Warhammer Online's Jeff Hickman talks balance and cut classes
Our chums over at mmorpg.com have been getting some information from Jeff Hickman on a subject all Warhammer Online players know very well: the cut classes and cities that didn't make it to launch. There's been a lot of discussion of this topic since WAR went live - much of it of the 'it would have been more balanced if only' variety - and in the course of an excellent meaty interview, Jeff has some choice words to say on the subject.
Obviously, there's no date for reincorporation of the cut material yet (none of us seriously thought there would be, right?) The cut classes simply 'weren't as good as they needed to be' and will be done when they're done. We're impressed with Jeff's assertion that players shouldn't necessarily like all of the classes. 'Players should love some and hate others.' A step away from bland, one-size-fits-all pandering to the customer? Apparently.
Jeff's flatly dismissive of the notion that the cut classes' absence has unbalanced the game. His quote says it all: '...what we're seeing is a lot of people judging the game in Tier 1 (which is again, perfectly fine, you SHOULD judge the game in Tier 1), but I think everyone needs to keep in mind that that's the first ten hours of gameplay for a game that is hundreds of thousands of hours of gameplay out there over the next couple of years.'
