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Signs you are not smart enough...
I love eating bees. Well, I love to read Eating Bees, the industry insiders POV from the legendary Sanya Weathers. I love it because she says it like it is, an all too rare commodity in this overly politically correct world. In her latest diatribe Sanya takes on people who are not smart enough to moderated boards. This list can apply to virtually any board whether it be about shooters, MMOs or even movies. But since Sanya came from Mythic Entertainment they are likely based on personal experience. And they're a riot. Take for instance this doozy: You delete anything that isn't porn, advertising, or one member calling another member a "faggot retard." If you are deleting things because someone posts that such and such a decision is "poorly thought out," you are too sensitive and need to not be online. Ever. Or this classic: You avoid posting something that might cause drama, even though the something in question is most certainly going to be part of the game. Man UP, you chicken$@!* wimp. As the Guinness guys would say: Brilliant!See, I have some experience in this arena. Back in the day, long before Al Gore invented the "Internet," I created and moderated some of the very first online Star Wars forums. Based on that experience, what Sanya says is dead on. If you don't follow what amounts to her "guidelines" you end up with the inmates running the asylum. Or in this case those damnable forum trolls. By the way, the numerous comments adding more to the list (which she asked for) are almost as funny. It's worth a read.
WAR's Paul Barnett talks shop at Lift Conference
Did you ever wish you could sit down and pick the brain of a game designer to see what sort of world-views or models for the game industry are informing his design decisions? Truth be told, there are many designers out there, some in the MMO space, who would probably bore you to death with talk of convergence and design philosophies that would have you nodding off inside of ten minutes. Paul Barnett is not one of those designers. Whether it's his english accent, his frequent and strange metaphors, or just the fact that we know the success or failure of Warhammer Online is riding on his shoulders, Paul Barnett is a man worth listening to.So if you're at all interested in design, or even just interested in the creative philosophy that is going into Warhammer Online, Paul Barnett's speech at the Lift Conference in Switzerland is well worth listening to. Paul himself is a funny guy (though you'd never know it based on reactions of the crowd at Lift), but he's also got a good head on his shoulders. He explains the conventional American thinking that goes into design of taking an existing product and simply making it bigger, louder, taller, and crazier, simply doesn't work in the world of online games. There has to be room for new ideas, and it's the person with new ideas who is going to be walking away with the sacks of money. Considering Paul's new title is a Creative Director within EA, this is the sort of thing that's really refreshing to hear every now and again.
WAR designer says they could ship without all classes
The life of a developer can be arduous. As we've explained in the past, players (and bloggers!) have a habit of scrutinizing every public utterance of a developer, real or imaginary, and conjuring up all sorts of elaborate doomsday scenarios. Developers who have the cajones to brave the forums with any regularity really have to bite their tongues, lest they say something that will really get the players into a panic. So imagine our surprise when Warhammer Online designer Mark Jacobs openly posted in a thread stating that he wouldn't be distraught if he had to ship a game minus a couple of classes if it meant they could hit their target date.And then, in the same breath (or whatever the forum equivalent of a breath is), he says that Mythic and EA are committed to shipping the game when it's ready, citing Blizzard's model for their continued success. It's all a bit confusing. For my part, I take more comfort in the philosophy espoused in the second post. As much as it would pain me if they did, they're not going to lose players by putting off the release date a month or two. You will lose players if they buy your game and find it is less than they were expecting.
Warhammer's Josh Drescher clears up details on this round of beta invites
We previously reported on the erroneous emails from Warhammer Online's Beta Center, asking people who hadn't yet been invited to the beta to update their DxDiag file and consequently getting their hopes up. EA Mythic had already confirmed for these poor sods that they would need to wait for a real beta invite, but associate producer Josh Drescher has offered up a few more details about the situation on his personal site.Drescher states that the receipt of the emails by those not already invited does not mean you have a greater or lesser chance from anyone else of getting in, does not mean that something is good or bad about your computer that will lead to you getting picked or avoided, and it doesn't mean that you've already been picked (although you could be, unrelated to the email).
On the topic of sheep in Warhammer Online
Over on West Karana you can find a very good post about her take on PvP in Warhammer Online. Whether or not you agree with it is beside the fact, because the read is just so absorbing. Of course we here at Massively have discussed the PvP subject once or twice. Still, Tipa's take is a very evocative way of expressing concern for people who may be going into WAR expecting an experience more akin to World of Warcraft -- only to complain later. There is something EA Mythic can do about this problem of sheep and wolves, but it won't be easy.
New bits about WAR's Trophy System
All right, when we first heard about trophies in Warhammer Online, we'll admit to being filled with an abundance of child-like glee. There's a reason that we're willing to admit it though and it's because trophies are one of the coolest things about the upcoming massively game. The idea that when you kill a truly impressive enemy, you not only get loot (in the case of PvE) but a trophy to wear -- as a badge of honor -- is something to get a little excited about.EA Mythic's Justin Webb has a great writeup over on the Warhammer Online website concerning the Trophy system. You can think of the it as another layer of visual customization for your characters in Warhammer Online. It's a system that exists alongside initial character creation, armor diversity and being able to dye armors. With a system like this there's a lot to cover, so feel free to check out the good n' gritty bits on trophies after the break.
MMOGology: Gear of war
Last night several members of my Alliance guild initiated some old school, world PvP attacks on Tarren Mill. We were bored, looking for a fight, and boy did we get one. It was fun for a while, but it wasn't long before I realized we had no chance of winning the skirmish. It wasn't a lack of skill, strategy, or cooperation that drove our faces into the ground. It was the fact that our group didn't have the gear necessary to be competitive. There's nothing more demoralizing than getting utterly pwnd by someone that you can't even scratch; despite the fact that you're of equal player level. I've realized there is a Grand Canyon sized gap between a freshly minted 70 in quest gear and one that's been raiding or participating in arena battles. It's the equivalent of a level 60 attacking a level 40. There's a very noticeable difference.Of course, I shouldn't be surprised by this in a game that's so gear-centric. One of the primary draws of World of Warcraft is the amazing gear that you could potentially get; if only you'd spend hours and hours running and rerunning instances or competing in arenas or getting your hinder stomped in the battlegrounds thousands of times. But for casual schleps like me, the gear divide is a source of endless frustration. It becomes less a battle of skill, and more of battle of who has logged the most hours playing the game. Maybe that's the whole point of PvP in an MMOG; reward playtime over ability. But does it have to be this way?
WAR beta invites: now you see em, now you don't
Some of the approximately 560,706 people who have applied for a coveted spot in the Warhammer Online beta suffered a bit of a jerk-around from the EA Mythic folks this past week. Reportedly, an email went out to many would-be beta testers telling them to update their DxDiag files. Understandably, many players interpreted this as a sign that they had finally been inducted. After all, it was a message from the Warhammer Online Beta Center. Couple that with a message on the Warhammer Herald announcing that a few more beta invites had been sent out and this made for a very optimistic group of fans.Unfortunately, these hopes were soon dashed as players attempted to visit the the beta center and found that their status was still set to "applied" and not "accepted." Apparently emails intended for current beta testers had been sent to a group of applicants by mistake. EA Mythic is asking would-be players to, "Please disregard the email if you are currently not in beta." Easy for them to say, we're sure many eager gamers were stung by that sudden 180.
The Digital Continuum: Comparing core concepts of WAR and WoW
Every massively game has a core element that it is built upon and all are a bit different in their strengths and weaknesses. World of Warcraft and the upcoming Warhammer Online have two very different core designs, but in more ways than you might think. World of Warcraft -- at its core -- is a PvE game with lots of vertical progression (levels, levels and more levels) where PvP takes a backseat to the overall focus of the raid endgame. Basically, because WoW is so heavily focused on raiding dungeons and the experience that goes along with it -- levels have become a necessity with each expansion. The essential problem to a design like this is easily apparent if you create a new character in WoW today and work your way through the first 60 levels of the game. You're not going to find a whole lot of people to play with because they're all level 70s that are either raiding, participating in battlegrounds or at the arena. This gap is only going to become wider once Wraith of the Lich King releases, adding another ten levels between your brand new character and everyone else at the endgame -- for a total of 70 levels. Instead of building upwards, Warhammer Online has a chance to do something different -- something that works better. The reason I believe this to be true is because at its core WAR is about the RvR experience. In an endgame where players are fighting other players, you want to keep them together as best you can and adding more levels is counter-productive to that. So as a developer what will EA Mythic most likely do instead?
Warhammer Online's January video of the month contains RvR greatness
The new Warhammer Online video of the month for January is out (introduced by the lovable Paul Barnett) and it's chocked-full of great RvR footage. Not only do we get to see all the races battling it out in the video, but if you watch closely you'll see your first glimpses of the Chaos Marauder class (limb mutations, woo!). You'll also be treated to giant axe-wielding Dwarves and plenty of spellcasting. That's not to mention that there is one very big squig in the video, too. We also really have got to give it up for the High Elf Swordmasters -- they just look cool looking with their big swords swinging around. Warhammer Online looks like it should deliver some really fun PvP and RvR battles in all sorts of different locales. When some of the battles in the video looked like they were taking place in capital cities, a certain anxious-yet-excited feeling definitely overcame us. Now, hopefully -- and according to EA Mythic -- the PvE game will be just as strong as the RvR/PvP side.
WAR January newsletter hits, spotlights Shadow Warriors
The January Edition of the Warhammer Online newsletter is out, and as usual, it's chock full of goodies that any WAR fan is going to need to sustain himself in that woefully long period until the game's release in the second quarter of this year. The most notable content is the spotlight on the High Elf Shadow Warrior career. They're going some neat things with the Shadow Warrior, making them more of a mobile ranged physical DPS class, with the ability to deliver powerful short-range bow shots while on the run. Some of the other highlights include: The Video of the Month, which features a heavily scripted but very exciting-looking head-on battle between the forces of Destruction and Order. A video of an internal demonstration of their trophy system, which will highlight the badassery of the players and allow for more extensive visual customization options. More behind-the-scenes (and usually completely off the wall) goodies in Paul's Video Blog. An overview of some of the PvP scenarios, including Nordenwatch and Highpass Cemetary. If you want to be privvy to all these goodies without having to have us point them out for you, we advise you to sign up for the Warhammer Online e-newsletter so you can be kept abreast of all the latest news from the EA Mythic boyz.
EA gets Warhammer Online ready for Asian market
EA is getting all its orcs, elves and other fantasy creatures in a row over in Asia for the eventual release of EA Mythic's Warhammer Online. EA announced that it has entered into an agreement with GigaMedia to launch and operate WAR in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.Working with the team at EA Mythic, GigaMedia will handle marketing, community management, technical support, customer service functions and details regarding the release which "will be announced in the months ahead." With any luck, this means EA is actually putting effort and thought behind Warhammer Online instead of just throwing it to the wolves like the ill-fated Earth and Beyond. That pile-o-WoW-cash sitting at Activision-Blizzard must be acting as a positive influence.
EA signs agreement for WAR distribution in Asia
A press release went out today on the wire announcing that EA had signed an agreement with a Taiwanese company called GigaMedia to distribute Warhammer Online in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. According to the terms of the agreement, GigaMedia will be responsible for the advertising, community management, customer service, and technical support for those areas. Doing some cursory research on the company on the 'net, it seems like GigaMedia has really cut their teeth on more casual game distribution efforts, their biggest property being FunTown, the world's largest MahJong platform. They appear to be getting more serious about their game development and distribution efforts however, and initiated a relationship with EA last year by agreeing to release, of all games, NBA Street Online.What will really be interesting now that they've secured release efforts in the surrounding areas, is what approach EA will take to get Warhammer Online introduced onto the Chinese mainland. A week ago today we reported on a new policy of the Chinese government that would allow any domestic game publisher to effectively block the release of a foreign MMO by referring it to China's censorship board indefinitely. With that policy in place, are Chinese MMO companies going to allow the release of a game owned by one of the most prolific American game publishers in the world? You have to imagine EA is hard at work on it, given the size of the potential market there, but only time will tell.
Building a better MMOusetrap: The age old debate
Is there room in the genre for things that don't fit in the normal schema of MMO games? There have often been problems plaguing Sci-Fi style MMOs throughout the years, be it the fact that they are too vast, or can't live up to the IP that they are built on, allowing the fantasy genre to reign supreme (with exceptions to the rule of course). For the most part players seem to 'get' the games built around fantasy easier, with the play style just making a lot more sense. I know from the players I have spoken to, it's just easier for them to run around and hit things with swords, than to be flying around in star fighters and raiding entire planets. It begs to question if that will always be the case, and certainly looking at the line up for big MMOs over the next year it certainly looks that way. With FunCom's Age of Conan, and EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, both fit into that fantasy style, and work alongside games like LotRO and WoW with a metric buttload of back-story and lore (though obviously LotRO takes the cake on that aspect.)What is it that causes this then? Is it the lore, or the swords, or perhaps the fact that fantasy is just more interesting to people than science fiction? Let's try to break it down...
Rumor: Warhammer Online collector's edition details leaked?
Via TenTonHammer comes the word that the onlne store spelbutiken.se may have leaked details of Warhammer Online's collector's edition. If we can believe the web page, the box contains most of the usual fixins for a special MMO kit: a mousepad, a manual, an art book. But this one sounds like it contains a lot more. There's going to be a graphic novel included, possibly repackaging the first few issues of the 'Forge of War' Warhammer comic book. There's also going to be an exclusive figure for use in the Warhammer tabletop game.The in-game assets, though, sound most intriguing. The collector's edition also purports to offer 12 exclusive quests and 12 exclusive character heads, as well a special player title. Each army gets two quests and (presumably) two heads. Each quest, further, offers a unique reward - perhaps not obtainable via any other means?If this page is accurate, this might be some of the most unique content available to players (for a price) at launch yet. The pre-order swords given out by the developers of Pirates of the Burning Sea raised a few eyebrows, certainly. This content seems more akin to the 'Adventure Packs' sold by Sony Online in the months after EverQuest II originally launched. What do you think of the offering? Are exclusive quests juicy enough to get you to spend big bucks on a nice box?[Via TTH]
Another Warhammer Online beta shutdown unlikely
In the latest in Warcry's endless series of stunted and random interviews with the Warhammer Online team, they actually asked a question of substance that many players, myself included, have been wondering about for some time now. Specifically, the EA Mythic team rates their two-month beta timeout as an "overwhelming success," saying that it gave the development team an opportunity to step up and deliver on the all the changes that had been prompted by the previous phase of the beta. And perhaps most importantly, they rated the likelihood of another beta closure before the commercial release as unlikely, though they didn't make any promises. Barring a delay of final launch date, it's hard to foresee a reason why they would need to, but it's nice to see those comments on the table finally. They also commented briefly on the Blood Dark Elf Disciples of Khaine and the in-game benefits afforded by the city siege mechanic. We understand why both Warcry and EA Mythic would want to parse out content like this over time to keep readers interested in a game and coming back for more, but you're seriously going to put up an interview with four questions? Really? You asked all you had to ask in four questions? If it's going to be that way...
WHA tellz you grots bout da' WAAAGH!
One of the aspects about Warhammer Online's Greenskins that seems to endear them to players so much is that they present the opportunity to write in a hackneyed and entirely ungrammatically stunted form of english. Wut iz dees humies lookin' at dem shiny bits for? See, I slipped into character there. I bet you thought I was an Orc for a second. It's OK, you don't have to feel bad, I'm a pretty good actor.For those not already well steeped in the Warhammer lore via the tabletop game and pen and paper RPG, the folks over at Warhammer Alliance have been going faction by faction putting up guides to the various races. By some strange fortune, we somehow missed the fact that they had posted a "Guide to the Waaagh" last week, replete with biological information, sociological observations, and of course a gracious dose of Orc-speak. It's a short run-down, but well worth soaking up for anybody at all interested in fielding a Black Orc or Shaman into battle in Q2 of this year.Of course, if you really want to get serious about things, you should probably pick up the Orcs & Goblins Army book or bookmark the Warhammer Wiki for perusal at work.
How PvE and Warhammer Online get along
There's a preview/interview over at CVG concerning Warhammer Online. Now, the preview itself is a bit gushing, but then again we can't blame anyone for feeling excited about what EA Mythic is trying to do with WAR. Specifically, what the preview covers is how EA Mythic plans to coerce players who are typically PvE-only into giving PvP and even RvR (or Realm vs Realm, Mythic's own brand of PvP) a chance.It all really comes down to quests, but Public Quests (PQs) specifically and how they function. While leveling along in any given zone, there are several public quests that are related to regular quests in the surrounding area. The concept is to create plenty of social ties over the course of a player's 40 levels which will end up with players forming more groups and even more guilds. Those groups and guilds will be able to affect the RvR landscape more than anything else and thus you have your endgame experience. It's a pretty simple sounding concept, but we're fairly certain that it's a lot more complicated than it looks -- or hopefully than it feels when we all get to finally play Warhammer Online.[via MMOWatch]
Building a better MMOusetrap: To topple the King!
Can WoW be killed? This is the question on the tongues of my WoW playing friends since the announcement of FunCom's upcoming title Age of Conan has been pushed back another 8 weeks. Some think it's to polish it just that extra little bit, so that they can come out of the gates running, but honesty I think they just want to make sure they are putting out as high a quality game as possible. Really this idea of a WoW Killer, has been going around for a long time, and frankly I think the whole idea is a bit silly. Like my compatriot Kevin Stallard states on a recent edition of 'Ask Massively', there are games like Ultima Online that have been plugging strong for over a decade now, without any real notion of stopping soon.Certainly over the years MMO's have risen and fallen from the top spot, it started off with UO holding the torch, then moved along to EQ and pretty much since it's launch WoW has held fast and continued to gain popularity. And with ActiBlizzard's recent announcement that the World of Warcraft has just broken the 10 Million subscriber mark, it's unlikely we're going to see them toppled any time soon. To take a moment and put those numbers into perspective, 10 million subscribers would be like if every man, woman and child in Belgium did nothing but play WoW all the time. I know I'd certainly take the next flight out to Bruges, and settle in next to the Muscles from Brussels playing my Shaman for the good of mother Belgium!But really, I don't think that there is any risk of a WoW killer, not because I don't think that AoC and EA Mythic's Warhammer Online aren't going to be 'as good' or even be able to compete against WoW, but because frankly I don't think it matters. From what I've seen so far from both of these titles, neither one is trying to be a WoW clone, and I think that's the rub right there. Nothing is going to "beat" WoW, just like nothing beat UO or EQ, they simply lost subscribers to the new evolution of the genre. There are still a great deal of people who play the older titles, things like FFXI, UO, EQ, and so on, but most MMO gamers aren't tied to a single title. I bet you that of those 10 million WoW subscribers at least 30% play at least one other title, and most of them have probably taken part in at least one beta test for another game.
Warhammer dev chat next week
Warhammer Online, which is probably (as is often claimed) the most anticipated MMO of 2008, will be having a developer chat next Wednesday, January 30th, at 8pm EST at Warcry. Details about this game are still a bit thinner than I would like, so any information we can get on it is nice to have. To connect, join #WarCouncil on irc.chatspike.net:6667 (#warcry for discussion), or use one of the web clients available on Warcry's page.Personally, I'm not that interested in the game, since it seems quite PvP (sorry, RvR) heavy, and I'm more of a PvE guy. It is, however, still the strongest competition I can see on the horizon for WoW, at least until Blizzard announces their own "next-gen MMO" that they keep trying to hire folks for.
