Warhammer Online Delayed Again

EA Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs, in a new 'State of the Game' address on the Warhammer Herald site, revealed that Warhammer Online has been pushed back to at least April of next year. The game was originally slated for release this fall, and then was pushed to around February of next year. As always, the fearsome demon of polish is what's keeping the team hard at work through the holidays: "When we looked at our options, two paths lay before us: 1) Ship the game on time with fewer features and less polish, or 2) Extend the development cycle and spend the needed time and money to make WAR great. We chose the latter path - to invest additional time and effort in implementation and polish to make WAR great. Fortunately, we have the resources and support of EA behind us to extend our development cycle; time that will be used to make sure the game is everything we want it to be. WAR is coming, and it will be glorious." He notes also that they'll begin a new phase of testing next month, kicking Beta back into high gear.

Something here does not compute:

[JeremyGNJ]

Sounds like the folks over at Warhammer online need to get their story straight.

Last time they delayed it (and actually shut down the beta!) it was to "refine and polish the games core mechanics". To me there's a big difference between "polishing the game" and "polishing the CORE MECHANICS".
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/08/2120228&from=rss [slashdot.org]

So which is it? Are they just "adding more features and polish"? or are the core mechanics still in need of work?

Re:RvR?

[Andy Dodd]

For me, what I (and I think a lot of people) liked was the fact that except on special servers, there was a clear delineation between PvE (cooperative) areas and RvR (competitive teamplay) areas.

Also, while PvP in many games can be to varying degrees a free-for-all with large teams (guilds/alliances) usually forming and becoming successfull, DAoC was definately "large team" based by design. Also, the frontiers had a pretty well designed capture-and-hold objective system, although over time the rewards for killing other people by roaming with a small group became significantly more than cooperating with your realmmates to capture and hold an objective. The balance of the game shifted away from epic battles with large amounts of cooperation to splintered groups of 8 running all over competing for kills.

They'll need it.

[Fross]

They know they're competing against World of Warcraft, a game that's had 2.5 years to iron out all the bugs, improve the interface, and turn it from an okay to a great experience. This is their core market, they are seeking to take players from WoW (mostly bored ones, of course) so they have to get it absolutely right on launch, or they'll lose momentum.

WoW is the game that brought MMORPGs into the mainstream - existing MMORPG players from pre-WoW are a small part of their audience. WAR is going to be aiming for that same audience, so they have to actively lure people away from one game into another.

As one of those WoW players, I am hugely looking forward to WAR and have been for a long time, I'm happy to raid SSC/BT for a couple of extra months to make sure they get everything right.

And let me into the beta, damnit.

Re:Admirable.

[rukidding]

First, I agree that this is a very good decision on their part. I also like the fact they are being transparent with their explanation to the gaming community.

But, as someone who is involved in a lot of software development efforts (as a software engineer and as project management) it frustrates me that schedule slips are becoming more and more common and acceptable for software development efforts.

I blogged about this on http://www.sheeleytech.com/ [sheeleytech.com] ...yes, blatant self-promotion :)

Re:RvR?

[Opportunist]

Imagine, instead of silly capture-the-flag-like gameplay in small teams without long term effects, a competitive playing style that involves everyone on "your" side against the "other" sides, where you can claim persistant targets (well, persistant until the others claim them back, that is), with 100 vs. 100 people engaging in siege warfare.

I'm not really a big fan of PvP playing style, but when it starts to gain numbers, it's no longer just "chaaaaaarge" and hope. With people joining and leaving, such a battle can quite literally last days.

Or could, rather. Unfortunately DAoC is pretty much dead now. What's left of RvR is groups of 8 roaming the lands trying to pick away on stragglers and others that have to go into contested areas to complete a quest or two. It used to be great. But I guess this can be said of any MMORPG. It had its shiny days, it was good, it was a great time, it's over.

Re:The real reason...

[Homr Zodyssey]

Who modded this guy down? If you know anything about Warhammer, this is funny!