Mythic CEO speaks out against Station Exchange

Mythic CEO Mark Jakobs issues a statement about why Station Exchange is "one of the worst decision in the MMORPG industry."

Upon hearing the news that SOE are to facilitate the selling of virtual goods for real money in EverQuest II an indignant Mark Jakobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment, sent out a statement explaining why it's “one of the worst decisions in the MMORPG industry”.

Jakobs makes a very valid point when he notes that players will get very frustrated if SOE make a change to the game which results in an item being deleted.

quote:
"By creating this service, SOE may be painting themselves into a creative corner. What will happen when SOE finds it has to change or delete items, servers, etc? Will users who have bought items through SOE take kindly to the fact that their $800 swords have been deleted? Will SOE have to consider now and forever the ramifications of every major change they make to the game based on the possibility that users will not only be dissatisfied on an 'entertainment level' but now will be angry from a 'financial level' as well?"

Interestingly, Jakobs also mentions that Mythic has turned down several opportunities to open a service such as Sony Exchange as “[Mythic] remain committed to keeping our games as games and not as opportunities to encourage behavior that runs counter to their spirit of creativity and entertainment.”

To these harsh criticisms of his Station Exchange service, the SOE president John Smedley responded self-righteously by saying: “In satisfying the broad player demand for a service such as Station Exchange, SOE is again innovating, and any innovation is bound to have its critics.”

Smedley goes on to reiterate what he said in his initial message by listing several shaky reasons for opening the service, all of which boil down to the fact that it will save SOE money by facilitating the trade of virtual goods. The other reason that SOE stand to make a great deal of money from this is again conspicuously absent.

Kudos to Mythic for their brave move in publicly opposing SOE, especially considering that other heavyweight MMOG developers such as NCSoft and Blizzard are adopting a “wait and see” attitude.