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Road to WAR Website Launched
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Aug 04, 2008 03:20 PM
from the taking-aim-at-the-entrenched-opponents dept.
from the taking-aim-at-the-entrenched-opponents dept.
Last week Mythic launched their "Road to WAR" website, allowing users to declare their allegiance, recruit friends, gather gold for the fight, and participate in a simple battle for self, state, and realm every week. In addition to the "prestige" of being on the leaderboard, you also have the ability to win in-game items and titles for launch. Looks like they really are hitting the warpath.
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Warhammer Online Open Beta To Begin September 7th 144 comments
Mythic Entertainment has announced that the open beta for the long anticipated Warhammer Online will begin on September 7th, eleven days before the finished game goes live on September 18th. We've previously discussed WAR's delays and the content cuts involved in reaching this deadline. In the meantime, Mythic's Road to WAR website (which we talked about earlier this month) is still available. The press release notes, "Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners."
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And the site is down for maintainence (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And the site is down for maintainence (Score:4, Insightful)
or they don't want Slashdot to crash the sever.
Parent
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The days when Slashdot could bring down a big-money website are long since past. Pipes are ever fatter, but Slashdot sure isn't growing.
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Madness? This is SLASHDOT!!
War! (Score:5, Funny)
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Parent
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Personally I am fired up and eagerly awaiting the launch so I can join the WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!
The Road to War Beta is down for maintenance (Score:1)
It does seem like a good marketing strategy - to get players involved/committed prior to release. Especially for an MMO which depends on hooking as many players as possible. Hell, having the site down might even cause some even more anticipation in some sort of sick disappoint-the-customer kinda way.
I only hope it lives up to the hype. An MMO's success largely depends on customer satisfaction since it lives off of not only nu
boring (Score:5, Informative)
First, here's the actual site: http://www.road-to-war.com/ [road-to-war.com]
Next, it's down for maintenance, which I guess is temporary but not a good time for an announcement.
This is, though, a better way to promote the game than monthly emails with new information that amount to "no you're still not in the beta."
So where... (Score:1)
Are the comments decrying this post, like there always are for WoW ones?
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On a related side note, I liked reading Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point [google.com], which did an excellent job of explaining trends.
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The interested parties are probably still pretty pensive considering the previous announcements on what they had to excise from the game in order to meet their self-imposed release date.
War... (Score:2)
War, war never changes....
Whoops.. wrong game.
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If only...
...actually, I take that back. I can just imagine the horrible WoW grind-fest clone they could make out of a Fallout MMORPG.
Personally, every single time someone announces that some franchise that I really like is getting an MMORPG, I am sad. Right now we are in the "Doom clone" phase of MMORPG design. Doom was original for its time. It knocked people's socks off. Then out came thirty thousand Doom clones that add nothing except cosmetic changes and slight refinements of gameplay. MMORPG des
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Then out came thirty thousand Doom clones that add nothing except cosmetic changes and slight refinements of gameplay.
While I don't disagree with your "doom clone" tag, I do disagree with this statement. Unreal, Quake (sure, it was still made by Id), and Half-Life very much added more than slight changes and refinement to the FPS genre. Let along Counter-Strike and Team Fortress and the up-coming Left 4 Dead.
Likewise, on non PC games, Rare created Goldeneye and Perfect Dark and that lead developer went and made Time Splitters. All of which are quite similar, actually, but very fun in their own way. But no more a "doom
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Though I don't disagree that there could be more innovation and variety. Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing a modern version of shattered galaxies.
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That is only true if your game is very poorly designed. Taking WoW and then making it so that when creatures die they stay dead would be a very crappy game. I am not suggesting a WoW rip off with a silly gameplay tweak. I am talking about striking out in an entirely new direction.
There is a core gameplay in MMORPGs. The core gameplay of MMORPGs is that you kill shit, killing shit makes you stronger, you kill strong shit shit, rinse and repeat. This is the central core of an MMORPG. If the above doesn'
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Let me expand a little. There is a fundimental difference in that currently you go out and kill stuff. It never comes to you. You go over to the goblin camp, beat on it for a few hours. Stuff spawns, you beat on the stuff as it spawns in, and then leave. Further, you do silly things like kill goblins within sight of each other. You attack the goblin tribe and the tribe doesn't respond unless you practically run into them. I mean hell, the entire idea behind a "dungeon crawl" revolves around slowly m
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CS? (Score:2, Funny)
Obviously since no one thought it prudent to mention what game this post is about, it must be about CounterStrike, since those are the only people with the sort of tunnel vision to think that everyone else in the world plays the same and only game as them.
No Mac support. (Score:2)
Yawn.
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Welcome to the real world.
Would you like to play most computer games?
[Y/N]?
Y
Buy a PC?
[Y/N]?
Y
Anti-mac post on games.slashdot (Score:2)
Re-yawn.
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I'm not saying he's wrong. He's absolutely right insofar as gamers buy PCs. That's likely what the developers of WAR (and LotR, and, until recently, EVE...) are thinking as well.
But even being right, Zekasu and EA Mythic are wrong because they are answering the wrong question. The market for MMORPGs like WoW and WAR is not gamers. A quick look at the subscription numbers of WoW vs. sales figures for any other game bears this out.
A non-gamer will not go out and buy new hardware to play a game. They will, ins
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The Mac users are the low-hanging fruit in this space. Blizzard understands this and is profiting from it. Everyone else is (and, it looks, will be) playing catchup.
Not really. Everyone else just doesn't have as much capital as Blizzard for it to be economically viable for them to port their game. Macs are still a niche in the gaming market, or at most a minority compared to Windows machines. It's hard to guarantee that porting will justify the costs unless you know your market is huge (see WoW) and you already have the resources to port the games (Blizzard has been porting their games for a while). I think it would be great to see more companies port to Macs (the m
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Aussie servers (Score:3, Informative)
Good bad or ugly a lot of Aussies are going to play this just because it has servers based in Australia. Hooray! Goodbye 500ms pings!
I played Warhammer Beta... it's alright, fun even. But it's a MMORPGer and I just don't have the time for the grind any more :(
well that explains it... (Score:2)
"Plus, if having your name on the Leaderboard isn't enough incentive to win, there are plenty of valuable prizes at stake, including a Never Ending Bowl of Custard"
Those Australians and their custard.
It's just like New Zealanders and sheep.
Disgusting.
Oh, and I think four classes should be enough for anyone (F/Th/MU/Cl);)
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Blizzard's IP is based off of WARs IP, I thought everyone knew that...
Sadly, the abuse of GW IP is making WHFB fans cry... I'm talking about Mythic, not Blizzard.
And the crazy tunnel vision for a teen rating. Seriously, Khorne is weeping softly for the lack of blood in this game.
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Re:Dead site... hopefully WAR will be better (Score:5, Insightful)
Since you want to compare Warhammer Online with World of Warcraft so badly...
They are launching a fraction of the content they were intending to have. Significant content too. Its like Blizzard shipping WoW with just Stormwind and the Undercity as capital cities.
They cut four character classes and are still shipping with 20 classes. How many character classes does WoW have right now? 20 classes is a lot to ship an MMO with in the beginning. They felt that those four classes that were cut were just not up to par with their expectations, and they may never see the light.
The capital city cuts were pretty bad, but it would have been worse had they shipped with six half-assed cities. They did discuss the fact that those cut cities will be reinserted into the game and will not charge for it.
They address this information about class and city cuts here [warhammeronline.com].
People are content with WoW, especially with a new expansion releasing in 3-4 months. They don't feel like levelling up a new character in a MMO which is redone DAoC content.
Speak for yourself - not all people are content with WoW. If you read through some of the Warhammer Online forums, you'll see plenty of people who are getting sick of WoW and cannot stand the daily grind and the static classes. I am quitting WoW as soon as WAR is released. Even if WAR sucks, I'm not going back to WoW. The quests are too redundant, there is absolutely ZERO reward for exploration of the map, your in-game actions have no impact on the environment, and the classes are just too static.
If you want to be successful in dungeons and raiding, you have to follow the same path as anyone else. You almost cannot be versatile in how you play. I'm not sure how it is now in WoW as I haven't played in a few months, but at one point, if you want to be a warrior and play end-game content, you cannot be fury. BM hunters were avoided. Combat rogues were ignored. And so on. Even if you did end up in a decent group as an arcane mage or survival hunter, you couldn't contribute. There was always just one recipe to success and that was what killed the game for me.
And there are plenty of people who feel that WAR is not their cup of tea. That's perfectly fine. WAR was never intended to compete with WoW. WoW has its bright spots that WAR will never touch.
No PvE endgame in WAR. Endgame just like DAoC, a game made over five years ago.
They already discussed endgame content [massively.com] - remember, this is NOT a PvE game. End game content is there, but not completely finished. Many games do not ship out with complete end game content. WoW barely had any in the first year, and Age of Conan has a somewhat broken end-game system.
The bottom line is that you really cannot compare the two games. They seek to cater to two different groups of people - people who want an on-going raid in a realm vs. realm environment with public quests (WAR), and those that want highly polished end-game content with battlegrounds tacked on. (WoW)
Parent
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Yeah, I know I am cutting your reply to hell, and I agree with most of it but...
The quests are too redundant, there is absolutely ZERO reward for exploration of the map
They are changing this with the new expansion - titles and such.
If you want to be successful in dungeons and raiding, you have to follow the same path as anyone else. You almost cannot be versatile in how you play. I'm not sure how it is now in WoW as I haven't played in a few months, but at one point, if you want to be a warrior and play end-game content, you cannot be fury. BM hunters were avoided. Combat rogues were ignored. And so on. Even if you did end up in a decent group as an arcane mage or survival hunter, you couldn't contribute. There was always just one recipe to success and that was what killed the game for me.
This is a result of people being close-minded, not the way things actually worked. I've played a fury warrior since the inception of WoW and have done quite well the whole way through. In fact, I was upset when they made several of the changes to Fury to make it "better" In some ways it was better, but in others the change sucked. That's the nature of redesigning
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Yeah, I know I am cutting your reply to hell, and I agree with most of it but...
Hey it's perfectly fine. I'm actually interested in what other people think about the topic. And in the end, I always end up learning a thing or two. Besides, it's the whole point of a forum. Speak your mind. :)
That's a very positive sign for at least me. I know a lot of gamers like WoW as-is, and they should, it's a fine game. I just love exploring and getting the sense of finding something different every time I go out somewhere.
I wonder what
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I never felt boxed in by anything but the other players. But then I am extremely individualistic. And I eventually found a guild that welcomed me, my individuality and my tactical abilities.
No, not really (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, IMHO 20 classes are entirely too much. I don't know about WAR, but I can compare WoW to EQ2's 24 class bonanza, and actually WoW is the more fun one there.
In WoW, the classes are distinct _and_ have a decent amount of flexibility, allowing them to be more than one-trick ponies. Except in end-game raids, I guess.
By comparison, EQ2's classes are confusing _and_ 1-2 trick ponies all the time. When you spread things that thin, either you have massive overlap, or have to slice abilities too thin to keep them unique. And thus end up with linear, non-interesting classes. Or, if you're bad at it, the worst of both worlds.
E.g., did we need _two_ druid classes in EQ2? One is better at offense, but can put it's talents into becoming a good healer too. The other one starts better at healing, but ends up sucking at both. Well, I guess at least you have a choice ;)
For that matter, why do we even need the druids as yet another healer class too? At least in WoW each druid shape has its unique gamplay, and the class is a unique jack-of-all-trades. In EQ2 they sliced classes too thin, that essentially they have 6 healer classes which differ only in whether they got healing, _or_ healing-over-time, _or_ preventing damage as their primary focus. Or one flavour is actually bad at all 3. The druid's animal shapes are just minor self-buffs. (And in a typical Sony stupidity, you can have two polymorphs, like, say, be a Wolf _and_ a Lion at the same time. But let's not go there.) It just illustrates what I'm talking about. All those classes just mean that each of them gets a small, uninteresting mix of tricks, because they had to slice it too thin.
Or did it need Assassin, Swashbuckler _and_ Brigand as rogues? Wth is wrong with one class and having the Assassin, Combat and Subtlety specs as talent trees, like in WoW? And again, all that slicing classes thin, pegs you into one narrow role from start to finish. Each gets less tricks up your sleeve than a WoW Rogue, which makes for rather less interesting gameplay.
Did the mages really need to be split the hard way into single-target mages and AOE mages? WTF?
Did we really need two Bard classes, where one buffs melee types and one buffs mages? WTF?
Etc.
And worse yet, it makes you choose something from the start, when you don't even know or understand the subtle differences between them all. Which healer class suits your play style better, if you want to be a healer in EQ2? Do you even understand what you forsake by picking Warden instead of Templar, on your very first day when you bought the game? Fuck if I knew, myself.
So, basically, I'm not impressed that it has more classes. More isn't necessarily better, as I've illustrated with EQ2. Now if you were to tell me that WAR has some unique classes that can do things a WoW class never dreamt of, I'd listen and be interested. But just splitting the same abilities among more slices, doesn't make a game better.
Still sounds like a half arse launch to me, either way.
Ah, yes, that cate
Parent
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If ignorance was bliss, the majority of posters would be orgasmic. You fit right in with that crowd.
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It amazes me how much people hate WoW on this site. Why the heck would this be modded up? If you disagree, actually counter his points. How is he ignorant? He plays WoW and enjoys it. That just means he has different taste from you not that there is ignorance.
He based his entire argument that WAR has too many classes from another game. The other game isn't even CLOSE to how WAR is set up. That makes him a fucking moron trying to transfer the argument. Much like a ton of other posters on this site, he is talking out of his ass about something he has no clue about. That makes him ignorant.
To see more examples of ignorant posts, find my response to the dumbshit that tried to claim armor doesn't stop bullets based on the fact that primitive firearms did away wit
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I appreciate the well thought-out reply - especially since most people use negative moderation just because they disagree with a post. So I appreciate the fact that you took the time to respond. :)
Actually, IMHO 20 classes are entirely too much. I don't know about WAR, but I can compare WoW to EQ2's 24 class bonanza, and actually WoW is the more fun one there.
I don't disagree your experience with WoW, and am glad you're still having fun with it. But you should have read my post as a response to the OP and not as a stand-alone post. Perhaps you felt that I was attacking WoW, but reread the OP's post again, then read my response.
Anyway, 20 classes may be a lot, but as lo
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I just wanted to state one thing. I am sure you are aware that one point in time WoW had a class that wasn't available to both factions (i.e. Shamans and Paladins). With the expansion, they abandoned this. Why? Simply because of balance. In PvE, some bosses were made much easier for one faction than the other. In PvP...well, just think about it. It is hard enough to balance classes with each other...how difficult will i
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I agree with the other response to your post. I've even heard it from blue posts in WOW: 'one spec to rule them all' is caused by players, not game design. They can make all the numbers work out on paper to be perfectly balanced, but if people in the forums and game keep spreading rumors that X is the only viable spec, then that becomes 'truth', because no one lets other specs into groups, etc.
Used to be that everyone said 17 arcane was 'required' for mages to get Imp. AE. The devs gave that to mages fre
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Blizzard did ship WoW with just Stormwind and the Undercity as capital cities, I don't know if you ever went to Darnassus but it's just an empty shell. ie: completely dead contentwise, even 2 years after launch.
In fact, most of Kalimdor felt unfinished until content was patched in later on (Theramore is the most recent example of this).
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[2. Trade]Noobzorrz: I wanna buy an chant! for my daggarz!!! Who have daggar chant?
[2. Trade]Ptwink: Sure, I can do it, where are you?
[2. Trade]Noobzoorz (1):Shattrath!
[2. Trade]Ptwink(1): np, omw.
[2. Trade]Noo
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In terms of quests/content, I would have thought the undercity was a lot more fleshed out. But I'll admit I never got an orc character to the point where they would have been getting quests out of orctown.
In any case, what I'm getting at is that as a rule of thumb the Eastern Kingdoms was far superior to anything in Kalimdor, either because they did Kalimdor before EK and learned how to do it better. Or because they did EK and then rushed it out with Kalimdor half done.
It's hard to say which is the case.
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Sorry to correct you there, but the first zones made are elwyn forest and westfall :D
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Well, given I said 'either/or' you didn't correct me, because I have no way of knowing which scenario was true. If they did EK first, they just ran out of time on Kalimdor. (Or alternatively just didn't give a shit about the quality of the continent, which doesn't sound like the blizzard I know)