After accusations that contributors to Warhammer Online wouldn’t be credited in the final product, Mythic Entertainment is calling out the anonymous source accusing Mythic of misconduct.
A Shacknews story stated that Mythic Entertainment, the studio behind Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, would only be listing employees that stayed with the company until the end of the project.
In response, an anonymous source said that Mythic would be “dogging out many, many developers” by not crediting them in the final product.
Mark Jacobs, Vice President of Mythic and the man who previously confirmed to Shacknews the qualifications for in-game credit, wants the disgruntled source to either talk to Mythic or identify themselves publicly.
Jacobs said, “If you really think that we’re doing something wrong, at least have the balls to stand up and go ‘Hi, my name is so-and-so.'”
“[Leaving the person out of the credits] could be a mistake. I’m not saying it’s not happening,” he explained. “I just don’t know who the heck this person is. So come out, stop hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and the legal shield of ‘I’m going to sue EA [Mythic’s parent company].'”
Jacobs believes there’s a possibility the accuser left Mythic on unhappy terms. He stated, “In some of the cases that people left, some of them hadn’t done a great job for us. Or some left just in a lurch. Do I feel badly for that? No, I don’t feel badly at all. I’m not going to shed a single tear for any of those guys.”
He went on to explain why Mythic’s policy is to only include those employees still on staff at the time of launch.
“Online games are ever-changing and [have] ever-changing credits. Show me one MMOG that has been up for seven years that has kept the credits for every single person who’s worked on the game as long as they’ve had a large team,” he argued. “We have hundreds of people working on Warhammer and what’s going to happen a year from now is maybe some of that team goes on to another game, and we bring in other people to replace them. And then what happens the year after that or the year after that… if we set that precedent right now, that anyone who worked on the game at any point in time is going to be in the credits, the credits will be 20 pages long within a couple of years. And nobody does that.”
Simplicity, he states, is important is finishing the credit debate, which could be neverending.
“You know what, if people want to complain about credits, then how come we’re not tracking the months? How come we don’t have the five-star credit section for people who worked on it for three years? Then the four-star credit section and then the two-star credit,” he commented. “There are so many issues with it, and we want to keep it really simple: If you’re on the team when we launch, you’re in the full credits section with some exceptions into the ‘Special Thanks’ for certain people who have left under difficult circumstances.”
If the standards being set by the International Game Developers Association are enforced and finalized, Mythic would gladly follow them.
“There is no requirement [to have credits]. A lot of companies don’t give any credits, but we do. If all the game companies agree on something – even internally there’s no absolute plan within EA because it’s up to the studios – on that day, I’ll be thrilled,” he concluded. “Until then, everyone who is currently at Mythic who’s worked on Warhammer is going to be in the credits. And that’s good enough for me.”
Source: MTV Multiplayer
