evidence and see a much more complex relationship than simply vilifying Jack would explain.

Everything, about Jack Emmert and CoH, is in this sentence.

TASER! Come here you big ol' jerk! *Hugs*

Nah not anymore , its easy dealing with MMO people nowadays .
Tell them lies sweet little lies .
and give them epix , if they stop paying bribe them with more epix .
boost the quiters class , then stealth nerf it slowly back.
keep denying you did anything .
Spread sheet numbers are wrong cause the factor X is unknown .
The factor X keeps changing every patch .

Most of all do sweeping reforms when introducing something majority wants.
They will shut up the logical minority for you .

Sounds familiair oh wait its like RL :P .