Warhammer MMO Q&A – Jack Emmert Wants an Accessible Game That Represents the IP with Care

wccftech.com:

This month, fans of massively multiplayer online games were treated to the announcements of a new The Lord of the Rings MMO and a new Warhammer MMO. While the former is in development at Amazon Game Studios Orange County (the team behind New World), the latter is being handled by a new Austin-based studio founded last year by Jack Emmert.

I had the chance to interview Emmert three years ago, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was leading Dimensional Ink Games in the ongoing development of DC Universe Online as well as an unannounced project that didn't end up going forward. That's when he left Dimensional Ink Games and started Jackalope Games, now known as Jackalyptic Games, under the wing of NetEase Games.

Emmert has worked on many MMOs, including City of Heroes, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, DC Universe Online, and a couple of canceled projects. Following this announcement, I reached out for a new interview. While he wasn't ready to mention any specific game mechanics and features, Emmert talked about his main tenets, chiefly the evangelization of the Warhammer IP and delivering an accessible game. He also discussed the engine that will be used and shared his thoughts on combat systems, business models, and user-generated content.

Jack, tell me what you've been up to. You left Daybreak and founded this new studio that has just been rebranded, correct?

Yes, we decided to change the name from Jackalope Games to Jackalyptic Games. Jackalope was fairly generic. Here in Texas, you throw a stone and you hit a store with that name, it's extremely common. We wanted to do something a little more memorable, a little more meaningful, and we ended up with Jackalyptic by combining two words: Jackalope and Cryptid, which is