I haven't read pro reviews for years and years - doubly so with game reviews simply because gaming magazines are notorious for giving the best reviews to the highest bidders.

I read peer reviews - the pages and pages of comments at Gamespot or on Amazon.  I generally find them to be much more informative.

Right now they tell me WAR is WoW 2.0 - looks like improved WoW, plays a lot like improved WoW, smells like improved WoW.  Given that they all said the same thing back in '04 about WoW being more like EQ2 than EQ2 was and the general grumbling unhappiness of WoW's current player base I take this to be a good thing for WAR.

A.    I think it’s fantastic that there is a final, finished copy of the game out there. 
B.    My first two years of WoW sucked, so 10 minutes is not bad at all.

I Love the idea... hate the games that you have to go trough a hour of tutorials and lessons and teachings and openings and explanations and training and adjusting of your gear and.(I`ve seen it all a dozen) ... before you get to KILL SOMETHING!!! you can divulge on the idea of building atmosphere that gets you to feel the world you emerge to, but for me its just fucking boring. (even playing face2face rpg`s we always went straight to the bar to look for quests or a fight at least :) So thumbs up for providing instant entertainment to AE and i cant wait for my shear of splitting farie elven skulls. ALL HAIL ME :]  

Lol,  How can you judge a game on the first quests you encounter?  The first two quests in Age of Conan are kill quests.  Kill the guy with the key to the chick's shackles and kill the slaver so you can enter the city.  Well then you run into your third quest which is kill a boss mob so you can get the key to a gate.

Pretty generic quests.  Pretty much throughout the game most of the starter quests (ie levels 1-13) are all similar to that.  Either "get me this" or "kill those" quests. 

It is the same with pretty much every single MMO game on the market. 

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Lol,  How can you judge a game on the first quests you encounter?  The first two quests in Age of Conan are kill quests.  Kill the guy with the key to the chick's shackles and kill the slaver so you can enter the city.  Well then you run into your third quest which is kill a boss mob so you can get the key to a gate.

 

Pretty generic quests.  Pretty much throughout the game most of the starter quests (ie levels 1-13) are all similar to that.  Either "get me this" or "kill those" quests. 

 

It is the same with pretty much every single MMO game on the market. 

Sarcasm is great

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by Caligulug

 

 

AoC. The start of the game is well awesume.

 

Well, I'm not in the OB, but if it was the same as the PVP weekend's PVE starter area, no it isn't.  Standard fare in that scenario (except for the fact the female avatars start out practically naked, and its a shame to put pants on them) 

WAR i believe has different starting areas depending on race so creating alts should be more of a breath of fresh air than a 'been there, done this' type of thing.

Originally posted by wolfmann

question is, if those 10 minutes reflect the rest of the game....

If the "Hi kill 4 fairies and 2 sailors, then go see my friend" sets the baseline for the quests in the game.

 

If it is, then you're looking at a average normal game, with its only extra features a Public Quest system where only the DPS'ers get rewarded, and battlefields where only the zerg wins.

What makes you think that the zergers win in open rvr?  1: ctrl a keep and get an advantage ( guess inc. %dmg) 

2: Banners .... you have a guldie running around, unable to attack, beside a knockback effect... he gives some speciel abilitys, so by making sure he is guarded all the time, that forces you to defend. He has to be in the battlefield, so thereby you cant just zerg.

3: you gain "moral" by killing enemys, and lose some when ppl around you gets klled - moral abilitys can be VERY powerfull, so by zerging and getting killed, your enemy will only get and advantage and WIN!

These are just 3 exaples on why zergers will lose in WAR... so...

Do some research, think about it, and then post stuff... not the other way around....

It is true that the first impression can make or break a game.

Maybe 10 minutes is an excessive short time, but 1-2 hours are definitly a reasonable time for a person to decide to spend more time on the game or just throw it away.

I've never had the chance to try the game by myself, but the description of the starting areas so far by the devs and by the people that played the game at the conventions sounded promising, especially the high/dark elf area.

The nature of the starting quests does not matter that much, the world around you does. If the world looks convincing and you can immerse yourself to a point, then your starting experience will be quite good.

So when did warhammer online get fairies?

Wow did not realise i would get branded a troll.... for saying i support WAR that is strange. This article is a printed one in the mag, the JUNE 2008 edition, with the cover having Empire total war on it.

I dont have the means to scan the article and i believe we are not meant to do that anyway, but this edition only hit the shelves yesterday.

Originally posted by bobtheblob

Wow did not realise i would get branded a troll.... for saying i support WAR that is strange. This article is a printed one in the mag, the JUNE 2008 edition, with the cover having Empire total war on it.

I dont have the means to scan the article and i believe we are not meant to do that anyway, but this edition only hit the shelves yesterday.

Shoot him Shoooooooot him!!!

Oh wait he was. just. the. messenger.

Yeah I found that article.. it is just a poor piece of journalism in general.  We all know there will be so little NEW news around WAR until guild/open beta, people are going to pounce on every little thing thrown out there...

I mean what can they really tell us in the next 2 months.. That the White Lion will actually have a 'bear' for a pet?  That one of the mastery paths for KotBS will be an AOE glare reflection off their armor? (with knockback!) That the Blackguard is actually a small dark-elf kitten driving around ina really big spiky suit?

'Abysmal' is such a loaded word... I am sure Fox news is hiring writers..

The first quest in any mmo will always be something simple. WoW was go talk to this guy and that guy gave you a kill quest to kill skeletons, boars, or plain striders for horde.  10 minutes? I can spend 10 minutes just looking at stats and all the other little screens that you can look at. SWG  you used to have to wait 10 minutes just for a transport! If 10 minutes out of  years of fun is the downside then by all means I am sold.

As for the starting quest. Well you just invaded the High Elf land and you are attacking them. Obviously the first wave of defenders will be those around which would probably be sailors. The fairies are a question yet unanswered. Maybe they help the high elfs? Maybe they are really a third party viaing for control of the elven lands? Who knows but killing fairies doesn't sound bad, the sound of a fairie getting hit with my halberd is music to my pointy ears.

2 skills? LOL.  Thats part of the growth in an MMO. You gain more skills, power, and stats. Thats like playing a fps and complaining you don't have a better gun right away,

Originally posted by GreenChaos

So when did warhammer online get fairies?

Who knows, but at least we get to smash them to bits

Originally posted by sigurd57

Also I never seen a good mmo that has a great starting area with mindblowing quest and tutorial. Anyone know of any?

Age of Conan is a step above with throwing you into the starting area. The story and pace makes you want to push forward, which is kind of cool. It at least gives you an "illusion" of skills and control because of the combat system, just a slight reinvention of button mashing. :)

Yeah instead of hitting "special melee attack one", now you hit " special melee attack one, then 1, 2 or 3". Just more hastle which is stupid imo. Ultima Online had the best starting areas, as well as EQ1 ( old school). Nothing friendly, just plop you into the world. If you didn't make it, tough luck. Go play hello kitty or something :).

Originally posted by Chiram

Ultima Online had the best starting areas, as well as EQ1 ( old school). Nothing friendly, just plop you into the world. If you didn't make it, tough luck. Go play hello kitty or something :).

Ah good times - when a lvl 3 mob actually could kick your ass, and you were already lost trying to find your corpse.

why do they complain about 2 skills?  EVERY game gives you 1-3 skills at the start.

War! its all about war! and killing numerous Fairys to lvl up. First impressions last.

Well at least the tome of knowledge's first add in is on the Fairy page..

lets hope they fix this up properly.

WoW has a great first hour and then..... well its the same thing for the next 80 days played.. an utter mess

DAoC was an absolute horrid pve game , one of the worst (note I am talking about basic daoc and not expansions which made pve favorable)...... with that said... DAoC was the best game I have ever played in my life. DAoC didnt really START until you got max level. and then it was an absolute dream.

War is like daoc. I myself enjoyed my first 10 minutes of gameplay. the first 15 minutes of the chaos demo are an absolute dream. ork and dwarf demo's were not as much fun. If I get to play the elf vs elf demo i can comment on the elven war but Im trapped by NDA right now on that one at the moment.

but just keep in mind, you are always fighting people in warhammer. as long as you have other players and are fighting against other players it stays fun. pvp is fun, rvr is even MORE fun.

This also got me thinking of my favorite starting zones. Asherons Call will always hold the #1 spot for me. It was my first MMO and I think we will all agree our first always holds a special place.

Other than that The peo beating quest in the orc starting area in WoW was a great quest. Also I think the whole noob area in LOTRO is awesome.  The biggest tihng I like about LOTRO (I wish more games would do it) is after the verry first noob starting instance that takes 5-10 min and explains things well along with the story your in.....after you go through it once you can choose to skip it. Really like that idea. It says "We want the new MMO players to know what they are doing, and as a vet you do it once to entertain us and you can skip it and head to the real world!"

Imagine you have never played and MMO.  Imagine that you have just installed WAR and created your very first character.  You click on the "PLAY" button and sit through the loading screen.  You sip your mountain dew in anticipation.

All of a sudden you are bombarded by a screen full of icons that have confusing tooltips when you mouseover them.  "Bash- 10 AP - A Melee attack that does weapon damage +5" and a dozen other strange abilities.  You take your first 5 steps and are attacked by a monster.  You panic and start hitting buttons having no idea what they do.  You die.

Seriously, would you keep playing?  Probably not.  Games have to start with enemies that aren't very intimidating, don't aggro right away, and they have to start you off with between 1 and 3 skills.  Remember that the first zone in any MMO is not for you.  It is not for the MMO loving veteran.  The first zone in the game is for your uncle that you convinced to play the game with you.  It's all about teaching the first timers.

So 10 "boring" minutes equates a half hour of learning for a newbie.  We've all been there.  Have a heart.