- According to Kotaku, one of the old guard of MMO development is being closed by EA. Mythic Entertainment, best know for Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Of course, they are also known for the terrible Ultima Forever and Dungeon Keeper mobile games, so maybe it is not a great loss.
- This quote received by Kotaku is particularly telling:
We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair.
- To EA, Mythic is just another mobile developer to be folded into their other studions. Amazing.
- There is no way a game developer can go out on top. Every good company is destined to fade out, far from their best achievements. At one time, DAOC was a contender for the MMO crown. At least until World of Warcraft swept all competitors from the field. I hope they will be remembered for what they built, and for where they faltered.
- And definitely not for "Bears, bears, bears."
© 2014 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- Mythic announced today that they will be shutting down Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning effective December 18, 2013. In three months time, one of the premier MMO punching bags will be consigned to that great server in the sky.
- I was caught up in the madness of Warhammer blogging. I was already too established for that. But even my aloofness was not enough to keep me away from the maelstrom that was the game's launch. WAR was going to be all things to all people. It ended up being some things for some people, some times.
- There are lessons to be had, of course. And I may even, take the time to write some down. But until then, we should say a fond farewell to a game that has given us very much, and everyone who worked so hard on it.
- Hat tip to Syp for the news.
© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- Many apologizes for not blogging lately. I have a lot on my mind, but catching a cold this weekend did not help any. So I'm dispatching this quick post to get the blogging engine primed.
- The most amusing new of the day has been the blog post from a self-identified soon-to-be Ex-Mythic employee calling himself EA Louse wherein he outlines, in an old school rant, exactly how he perceives the failure of Warhammer Online. There is not a lot to say about it since there is no way to check its veracity. But either way, it's a heck of an amusing read.
- I spotted the news on Giant Bomb today that Valve will be releasing Dota 2, yet another sequel to Defense of the Ancients. Um, okay, I guess. Oh, and someone from Valve is following in EA Louse's footsteps, blowing the whistle on Icefrog and his involvement with development. What a strange world we live in.
- I don't watch much anime anymore, but every once in a while, something catches my attention. This year, I discovered Macross Frontier. All I really know about the show is what I got out of Robotech (which I still love, but was not the real thing) and the masterful Macross Plus. Of course, you can't buy it legally in the US so I've had to resort to other means to watch the show. I'm nine episodes in, watching on my PSP when I have free time at work. Loving it so far. I enjoy the nods to the prior shows littered throughout. And the story has some great highs and lows without going to the extremes that some gonzo anime can reach.
- Last night after dinner, I ended up playing way too much World of Warcraft. I did not expect to. I just wanted to see what the patch did to my characters. When I got to my paladin though, I had to see if I would still be able to solo the Outland instances. So I ran off to The Blood Furnace and only made it up through the first hall and up the stairs before I got murdered. Everything was going way too slow and I feared that the mechanical changes were going to stymie my plans. But then I remember that I hadn't trained any skills so I flew to Shattrath and then to Silvermoon to see what I was missing. Evidently, I had been stripped of the Parry skill. As well, I need to train in Plate Specialization for a small strentgh bonus and the new heal, Word of Glory. It was that last that made everything come together. It fills the niche that the Art of War-powered Flash of Light met before the patch. When I headed back, I made it all the way through the instance with only one more death during the gauntlet before Broggok. I enjoy the new play style a lot now that I understand it. Templar's Verdict seems underwhelming and AoE has been severely nerfed, but Holy Power mechanic and new Art of War have given the paladin a very different, very measured tempo that I appreciate.
- This is just the wrap up, but I promise to get a post up soon about Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light as well as a couple more things that have been on the back burner while I've been lazy. Happy gaming!
- I find myself in the curious position where I'm not paying any active subscriptions for any games at the moment. World of Warcraft expired in September, Warhammer Online's one month is winding down, and an ill-advised (though inexpensive) attempt to get Free Realms running again has met with failure. So while on one hand I feel strange without that ongoing pressure to play, the other hand is happy to be free of the burden.
- Truth be told, I'm still heavily involved in MMOs. Just not the kind with a recurring ding on the credit card. The lifetime subscription for Champions Online means I can jump in and out of the game at whim without feeling like I have to squeeze out every ounce of joy within a 30 day window. And I'm not without free-to-play choices like Runes of Magic and Dungeons & Dragons Online. (That wouldn't look right without the ampersand, would it?)
- For the first time in a while, I've also been spending more time with single player games. I'm playing through Mass Effect again in anticipation of the sequel next year. I fired up Sacred 2 for the first time in months, hoping I hadn't forgotten everything about the game. I also preordered Torchlight, the spiritual successor to the illusory Mythos. For $18 on Steam, it feels like theft buying a game so cheaply. Heck, I was so excited about this game, I preordered before this amazing story broke. (I'm still not looking forward to Dragon Age, though.)
- Of course, writing a post like this is the surest way of making me want to go back to one of those games. (Especially if CO keeps having server issues. Grumble.) I guess we'll all find out soon!
- I've got too many things to write about and not enough time to do it. So we're putting the random in Random Shots today. Because they're not always so random, are they?
- I am so happy to have my nemesis back in Champions Online. The Jailbreak mission where he escapes was a lot of fun and I've already got my first Nemesis Clue. I know there is only so much you can do, but giving even this much freedom to customize your play experience is a huge step forward, I think. I'll be posting other wish list for the game with other customizations I'd like to see. If any game could pull it off, Champions could be the one. I also discovered I never did the Stronghold quests in the Desert. I guess I should take my own advice and spend more time with the Crime Computer.
- In Warhammer Online, I'm trying an experiment the sole goal of which is to drive myself away from the game and save myself another subscription. Actually if it works, that would be great, but I'm a pessimist at heart. My experiment is this: since I've been having so much fun mixing PvP and PvE on my new Witch Hunter, I want to try leveling solely through PvP. Whether or not this succeed will be based pretty much on the server I try this on. My home server (which you'd think I could remember since there are only six) has great PvP in both tier one and tier two, so I'm hoping this isn't a fluke.
- Until the day that I get to play MMOs during business hours, I resign myself to what I can play on my PSP. That is almost exclusively Pangya: Fantasy Golf. I wrote about it previously when I was complaining about the business of MMOs. I still think Pangya is a better game offline than it ever was online. So much so in fact that I'm nearing the 100% completion goal of the game. Scary thought: what am I going to do at work when I finish the game? Work? Ugh.
- In my non-blogging, non-gaming time, I've been doing a lot of reading. I have two reviews in the queue, Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block and Bone by Jeff Smith. Currently I'm reading The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco. I've had this book laying around since college, so it's about time I got to it. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep up my "review every book" policy next year. But I'll keep it up for now.
- In my non-blogging, non-gaming, non-reading time, the new television season has started and so has my DVR. So far, my favorite new show is Glee, though my beautiful wife and I are also enjoying FlashForward. Of course with any new show, I worry whether they can keep their quality over the long run. So far Dollhouse has proven itself in its second season. With a couple more shows on the DVR and a couple more to come, we're right on the edge where we're worried about spending too much time in front of the TV. So far, so good though.
- So enough about me. What are you up to?
- The blame for today's post can be shared equally by Jayedub and Snafzg. They are the ones responsible for me not playing much Champions this weekend.
- In the last month or so, there has been growing sentiment that maybe Warhammer Online deserves a second chance. Or third chance in my case since WAR wasted its second a few months back. Although I had fun running through tier one solo that time, the nearly empty server was enough to drive me away again.
- Sometime Thursday night, I figured it couldn't hurt to reinstall just in case. So I dug out my collector's edition, let it run over night, and swapped disks the next morning. (It's not like I was going to use my computer while sleeping or at work.) When I got home Friday night, I remembered that you can't patch the game unless you have an active subscription. Jeez. I decided that maybe it was time to look again. Mythic has done so much to the game in the six months I was away. Might as well take the plunge. Fate must have been on my side though, since the account page informed me that I was eligible for the ten day Welcome Back trial. There was really no point to not signing up in the face of all that.
- As has happened each time I've tried to get back into the game, I've forgotten exactly how to play my character again. This isn't a tragedy since I love rolling new characters and the tier one zone are still considered the high point of the game. Here Mythic doesn't disappoint. With all 24 classes back in the game, there is a lot of variety for every taste. For me, though, I've had enough of Destruction and decided to return to the class I originally wanted to play: the Witch Hunter.
- When I arrived in Nordland, it was nice to see the hustle and bustle new characters running around the world. I was able to jump right into the quests. Public Quests occasionally drew attention, though I've only been able to complete one Normal PQ and none of the Hard rated ones. Best of all, scenarios were popping (ugh, I don't like that term) with some regularity, even ones that weren't Gates of Ekrund, the focus of this PvP holiday weekend. And the RvR was alive and well with warbands fighting over the various objectives. It wasn't opening day, but it also wasn't the vast emptiness I remember from six months ago.
- The Witch Hunter is quite familiar though the exact details of play are only slowly returning to me. There is fun to be had running around, cutting up people and beasts, shooting them in the face, then continuing on to the next red splotch on the map. The game looks great, even at the default settings. Since I previously had to turn down details to get it running smoothly, it seems like an extra six months have helped that. What hasn't improved is the responsiveness of the combat. I can barely tell which of my abilities are going off at any one time. WoW, and now CO, have shown that doing this right really drives the experience. The ability lag disconnects you just enough to break the feel of combat.
- So far, that's the only issue I've had with the game. I was able to clear tier one with my fill of RvR and quests and moved on looking forward to tier two. Whether this subscription will continue past the ten day trial, I can't say. I'm sure it will all come down to how active RvR and scenarios are this coming weekend. At a minimum, I'm pretty happy that I gave up the hard drive space to take WAR out for a another spin.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- Blogging has slowed for various reasons. But one of them, at least the one I think is interesting enough to blog about, is that I've been playing Warhammer Online again. I know that I just wrote about resubscribing and recanceling the game, but I have a good reason. I finally took the plunge and upgraded my computer. Everything is lights and rainbows in PC land again.
- Since I still had time left on my last subscription, I wanted to see if the game was any better on a system that can play it dependably. The first thing I noticed was that I had no idea how to play my primary character, a Dark Elf Sorceress. So I deleted her and started over at level one. Although I might miss the renown ranks I'd earned back when scenarios were more reliable, I knew it would be easier to learn the class again by starting from the beginning. I was surprised to discover that I quested so fast that I reached the same level as my prior character within only two days of play. Either my old system was holding me back a lot or Mythic did something to speed up the leveling process. Whatever the explanation, it was kind of awesome.
- For the most part, I stuck to the questing game, avoiding public quests except to grind for influence. I never saw more than two other people at a time, which makes PQs impossible to complete. Not that I think public quests are the grand advance everyone was hoping for. The extreme number of them and their grindy nature leave most feeling like shallow experiences. Any future game that wants to try this game mode should focus on fewer PQs with greater diversity and, hopefully, dynamic scaling. Of course, I'd like scaling for any group content. Note, I'm not asking for free loot, just the chance to do something epic even if there is no one else around.
- One thing I missed was the lack of scenarios being played. Every time I would log in, I queued up for all three tier scenarios and hoped for the best. Over the course of the two weeks I played, I was able to play a total of three: once in Tier 1 and twice in Tier 2. The Open RvR areas were pretty quiet as well. I never saw an opponent in Tier 1, though I did get to siege a keep in Tier 2. Of course everyone bailed out when opposition showed up, so that was a massive failure, but I did get to kill a few people. Outside of these few instanced, PvP seems like an endgame goal.
- When my month subscription lapsed (after two weeks of play), I was disappointed to see it go. I did enjoy my time, but my return to World of Warcraft has limited my time for other games. I may give it another try now that patch 1.2 has launched, but I'll only be taking it a month at a time.
- Just this week, someone digging through the EA's financial report that Warhammer Online has a subsciption base of over 300,000. That's a good sized number compared to other games. Of course, they bragged about 750,000 subscriptions at launch and over a million box sales. To still have 300,000 this long after launch seems to place Mythic in a decent position.
- The model that Mythic wants to follow is CCP and Turbine. EVE Online had a rocky launch but put in a lot of work. Through word of mouth, they have built up a sizable following and are known as an industry leader in PvP and sandbox MMOs.
- Lord of the Rings Online was a game that many people wrote off as just-another-WoW-clone. But Turbine has added and added and added to the game until it has become a genuine option for disaffected WoW players.
- With all the announcements Mythic have made, it sounds like they are moving in the right direction. Of course, with a new round of layoffs just announced, I hope it is not too late to turn the game around.
- I like to pretend that I'm a smart guy, but it's just an act. If you were under any misconception that I know what I'm doing, I offer this story to dispel any delusions you might have.
- The folks at Mythic have been doing an amazing job of community outreach with Warhammer Online. From Keen and Graev's Dwarf Slayer and The Greenskins's Orc Choppa packages to the various Witch Elf valentines, they managed to interest me in the game in a way I haven't felt since the launch. Tuesday night, the hype machine got a hold of me and I resubscribed to the game. The patch process wasn't long, so I was in the game in less than ten minutes. Fifteen minutes after that, I logged off and cancelled my subscription again.
- It's not that the game bored me that fast. I was always able to enjoy my time in the game to some extent. The reason I cancelled was because even at the minimum settings, the game runs so slow on my computer as to be unplayable. Somehow, I'd forgotten that was a problem. WoW and LotRO, both of which I run at reduced graphic settings, have spoiled me. Of course, I've learned to be happy playing games at 15 FPS, a speed that would make most hardcore gamers ill. I didn't have the meter running, but WAR had to be in the 2-3 FPS range.
- I have to wonder how prevalent my circumstances are. Casual games have been extremely popular in the last few years. I wonder if that's because the baseline system can't handle a triple-A game anymore. The last time ran against the technical limitations of my computer, I abandoned my PC to become a console gamer. And with great looking games like Fallout 3, Fable 2, and Prince of Persia waiting to be played, I have plenty of reasons to cozy up to my much less expensive Xbox 360. If someone developed a good console MMO, I might not need my PC for much more than blogging.
- So until I get a better computer, I will be uninstalling WAR from my system, just to prevent further stupidity. I really want to like the game, but it does not like me. The question is will there still be a Warhammer Online by the time I finally upgrade?
- The title of this post is blatant misdirection. I make no apologies, though, because I am playing Fly From Evil in a way. It's the Waiting For The Next Big Thing, FFE Edition. And I've been playing since, according to the Fly From Evil Yahoo group, November of 2002. It feels kind of strange to maintain interest in a product for over six years.
- I first fell in love with detective fiction through Sue Grafton, which eventually lead me to Raymond Chandler. It was around that time that I found out one of my favorite game authors, S. John Ross, was working on his role playing magnum opus, a hardboiled crime game. And since I've enjoyed a lot of what SJR has produced, I eagerly awaited the new release. Now, at the start of 2009, I'm still waiting.
- While it's played in many communities, Waiting For The Next Big Thing is quite popular among Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers. Just last year, Warhammer Online was all anyone could talk about and even got a two month honeymoon of good will upon release. Then reality finally encroached and many people realized Waiting for Warhammer was more fun than playing Warhammer. Luckily, the game is good enough to survive and will grow over time now that the burden of expectation has passed. Now Darkfall seems to be the Next Big Thing but I not playing.
- I don't hold anything against, S. John. I'm not privy to his personal situation, but I do know he's trying to write a full, WotC/White Wolf-class game all on his own. The frustrating part is I know it will be brilliant when I finally get to see it. But I hope a Next Big Thing.
- It's hard to see the end of the year approach without taking some stock of what you've done over the last 366 days. What I've done is play video games, watch TV and movies, and read a few books so that's all I have to write about.
- Any review of the year would be lacking without talking about the One True Game, World of Warcraft. I started the year in a small guild raiding the most junior of Burning Crusade instances, Karazhan. By midyear, I'd switched to a larger guild raiding the higher level instances and rushing toward a giant case of burnout. Then as the end of the year neared, Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King. Suddenly I was back in the game and having fun. My ardor for WoW has subsided recently. I don't have the grand desire to raid anymore, but there is plenty to still see in the game. I will enjoy my time in Northrend for a long time to come, though in greater moderation.
- Just as I was burning out on WoW, the MMO blogsphere was reaching a fever pitch in anticipation of Warhammer Online. On paper it sounded like a great game. I was even lured to buying the gorgeous collector's edition of the game. But the more I played, the less I enjoyed myself. There was a lot to enjoy about the game and I'm sure it will get better over time. But they definitely designed it to be a next-gen MMO and I don't have a next-gen computer. On the other hand, the release of Mines of Moria recently drew me to try Lord of the Rings Online for a third time. So far, the third time is the charm. I don't know if Turbine has made the game that much better (though the Warden is awesome), but somehow LotRO is scratching the same itch WoW did, and Guild Wars did before it.
- On the Xbox 360, it was not a huge year. But what I did play was amazing. At the beginning of the year, I was able to finish Bioware's amazing Mass Effect. It would be difficult for me to recommend this game even more. Any fan of role playing games or science fiction would be in for a treat with this game. Writing about it now makes me want to go back and experience the story again. When I wasn't saving the galaxy, I often found myself rocking the world with my plastic guitar skills in Rock Band. Although I had always wondered about the Guitar Hero games, I could not bring myself to spend the money to try it. Lucky for me, a borrowed guitar controller was all I need to find out how much fun it could be. And no matter how silly it might look from the outside, it is a lot of fun.
- Outside of gaming, there was a lot more to keep me occupied. The two movies that I enjoyed most this year were, strangely enough, superhero films. First came Iron Man with a canny mix of humor, fun, and action. For a while, I thought it was the best superhero movie I'd seen. That was until The Dark Knight came out. This movie transgresses the boundaries of its genre so flagrantly that it deserves to be held up with the best of all film, not just locked in the spandex ghetto. It was a towering accomplishment and will not be soon surmounted.
- On television, my tastes have narrowed considerably. Luckily for me, this was the year that The Wire wrapped up its five season journey. Though we followed the show primarily on DVD, my wife and I will always rate the show as one of television's best. We also discovered the BBC's new version of Doctor Who this year. Bringing modern sensibilities and production values to the series has made it a great find. And then HBO once again rescued us with True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. While vampire fans were falling all over themselves over the chaste vampirics of Twilight, True Blood was where the blood was really pumping.
- Even with all this, I was able to find the time to do a little reading. My favorite book this year was the creepy T Is For Trespass by Sue Grafton. Grafton is one of the best mystery writers still working and every new book is an event. Because of The Wire, I was inspired to pick up David Chase's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. Anyone who thinks they know all about the police from Law and Order or CSI would be well served to read this excellent work. 2008 was the year that I discovered Neal Stephenson. Early in the year I read his classic, Snow Crash and was blown away. When he released his newest work, the intricate and dense Anathem, I knew I had to try it out. This was also the year I fell in love with pulp works published by Hard Case Crime. I signed up for the monthly book club and have already read eleven of their books. They are decadent little books that don't waste any time getting to the action and I love them for it.
- I hope 2008 was a good to you and that 2009 is better. At least we won't have to put up with the presidential election this year.
- Ever since patch 3.0.2 came out, I'm not really playing Warhammer Online any more. It's not that I don't like WAR, it's just that I don't really have any desire to fire the thing up. My subscription is still active because I will be coming back eventually. It's just that I'm having much more fun in World of Warcraft now.
- First off, as I mentioned to the sole friend I keep in contact with on my Alliance character, paladins are awesome now. My very first character was a paladin and I got her all the way to level 70 before I stopped having fun with her. Now, they've made paladins play so differently that even with no new content, I'm enjoying going out and taking on challenges I ignored before. Considering the incoming nerfs with the next patch, I'm hoping my enjoyment is not short lived.
- Also livening things up, Hallow's End started a few days ago. I've taken my newly cool paladin into Scarlet Monastery a couple times and came away with a very nice epic helm and a magic broom I use every chance I get. I also took my blood elf paladin around trick-or-treating since holiday quests a good, easy experience at low levels. I can usually work out an extra level or two just by participating.
- If that was not enough, Blizzard kicked off the Scourge Invasion again in the midst of the holiday, which was very fitting. So far we've gotten both the return of the original invasion as well as a plague of zombies. I wasn't around for the first invasion as I did not sign up until long after Naxxramas was added to the game. Again, I took my Alliance paladin out to kill lots of undead and scored the long lost Tabard of the Argent Dawn as well as some nice Undead Slaying gear. As if to prove how bad my current gear was, the Undead Slaying gear has been a significant improvement. At least it looks nice, too.
- So that's why I've been playing WoW instead of WAR. Except until my brother's computer is fixed and I go back to my Archmage a few nights a week. I'm so confused.
- Thank goodness for Blizzard because the MMO blogging illuminati have been way too civil lately. Syncaine (of Hardcore Casual) and Keen (of Keen and Graev) have decided to lay into the company for their intention to open some form of microtransactions in World of Warcraft. As this announcement falls hard of the heels of for-pay downloadable content for Diablo III and the trifurcating of Starcraft II, you'd think the effing sky was falling and Blizzard was going to mop it up with piles of cash.
- First, can we please get over blaming Activision for everything that Blizzard decides? Mike Morhaime is a big boy; he can take it. Also, people have been complaining about their decisions since before Activision came into the picture. It's not like Blizzard has gone all Edward Hyde on us.
- Second, you people don't even know what you're talking about. I know irrational ranting is the foundation our community is based on, but this is downright strange. If Blizzard does end up selling gear or attunements or anything outside of cosmetic changes, go ahead and turn on the flamethrowers. If they decide to offer the equivalent of horse armor in Diablo, blast away. If Blizzard delivers any less than than three full games of content of Starcraft, you might have something to complain about. Until then you all look just a little silly.
- Third, thanks for giving me an easy blog topic today. Ranting about ranters ranting is about as Ouroboros as you can get, but what can you do. That tail is yummy.
- If anyone wants a real rant, go check out Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings's posts about Warhammer, both the good and the bad. The man is an OG of MMO ranting and he knows how to do it right.
- Zubon over at Kill Ten Rats has been driven from the fold like the infirm gazelle is culled by ravening hyenas on the African savanna. (Please don't fact check that.) It seems that a perfect storm of gold spammers and lingering bugs have forced him to cancel his Wahammer account. As much as I'm enjoying the game, I can't entirely blame him.
- His story reminds me of something I haven't thought of in quite a while. When I was in high school, I played in the marching band. Saxophone to be precise. We traveled to many places in the state to compete, usually with one long trip to avoid all the same local bands. I always sat in the stands after we had competed to watch some of the other performances. This is always an odd thing since the free seats are on the opposite side of the field, so listening to the music is strange. but there is not much else to do.
- On one such occasion, I was sitting with a bunch of my friends as one rather ambitious band played. All along the back of the field, cages of doves were placed in preparation of the big finale. This is not a usual occurance in the small town I grew up in, so we were all fascinated that anyone would go to all the trouble. As expected, the cages were opened at the end of performance and a few bird flew out. It was not the most impressive display, but we all agreed that it was pretty cool.
- All except my friend, Tim. The birds, positioned along the back of the field near us, flew up over our stands as they fled the stadium. As they rose, they dropped balast like a rising hot air balloon and some of that balast splattered on Tim. He was a pretty laid back character, so he didn't blow up. But whatever enjoyment the rest of us were having was no longer shared by him.
- Zubon just got shit on by his game, so I don't blame for not wanting to play anymore.
- Syncaine over at Hardcore Casual had a great post up about Public Quests in Warhammer Online. For those of you who are allergic to hyperlinks (there's drugs for that, you know), Mr. Impact PVP tells us that Public Quests should be viewed as the evolution of group quests and as such they are quite a success.
- As much as I hate to admit it, Syncaine has brought me around on this. I was getting ready to whine and carry on about how PQs didn't live up to my outrageously high expectation. I might also have offered some half-baked suggestions to fix them by dynamically scaling the encounters based on local populations. But that would have all been missing the point. I never did group quests in WoW. I'm an avid solo player so group quests were an annoyance to me. In WAR, I love public quests and I go out of my way to participate when I can and I have a lot of fun. They're the same thing, but WAR has changed the way I play the game. That is 100% better than before so I'm going to stop complaining.
- In other news, Mythic has decided to make me look like a fool by hiding their patches from me by calling them Hot Fixes. I burn with a rage that only Khaine can fathom. Also, a deep, deep shame.
- As they've done for their prior game, the folks over at Mythic have put up their first grab bag for Warhammer Online. As well we have our first patch notes for the live game. I have a few notes of my own, but since Mythic won't let me on their web servers, I'm posting them here.
- The grab bag is half "Duh!" and half kind of interesting, though I'm loathe to admit it. The questions about Master versus Game Accounts are the kinds of things that belong in a technical FAQ buried somewhere in a text file, not the opening questions in the very first Q&A. The question about how guild ranks improve is at least a little more enlightening, pointing out that inactive characters don't actually hurt anything. I guess the inquisitor (Doesn't that sound like an Empire class?) thought this might be a Brad McQuaid style hardcore game instead of something fun. We also get a little more info about the rested experience system. Essentially it is WoW Plus +1, like a lot of this game. Building a better mousetrap... err... MMO isn't a bad thing if you like that sort of thing.
- The last half is a Q&A within the Q&A about the capital cities and how city ranks work. Evidently, you can increase your capital's rank via questing (something I've already experienced) and controlling the top tier RvR zones (which I'm not even close to.) I also discovered that sieging the opponent's city will reduce their rank. That is a very cool mechanic and definitely encourages you to attempt a defense of your capital to avoid big losses like that. It also assures that newcomers and perpetual leveling slowpokes (like, ahem, myself) will get to see the cities in many states from slum-ridden to potentially awesome.
- The patch notes are certainly an odd collection of fixes. I am of three minds about it. Either 1) Warhammer is in such great shape that there was very little that needed to be patched, 2) Mythic decided to knock out the easiest fixes first and is leaving the doozies for a later date, or, 3) Mythic writes really bad patch notes. In this crazy, mixed up world we live in, I wouldn't be surprised if it is a combination of all three, but only someone as smart as Jeff Goldblum could perceive it.
- Just like most of the MMO blog community, I have jumped into the bright, shining city on the hill that is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I was hesitant at first, avoiding most of hype. But I could not help but follow when many bloggers gave their impressions of the beta test and how much everyone (almost) seemed to enjoy it. With so much discussion about how great the game was, it was hard not to get caught up in the fervor.
- I made the decision to try the game at about the very last minute. I bought the preorder box and ran home to start downloading the beta client, both from Fileplanet and via BitTorrent, hoping that I could get into the head start. With my luck being what it is, the Fileplanet download was half filled with junk files. However the other half was good enough to drop into the torrent folder where I concentrated my effort on just those remaining parts. It took over three days to get the client down and installed, so I only had one evening to play before the official launch. But that one evening was enough to hook me.
- To date, I have rolled a Witch Elf and a Witch Hunter based on how cool the characters looked. This was my plan since I first read about the game. (I know I said I tried to avoid the hype, but it just gets under your skin!) What I didn't know is that these classes are actually one of the mirrors pairs between the Order and Destruction sides. They play just differently enough to make them unique. Also the questing experience is really different, storywise, for each. But they are similar enough that I won't be able to keep from rolling one or two alts, probably an Archmage and a Sorceress.
- I've spent a lot of time on each character questing as I'm a carebear at heart, even in an explicitly PvP game. I'm especially curious about the epic quest lines available early in each zone. Both my characters are moving into the Tier 2 content and it looks as though those quests have no end in sight. It's been interesting seeing at least one MMO quest that's more than just a simple "Kill ten rats and you're done" story.
- I've also been spending plenty of time in the public quests and RvR scenarios, though I'll be talking about those more later. For now though, I've been enjoying my time in WAR a lot more than I anticipated. With the impending release of Wrath of the Lich King, I will have some hard choices to make about where to spend my time.
