Mod MMG
Mark Michael Gerhard also known as Mod MMG, was the CEO of Jagex. His appointment to the position was announced on the 30 January 2009, though he was in the position officially from 1 February 2009.[1] On 11 September 2014 Gerhard announced that he would be leaving Jagex at the end of 2014.[2]
Before taking over the role as CEO, Gerhard joined Jagex as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) from 1 February 2008.[3]
On 9 February 2009, soon after his appointment to the position of CEO, Gerhard released an update called The Future of RuneScape. In it he stated that he is "an active RuneScape player," and gave his age as "ever so slightly over 21 :)".[4] He confirmed that this was a joke a week later, saying he is "definitely well over 21," and that he was actually in his thirties.[5] According to his date of birth, he was 32 years old at the time.
Before Jagex[]
Gerhard has held many executive positions and he has over 14 years of experience working in many companies in the technology sector. Previously he worked as:
- Security Architect at GTECH, where he served as the Principal Security Architect for the National Lottery
- Chief Technical Officer at Ministry of Data
- Group Systems Manager at Sterling Relocation
- Chief Operating Officer at Serious
- Principal Consultant at Chromasonic Computer Centre Ltd
- IT Director at Hospital I.T. Solutions (Pty) Ltd
- Security Consultant at Rand Merchant Bank
Employment with Jagex[]
As Chief Technical Officer (CTO)[]
Gerhard gave a short account on the RuneScape Forums about how he came to join Jagex as CTO.
| “ | I heard about the vacancy for a CTO (Chief Technical Officer) at Jagex, but I was also looking at other roles around that time. I tried the game to better understand what Jagex did and was really impressed with the technology and game – the more I found out about Jagex like the platform, proprietary in-house tools, languages and systems, the more I was intrigued. I had a 3 hour interview with Andrew [Gower] which ended up being a being an in-depth IT Security debate and suffice to say I was blown away to learn that Jagex’s approach to IT Security was more rigorous than some of the banks I had consulted for or even the lottery systems we had architected. I instantly realised this was an incredible company with so many high calibre staff at the very cutting edge of so many technology fronts - I just simply had to work for Jagex. | ” |
— Mark Gerhard RuneScape Forums[5]
|
As Chief Executive Officer (CEO)[]
However, since Mark Gerhard became CEO of Jagex, he has stated that non-members will also receive updates in the future. For example, as of April 2009, non-members were permitted access to the RuneScape Forums provided they had 12.5 million total experience.[6] In August 2009, Gerhard confirmed that RuneScape's next skill will be for all players (non-members and members).[7]
He has announced many things in his clan chat. He explained that Jagex are working on a major "forum rewrite".[source needed] On the RuneScape Forums, Gerhard has also posted that he was considering making Fletching a non-member skill.[source needed]
He promises new content for higher levels and an update for the Magic skill to balance magic (which he believes is underpowered) with other combat skills.[source needed]
Gerhard has made promises saying that he will make sure Jagex will become a less secretive company. The "Rants" forum was reinstated under his leadership in March 2009, along with an apology for removing it at all.[8] His arrival also led to Jagex being more open with popular fansites for the first time since Andrew Gower's link with tip.it.
In May 2009, Mark Gerhard was in an interview with MMO Hub.org, in which he mentions a very big surprise update on the horizon. This may have been referring to Dungeoneering (released in April 2010), as that fits with everything he said.
| “ | We are actually working on a whole new game mechanic. I can't give much away, but it could be an entire game in its own right, or just a skill, or both, who knows [laughs]. That will be for free and members. But, yeah, that should be this year hopefully, needs to be awesome though. I don't want to give it away though because it's really exciting and no one has done it so we're kind of keeping that one close to our chest. ... But what I realised is that if we hide stuff and then say "Yeah we're going to build this and it's awesome and the most exciting thing we've ever done!" and then launch it and it's like "Eh?," we've almost set ourselves up to fail before we even started. So we don't want to spin it; we want it to be a big surprise. So it will be a skill, and we will introduce a whole new type of gameplay as well, but you'll see it when it's ready. | ” |
— Mark Gerhard Interview with Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, Part 2 of 3[9]
|
On 30 October 2009, Gerhard collected the Golden Joystick Award on behalf of Jagex,[10] who had been named Amiqus games UK developer of the year.[11]
| Preceded by | Title | Succeeded by |
| Geoff Iddison | Chief Executive Officer | Rod Cousens |
References[]
External links[]
- Interview with Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard
| Founders | |
| Current |
|
| Old School RuneScape |
|
| Former |
|