Blizzard vs Mythic: Mark Jacobs is 'angry'

This all started with this interview: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/blizzard-wizard where Blizzard states that over half of people who left WoW for WAR have already returned.

Then add that interview with this even better interview: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/16/world-of-warcraft-game-director-on-warhammer-online/ where Jeff Kaplan(Blizzard Game Director) talks about how Mythic wouldn't let Blizzard into WAR's Beta and about his experiences with WAR after playing it.

Here are some quality quotes:
" Kaplan explained that he and Barnett became such good friends that he invited him to Blizzard’s offices several times. And when the beta for the “WoW” expansion “Wrath of the Lich King” was ready to go, he asked Barnett for a list of Mythic staffers to send beta keys to. “And then I’m like, ‘Hey if you got any beta keys for ‘Warhammer,’ that’d be awesome,’” Kaplan said. “But [Barnett] said that Mark Jacobs wouldn’t let me into the beta.” "

" I asked Kaplan why he thought he and other Blizzard employees weren’t allowed into the “Warhammer” beta. “That’s a great question,” he said. “I’m always fascinated by betas in general and [non-disclosure agreements] and how tight-lipped they tend to be. It’s Blizzard philosophy that if you’re really confident in your game, then you have nothing to worry about. So I guess that would be my big take away from that.” "

" “My character is like level 13 right now, and I’m playing Destruction on a server that’s imbalanced,” he said, referring to the factions in the game. He also said leveling his character has been going a bit slowly. “I’m at the point where I’m thinking about quitting because it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds,” he explained. "

Best Part: " With “Warhammer Online” now up to 750,000 subscribers, was Kaplan concerned about losing throngs of “WoW” players? “We would obviously be concerned with losing people to ["Warhammer Online"] but at the same time, the game stands to bring new people to the MMO market,” he said. “I think if anything, we can stand to benefit. If you happen to come into that game as your first one, and you’ve never played ‘WoW’ before, I think ‘WoW’ is going to be really exciting when you try it out and feel how different the combat is and just the general [Player Vs. Environment] systems of the game.” "
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Now this is where Mark Jacobs(GM/VP/CEO of Mythic) steps in.

All of Mark Jacob's responses about both Blizzard interviews are posted on the VN boards on a thread called "Blizzard: Warhammer players already returning to Warcraft" found here: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109014195/p1

Here are his posts:

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109017928
MarkJacobs: "I'm not surprised at all by what Paul said. Of course Blizzard is worried about us just as they should be worried at some level about every other MMO that might come out, that's his job. Frankly, what got me steamed is a piece at MTV multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/16/world-of-warcraft-game-director-on-warhammer-online where the guy talks a bit of smack about WAR, our Beta policy and stuff like that. My reaction to that was, interesting.

I've always said nice things about WoW as I thank Blizzard for expanding the market, bringing more attention to this space, most important MMO of this generation, etc. But for Kaplan to shoot off his mouth about our beta policy, lack of confidence or criticism about WAR is just BS and it's wrong. And so, I deviated from my long-standing policy of not criticizing other developers, especially on subjective issues. It will be an interesting read."

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109018646
MarkJacobs: "I've kept my mouth pretty much shut over the years regarding WoW because of the respect I have for them as fellow developers and because I like their games. The only negative comment I've made has been when people ask me about similarities between WoW and WAR when I bring up the whole Warcraft/Warhammer/GW/World of Warhammer (book) thing. That policy ends today."

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109019248
MarkJacobs: "I'm really steaming about the Kaplan piece. I thought he was way out of line and I'm getting rather tired of sitting back and listening to certain BS and not responding. I hope you'll understand."

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109019718
MarkJacobs: "We have worked way too hard on WAR and have too many great things coming to have a competitor dump on us (whatever their motivation is). Especially when it is a company like Blizzard who we had enough respect for and friendship with to allow them to come and visit Mythic and look at how we do things when they were still in development for WoW. I even had a conversation with the Vivendi CEO when WoW was about to miss its release date about how they need to give Blizzard additional time to complete the game because I knew back then how important WoW was going to be for VUG and for the online industry. I'm for all competition, love it but I think that Kaplan and to a lesser extent Sams, were way out of line."

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109020005
MarkJacobs: "As to history with Kaplan, none that I am aware of, which makes it even more surprising since I don't even know the guy personally. I have no problem getting down and dirty when I need to but I hate doing so even when I feel its deserved. If either of these things have happened in a different time frame, I would have handled it differently but for both of them to break now and with the tone and tenor and undercurrents of their statements, I have no problem reacting and responding to them. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I remember one interview with Pardo prior to WoW's launch where he saud that WoW's PvP system/realm point/honor point/etc. would be, unlike DAoC, useful. Hmm, how many times have they redone that system? Developers should stick to worrying about their own games and companies as none of us are perfect. People who live in glass castles and all that."

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109014195&brd=22997&start=109020658
MarkJacobs: "Because I'm angry and given that his position at Blizzard, I think he should have showed more class. You can argue that I should have as well but I'm tired of this type of BS, especially coming from Blizzard. They have made billions off WoW and they really don't need Kaplan dissing, in any way, a competitive product. That's just wrong, period. I didn't diss EQ/AC/UO when we were developing DAoC and that's always been a standing rule of mine. If another developer doesn't want to play by the same rule, I reserve the right to respond, which I did. In Kaplan's case, talking about "his issues" with WAR during it's first 30 days is laughable especially since WoW had plenty of issues of their own at launch and considering that they spent 2x as long working on WoW as we did on WAR, some of their issues were just as bad or worse than ours. And his nonsense about our Beta is even more laughable considering Blizzard runs internal-only (NDAed by employment agreements) alphas at the same point where we would already be inviting thousands of regular people (under NDA) into our game.

I'm not normally a conspiracy kind of guy but within a few days of each other the COO and the Game Director of Blizzard both diss our game (though Paul did damn us with faint praise) does make me wonder."
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What do you all think about this?