living-guilds
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Reminiscing about Warhammer Online with Mark Jacobs
When it comes to the 2008 phenomenon of Warhammer Online and the story of its rise and fall, there's one obvious source for the full dish: Mark Jacobs. The former big kahuna of Mythic Entertainment is now CEO of City State Entertainment, and while Jacobs is no longer in the WAR business, he's still passionate about making games and talking about his past experiences. We sat down with Jacobs to look at WAR and what he thought went right and wrong with the title. Even today, many gamers are passionately divided on the game's build-up to release and design decisions. Some lay the blame at Jacobs' doorstep, while others admire the passion and vision of this MMO creator. So what does Jacobs have to say when put to the question about WAR's outcome? Find out in this exclusive interview!
Warhammer Online: Three years later
To this day, I don't know what quite came over me when I decided to throw my chips into the blogging scene to cover Warhammer Online, eight months before the game launched. Like many of you, I had been a long-time reader of MMO blogs, but I was intimidated at trying my hand at joining in, perhaps elevating these writers to the status of legendary wordsmiths who penned unequaled prose in our lifetimes. Or I just didn't want to be one of a thousand World of Warcraft bloggers who dominated the scene. Just a thought. In any case, it was a terrific decision to do so on my part. I found that I had a passion not only for MMOs but for talking about them, and I loved connecting with other writers and readers and players, which happens with blogging. I've been asked from time to time if I regret picking Warhammer Online as the game that I latched onto for a couple of years, and I always say no -- no regrets. The game was fun, but the coverage was an unparalleled rollercoaster of anticipation, hype, fun, speculation, promise, disappointment, and above all, ideas. Wonderful, flawed, captivating ideas. I haven't touched WAR since 2010, so perhaps I'm not the best source for the latest and greatest in the game. But what I do have to offer is a humble blogger's perspective on what went right, what went wrong, and why I'm ultimately happy that WAR came into being and is chugging along on today, its third anniversary.
Massively goes to WAR: Everything you need to know about guilds
Warhammer Online's ongoing series of production videos are almost too informative sometimes. For the bloggers at Massively, they pretty much do our job for us. Not that we don't mind taking it easy, but as you've probably gathered right now we really enjoy talking about MMOs. Thankfully, some topics are complicated enough that they warrant a second look. Warhammer's Living Guilds system, for example, was the subject of a great video just a few weeks back. And yet, there are still a number of questions you can walk away with.Where can you use the guild banner (now called a standard)? What kind of tools will guilds have for coordinating events? What about the big picture? How to alliances work? And, perhaps most importantly, where can guildies get drunk together? All of these questions and much, much more are explored in the latest of our ongoing series of articles about Warhammer Online. If you're so inclined, you can jump straight to to part 2 or part 3, or join us below as we chat with Mr. Drescher and Ms. Christian Bales.
Massively goes to WAR: Everything you need to know about guilds pt. 2
<-- Jump back to part 1We note there is a website and an email address down there at the bottom of the tab? What are those? Christian Bales: That's just my web, that's test for now, but that's when the guild leader wants to set the actual guild's email address and the guild website.) Josh Drescher: You can set that to be whatever you want, so ... Obviously, one of the cool things that you really want from a guild is a sense of belonging, the team jersey, you go and dress up in your Redskins jerseys or wherever you're from. It'll have the guild heraldry. The heraldry is a customized, unique sort of heraldry for your specific guild. So a symbol on it, specific color scheme, shape, patterns and so forth that's applicable only to your guild, that your guild will have the ability to place on various things. Christian: On your standards and on your guild cloaks.
Massively goes to WAR: Everything you need to know about guilds pt. 3
<-- Jump back to part 2 Is there a formal in-game mechanic for alliances? Christian: There certainly is. We do allow formal alliances in the game, you can form an alliance with up to ten guilds, and you can assign officers within that alliance structure, though that is very limited. We actually have a roster for the alliances, you form it just from this window, and then it populates with your alliance roster. Note that every member from your alliance is not displayed in this roster, only your guild, the alliance leaders and the officers, because that would be - if you had ten guilds in your alliance, that would be a lot of people.
Josh Drescher explains WAR's living guilds
This month we get a look into one of the many cool aspects of Warhammer Online: living guilds. This important Warhammer Online feature is explained by the dreamy Josh Drescher (that's right we said dreamy, just look at those honest eyes) who yet again explains the system in such a way that we cannot help but woo over him -- we mean it, the system.Anyhow, living guilds are EA Mythic's response to the many different problems with running a guild in MMOs. Everything from the complexity of running a website -- which you don't need with the bevy of features WAR's living guild system offers -- to giving players a powerful reason to join guilds and participate with other guild members in the first place. Did we need yet another reason to be extremely excited for Warhammer Online? No, but it really doesn't hurt to have more of them.
WAR, you and another interview
Sunday got you down without much to do? Well maybe this will eat up a few of those boring minutes for you. It appears that the WarCry Network has a nice little interview with Joshua Drescher, Adam Gershowitz and James Nichols of EA Mythic. This interview happens to be about Warhammer Online (who knew?), so sit down, strap in, caffeine up and listen in because we can never get enough juicy information about WAR.Many of the subjects are nothing too special, such as the revelation that EA Mythic is going to let players re-spec their characters. To be more specific, players will have the opportunity to re-spec their Mastery, meaning any tactics or morale abilities that were selected in the system. This doesn't include core tactics or morale, as well as anything received from the Tome of Knowledge. The reason being that these are granted through automatic unlocks (such as gaining a level or killing 200 haughty High Elves).
