WAR (Warhammer Online)

As you can see, I don't post all that much. I do spend a lot of time researching the forums trying to get a feel of what is out there to try and what is upcoming. Generally, I see a stream of negative comments for one reason or another. It can be quite discouraging and make you feel as if you should just stay away from all MMOs. I have played to date Everquest 2, WOW, LOFTRO, Vanguard and now Warhammer (over a period of about 4 years or so..since WOW beta). Anyway, I have always loved PVE. I fell in love with WOW being my first MMO and found it to be an amazing experience, but eventually a few years later when I capped, I found it repetitive and I got bored and found disinterested in upgrading my gear or increasing my reputation (especially when the expansions upgrade your equipment for you). I loved the open world of Vanguard, but the world seemed dry to me and the characters animations were horribly stiff. Also, performance issues as recent as the end of last month steered me away from the game even though everyone was saying it improved. LOFTRO was extremely polished and very WOW like, but the lack of interesting magic classes steered me away and I just couldn't take to see another WARG or whatever they are called in every zone. The game was good, but it just wasn't making me stay up late to want to continue playing. Everquest 2 had great classes, but something was just missing. It just didn't have that charm I found it WOW and I found myself spending more time running all over the place then actually doing anything fun. So, I was on the fence in trying Warhammer after hearing it was all about PVP and knowing that in 4 years, I tried one PVP in WOW against a friend (4 years ago) (we were both mages lol) and I beat her. That was it lol. I thought that was what PVP was, you run around, someone challenges you, and then whoever pushes the right button first wins or whoever has the better gear wins. With that background out of the way....

I decided what the hell. I ignored the forums and decided to try the game. I bought the game on Friday and downloaded the patch that same night. It went very smoothly I think I had the whole game loaded in under 2 hours.  I logged in Saturday morning and the first thing I noticed was the similarity to WOW with how it tells a story and circles in on the spot where you end up starting. I felt a sense of relief just in that familiarity knowing I was nervous about PVP and my perception of it. When i started playing, I was impressed right off the bat with regard to the improved graphics (a little bit at least ) over WOW and how polished everything looked. It was a pretty easy game to jump into if you have played any other MMO. My impressions are follow:

User Interface: Very very impressed for a game that was just released. Sure I think there should be some improvements, but everything I needed to see was on the screen, the guild screen was easy to read, adding friends, chat options, all of that was fine. I was able to easily customize the layout which I struggled with when I started other games (where that option didnt exist at release). I didn't see a clock, so that would be nice. I noticed a couple of buggy things like not being able to open the social window without hitting O (rather then the button near the chat box). Regarldess, it was an easy interface with more then enough options and depth to get me going.

Graphics: I was expecting a clone of WOW based on the forums, but they are an upgrade to WOW in my opinion on high settings. I didn't mind the graphics in WOW, so I was fine with the graphics in this game. They weren't as nice as LOFTRO, but they were quite pleasing considering I have been experiencing almost zero lag at high setting (1920x1280) on a Dell XPS Laptop that is 3  years old (Dual Core, 2.33Ghz, Nvidia 7900GTX, 3GB Ram).

Performance: Excellent for a game just released. I have had zero issues except the normal slowness when I first log in and everything is trying to load around you.  I have had zero crashes to desktop after playing about 16 hours over the weekend. I chose the highest quality option and changed my video as I noted above to the 1920x1280. My internet is Cable Modem with speeds up to 10mpbs.

Character Customization: The selection of classes and races seems pretty varied to me. I of course chose a Bright Wizard, but I may create an alt, maybe an Archmage or something. So far I am enjoying the class and I like the constant ability upgrades either through Renown xp or through general xp. I was very disappointed with the customization of the face and body of my character after being spoiled with Elder Scrolls Oblivion lol. This is one area that needs improvement, but to be honest pales in comparison to whether the game is fun or not and I really havent thought about it at all until writing this article.

Fun factor:

PVE: This is what I was expecting to be horrible based on some of the reviews or previews at other sites and what I was reading in these forums. I don't know what the issue is. I found the PVE to be on par with other games, unlike others I never had issues with kill x, kill y,  and I did see a variety of the type of quests you would see in other games. They were fun to me, so I don't know what the issue is. I guess what makes them fun is that I kept switching between PVE, Scenario, Public Quests, and RVR. That is where I fell in love with the game. You can constantly change the playstyle so you are never bored. Getting tired of PVE, then go do a scenario. Getting tired of the same scenario, then go kick some butt in RVR. Getting tired of RVR, then try doing the quests in RVR, etc. It was the first game I have played where there were so many options that I felt like I was at the fun house lol.

Public Quests: This was a brilliant idea ( I have no idea if this was borrowed from other games, but it was the first time I had tried one). It was a lot of fun to jump right in and not have to look for 10 people to help. I liked that you could go back in and it increased your opportunity for reward if you didn't win anything the first or second time. I did find it annoying that there were a number of times that I came in 2nd or 3rd, then the dice would roll and I was near the bottoms, but that is not the games fault, just my bad luck lol. What I thought was humorous is when I jumped into a public quest at the very end, hit that big tree troll once, and then it rolled and I came in 2nd lol. I was  like, finally, some luck. When I was playing last night at around 1:30am west coast time and there werent a lot of people, then it became impossible to do the public quest.

Scenario PVP: I had never tried a PVP Scenario before. I was a little nervous, but tried the one with the lighthouse, the barracks, etc. What I learned from this was once I accepted that dying was OK, I had a blast. I was so used to PVE where I would almost never die and dying meant that you didnt knoww what you were doing lol. Once I accepted that death is OK, I found myself wanting to keeping playing the same scenario for hours lol. I couldn't believe how many years went by without me trying. Im on the Order (good) side. We lost the first two times, but then won the next 4. It didnt matter to me much if we won or lost, I was just having so much fun. It gave me that adreline rush I had been lacking in over a year in other PVE mmos. I actually found myself pretty good at killing and consistently was in the middle or much higher in the amount of kills. My point is that it totally changed my perception of what PVP is. Its not about challenging one person and PVP, its about that rush you get as a group trying to win an objective against really thinking human beings. It just makes it more interesting. I dont know what to say other then I couldnt believe how long I waited not to be a wimp lol.

Realm Versus Realm. I tried for a couple of hours last night for the first time in North Norland. I had a couple of quests for that area, but I found myself taking baby steps just to force myself into the realm since I never did something like this before and had that same (I dont want to die) feeling I was used to in PVE. Then I joined in on some battles and even though destruction pretty owned the area based on numbers, it was fun just to run around trying to pick off a few of them and gain some more reknown xp. As the night went on, their numbers diminished and I was actually able to complete a few quests. It was just a fun feeling knowing that when you are doing the quests, you still have to look around and be aware of who may be around you. It is that level of unknown which is what I was not used to. It is that feeling that makes the game fun that I had been missing for so long.

Summary: My long weekend experience has me highly recommending this game to a few of my other friends in other games that are like me and look at any PVP as something they dont like. I think they will have similar experiences in that PVP is not what they think it is. I think that is the biggest issue out there, that people like me dont understand the advantages to PVP options. I think that is due to the fact that none of us want to be on a server where there are no safe zones and higher level characters just go around killing everyone in site which makes PVE impossible. The strong point of this game is the variety of play styles you can choose in one sitting. I don't know how to say it other then I just had a complete blast. Yea, it may lack some of the charm you would see just outside Stormwind in WOW, but I am  not looking for charm. I felt like I was actually part of something bigger in this game and that was a new experience for me. I felt that similar feeling in LOFTRO, but I already explained the shortcomings I felt in that game. This game managed to put the pieces together. My only fear in this game is that the success of it depends on the number of people that stay with it. If the numbers diminish, then things like scenarios, public quests, etc become less fun or impossible to play. Hopefully, when others from the same background as me give it a try, they will see what they are missing. Regarldess, it will be interesting to see how I feel a month or two from now. Will everything just be similar at higher levels? Will higher levels simply be you playing at a higher level doing the exact same things? Only time will tell for me at least, but for now I think this game is off to a great start and I cant wait to get out of work to play some more. If I relied on only what I read in these forums, I would have probably stayed away. I think its true that negative comments tend to more likely be posted and thousand of those playing the game and having fun just don't care about coming to the forums. The would rather be just playing. This doesn't detract from those who have legitimate gripes (like those I read on the Age of Conan Forums), but my advice to everyone is just give things a try and see if you personally like something. I may even try Age of Conan for the first time some time next year when I get enough of a feel that they have improved things, but for now, I only see myself playing this game and the WOW expansion when it is released.

Get the man a cigar, his cherry just got popped!

Glad you enjoyed PvP.  Now everything will pale compared to that feeling.

Mighty wall of text crits for 10,000

Good thing you didnt listen to all the negative hype that all the wow and darkfall fans have been spewing out, or you would have completely missed out.

playing the game to try it > listening to random internet people about it

Originally posted by WolfClaws

Get the man a cigar, his cherry just got popped!

Glad you enjoyed PvP.  Now everything will pale compared to that feeling.

Thats what Im afraid of lol. Thats why the numbers better continue to increase :-).  I will still also always love PVE in a good solid game. Im lucky that I like different styles of playing. Its all about mixing things up for me :-).

That's great, this is one post that confirms my suspicion that many people who try the game will love it regardless of negative people on any forums. The game just speaks for itself in volumes. I do believe logic and reason and facts overpower delusions and hate and propaganda. I learned that from the Sword of Truth series *grins*

Long live the new Age of Reckoning!

(Oh and be sure you go to Nvidia control panel and add AA and AF settings for War, what a difference! )

Cute post. 

But grats on first time PvP =).  I'm sure you'll find PvP > PvE in this game.  I just can't believe you never PvPd in WoW either, haha.  To me, based on my personal experience and the experiences of 90% of my friends who play MMOs, once we tried PvP for the first time, we never went back to PvE unless we had to.  It's not like we don't have fun leveling up together or what not, but PvP just gives you the adrenaline that PvE doesn't.  I guess that's why I'd like to try sky diving and other extreme sports. 

Vincent

What Nvidia control panel?  In game? Or Ntune?

Yeah, I actually felt the same way... Hell I beta'd the game and it was ok.... Though I did stop towards the end. Cause I just couldn't stomach it any longer, compared to AoC visually hehe.

But, I tried it fresh... and really found myself engrossed in it.  Mainly cause I didn't need to spend 5 hours to do something... 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there, 5 minutes over there... and I could be done.  Which is kinda cool.

I don't like some things that I think should have been looked at before release.  This one Ork who was level 11, could not be taken down... 5 people on him, blasting away (only 1 or 2 levels under his) and he kills them all, and lives.

This other time an Ork had 4 hots running on him.... could not kill him.  Everyone had everything on him and we could not dent his life bar.

Oh well.