I'd been following the Warhammer Online development for quite some time, though my interest in it was so minor I hadn't even signed up for the beta.  The early days of Dark Age of Camelot had left me jaded by Mythic and my faith in the company that made the game that would eventually fail to keep me from returning to Everquest was about as low as it could get.  I've heard Dark Age turned into something much stronger since those days, but I never went back to check things out there.

All through development, I read the reviews, listened to some of the board rumblings and watched the videos.  Just as with Dark Age, the game sounded like a winning formula, but with so many games falling on their faces and failing to live up to their own hype (let alone the hype of those waiting to play) I really expected Warhammer to be the next big let down.

I had even intended to wait patiently on Wrath Of The Lich King, even though Warcraft had long since lost it's luster for me, with hopes that the Lich King had some surprise feature that hasn't been announced yet that would keep me interested at least until something truly fresh did arrive.

If it hadn't been for my fiancee pointing out that this site was handing out open beta keys last week I would have missed out on Warhammer altogether.  Thanks to her, we gave the game a shot and I was blown away by what I saw over the period of the open beta.  While there are some issues that could use some polish from the design team, the heart of the game is a powerful engine that seems to weave all of the elements of a good mmo seamlessly together.  I've always been a pvper at heart and for a long while I've found myself waiting for a battle worth fighting, a game where the pvp victories and losses I participated in had more effect on the overall world.

All in all, I was lucky enough to try out the open beta, which really altered how I felt about the game and Mythic.  We've preordered and are excited to get into the game tomorrow and I'm still trying to decide which characters I'll build first.

So, did open beta managed to turn any other doubters into eager future customers?

I of course had been following this game, but I wasn't planning on pre-ordering. For AoC I didn't think twice about buying the game in time for release date and I got burned like everyone else. I was determined to wait and see the reaction of the masses after launch before buying WAR, but open beta got me and my buddies hooked and we are now pre-ordered and ready to go for tomorrow!

So open beta didn't necessarily change how I felt about the game, but it did show some confidence in their product and that they had nothing to hide. This game isn't perfect but it sure is a lot of fun! Cya on the battlefields!!

AoC ruined Pre-ordering for me...I was very skeptical.

The Beta was a blast...it did boost my excitement for the game, but I was going to get it eventually.

 It certainly did for me. I wasn't expecting much entering the Beta, and what I found is the most fun I've had in an MMO in a looong time. Mythic got this shit right.

I knew it was going to be awesome (smug grin). The writing was on the wall for anyone to see. After the open-RvR delay done last year it was quite obvious these guys are serious about long-term quality and they know how to pull it off.

I was not overly excited for the game but I had a blast during the beta and look forward to playing the game tomorrow when the servers open up for regular preorder folks.

I was hooked from 2006 to follow this game's every move. Now, this is one hell of a start, I can only imagine what content will be added on later! This is gonna be one sweet long ride

I was kinda excited about this game beforehand. Playing the beta however made me realize that this is just a shoddier version of WoW. Since I really can't stand wow this is absolutley nothing for me.

I followed closely and I was not surprised through closed or open beta, it is a good game from the start.  Just have to let the community settle in, and let the people looking for WoW move on.

I votd to smash th' stumpies.  St'pid stumpy gits.

I'm buying the game because of open beta.  I came from age of conan and wow and wasn't that excited, thought it would be wow redux.  However, after playing it, it just doesn't feel the same at all.  Made me a believer.  It unlocked my inner hardcore pvp addict.

While I'm excited about getting into the game tomorrow, the grumbling from the Collector's Edition crowd about queue times is a little daunting.  Hopefully tomorrow we won't be faced with a nine year queue and/or forced to create on the wrong side of the war.

Wait for three hours to play every time you log out or crash, or be civil to dwarves...

Choices, choices.

I made no obligations to any guilds for the simple reason i dont want to wait in a que. Im also picking Order so i will probably look for a server with desto at medium and order on low or medium. Swordmaster with limp wrists here i come.

One look at the dated graphics and cheesy animations and it was an easy call to cancel the pre order.  Why pay 2008 top dollar for a 2003/4 looking video game?  Yes, more than graphics matter but with the graphics so uninteresting who cares to see the rest of the game.

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Originally posted by AgtSmith
One look at the dated graphics and cheesy animations and it was an easy call to cancel the pre order.  Why pay 2008 top dollar for a 2003/4 looking video game?  Yes, more than graphics matter but with the graphics so uninteresting who cares to see the rest of the game.

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Nothing like having your computer grind to a standstill because of top notch high quality graphics and its inability to process 400 different high definition character models and all their effects and animations during an all out rvr event.

Anyway I had serious doubts about it, and if it wasnt for the rvr it wouldn't be a game for me, although the pve isnt bad, but the rvr makes it pretty interesting.. I approach it more like I would an fps than a full fledged mmo though

The game was pretty much what I expected it to be. The standard quests were like what they had in WoW and LotRO, the Public Quest were fun, reminded me of FFXI with their Campaign battles and Besieged, though PQs are much shorter, at least in Tier 1 zones. And the PvP was pretty much in line with what I thought it would be, though I had more fun with it than I thought I would.

I do have to say though, I was having more fun with the classes in WAR than I did with WoW and LotRO, especially the Witch Hunter.

When it comes to graphics, that was another thing about the game that kept my interest in it low.  The screenshots and videos looked like pure garbage.  A lot of people say Warhammer looks like WoW graphics, but I'm not sure where they get that from since the Warhammer art is plain ugly.  Not in the insulting sense, it's made ugly because that's how the world is intended to look, it's gritty.  Warcraft's art style is one reason the game is so popular, it feels like you're playing a character in a cartoon series and a lot of the characters are designed to look pleasant or buff in terms of pixels.

In the beta however, the graphics were a lot more tolerable than the screenshots and videos hinted at.  They're not top notch, a lot of the females look as masculine as the guys, but overall the graphics are part of the pull you feel while playing the game.  There's something distinct and grand about the world that is relayed through the graphics and while they could definitely stand to be upgraded a little, it's far from a game breaking hindrance.

While Warhammer won't win any art awards, the mechanics of this game supply an amazing fix for the pvp inclined and even those who are realizing that pvp done right can actually be a lot of fun.  There are plenty of games out there that have mind blowing graphics, Warhammer isn't one of them, but what the game does have is a powerful gameplay foundation that can only be understood through experience.