ZAM Returns to Warhammer Online: Part 1

In anticipation of the MMO's two-year anniversary this fall, ZAM is returning to WAR to cover the substantial changes and new features added since early 2009

Despite an exciting launch in September 2008, with a respectable number of players, Warhammer Online's subscriber base took a substantial hit just two months later, when Wrath of the Lich King dropped in November. An abundance of gameplay bugs, balance problems and client issues didn't help WAR's hemorrhaging player base either, as we noted in an editorial last summer. However, a lot has changed since the MMO's launch in 2008; new classes and content were added, bugs were squashed and entire game systems were revamped. Last year's Land of the Dead content update helped retain many of WAR's already-devoted players, while Mythic's free-to-play "Endless Trial" system is attracting more new players every day.

In anticipation of the MMO's two-year anniversary this fall—as well as the substantial changes and new features added since launch—ZAM is returning to WAR! This new feature series examines WAR from the perspective of players who left the game in early 2009, like many original subscribers (either to explore Northrend in Wrath or because they weren't satisfied with WAR's early development). In this first installment of our "Return to War" series, we offer our initial impressions of the new features and gameplay changes. During the next few months, ZAM will dig deeper and explore certain aspects of today's WAR (solo/group PvE, open RvR, Scenarios, City Sieges) in more detail, including the occasional interview with Mythic's game producers. Continue reading the first part of our "Return to War" series after the jump, and leave your comments or questions for future installments—including our Q&As with Mythic—in the dedicated Return To War forum thread.

Many of us at ZAM are big fans of Games Workshop's Warhammer franchise, which spans multiple platforms, from tabletop miniatures to desktop video gaming. Today's "next big thing" is the recently-announced Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online MMO from Virgil Games and THQ, which garnered huge attention this summer at E3. But in early 2008, a similar crowd of gaming fans eagerly awaited Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the first MMO based on the Warhammer Fantasy franchise. Developers at Mythic Entertainment (Dark Age of Camelot, Ultima Online) hyped an innovative design that would launch PvP to a whole new level in modern MMO gaming, while providing a unique and accessible PvE experience via "Public Quests" and other features.

To some extent, WAR succeeded in its quest to "break the mold" when the market was overrun by World of Warcraft clones and dozens of uninspired, free-to-play MMOs. Beyond WAR's slick graphics and well-established lore, Mythic developed a robust Realm vs. Realm (RvR) system—built upon the foundation of its earlier Dark Age of Camelot—that rewards players as much, if not more, than typical PvE gameplay. One of WAR's earliest selling points was the concept that players could level up their characters all the way to max rank purely via RvR combat. Catering to both solo-and group-oriented players, WAR strove to be the best MMO in its class for PvP gameplay.

Unfortunately, most early players never had the chance to experience the full potential of WAR's ambitious RvR; instanced "Scenarios" and open RvR were inherently flawed due to faction imbalances and low-population servers. The basic "combat and careers" system was often bug-ridden and ridiculously lop-sided, while game client instability during large battles frustrated players even more.

Many of the server-related problems worsened as more players left the game, because WAR is an MMO that thrives in a player-rich environment. That's why one of the most important things we noticed when we returned to WAR earlier this month was the reduction in the number of North American servers. Mythic spent the past year merging servers, one group after another, whittling them down to just four in all: Badlands, Gorfang, Iron Rock and Volkmar (we've also heard rumors that another merge or free character transfer is on the way).

The fact that WAR is cropped down to just four servers doesn't bode well for its public image, but now that Mythic is more concerned with player retention than saving face, the problems stemming from low-population and imbalanced servers aren't nearly as severe as they were last year. In fact, it's never been easier for new players to find around-the-clock RvR action since Mythic launched its "Endless Trial" system, which essentially converted Ranks 1 to 10—or "Tier 1"—into a free-to-play MMO. (To learn more, read our "Tour of WAR's New User Journey, Endless Trial" published late last year.)

Returning players of all ranks should notice a vast improvement in Scenario queue times, as well as open RvR activity, such as Keep Sieges, Battlefield Objectives and even City Sieges. However, because the majority of active players are Tier 1 and Tier 4, there's still a bit of progression disparity from ranks 11 to 31. On any given day and time, we usually had no problem finding open RvR and short Scenario queues in Tiers 1 and 4. Activity waned a bit in Tier 2, especially on low-population servers. We had the most difficulty in Tier 3; unless you're on the high-population Badlands server, it's tough to find open RvR and Scenario activity during non-peak hours, depending on your faction.

Fortunately this "inverted bell curve" of player ranks doesn't pose as much of a problem as it would have in the early days of WAR, before we had access to all the new tools and features introduced throughout the past year. All Scenarios are available to every Tier now, while the least-popular were removed from the pool. In addition to PvE reward currency, Mythic introduced a new "Scenario currency" in February's patch 1.3.4; these tokens can be earned as early as Rank 1 and are used to buy rare and epic gear, potions and talismans.

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The Hammer broke at the head.
# Jan 23 2012 at 5:23 AM Rating: Decent
This article pretty much nailed it with Hammer. The concept, and game play was awesome when it first was released. But, as mentioned, the servers were lopsided. Populations of Good Vs. Bad was OVERWHELMING one sided. Plenty of bugs (but not as bad as "Conan"). The game did take a HUGE, and dramatic downturn on player population after the WoW expansion, and for the simple fact that people just got tired of the B.S. in the game from 40-1 RvR battles, coupled with unbalanced characters.

Do I think this game will EVER reclaim it's once possible glory? NOPE... It's to little, to late. Most games(now a days) around this time start going F2P(Free to Play). But Warhammer is holding out and only doing Tier1 F2P instead of doing like others and going FULL F2P with subscriber bonus's and extra's to buy.

What does this do? This gives the unknowing new player sense that the game is LOADED with people. When in fact, it's not. Once they pay for a subscription and move on to Tier 2. They will find a bleak, and bland, world void of people. Not able to return to Tier 1... they would either have to start a new character, or keep trying to make it to Tier 4 and hope there are people there.

But once again upon entering Tier 4 you run into problems again. Your weak, they are WAY ahead of you. Players will find themselves SEVERLY tormented by higher players until they themselves reach max level.

Overall.. I feel this game needs to go full F2P or else it will surely perish.

they just cant get gamecards out?!
# Jan 03 2012 at 4:52 AM Rating: Decent
look guys the game was the 1st game i was actualy intrested (have played almost every game in the net but got bored of them for having the clasic farm to death so u can craft the inba armor and sword and go pk the nooobs)
but on WAR it was diferent i was playing with alot of friends 10 ppl on the same net just to talk an have fun but when the game changed to mythic and REMOVED the gamecards for some reason witch i believe was the biggest mistake from them cause not all ppl have a credit card to play games like this or atleast they could add a paysafe to play buy gamecard time this is the main cause of the player loss i think then as they say above the gap on a 40 reknown to a 80 is huge + the gear fron the update that i heard is months of gaming time to get anyways the game has/had the best pvp in all the games that are out there that is for sure its bad that i cant play the game cause i dont have a credit card as did most of my friends too

Destraction on karag azgal since the game got out and left since no card

i played from greece and game card where so hard to find even when it was at the end of its pick years ago

Edited, Jan 3rd 2012 6:03am by pekouras
Shame... shame shame shame
# Jul 28 2011 at 7:05 AM Rating: Decent
I have played just about every major MMORPG and the ones I had the most fun in were WAR, DAOC and Legend of MIR.

I will never forget defending one of the keeps in T3, I was the first one in the scene (Archmage 100% healing) rezzing a couple of people already there and started calling for help.

First group made was all casters/ranged... I formed a WB and slowly tanks started arriving, I moved all tanks in my group for AOE heals...

After around 30 minutes into battle, both doors down, blocking ramp with tanks I noticed that I was the only healer in Order and having to work INCREDIBLY hard to keep people alive, it was around 20 of us and over 40 of Chaos... think the only other healer was a low lvl WP.

I was rezzing, healing people not in group, aoe healing tanks in group, was madness!!! never had to concentrate so hard and think so fast in a game before about priority heals, using insta's, shields, was sooo good!

Oh yeah, also their stealthers kept jumping on me trying to kill me, so I would push them away, or insta myself, etc... just staying alive.

After we finally killed all Chaos just about every single person defending that keep just kept going on about how amazing I did in that battle "EPIC HEALING KICE!" "KICE OWNS" etc... was so good :)

I think that was my proudest moment in an online game.

I never really played T4 though, lag was insane as there was too many people...everytime I reached T4 I would create a new character and start again... have to say I enjoyed every character I played, specially Witch Hunter but is such a shame it was so laggy and just not that fun in T4.. IMO.

Shame... shame shame shame
# Aug 15 2011 at 5:57 PM Rating: Decent
Xality wrote:
I have played just about every major MMORPG and the ones I had the most fun in were WAR, DAOC and Legend of MIR.

I will never forget defending one of the keeps in T3, I was the first one in the scene (Archmage 100% healing) rezzing a couple of people already there and started calling for help.

First group made was all casters/ranged... I formed a WB and slowly tanks started arriving, I moved all tanks in my group for AOE heals...

After around 30 minutes into battle, both doors down, blocking ramp with tanks I noticed that I was the only healer in Order and having to work INCREDIBLY hard to keep people alive, it was around 20 of us and over 40 of Chaos... think the only other healer was a low lvl WP.

I was rezzing, healing people not in group, aoe healing tanks in group, was madness!!! never had to concentrate so hard and think so fast in a game before about priority heals, using insta's, shields, was sooo good!

Oh yeah, also their stealthers kept jumping on me trying to kill me, so I would push them away, or insta myself, etc... just staying alive.

After we finally killed all Chaos just about every single person defending that keep just kept going on about how amazing I did in that battle "EPIC HEALING KICE!" "KICE OWNS" etc... was so good :)

I think that was my proudest moment in an online game.

I never really played T4 though, lag was insane as there was too many people...everytime I reached T4 I would create a new character and start again... have to say I enjoyed every character I played, specially Witch Hunter but is such a shame it was so laggy and just not that fun in T4.. IMO.



Xality wrote:
I have played just about every major MMORPG and the ones I had the most fun in were WAR, DAOC and Legend of MIR.

I will never forget defending one of the keeps in T3, I was the first one in the scene (Archmage 100% healing) rezzing a couple of people already there and started calling for help.

First group made was all casters/ranged... I formed a WB and slowly tanks started arriving, I moved all tanks in my group for AOE heals...

After around 30 minutes into battle, both doors down, blocking ramp with tanks I noticed that I was the only healer in Order and having to work INCREDIBLY hard to keep people alive, it was around 20 of us and over 40 of Chaos... think the only other healer was a low lvl WP.

I was rezzing, healing people not in group, aoe healing tanks in group, was madness!!! never had to concentrate so hard and think so fast in a game before about priority heals, using insta's, shields, was sooo good!

Oh yeah, also their stealthers kept jumping on me trying to kill me, so I would push them away, or insta myself, etc... just staying alive.

After we finally killed all Chaos just about every single person defending that keep just kept going on about how amazing I did in that battle "EPIC HEALING KICE!" "KICE OWNS" etc... was so good :)

I think that was my proudest moment in an online game.

I never really played T4 though, lag was insane as there was too many people...everytime I reached T4 I would create a new character and start again... have to say I enjoyed every character I played, specially Witch Hunter but is such a shame it was so laggy and just not that fun in T4.. IMO.



Xality wrote:
I have played just about every major MMORPG and the ones I had the most fun in were WAR, DAOC and Legend of MIR.

I will never forget defending one of the keeps in T3, I was the first one in the scene (Archmage 100% healing) rezzing a couple of people already there and started calling for help.

First group made was all casters/ranged... I formed a WB and slowly tanks started arriving, I moved all tanks in my group for AOE heals...

After around 30 minutes into battle, both doors down, blocking ramp with tanks I noticed that I was the only healer in Order and having to work INCREDIBLY hard to keep people alive, it was around 20 of us and over 40 of Chaos... think the only other healer was a low lvl WP.

I was rezzing, healing people not in group, aoe healing tanks in group, was madness!!! never had to concentrate so hard and think so fast in a game before about priority heals, using insta's, shields, was sooo good!

Oh yeah, also their stealthers kept jumping on me trying to kill me, so I would push them away, or insta myself, etc... just staying alive.

After we finally killed all Chaos just about every single person defending that keep just kept going on about how amazing I did in that battle "EPIC HEALING KICE!" "KICE OWNS" etc... was so good :)

I think that was my proudest moment in an online game.

I never really played T4 though, lag was insane as there was too many people...everytime I reached T4 I would create a new character and start again... have to say I enjoyed every character I played, specially Witch Hunter but is such a shame it was so laggy and just not that fun in T4.. IMO.




i to have played EVERYSINGLE mmorpg to come out in the last 10 years or so. never managed to play one for longer than 2months.

except Legend of mir 2, which i STILL play now after 10 years, games have got worse, there's no economy, no rivalary, no nothing, NO SKLL INVOLVED what so ever, anyone who talks about "skill" on a game like WOW/WAR/AION/RIFT needs to sort there life out, as there's no skill involved, just gear/class setup, what happened to the good old games?, wished they'd stop creating the same crap with better graphics... some sort of DAOC/EVE/LOM2 online mixed, would be so epic i'd ***** my pants and quit my job, but they just bring out crappy auto-targeted instanced'd wow's with updated graphics, and different skill names, and call it new.

The most telling thing....
# Jul 25 2011 at 2:42 PM Rating: Decent
The most telling and darkly humorous thing is that with all the people claiming (denying?) that WAR is dead - this article is still the newest article on the official WAR website. And it's from 9/1/2010, and it's nearly a year later.

The game is dead, Mythic failed in epic fashion... they reached for the stars, and failed to even take off. It happens.

For all the grandstanding people did about "WOW IS DYING, ITS BLEEDING PLAYERS" ... it's still there, and WAR is not. Let this be a lesson to all, and hopefully Mythic finally learned something and didn't ruin Bioware's efforts on The Old Republic, or that'll be the biggest tragedy.
The most telling thing....
# Oct 21 2011 at 1:17 PM Rating: Decent
Uh, correct me if im wrong, but you can log in and play, and actually have damn near 0 queue for BGs in WAR. Id say to make the assumption that because the ZAM community is dead the game must be is kinda asinine. But hey, stupid is as stupid does.

To be honest, all the proof you need is that Wow, the "Mother of the genre" (UO is God the Father imo..lol) has gone to a free to play format. And is behind the learning curve with that format, btw. They'll learn and eventually end up with some form along the lines of pay for content but limitless level acess.... Like all of the currently GROWING MMOs are doing now.

The way Blizz counts its player base can be misleading. Just log into any 10 different servers and go check out all the areas that a year or so ago were so packed you couldnt move.... Most are empty, and the main faction gathering point for each side has a couple dozen ppl around now, at the most. Those who find more do so only because they've intentioally chosen to let themself be hearded to more populated servers.

I play Wow, pop into WAR, GW, DDO, LOTRO, AoC.. and many others all when i feel like it. Wow has become a sh*thole of *** holes, sh*tty worthless players, freely, ever bloating gear stats, and long Q times for crappy teams, be it BGs, dungeons or Raids... unless you belong to a Raiding Guild, in which case you have no personal or social life.

Just calling it like it is. Wow is bleeding, just logged in to 7 of the 13 different servers i play across today and IF is empty.. not a soul for 45 minutes. SW is empty, ORg is empty. On Blizz's own forums wow players seem to admit their own love hate relationship with the game. They deride it, make fun of it. Yet still play it... So its without question that wow is bleeding players. Doesn't mean they don't come back to visit from time to time, but if you take a good hard look around at all the other MMOs available that have grown by 10x over the past 6 months, those who are left playing Wow and Wow alone are pretty sad folk.

Edited, Oct 21st 2011 3:21pm by manbeartank
free online mmorpgs
# Apr 16 2011 at 9:47 PM Rating: Decent
The overall quality of the game is simply not there. There are still huge issues left unfixed and in the end. Still waiting but the excitement wasnt there anymore :( but will always want to play it though!


Edited, Apr 18th 2011 10:12am by jetteryhibbard
mythic dead and decaying
# Mar 05 2011 at 3:07 PM Rating: Decent
i attempted to return to Warhammer Online, in fact i even paid for a whole month. Except:

although i could log in to my account with my new _EUR (due to mythic retaking europe). i could NOT log into the game client.

After leaving countless emails, and waiting days on the phones with no help whatsoever i eventually got an email reply "we can do nothing, please call this number" you mean the number i called and they couldn't do anything. Fantastic.

So i wasted more money on this pitiful excuse for a game, lets face it World of Warcraft in the past 2 months have had more hotfixes in content than WAR has had ACTUAL content. Compared to expansions and content from Age of Conan, even the new Startrek MMO. WAR is just dwindling at the near edge of oblivion.

They can't even tell me why i can log in and spend money but can't log into the client.


pathetic. Don't know why Games Workshop gave them the rights. Luckily Dark Millenium will do what has never been so broken.

Warhammer online is dead. Whatever they're doing now beggers belief. just get rid of it.

/golfclaps. die a death mythic and don't come back.
2 Main things that bugged me
# Oct 12 2010 at 7:02 AM Rating: Decent
Now let me get something clear before I state my points and let the insults roll in.

I am NOT a PVP player. I suck at it, I am beaten 95% of the time. I am a casual player. So at this point I understand that this is mainly designed around.

The reason I was on at day one was because I LOVE the lore, I have played different forms of these games since 1993.

I created a Magus on the Chaos and I HATED that your pet or Minion did not follow you around. It was almost like an attack and then you would have to unsummon him to move to the next enemy.

Another thing was the respawn rates on alot of the quests. It seemed like the respawn rate was 30 seconds or slightly less.

I know this will probably be laughed at but hey, I'm just one person and because of those 2 things alone I went back to WoW.

Does anyone know if any of this has been changed or why these aspects were put in place.

Thank You
hmm
# Oct 06 2010 at 4:16 PM Rating: Decent
Is the grind any better? I remember never being able to find anyone to group with on Public Quest hence my leveling was slow. I don't want to grind I get that from other games already.
hmm
# Oct 09 2010 at 5:36 PM Rating: Good
29 posts
Autopsia wrote:
Is the grind any better? I remember never being able to find anyone to group with on Public Quest hence my leveling was slow. I don't want to grind I get that from other games already.


I remember that being a problem as well when the game first started. What really made me quiet though was how experience and rewards were handed out.

I played a Warrior Priest and no matter how much I contributed to RvR, no matter how many people I kept alive at the cost of my own life I ended up getting the short end of the stick in terms of renown and rewards once keeps were taken, etc. I didn't really care for any of the other classes so I kept playing a WP and maybe that added to my frustration as during RvR I stood out and healers are always prime targets. Scenarios were no better on this front.

Going back to PvE and public quest weren't really an option due to people simply not doing them. I was rare to get a group going for them. I doubt this has changed to be honest. A shame as I really like the Warhammer setting and while I can deal with the faction setup being a the mercy of other players without any real pay off for the my time and actions made it frustrating and boring to play.
WAR
# Oct 03 2010 at 12:26 PM Rating: Decent
gastranomick, my story is similar to yours. Early in 2009, after all my friends left and my servers died, I quit WAR. Since then I've jumped from AoC to LOTRO to Guild Wars, AION and FFXIV and WoW. And while each game has it's own cool and unique traits nothing really interested me as much as WAR did.
I agree on your comments about leveling too. It was never a chore in WAR. The levels just came as I PvP'd and PQ'd my way through the day. On one of my toons I leveled entirely through PvP (Scenario's and ORvR) and had a blast doing it. Sadly though that was when the population started to drop so it became tougher and tougher to do.
I'll also never forget how much fun it was to defend or attack a fort. Definitely some of the most fun times I've had in any MMO.

Sathlia is on the mark with how WoW felt last time I played.

Here's hoping GW2 or another MMO fills that Gap.

return to war - not yet
# Oct 01 2010 at 3:26 PM Rating: Decent
One of the biggest issues I had in my "return to war" was the huge disparity between the character strength of long time veterans, and someone returning with low-middle RR. There were easily times that seemed characters were being 2 hit and dead by High RR/well geared players.

This is a game that said during development it would be a skill based, not item based game. Its clearly item based now, high RR unlocking stats and items that outstrip any newcomer, making it a horrid grind of deaths to try to catch up.

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be an advantage to high RR with better abilities and gear. I'm saying the advantage is too big currently, and demoralizing to all but the most stubborn new players, or those coming back. Even with a decent RR and gear coming back that gap is just too much. That isn't a good game or business model.

Along those same lines there really needs to be another split between Tier 3 and Tier 4. Players are thrust to T4 at 32, making the above disparity even greater. Characters 32-39 have no business being in end game RvR against level 40 RR 60-80 players.
Awesome!
# Sep 15 2010 at 12:49 PM Rating: Decent
When War first came out I jumped all over it; like many, i too was anticipating it's launch. However, like all the rest, i quit at the launch of WotLK. I didn't really like the bugginess of WAR when it first came out, but i was ready to look past it. The reason i didn't come back was because i forgot about it. I was to involved with WoW and all the changes. It was more exciting to see how a game i played for years has changed than a new game. So after a while of playing wow in LK i realized how badly the game had changed. And thats when i remembered WAR. I went back but stopped again only after a month because of the release of new games. Aion, AoC... But i always ended up going back to WAR.

No matter the flaws the game had and has, i still found it to be the most fun. Everything about that game was like it was made especially for me and my play style. The hardcore depth of PvP with a little PvE on the side almost like an after thought is how i always play MMOs. WAR had everything i wanted. Leveling actually wasn't even a problem. In every game i level while hating it the entire time. Many games i don't make it to the max level because as i am leveling i realize what the end game looks like. Aion for instance: I made it to level 32 before i quit. I had no desire to play when i found out that i was not going to like the end game. Same with AoC.

But in WAR i didn't even think about leveling. I just ran about killing people. Levels didn't even matter because i was already PvP'ing. Level seemed more to me as pvp progression. The more i pvp'd the more i would progress into more complex PvP (higher levels with more spells and bigger keeps etc).

I made it to 40 and tasted city sieges for the first time and instantly forgot about any other game i ever played. It was the pure essence of PvP fun. Endless battles and endless killing, little to no down time in between fighting.

I didn't care about guilds, and dungeons, or gear even. I didn't care about class balance, or my abilities power. It was just fun to run in a huge group and start attacking. I didn't care about my single influence on the battle since it was a group effort. If 'WE' won then i won. I may have been near useless in damage or healing but we still won and thats all that mattered.

However great the game is, it is not fun when you play alone. After my friends stopped playing i lost interest. It was like a domino effect. When you have people you know to play with, the game becomes that much more entertaining, but after my last friend stopped playing i too quit the next week.

I would love to play this game again. And i know i can just renew my account and play, but it's not the same w/o your friends. It is such a group orientated game that you prefer that group to be people you know.

I know the game has gotten a lot of bad rep but you just need to look at the only thing that matters. The fun factor. The perfect example would be myself. I played a shadow warrior at launch. I absolutely loved playing that class. It was awesome! Eventually i found out first hand how bad they were. Straight up trash compared to so many others. But, it was fun. And regardless of how useless i was, I still played. Simply playing the game was enough to hold my interest.

The entire time i played wow, i never had that. Never in any other game i have ever played. I loved AoC story line because it was like watching a movie or reading a book, but its not enough to keep my playing. I liked the clean polished game play of aion and the serene settings and interesting combat system, but it's not enough to keep me.

WoW is the only game i continue to play because i'm not playing WAR.

The last time i had that much fun playing WAR, was when i played UO. Regardless of the servers and how bad they might have been, the game was so fun that every server was at least great.

What does WoW have that keeps me playing? The only thing is time. I've played it for so long that i can play it well. Because i can play it well, i do well. I'm good at pvp and raiding. I can defeat the content and earn bragging rights which provides a decent amount of entertainment. WoW is fun to me because i'm good at it. Unlike WAR (which i sucked big time) it was still enthralling.

If only one of my friends starts to play WAR, then i will too. In a heart beat. Drop my wow account on its head and get back to the real PvP of WAR.
Awesome!
# Apr 30 2011 at 1:45 PM Rating: Decent
my story is the same as yours. I just returned to WAR a few days ago.. there is almost no people, it makes me sad; to see that a game with so much potential could end up closing servers and loosing players. But i keep fighting. I know my subscription isn't enough to keep the game up and running, but i will still do my part. Hopefully if enough people return, they'll get enough money and enough motivation to try and fix this game.

If anybody wants to join me in the desperate battle to save this game, I'l be on my Choppa: Gozurbingy on Karak-norn and/or my Witchhunter: Jistillian on Karak-Azgal.





More Blood For The Blood God!

WAAAAGH!
Awesome!
# Sep 18 2010 at 12:36 AM Rating: Decent
Thats a mouthful, but I am very confident that your experiance mirrors many people. As for me, I have lived a large part of your story.

It's a shame that you are Order scum, but come to Iron Rock anytime we could use some more Destruction and it IS the cooler and FAR more powerful side. Groups in T4 are very easy and readly available with the open party option. (except for early morning weekdays EDT)

Good luck
DaBiggest
Awesome!
# Sep 19 2010 at 8:29 PM Rating: Decent
Well i started as a shadow warrior. But because my friends wanted to play the evil-doers i switched. I then fell in love with my Black Guard. I loved playing that class. I forget what server he's on now. him and my Zealot.
PVP'ers come.....and go
# Sep 13 2010 at 12:26 AM Rating: Decent
War saught to bring players great pvp, plain and simple. Although the pvp is exciting it lacks a lateral end game. As a player who enjoyed making $$$ in Warhammer and pvp'ing on the side when i tried to delve into end-game pvp i got squashed. Although i have enough money to buy the best weps 5 times over the RVR armour and weps far overshadow the spoils of a "non" hardcore gamer. Some people have jobs (>ME :)<) and love war and want to be competetive but the renown grind simply ruins the experience. With no seeming rewards for outstand pvp working as hard as i need to get to that point just isn't worth it. So i left. I would love to enjoy the game again, if somehow lv80RR wasn't like walking on water. Let the R roll out and the endgame shine and you get your playerbase back. All the improvement LOTD to name one are awesome, just needs that extra MMph. Cheers.
PVP'ers come.....and go
# Sep 13 2010 at 1:48 AM Rating: Decent
Mapleseed wrote:
War saught to bring players great pvp, plain and simple. Although the pvp is exciting it lacks a lateral end game. As a player who enjoyed making $$$ in Warhammer and pvp'ing on the side when i tried to delve into end-game pvp i got squashed. Although i have enough money to buy the best weps 5 times over the RVR armour and weps far overshadow the spoils of a "non" hardcore gamer. Some people have jobs (>ME :)<) and love war and want to be competetive but the renown grind simply ruins the experience. With no seeming rewards for outstand pvp working as hard as i need to get to that point just isn't worth it. So i left. I would love to enjoy the game again, if somehow lv80RR wasn't like walking on water. Let the R roll out and the endgame shine and you get your playerbase back. All the improvement LOTD to name one are awesome, just needs that extra MMph. Cheers.


Agreed, and I am looking foward to the RVR pack injecting new life into the end game. =)

Bad **** Orc- DaBiggest
Server- Iron Rock
Guild- Gaming Warriors
Enough already!
# Sep 12 2010 at 2:16 AM Rating: Decent
The title says it all, this game was intended from the VERY beginning to be a RVR (pvp) based game. Try searching for Paul Barnett in youtube and watch the videos. He makes it clear that if all you want to do is sit back and be a carebear then Warhammer is not the game for you.

About the cities, yes it was a bummer that they only put in two but have you guys seen WOW's cities, ALL but a very select few are populated so that is non issue. I played it for years and Orgrimmar with a little undercity was the only populated cities,(Horde) then BC came out and Shat was the MAIN city, then Wrath came out and Shat was deserted. Deal with it!

Another thing, if the game sucks SO much then why waste time complaining about it? They offer a free trial, so let people make up their own minds. Too many WOW lovers bashing anything NOT WOW. And BTW, you people have benifitted from WAR because of WOW taking (and messing up) many parts of WAR. Their fort assault was a JOKE and I am not trying to be funny it is very lame. How about the marks on the map to make it easy to see where you have to go on quests or the stupid guild system WOW put in.

War is a killer RVR game, nothing like 2 years ago, but nobody talks about WOWs first two years. (really bad)

So yes, Mythic messed up and I for one watched my guild go from the largest and most active on Iron Rock to just a handful in 6 months with people leaving the game but try it now and who knows you may have fun and it will not cost you anything.

If you look for perfection, find it in yourself first.

Bad **** Orc- DaBiggest
Server- Iron Rock
Guild- Gaming Warriors

Edit- I referenced WOW because it is the most popular and most vocal bashers. Sorry if I offended and you are a Ion lover bashing person, as Paul Barnett says, "Go away, this is not the game for you"

Edit for reference- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwJGcqjU6s&feature=related

Edited, Sep 12th 2010 4:45am by DaBiggest
One year later
# Sep 10 2010 at 7:09 AM Rating: Good
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36,443 posts
The editorial this article mentions was written in 2009 (a year ago), but I honest to god thought it was written not more than a couple of months ago. So many of the issues it mentions are still prominent in Warhammer Online, and it doesn't seem like Mythic wants to invest any funds or time into fixing them.

Once the developers stop caring for a game, it's dead. This happened two years ago for Warhammer Online. It's just a tough sumbitch to kill.
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Dig deeper
# Sep 07 2010 at 7:32 AM Rating: Decent
Noone is arguing that some parts in WAR have gotten better. The game would have shut down if not. But there are many diffrent ways of fixing things. Mythic fixed most things by REMOVING them. Fortresses are gone - RVR final battle for the RVR is a scenario (multiple ones). So.. fighting in multiple duplicated city maps instead of one big one kinda tells alot about the huge issues that the game engine has. And Mythic simply can not solve theese issues. They have given up and are creating 24 man scenarios instead.

But to the important part here. I think the creator of this article will eventually come to the same conclution as most gamers have. And that is "Im not paying for this". The overall quality of the game is simply not there. There are still huge issues left unfixed and in the end - its ONLY pvp (+ some very badly designed and buggy PVE) so long term enjoyment dies down fast by most of the gamers.

You simply have to ask yourself this... should a game that only delivers 35% of a game be charging the same sub amount - compared to those games that offer both PVP and PVE + more quality and less bugs?

The answer is simple - and its one that most gamers agree with.

WARHAMMER ONLINE is not worth the sub for long term gameplay.
Dig deeper
# Sep 12 2010 at 6:15 PM Rating: Decent
"The overall quality of the game is simply not there. There are still huge issues left unfixed and in the end - its ONLY pvp (+ some very badly designed and buggy PVE) so long term enjoyment dies down fast by most of the gamers."

Really? How much time have you invested into Warhammer Online, and be serious. It is the most in depth game I have played since the original EverQuest. The RvR is so deep I can easily write a 20 paragraph article on the RvR ALONE, not including other aspects of the game.

And about the PvE. It's not bad. It's actually pretty decent, and it's a hell of a lot better than the PvE in WoW. At this present time WoW doesn't have a whole lot going for it. The dungeon finder was a big blow to the game. Yes, there needed to be a system implemented to make it easier to find groups, but the dungeon finger was the wrong system to implement. Gone are the days of traversing through the Eastern Plaguelands to get to Stratholme. Gone are the days of traversing through the Western Plaguelands to get to Scholomance. Gone are the days of having a reason to travel the world. Now you spend the time you need to spend to get to level 80, and once you do reach level 80 there's never a reason to leave Dalaran. As an example, I haven't actually "left" Dalaran on my level 80 warrior since I hit level 80. If I want to do a dungeon, just queue in the dungeon finder and in no more than 5 seconds I have a pop to zone into a dungeon. I just teleport straight out of Dalaran into whatever dungeon pop for me. If I want to PvP, the same thing. Just wait for my pop and I'm there! Once I'm done, I just teleport back to the city. What's the point of this huge, detailed, immersive world when there's no reason to go out in it? They might as well remove everything from the game but dungeons and battlegrounds, because that's all you see anymore. This was the killer for WoW for me. I remember guildies asking me if I wanted to do Scholomance. Well sure I'd say. I'd go to the Western Plaguelands and I'd make my way to the dungeon. Now I'm sitting in Dalaran and someone asks me if I want to do Halls of Reflection. Well, sure I say. I just get teleported straight from Dalaran into HoR. Yep, that's really immersive...

A lot of people don't want to admit it, but WoW is dying, and it's dying rapidly. A lot of the original WoW players are not there anymore. They've all left because of what Blizzard is doing to the game. Most of the population is people who just started playing a year or so ago, not the ones who have been playing since beta or launch. And Blizzard, quit factoring in duplicate accounts into your subscription numbers. Anyone with half a brain knows 11 million unique people do not play WoW. I'd be willing to be that WoW struggles to hit 3 million unique subscriptions right now.
you missed a few things
# Sep 05 2010 at 6:32 PM Rating: Decent
If you look at war-europe.com, it looks like they closed all european servers. I used to be an european player.

I'm convinced merges were part of the problem, not the solution. My first server had balance issues, yes. But we, the players, were getting close to solving them. Destro outnumbered us, but we had well organised warbands with voice chat communication between the leaders and between each warband leader and his warband members. Good enough to stand up against the zerg zerg zerg tactics the destro had at that point. Then we got merged and it all fell apart. The server we merged to had strong order. So all the voice communication and teamwork got replaced by zerg zerg zerg while the destro there suddenly found themselves even more outnumbered and started leaving. Apparently, the destro from my server mostly merged to different server.

After a while, the now mindless zerg zerg Order got merged with another server. Suddenly destro was strong again. The mindless idiots couldnt take that, couldnt deal with having to think, couldnt deal with not being able to farm all the time like they got used to and they started leaving.

And then came merge after merge. It changed the problem, but it never solved it. To showcase how fcked up it was, at some point a french roleplaying server got merged with my english ORvR server. What the fck? What were those people supposed to do? Learn english? Become pvper's instead of roleplayers?

They played on a rpg server for fcks sake. That most likely indicates they like roleplaying. They should have improved the roleplaying possibilities. Maybe a sit command. Maybe a walk option. Whatever. Not merge them with something else.

And all in vain. Gradually, all servers except the standard thingie were merged away. No more ORvR. No roleplaying.

It's like buying a house and then discovering when you move in that they're going to build the stairway later (Choppa, Slayer, capitals) and eventually force you to stay in the kitchen all the time.

I hung on. Through the bad news, the bugs, the imbalanced pvp,... I put up with the horrible way they implemented leadership change. Did you know that if your guildleader is off for a month it transfers to the one that's been in guild the longest? Doesnt matter if the new guy's been offline longer then the guildleader himself, you're stuck with the new offline leader for month. It took three months and lots of pming CSR's to get it transferred to someone active. By then, the guild had died ofcourse. My second guild had the exact same problem a few months later but i managed to get it fixed faster now, mostly because of my earlier experience. I was elected guildleader by the active core. I tried to keep the guild together but with each merge we lost a bit more people. Each merge resulted in more guilds looking for players while there are fewer players looking for a guild.

Then the final drop. My breaking point. Eventually, they merged so much i had to either abandon the guild or delete characters. I'm an altoholic. I like have having one of every avaible race and class. I invested time and energy in each and every alt. I also had lots of time and energy invested in the guild. So i deleted all ten!!! of the conflicting alts and merged. But after that i couldnt enjoy the game anymore. The new server was as much a mess as the others and would inevitable merge again. And again. And again.

The merging destroyed alot more then it fixed. Should have launched with fewer servers. Should have waited a few months, till after the lich king release, till everything they promised the game would have was in the game. Should have handled some things differently. When people are already being overrun, who the fck comes up with the idea to let all mdps lockpick? Why did they never manage to solve the Fort lord being pulled out of his room? Why did it take them weeks to do something about people being able to take a keep with a party of six without the keep showing any sign of being under attack except when the keep lord is under attack?

The concept was good. The game was good. But they destroyed it.
you missed a few things
# Oct 28 2010 at 9:43 PM Rating: Good
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1,882 posts
They didn't remove the european servers. They simply combined them into the same server set as the American servers. This allowed Americans to play on euro servers and Europeans to play on American servers.
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
WAR
# Aug 16 2010 at 11:13 PM Rating: Decent
I have been a life long Warhammer player, (just finished a chaos/wood elves war actually) This game really disappointed me. I have kept the endless trial installed, which is fun if played as a team fortress type game.

Just didn't deliver what I was looking for. Now if SWTOR is a huge success, let Bioware make a story driven Warhammer MMO with John Blanche's art as it's inspiration, and I'll be happy :)
Worth the try
# Aug 16 2010 at 1:13 PM Rating: Decent
Great article, with so many changes added to the game me and my friends are planning to give it a try again, especially sine there's an endless trial. Can't wait to hear more on part 2
Sure, now how about that content promised at release?
# Aug 13 2010 at 7:56 PM Rating: Decent
It's glad to hear about the improvements, but still not enough to bring me back beyond the best content: the endless free trial (aka T1 scenarios). I'm also still waiting on those additional capital cities that were supposed to be opened "shortly" after release.....
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