BM hunter with question on why more into MM talents?2010-03-02 00:00:00the earlier talents scale better with gear than the later ones, and also provide a lot of extra damage. Thus, rather than pick up the good DPS at early
marks and okay DPS at late marks, then pick up the very shallow DPS of early BM or SV, the raid builds seek to g...
Acclaim CEO Howard Marks and Free-to-Play MMOs2009-09-10 00:00:009Dragons<br />For game analysts, journalists and fans, companies like Acclaim are often hard to get a handle on. Since the company's rebirth in 2005, CEO Howard Marks has set out to bring a traditionally Eastern vision of MMORPG business practices to the Western market. He's on the vanguard of a new trend in the genre, but one that eschews the traditional measures of success. People can't count box sales, Acclaim's games don't sit in Wal-Mart and there are no subscription numbers to speak of, the games are not only free to download, but free to play. Yet, despite their lack of press and sexy statistics, Acclaim and a half dozen other companies have carved out extremely profitable games that reach far more players than the average MMO people see on the shelf at GameStop.<br />CEO Howard Marks recently took the time to talk to us about his company, its four games and how they've helped bring variety to the business of MMOs in North America and Europe.<br />"[Our business model] is not yet, I would say, mainstream," Marks said. His games all follow a single motto, they're free-to-play. It's a marketing buzz word that sounds great, but obviously doesn't mean Acclaim runs a charity organization. <br />"In general, people get the concep...
