Through recent observations, i've noticed how the public perception of Mark Gerhard is almost totally positive. Is he one of the best things to happen to RS?

 

The previous man in his job was Geoff Iddison. He is a comparison I will use as he is the person he took the job from.

 

 

Gerhard, unlike Iddison is very community oriented. He had seen what had gone before and almost done the opposite. For those who do not remember Iddison, he came across almost totally money-focused. His previous job was with Paypal (from what i remember) and a majority of his influences in game aimed at advertising the members part of the game to free players. These were not all bad, the gnome-copters had a nice feel and came across as fairly fun. Despite this though, they were advertising. Mass advertising of the members game made the game feel much less of a community game, and more of a money sucker.

 

Totally opposite to this, Gerhard has done away with many of the advertising features previously implemented. He has also focused heavily on increasing the community feel of the game. Under him, Jagex have implemented many community oriented events, Q&A sessions and insights into the workings of the company. He has in effect become the modern face of Jagex in my opinion. His professional, competent but still very fun way of working seems to have given the original creator and owner of Jagex, Andrew Gower more time to change the inner workings of the game, where he can feel safe the broad wider picture is being looked after well by Gerhard.

 

In my view, he has changed the attitude of Jagex in that they don't want to grab our money with shady advertising, instead they want us to throw our money at them by making the game much more enjoyable and a better experience.

 

 

I doubt I am alone in the feeling that Gerhard has been a breath of fresh air in the company and the community of Jagex.

I totally agree, he actually enjoys the game it seems and his general attitude seems very friendly. A breath of fresh air to Jagex? Totally.

You're pretty much summing up the reasons I had a crush on him at the start of last year, and I suppose still a little one now :rolleyes:

 

He's awesome <3:

Yeah, I have to agree, he really seems to be a nice guy.

 

I kinda miss the Gnomecopters, though.

your title made me think of him as a public face that doesn't truly exist - a la 1984 - but yes, he's a nice chap and a year on he's done a great job despite the slow-paced upgrade year.

Ya i doubt Iddison ever really played the game and looked at the game from a pure business ortiented, dollars and cents way. MMG seems like a guy who enjoys the game for the games sake not how much money the game can make him. Who know though i could be wrong but so far i think he has done a really really good job.

Iddison focused on solid content being implemented, and it was. MMG is all airy-fairy with his choices to put in updates. Any veteran player would have been able to find the small problems in the game that MMG took pride in fixing them. Hell, this forum highlighted almost every single solitary problem in the new content hours after it was released, and some of the fixes done by MMG were years too late. In all honestly I think he has done a very mediocre job. He is getting closer to the community because he knows he is losing it. Pretty soon, people will just stop listening to his empty promises and quit, hell I'm half way there.

I prefer Andrew, at least he sounds somewhat human.

MMG sounds a bit too official to me like most Jmods actually.

Through recent observations, i've noticed how the public perception of Mark Gerhard is almost totally positive.

You have never been to the rsof,have you?

 

Although I do agree that MMG seems like a nice guy that interacts with the players a lot more.

Iddison focused on solid content being implemented, and it was. MMG is all airy-fairy with his choices to put in updates. Any veteran player would have been able to find the small problems in the game that MMG took pride in fixing them. Hell, this forum highlighted almost every single solitary problem in the new content hours after it was released, and some of the fixes done by MMG were years too late. In all honestly I think he has done a very mediocre job. He is getting closer to the community because he knows he is losing it. Pretty soon, people will just stop listening to his empty promises and quit, hell I'm half way there.

This.

 

Also, every time he(or another jmod) says the new skill will be epic I start thinking it's going to be feces.

I prefer Andrew, at least he sounds somewhat human.

MMG sounds a bit too official to me like most Jmods actually.

 

A lot of Andrew's posts on the RSOF in the past have always come across as pretty cold and made me feel like he was criticising whatever he was writing about. But since MMG came on he seems a lot more open and well, pleasant.

You're pretty much summing up the reasons I had a crush on him at the start of last year, and I suppose still a little one now :rolleyes:

You too? :oops:

I find MMG to be much like Presidant Obama. He seems to follow the "shoot for Mars, end up on the moon" ideaology. He is fantastic speaker in terms of having good ideas and having the alibity to put them into words that will convince most anyone that it is a good idea. But when it comes to implimenting them, it's not quite as big as he says. I really like him, and find him a great improvement from Geoff but some times he says things like 'Runescape will become the worlds largest MMO'. These types of dreams are nice to have but as for them actually happening....

 

Either way, as long as we keep getting quality updates and continued communication with Jagex, I will be a happy member of this community.

 

PS -> I really like that he has an open CC and the fact that he visits it on occasion. I have never heard of Geoff ever coming ingame to talk to players and MMG has done quite a bit of that.

You're pretty much summing up the reasons I had a crush on him at the start of last year, and I suppose still a little one now :rolleyes:

You too? :oops:

I find MMG to be much like Presidant Obama. He seems to follow the "shoot for Mars, end up on the moon" ideaology. He is fantastic speaker in terms of having good ideas and having the alibity to put them into words that will convince most anyone that it is a good idea. But when it comes to implimenting them, it's not quite as big as he says. I really like him, and find him a great improvement from Geoff but some times he says things like 'Runescape will become the worlds largest MMO'. These types of dreams are nice to have but as for them actually happening....

 

Either way, as long as we keep getting quality updates and continued communication with Jagex, I will be a happy member of this community.

 

PS -> I really like that he has an open CC and the fact that he visits it on occasion. I have never heard of Geoff ever coming ingame to talk to players and MMG has done quite a bit of that.

 

 

Did he ever go ingame?

Obama? Probably not. Mod MMG? I've heard numerous reports of people seeing him in his chat. Personally, I might have gone there once, ever, for two minutes. I can't say I've seen him, nor can I say I'dve noticed him.

I've always like Andrew and Paul. I agree with an above poster that MMG sounds very official, whereas Andrew and Paul have always been more . . . relaxed? Human? I dunno. Seems like whenever Paul and Andrew talk they give real answers and are much more interesting. MMG is more community oriented, which doesn't interest me as much as content and updates. I appreciate, though, that we've gotten the majority of our high-level content under MMG, which may or may not have anything to do with him, but I'll assume he has at least some claim to responsibility.

You're pretty much summing up the reasons I had a crush on him at the start of last year, and I suppose still a little one now :rolleyes:

You too? :oops:

I find MMG to be much like Presidant Obama. He seems to follow the "shoot for Mars, end up on the moon" ideaology. He is fantastic speaker in terms of having good ideas and having the alibity to put them into words that will convince most anyone that it is a good idea. But when it comes to implimenting them, it's not quite as big as he says. I really like him, and find him a great improvement from Geoff but some times he says things like 'Runescape will become the worlds largest MMO'. These types of dreams are nice to have but as for them actually happening....

 

Either way, as long as we keep getting quality updates and continued communication with Jagex, I will be a happy member of this community.

 

PS -> I really like that he has an open CC and the fact that he visits it on occasion. I have never heard of Geoff ever coming ingame to talk to players and MMG has done quite a bit of that.

 

 

Did he ever go ingame?

 

nah i dont even think he had a staff acount, never saw him post on forums or anything

I've always like Andrew and Paul. I agree with an above poster that MMG sounds very official, whereas Andrew and Paul have always been more . . . relaxed? Human? I dunno. Seems like whenever Paul and Andrew talk they give real answers and are much more interesting. MMG is more community oriented, which doesn't interest me as much as content and updates. I appreciate, though, that we've gotten the majority of our high-level content under MMG, which may or may not have anything to do with him, but I'll assume he has at least some claim to responsibility.

The difference is when they were in charge the community was much smaller and a whole lot different then it's now.

 

OT: If MMG is responsible for the high level content, then his community skills doesn't matter much to me. It's just a game for me, not some community focused leader. I don't give much about his community orientation as long as he delivers good content.

Obama? Probably not. Mod MMG? I've heard numerous reports of people seeing him in his chat. Personally, I might have gone there once, ever, for two minutes. I can't say I've seen him, nor can I say I'dve noticed him.

He was refering to Geoff Iddison.

And one of the first things that I heard of MMG doing once he was settled in was to open his CC. He has made a point of trying to get in better contact with the player base which is fantastic.

IMO Geoff was too secluded from the actual ingame aspect to his job. When MMG came in the rants forum was full of people demanding that Jagex can MMG and get Andrew back as CEO. Almost no one knew who Geoff was. I don't know how good Geoff was in terms of the business of it, but in terms of community managment, he was downright lousy.

Iddison focused on solid content being implemented, and it was. MMG is all airy-fairy with his choices to put in updates. Any veteran player would have been able to find the small problems in the game that MMG took pride in fixing them. Hell, this forum highlighted almost every single solitary problem in the new content hours after it was released, and some of the fixes done by MMG were years too late. In all honestly I think he has done a very mediocre job. He is getting closer to the community because he knows he is losing it. Pretty soon, people will just stop listening to his empty promises and quit, hell I'm half way there.

 

 

damn straight.

I think if Iddison cared about RuneScape he would not have said of Jagex's success "It’s not the game, the game is going to come and go" (source), nor that RuneScape "will receive at least another five years of support" (source). In contrast, what did MMG say? "RuneScape will live forever! ...We will never stop developing and improving RuneScape regardless of the success of our other games... In 5 to 10 years I see RuneScape as the biggest, most epic game in the world! RuneScape was our first born and we will always love it" (source) - and of course MMG actually plays the game in his spare time. Iddison spoke to the media, but he never spoke to the community and he was also a barrier between Jagex and fan sites. To quote Mod Mark H "As for Fansites... It's true that in the past we treated these sites like a potential danger. As times change, so have we and thanks to Mark Gerhard's approach and enthusiasm we've come to realise that just because we had done something one way in the past didn't make it the *right* way. " (source). Actions, of course, speak louder than words, and under MMG they've loosened the chat filter, reversed some of the kiddification of the game (which is where Iddison seemed to be taking it), got rid of the video ads and so on. Jagex have also been more open by doing Q&As, interviews, social networking and video diaries.

 

Iddison focused on solid content being implemented, and it was.

My understanding is that it seemed like he cared more about release cycles than what was actually being released.

 

I prefer Andrew, at least he sounds somewhat human.

Not sure where this is coming from. Whenever I've spoken to Gerhard I've personally always found him to be pretty approachable.

 

His previous job was with Paypal (from what i remember)

Yes it was (and before that eBay), and now he's a non-executive director of MasterCard.

Is it me or does MMG look pretty buff in his videos?

Iddison focused on solid content being implemented, and it was. MMG is all airy-fairy with his choices to put in updates. Any veteran player would have been able to find the small problems in the game that MMG took pride in fixing them. Hell, this forum highlighted almost every single solitary problem in the new content hours after it was released, and some of the fixes done by MMG were years too late. In all honestly I think he has done a very mediocre job. He is getting closer to the community because he knows he is losing it. Pretty soon, people will just stop listening to his empty promises and quit, hell I'm half way there.

I agree with this, to some extent. I don't like how, like ilovecuttingyews mentioned, that he, "shoots for mars and lands on the moon." That is very, very frustrating. However he's doing much better than Idison ever did and I would not say he's doing a bad job. The community outreach is nice as well, and there have been good updates. Though the game definitely seems to be slowing down, and I don't see Runescape lasting too much longer (or at least keeping my attention for too much longer) unless this new skill or some other new update is great.

Is it me or does MMG look pretty buff MUSCLEY in his videos?

 

Yea, I was gona say he looks like he's got a military background or something behind him.

OT: Under MMG there has been no real need to complain about much really has there? *shuts MHL in a cupboard* :P

He doesn't actually set the policies you know...Andrew still holds all the cards, so to speak. It is good that they put such a hard working and mostly honest guy up front, but the standard bearer shouldn't form your opinion of the company. Hopefully by all his answers this time you'll notice the consistent answering of "safe," previously asked/answered questions, and his absolute refusal to talk about anything game related. On these instances note how he says that's not his policy...and I think you'll get what I'm trying to say.

Hopefully by all his answers this time you'll notice the consistent answering of "safe," previously asked/answered questions, and his absolute refusal to talk about anything game related.

 

The questions answered in this batch deal with matters about RuneScape and Jagex as a whole.

 

This Q&A was not about telling us about the new updates coming out, rather it was focused on Jagex as a business and where they are heading.