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Role Playing (Games) Games

Mythic Launches Warhammer Online 317

After four days of "head-start" players getting the run of the servers, Warhammer Online launched today to the rest of the public. Mythic took the opportunity to explain why they think World of Warcraft players should give them a chance, highlighting their focus on PvP (or Realm-vs-Realm in this case), and their desire to keep time-intensive activities to a minimum. Creative director Paul Barnett says it's "a bit like Batman." 1.5 million copies of the game have already been sent to retailers, so they're clearly expecting a solid launch. The folks over at Massively have developed an excellent series of guides for players looking to get into the game. They explain and contrast general career choices and look at individual classes as well. They also have a variety of interviews and descriptions of gameplay.
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Mythic Launches Warhammer Online

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  • Lots o Fun (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Been playing for a few days now thanks to CE. Love the game! If your looking for someting new or deciding to try the whole MMORPG thing you will be impressed!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Detaer ( 562863 )
      I have been playing in different phases of beta for a little over a month now. I like warhammer so much I suspended my warcraft subscription. I am really excited about all of the new content in warhammer, and the pvp focus mythic promises is what I was hoping to get out of blizzard for a long time. Should be a healthy thing for the MMO industry to have more than a single AAA mmo title in the marketplace.
    • by Endo13 ( 1000782 )

      I just got the SE preorder, so I got my head-start Tuesday morning. That was after playing in open beta for a week.

      And I have to say, after playing 3500+ hours in WoW and 2000+ in Guild Wars, this game is awesome. One of the big suits at EA Mythic predicted they'd have 1 million subs within a year, and hit 3 mil in the lifetime of the game. Personally, I think he's being way too conservative. My prediction is 1 mil by the end of this year and 5+ eventually. It really is that good. This is the first game tha

  • PvP/RvR (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sohp ( 22984 )

    My least-favorite part of WoW. I guess I won't be spending my money on Warhammer.

    • Re:PvP/RvR (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:32PM (#25061033)
      Blizzard had to do it, there were so many unbalanced realms that one faction would have instant queues and the other faction would have 4-5+ hour waits. When I was still playing I would log in as soon as I got home from work, queue up every BG then wait 2-3 hours to get in one.. some evenings I would never get in AV after waiting for 5 hours.

      If I hadn't lost my motivation to play games I would probably try it out. I guess sometimes getting older does that to a person..
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You do realize it is not WoW right? PvP in WoW sucked since it was a majorly overlooked portion of the game where WAR is built around the combination of PvE and PvP. You wont have to kill another player if you don't want to. However you can also level by only doing PvP. Warhammer will not just fade away like many other games have in the past.

      • by Dan667 ( 564390 )
        Don't count your chickens just yet about it not fading away. It is published by EA so either it will die a slow painful death or there will be 40 expansions with the only change being different useless trees.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by AuMatar ( 183847 )

      Because Blizzard screwed it up with instanced PvP, lack of balance, and items defining who wins. In the old days before raids were big, it was the best part of WoW. The fuckups on PvP is why I no longer play WoW.

    • Re:PvP/RvR (Score:5, Insightful)

      by megamerican ( 1073936 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:34PM (#25061085)

      My least-favorite part of WoW. I guess I won't be spending my money on Warhammer.

      Is that because the PvP aspect in WoW isn't fun or just because you prefer the PvE aspect of MMO's?

      I never enjoyed WoW's PvP once they implemented the BG system. Tarren Mill v. Southshore fights were quite fun for awhile.

      The only time I had much fun PvPing in the Burning Crusade was following around a well geared friend as a healer.

      Don't assume that because PVP is bad in one game that it will be in another.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        Tarren Mill v. Southshore fights were quite fun for awhile. Oh those were a hoot in the good ol' days of WOW.
    • Re:PvP/RvR (Score:5, Informative)

      by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:38PM (#25061169) Homepage Journal

      To WoW's fault, WoW PvP was as after thought crammed into a PvE game.

      To War's defense, War RvR was the fundamental of the game, PvE seems more like it is there to give you a story and 'down time' progression and another option of game play.

      War is NOT a WoW PvP server. On the core servers, you can voluntarily flag for PvP at any time. You are only involuntarily flagged if you enter a RvR area. When you enter an RvR area, if you are below rank ?8 you will be bolstered to rank ?8 (for instance, a rank 12 person in the T2 content will get stats like a rank 18 person) to even the playing field. If you enter an RvR area that is a tier of content lower then you (say a rank 15 person, should be in T2, heads to T1 thinking they'll gank some newbies), you are immediately turned into a chicken. You have 0 armor and 1 hit point. All you can do it run around squawking at people until they kill you, or you leave the RvR area.

      So you can still level in peace, and it goes pretty fast. I think at 4 hours played I was rank 8. And the faction grinds are a breeze. Gone are the 4 week grind fests of WoW where you had to grind instances and the same 2 camps of mobs for butt feathers or toad nards to get to exalted. For the most part, if you complete 2 public quests in a chapter, you'll be exalted. And since there is great gear to be had doing PQ's, it's totally worth it to run 'em once or twice, and there are usually 1-4 PQs per chapter.

      The game still needs some polish. Crafting is a bit of a pita, talismans are so-so, the mail box functionality needs improvement, no loot linking over chat... but its all just polish stuff. RvR and PvE are both solid in performance and entertainment.

      -Rick

      • If you enter an RvR area that is a tier of content lower then you (say a rank 15 person, should be in T2, heads to T1 thinking they'll gank some newbies), you are immediately turned into a chicken. You have 0 armor and 1 hit point. All you can do it run around squawking at people until they kill you, or you leave the RvR area.

        Holy crap! Do you get experience for getting killed while a chicken?

        I only ask because I can't see myself leveling very fast otherwise... Bawk!

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by kazamx ( 1120929 )
          There are a bunch of time unlocks including XP and titles for fighting as a chicken. You get titles for being killed XX number of times and titles for killing other players and other chickens. The more you kill/die the better the titles. There are a bunch of other pointless but fun things you can do. If you get certain unlocks in the time you get items you can hang off your armour. For example if you kill the king of the other faction you get his head that you can put on your belt.
    • With the current population imbalance, like 3 to 1, its not much fun being order anyway.

      and don't fret over the quotes about it not being like wow, or being better. It is just different. The biggest problem seems to be that Chaos got the better of it.

  • Support for Mac? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Shishak ( 12540 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:28PM (#25060965) Homepage

    As soon as the release a Mac version of the game I'll join up! For now, WoW is getting my money

    And, no. Bootcamp is NOT an option

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by chrome ( 3506 )
      Agreed. WoW has lost me though; its just a tired game and we need something radically different to entice me back to an MMO.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      WTF were you thinking Mythic???

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by usfGPM ( 235370 )
      Mark Jacobs, Lead Designer for Warhammer Online, said the following on his blog [wordpress.com]: "Any plans for Mac support?" Nothing to announce yet but the computer in the bag next to my desk isn't a PC.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kalriath ( 849904 ) *

        So what is it then? A mobile phone? (Hint: PC stands for "Personal Computer", which by definition includes Macs)

        • by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @06:15PM (#25063487)

          PC stands for "Personal Computer", which by definition includes Macs

          That's a common myth. In actuality, Macs long ago left the realm of personal computing and evolved into a status symbol and fashion accessory. Most powerbooks sold these days don't even have a processor in them, just an etch-a-sketch, since they just look good with patched jeans, a 5 o'clock shadow and carefully mussed-up hair while letting the owner feel artistic.

      • He could have a Sun machine....

  • Sorry but.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheNecromancer ( 179644 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:28PM (#25060969)

    I may not be your "typical" MMORPG gamer, but I actually "like" PvE-style play. I find it tedious and frustrating to play in a PvP realm, where every snot-nosed 12 year old is hiding behind a tree, waiting to gank my level 2 warrior.

    Therefore, no need to move off of WoW for WHOnline. There's enough for me there today.

    • Re:Sorry but.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by harlows_monkeys ( 106428 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:36PM (#25061125) Homepage
      WAR has no ganking, and an extensive PvE game.
    • WoW PVP != WHOnline PVP.

      Higher level characters are forbidden to go into lower level zones.

      Although if you like PvE better you would probably be better off waiting for the Wrath of the Lich King.

      WHOnline may have some good PvE, eventually. It is hard to tell.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Actually some of the pve portions are really neat with warhammer. There's the concept of PQ or public quests, where anyone in the area basically participates in the event (scripted events even, sometimes with voiceacting of sorts). So far the event comes in 3 parts. Usually 2 kill goals and a boss or two. For example the first one in the chaos area is
      part 1 - kill 50 guards
      part 2 - release souls (open graves, kill the guards surrounding the graves)
      part 3 - kill the demon (after collecting the souls from

    • by moller ( 82888 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @04:16PM (#25061799) Homepage

      Mythic has extensive experience with PvP and has put controls in to remove the griefing of lower level players as much as possible.

      The game is divided up into four "tiers." The level ranges for the tiers are (roughly, I'm not positive) 1 through 11, 12 through 21, 22 through 31, and 32 to 40. If a Level 12 players enters a Tier 1 zone and goes looking for some Level 2 warrior to gank, he won't succeed. The level 12 player will be "chickened." He will literally be transformed into a chicken with 1 hit point and an attack that does 1 damage.

      Even on the open PvP servers where you are always "flagged" for RvR (there are no safe PvE zones like on the Core ruleset servers) they have kept a reduced form of the "chickening" mechanic. It's just been extended down a tier, so a level 15 character can go into the tier 1 zone without being chickened, but a level 23 character WILL be turned into a chicken in the tier 1 zone (but not in tier 2).

      There is also the "starter" area, which is a subset of the tier 1 area, where anyone from a higher tier will be turned into a chicken regardless, to allow the newest players time to level up to 2 or 3 before going out and fighting.

      • How does that get around the WoW typical uber-twink phenomenon, where players intentionally stay at the top level of the tier, accumulating outrageous gear at fantasy prices with their mains, and gank every normal player in the area?
        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Because you xp of off PVP , kill me when I'm 2(bolstered to 8) and you're 11 enough times and you will be leveled to 12....and chickened. You just can't stop leveling unless you do nothing.

        • Since you get XP for PvP, I'm guessing you would eventually level out of the tier just by beating on similar or lower level players in your tier.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by snorb ( 109422 )

          You get exp from engaging in RvR, so you can't stay at a particular level indefinitely. Not sure about T2 or T3, but at least for T1 there isn't much disparity from the best gear available and the gear an "average" player will get. It's pretty easy to get decent gear without really excessive grinding or spending lots of money. Also there don't seem to be anything like crusader enchants, which significantly increase a lower level character's power.

    • by ODiV ( 51631 )

      Have you even played in a PVP realm? In normal circumstances, your level 2 warrior cannot even be attacked by the opposing faction, let alone 'ganked'. The only way this could conceivably happen is if you went out of your way looking for it.

  • I'm still waiting to see some actual innovation and change go into these games. To me this is just a WoW Version 2. I'll give it a shot once the "Cool" factor wears off, but I'm holding out for Darkfall online.
    • by Bieeanda ( 961632 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:46PM (#25061319)
      Think more 'Dark Ages of Camelot' v2.0 than WoW, given that it's Mythic. From my experience in the beta, the PVE game exists only to teach you how to fight, and to lead you around to collect loot and XPs. The public quests in particular are very much 'Repeat these until you max your local faction out, collect a few greens, and hop in the local RvR queue.'
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Kentamanos ( 320208 )
      I think the "Public Quests" are a pretty neat innovation. It's kind of like a 20 minute raid (which has a story) that you automatically join once you walk up. At the end everyone rolls for rewards, and you get bonuses to your rolls depending on how much you contributed and you also get a bonus if you didn't win anything the last time you tried. During these quests, you're also making progress on your "area influence", which allows you to get some nice rewards as well pretty quickly. It might seem like a "s
  • Warhammer looks like it might have some better features than WoW, but the "generic fantasy MMORPG" has been well done now and I think WH will just fail because while its different from WoW, most people won't find it significantly enough to switch or be enticed by it. I would have preferred to see a WH40K setting as its got a much more exciting story backing it than WoW and the richness of the source material would keep you locked into expansions for years.
    • by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @04:01PM (#25061569)

      I would have preferred to see a WH40K setting

      Amen to that. Instead of trying to compete with WoW in yet another fantasy setting, why not compete in a sci-fi setting? 40K has a lot of background material, they're constantly updating it with new races and new storylines, and it's just overall a lot more fun as a setting. It feels like they went with the fantasy setting because that's what every other game has done, and that's just dumb.

    • by faloi ( 738831 )
      For what it's worth, THQ has rights to make a MMOG based on Warhammer 40k. The cynical side makes me believe it'll end up being Planetside with 40k skins, but I'm sure it'll be better than that. It almost has to be.
  • by AioKits ( 1235070 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:35PM (#25061109)
    I got in early due to pre-order and I must say that I am enjoying the game thus far. Only up to rank 10 (they say rank instead of level, but whatever) but I have had experience with both the controlled RvR (these you click a button for on the compass and it puts you in a queue for them, the only one I've experienced is very capture and hold, but fun) or the open quest areas which you can roam around in. Detaunt actually serves a purpose in this game when you go against other players, which makes playing a mage class a little easier as I'm no turned into beef jerky the instant a tank rolls up on me.

    The other thing I particularly enjoyed were the PQs (Public Quests) that anyone can participate in. You come across these areas and there are objectives (kill 100 things, then smash 15 of these, defend this, etc) and anyone can assist in completing the objectives and the tallied points for them are persistant (save for the timed ones which if not completed autofail then reset the encounter). The loot is done in such a way in that if you took part in some way you are rewarded.

    Not saying it's perfect, but so far I am enjoying myself.
    • I agree, Public Quests are a hoot, you don't have to group if you don't want to and still have a fair shot at the loot.

    • by agrounds ( 227704 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @04:24PM (#25061939)

      I played WoW from initial release until a month ago. The game has fundamentally changed, and not for the better. PVP servers were great back in the day, and there were some really fun evenings spent raiding Orgrimmar and just open warfare in Southshore or Stranglethorn. Then came the instanced PVP and the constant losses on the side of the Alliance. Sure we had instant queues, but we lost pretty much every single match. To be fun, it has to have some semblance of balance. Blizzard failed on this front in every possible way. Arenas included.

      The PVE aspect was an endless treadmill of gear rewards that, while imbalanced and a bit of a pain pre-TBC (but still mostly fun), went completely out of control at level 70 when the lucky few people started sporting Sunwell and Hyjal/BT gear. Those of us who didn't raid every night were quickly left in the dust and watching our res timers while trying to farm the 2890478213784290478829 primals needed for that next (less-impressive) tailored item.

      Realistically though, it was the decline in the player-base age/maturity that led myself and many of my former guild-mates to throw in the towel finally. Simply, the game became vastly overpopulated with young kids and the world chat channels became their sandbox of inappropriate chat. Once again, Blizzard did nothing to stop the blatant racism, sexism, and rampant spamming.

      --

      I've been playing Open Beta and Headstart in Warhammer a good bit. It's been a blast. I love my Chosen for both PVE and PVP, and the Disciple of Khain I made just for PVP is a fun break from the normal healer role. Seriously.. a dual-sword-wielding healer that smacks the piss out of people just to heal better. If only Warcraft had made priests this awesome.

      Warhammer has, so far, been vastly preferable in terms of player age and conversation. It has a similar feel to WoW when it first came out. People just help you out just for the sake of doing it. Public Quests are fantastic and I love that you just walk up and participate without having to "LFG!". Even if you don't get loot from it, if you stick around and do it again (3 minutes to reset!) you get a roll bonus that stacks each time you play, so just by hanging around you are guaranteed to get something from the chest plus your rep bonus loot from the village.

      PVP is fairly straightforward and fun. None of the scenarios are terribly difficult and the balance of winning/losing seems to sway back and forth just like it should. I absolutely love that you gain XP while PVPing, as well as cash and loot drops. This has got to be the most awesome thing ever. I've seen some nice drops during my PVP matches.

      Warhammer has done PVP right, and I hope the 'end-game' PVE turns out just as good.

  • Burn the heretic. Kill the mutant. Purge the unclean.
  • chriskovo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chriskovo ( 1011723 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:43PM (#25061253)
    Seems like you guys are bitching about the game and not even looking at it really. PVP is a hell of alot better in this game and the classes are well intergrated and balance each other on each side. The PVE side also has very intersting quests and story lines. Also the tome of Knowledge is awesome. You can just be exploring around and you just get a blurb added to it about the skeleton you just found or the creature you just killed. It gives you xp, titles that can be displayed and even some cool items to use. Check out the game before you just shrug your shoulders and roll your eyes. The game is not WOW.
    • by Huntr ( 951770 )
      I just watched this video [youtube.com] where a Mythic dev explains WAR RvR, since I didn't quite understand it, as I'm a relative newb to online gaming despite playing WoW for about 3.5 years. Nothing in that video made me think I'd like that form of PvP any more than I like WoW's, which is to say I'd hate it. As the game goes on, you can't reasonably just play only PvE, like you can in WoW. I won't be buying it.
  • Awesome game (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Token_Internet_Girl ( 1131287 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:45PM (#25061299)
    I'll have to disagree with the general sentiment that Warhammer won't succeed. I've noticed many, many, many former WoW players in love with this game, including myself and my boyfriend. The RvR is amazing, the classes are well balanced, and there's no cheesy stun-based PvP system. Will it "replace WoW?" God I hope not. WoW has become to AOL of MMORPGs, where any retard can get a 1700 arena score and be shining in purples. It's utterly ridiculous and so far, Warhammer has been the breath of fresh air serious PvP'ers have been waiting for, and it will be a success in its own right. If you're a carebear and you want to raid instead of melt faces, that's fine, but don't come to Warhammer. We don't want you.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Is WoW PvP horrible? Yes, I will always admit that. However, just because I raid doesn't mean I'm a carebear. Just wanted to make that distinction.
      • Is WoW PvP horrible? Yes, I will always admit that. However, just because I raid doesn't mean I'm a carebear. Just wanted to make that distinction.

        I have a large symbol on my belly in the shape of a Jolt Cola can that I can use to do some form of...stare... Does this make ME a carebear?

        • I have a large symbol on my belly in the shape of a Jolt Cola can that I can use to do some form of...stare... Does this make ME a carebear?

          No, it means you had a crazy Jolt bender one night and ended up with a tattoo, and that you are prone to navel-gazing.

    • Re:Awesome game (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LordLucless ( 582312 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @04:27PM (#25061997)

      WoW has become to AOL of MMORPGs, where any retard can get a 1700 arena score and be shining in purples.

      Yeah. Heaven forbid that just *anyone* could get the most out of the game they pay to play. That should be saved for the elite, and everyone else should just be grateful little peons.

      • Re:Awesome game (Score:5, Insightful)

        by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @06:21PM (#25063601)

        Heaven forbid that just *anyone* could get the most out of the game they pay to play

        That's just the point, isn't it? Competitive gameplay usually means that someone wins and they get rewarded for it. In WoW, anyone can "win" regardless of how good they are, which can make the game less appealing for competitive people. How appealing would football or basketball be to play or to watch if, at the end, everyone was declared a winner and they hugged it out?

        I'm not saying one or the other is better, just that some people will prefer a game that's more accessible to everyone and some people will prefer a more competitive atmosphere.

    • So the best players will have by far the best gear, and the slightly less-good players will have less-good gear, and the not-good players will have awful gear no matter how hard they try?

  • More PVP? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rorgg ( 673851 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @04:03PM (#25061599)
    Good, I won't have to bother. It's not WoW's PVP, I've seen it in a dozen games, each of which has claimed to "do it right." Despite what some people say, not "everyone really, really likes PVP down underneath it all, you know... if it's done RIGHT."
  • I'm sorry but games need to be more challenging. I'm tired of MMO's where you have no penalty of death. It's like....Run around get killed, come back to life and do it all over again.

    Games that have a price for death generally have more strategy involved. I'm just sick of the overly simple games, that offer no real consequences.

    • They offer a free 14-day trial, the game has a very well done "Tutorial" which will get any new player comfortable with the game, and there are very real and brutal consequences for death and loss.

      EVE is the most complex MMO that I have played, and the sheer breadth of available options is staggering.

    • You mean like old fashioned EQ, where one death even with a good rez wiped your experience gain of a 4 h session? Not to mentioning the 2 h corpse run without gear.
    • MMOs don't typically do that anymore because they've discovered that having serious consequences for death are very unpopular with the majority of players. It also creates additional support issues for the company: in WoW if you get disconnected and beaten to death as a result, it's a bummer but not a huge issue. If you have major consequences for death, every time a glitch results in death you have hundreds of players wining to a GM.

      • MMOs don't typically do that anymore

        And sadly this is why new MMOs keep going in the toilet...

        Report after report and expert after expert and model after model shows that a game with no risk fails.

        1) No Risk, No accomplishment, No Reward
        2) Loses reality, as it feels just like a 'game' as there is nothing to protect, defend, covet, etc.
        3) Destroys social aspect of the MMO experience, as there is no true interdependance if there is no risk and 'need' for help from other players.

        SWG taught the industry these

    • by Chris Burke ( 6130 ) on Thursday September 18, 2008 @05:19PM (#25062693) Homepage

      I'm sorry but games need to be more challenging. I'm tired of MMO's where you have no penalty of death. It's like....Run around get killed, come back to life and do it all over again.

      Hey, I'm all for having more challenge in games. A lot of games, and WoW stands out here, are quite easy in the main (WoW has a few moments, but generally the "challenge" comes from party members who are "challenged").

      But I'm bloody sick and tired of people who say "I want more challenge... there should be a penalty for death!" Because you know what? Being penalized for death isn't challenge, it's punishment. MMOs are already "punishing" enough as timesinks, they do not need additional punishment for what is supposed to be FUN!

      And the punishment doesn't make the game harder, it just makes people who don't succeed the first time (regardless of how easy or hard the game is) realize how retarded taking punishment from a game is and quit. I guess maybe that's the point, drive away the noobs, but it's nothing to do with whether the game is actually hard or not. You could have an extremely hard game with no penalty for death, and hey, it'd be hard! Using punishment as a substitute for challenge just means you can't figure out a real way to make the game hard without also making it cheap.

      And cheapness is the biggest reason I'm against punishment in games, because most of them are cheap. UO had a huge penalty for death -- you lost all the gear on you. And if you were a mage/archer and that's the skill that got nerfed into oblivion that patch while the other got buffed to ridiculous levels, then you'd get whacked in two seconds. Or you would get lagged entering a dungeon so you're frozen in place while the gankers on the inside stabbed you to death and took your stuff. How is that "challenge"? Diablo II had a big penalty for death in Nightmare and Hell, in the form of perhaps hours worth of experience lost if you died. It also had retardedly imbalanced mini-bosses who could kill you in one shot before you realized they were there. How is having to spend those extra hours regaining your gear or regaining the exp "challenging", as opposed to "annoying and cheap"?

      I don't get what the big deal of "Run around get killed, come back to life and do it all over again" is. If you make the game actually challenging instead of cheaply punishing, and it takes someone 147 deaths before they figure out what they were doing wrong and beat the encounter, why is the extra 10 hours it took them not punishment enough?

    • So you could do this - every time you die in WoW go to the character selection screen, delete your character and start over.

  • I played WoW for about a month and got tired of the endless do-nothing quests, the generic storyline, and the shallow play.

    WAR has its share of the same issues, but it has plenty of ways to ameliorate PvE grind - if you're sent to kill a certain amount of something, you don't have to loot the corpse and you won't randomly run into a "something" that doesn't have the item you're looking for, the "chapter" system makes quests feel like you're actually in a storyline rather than doing a bunch of odd jobs, and

  • The only thing I want to know: is this game worth installing Windows for? Because I can play WoW right now, on my Mac, without having to.

    That's a much higher hurdle than purchasing the game itself. If I'm going to the effort to do that, I need some reasonable assurance that it'd be worthwhile to do so.

  • their desire to keep time-intensive activities to a minimum.

    Interesting business model, Mythic. After the players blow through your content in the first four weeks, where do you expect your *second* month of subscriptions to come from?

    That's the thing about WoW. Most of it is fun to play. The parts that aren't so fun are there to guarantee money hats for Blizzard's stockholders.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dog-Cow ( 21281 )

      RvR. It has been keeping DAoC alive, even though DAoC has severe flaws that can't be fixed in-place. WAR fixes those flaws.

  • I actually just got off the WoW treadmill after nearly 4 years. Had nothing to do with WAR but I just finally was like I'm done with this.

    And an interesting reason why is because off...PvP! You see I actually played WoW for mostly it's PvE aspect. I mean the PvP in WoW was OK but having been someone who PvPed in RTS games mostly it's balance was always so laughable I never took it seriously. I mean at the end of 1.x I was in a Naxx level guild and could go PvP with my geared to the 9's Shaman, and all m

  • Hope it does well (Score:3, Insightful)

    by V50 ( 248015 ) * on Thursday September 18, 2008 @06:47PM (#25063949) Journal

    I have no intention of buying or even really trying it, but as a big WoW fan, I hope it does well. Competition, or at least, the fear of competition from this and AoC appear to have made Blizzard make some really nice changes to the game. I'd love for Blizzard to have an active and large competitor.

    So, while I'm sticking with WoW, because I love my pally and have been playing Warcraft series games since around 94 or 95, I hope it does well, people have fun playing it, and the WAR team comes up with some good ideas for Blizzard to copy. :)

  • Not WoW (Score:3, Interesting)

    by doomicon ( 5310 ) on Friday September 19, 2008 @08:40AM (#25070327) Homepage Journal

    Comparing WoW to WAR is difficult to say the least. Fundamentally at their core, they are completely different games. WoW is a PVE game, endgame content is focused on PVE Raids. WAR is a PVP/RVR game, focus is on Realm vs. Realm combat.

    If you are a PVE endgame raiding junky, and NEVER PVP, then WAR isn't the game for you. Questing in WAR is no different than any other MMO.

    If you like PVP, whereas you grind out Uber Gear to give yourself a distinct advantage over opponents, and you want to be a solo superstar ganking machine.. WAR is NOT FOR YOU!

    If you like GROUP BASED PVP, PVP That matters to the overall goal, and battles won/lost effect the world, where you have to rely on the group and group tactics (forming lines, choke points, for one because this game contains collision dectection), WAR will be for you.

    Just mah $0.02, ya I'm oldsk001

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