in the warhammer game i played on the table top, certain armies can ally, but they can also fight anyone, anytime. Mythic is treading dangerously close to WoW with a 2 faction system, especially since the races are a little more than similar. I know its probably too late in development, but Mythic should really consider a race based faction.  Also, it would be really ballsy and very cool if they would allow PvP based on RP reasons.  Humans and Elves would not war amongst themselves, but Chaos and especially Orcs are warbands ruled by brute force.  An Orc will attack his best friend if there are no squishy Humans to pummell on. Orc players love to hate Animosity. Rather than pump out another cookie cutter MMORPG, Mythic could take some chances and really make a great game.

P.S. i really really hope that Mythic has a FFAPvP server option.

Yeah, i agree with you.. TO Much like wow
They could have made a good game out of warhammer.. but this, this "Warhammer Game" It wont be good Better luck next time Mythic!

Comparing this two faction approach to WoW is not really valid, first of all you have three major "alliances" fighting each other here (imperial human, dwarf, elf VS orc, gobbo VS chaos humans, dark elves) in what pretty much is a free for all between these different factions. This is also an RvR centric game, it's designed around RvR and the conflict between the different factions/races, WoW moved the PvP to BG's to make it simply a pastime aside from the main game and to keep numbers low enough for the client and server to handle. I'm pretty sure that you will be competing against your in game enemies in W.A.R. rather than like WoW where you compete against your allies and keep your enemies in voice chat to farm honor effectively.

While an orc bashing other orcs does play well with the lore and so forth it's a bad idea, there will simply not be 10 times as many orc/gobbo players as there are dwarf/human/elf. If you're looking for a hardcore FFA game this is not likely to meet your needs, if you want challenging RvR against human opponents with short, medium and long term gains and losses this game is vertainly one to watch. It is possible that Mythic will add FFA ruleset server(s) to accomodate the 100's that prefer that to a slightly more casual friendly but still highly competitive ruleset but I for one hope they keep their focus on the main ruleset for years to come. There are other games out there that are planning various FFA PvP solutions, a lot of independents are going with that approach and if someone actually manages to bring it off in a really good way we might see FFA go mainstream in MMO's but for now we're not even seeing RvR PvP going mainstream except in DAOC and a few others, most PvP is simply solo or group based duels.

Has someone from Mythic said there will be only 2 factions? last time I heard that info was written by some magazine that called troll a goblin...

If you read the game plot from official newsletter few months back, you'll probably notice that its has much more depth than your traditional good vs. evil scene...actually the war seems to be splitting into three frontiers (dwarf vs greenskin, elves vs dark elves, chaos vs empire) with several alliances between races.  Now with that as background story I think they could make the rvr setting very interesting (and fresh). I really hope they dont miss this opportunity and make just another avarage pvp game...

I think people get stuck thinking WoW here, THIS IS NOT WoW!

Just because you have 2 factions doesn't mean that the only PvP fight will be between those factions, the 3 way RvR from DAOC proved to be a very good base for PvP and it would be strange if Mythic would stray far from that basic structure. That said there are sooo many ways to create 3 way fights in a game like this, whatever we'll see in the end will certainly add some quirks to the original 3 realms setup but will be recognizable enough for old DAOC players to jump in with both feet.

When was it released that there would only be two factions? From everything that I have read it states three.

I agree with what you guys are saying but not everything can be perfect in a game... anyways maybe something will change of the duration of this year.

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Originally posted by Alanthus
I think people get stuck thinking WoW here, THIS IS NOT WoW!

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SOMEONE MAKE A STICKY! As he said this isnt WoW dont come bitching in this forum about it being WoW and WoW had this why cant Warhammer get it BECAUSE GAMES ARE DIFFERENT! duh
And another thing I wish the idiots with their hypes as "WOW Copy" would change it to something else you could scare people away.

If people are shallow enough to read "WoW Copy" on a useless hype and never bother trying WAR, then I'd rather not even encounter those people in-game. And I think WoW is great btw -- it keeps most of the tards within their playpens!

Mythic's target audience for WAR isn't exactly WoW players anyway. WAR will most likely attract DAoC (and ex-DAoC) players, Warhammer enthusiasts, and a whole lot of Europeans (who can also be DAoC players and Warhammer enthusiasts.)

Narnia... -_-

Whatever Warhammer got, they got from a multitude of fantasy media and periods in human history :P

Where are you getting this 2 factions information from?  The only official information I've seen on factions is in the March Grab Bag, and it doesn't say much:

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 Originally posted by Sanya Thomas 

Q: What are the playable races?

A: This was the number one question from you this month, and I can now read it in five languages. From the lead designer, Big Steve: "Empire/Human, High Elves, Dark Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs, Goblins, Chaos Humans." For all the information we have available, check out our previous newsletters and the Warhammer Online website.

Q: How are the races divided into factions?

A: Some information is available in the backstory we've already released - but Big Steve wanted to make sure that you knew that this early in development, there might still be changes."

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And from that backstory we can't be certian about much, except that...

1) Empire Humans, Dwarves, High Elves are together.

2) Orcs and Goblins are together.

3) Dark Elves are unknown.

4) Chaos is unknown.

I would bet that Chaos gets their own faction.  Although it is *way* too early to speculate about racial choices, plenty of people are doing it.  If you look at any of the major polls on the subject, Chaos is way ahead in numbers and Dark Elves and Greenskins are always in the 2nd and 3rd spots.  Chaos is often so far ahead that they alone equal or outnumber the 3 Empire alliance races combined.  In a year, if people actually play which race they currently say has the most appeal to them there is no chance that a one faction vs one faction type game will be able to fly without massive population control through instancing.

There's no final word on there being only two alliances yet. From the way the story is developing, a 3-way battle seems more likely at this point.

Judging from that grab bag quote, it sounds very likely that Mythic hasn't even nailed down what they want the alliances to be yet.

I don't think there will be 2 factions and PC Gamer made a mistake.

From what we have learned from the post from sanya and the backstory, it is obvious there will be either at least 3 factions ( for 3 way RvR ) or 2 main factions and various sub factions.

But from a gamers point of view, the 3 way RvR is ALOT more interesting, so Mythic should do it this way.

Here’s from a previous post I made in a thread a bit ago. This is what I interpret to be, and it makes the most logical sense to me.

"The realms aren’t very static in this game, and they are designed to add more of a community element.

The main focus is between:

Dwarfs and Orcs and Goblins
Dark Elves and High Elves
Chaos and Empire

The reason for the Realms is that, if you were a High Elf and in battle with a Dark Elf, you could call upon a friend who is a Dwarf or Human(Empire) to help you. It is exactly how the background story describes it, at first there are no alliances at all between any of the races in their respectable realm, but they have been attacked by an opposable race and need help."

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Originally posted by ScottElwood

Here’s from a previous post I made in a thread a bit ago. This is what I interpret to be, and it makes the most logical sense to me.

"The realms aren’t very static in this game, and they are designed to add more of a community element.

The main focus is between:

Dwarfs and Orcs and Goblins
Dark Elves and High Elves
Chaos and Empire

The reason for the Realms is that, if you were a High Elf and in battle with a Dark Elf, you could call upon a friend who is a Dwarf or Human(Empire) to help you. It is exactly how the background story describes it, at first there are no alliances at all between any of the races in their respectable realm, but they have been attacked by an opposable race and need help."

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This is also the way that the Warhammer Tabletop wargame is set up, in it's back history.  Reguardless of what you have read from the RPG, or Mordheim.  This is a COMPLETELY different game, set up in the warhammer world, with the warhammer history.  MEANING, the tabletop game, (which is what the RPG, and the Skirmish games were derived from)  And Mythic is taking the makers of Warhammer, and using their knowledge of what the history of Warhammer is.  These people are employees of a company called Games Workshop. 

So 2 factions make perfect sense, becuase if you would do ANY research on who's allied with who, and why, and when, etc.  You would find 2 factions exceptable, although you would also find 6 factions acceptable, or 3, or whatever.  That's the Way Warhammer works.  Short alliances to accomplish a goal.  Just like in the real world, after all, at one time the U.S. was allied with Iraq, France, even Russia.

I understand how the backstory supports that, but I don't really follow how that would work in game at all. It sounds like you are just saying there are two realms and thats it. Are Empire units not allowed to attack Dark Elf units unless there's already a High Elf engaged with the Dark Elf, or what?

We know Dwarves, High Elves, and Empire make up the Order alliance... its a given that Dark Elves and Humans are already enemies since Humans are allied with the High Elves. Doesn't that just kind of erode the 3-front war into a good vs. evil system?

So are you two saying that there is 2 factions? Or are you saying that the racial alliances will change as the game goes on? If thats the case, who the hell gets to make these decisions? An elite few players in each realm?