I enjoyed the state of play and found the comments useful. I didn't agree with all of them but I don't want to include pink on my post so will simply state the obvious- 'sherly that's the point of comment??'

I was disturbed to see there's no change to LFG functionality. I've read MJ's comments about having the brilliantest lfg functionality ever. Unfortunately he's wrong. It's not killing the game as an MMO- the silence is and I was so reassured to see something's been done about that- but it is crippling it for casuals like me. The open group system is great in it's way. It's fab for pq's but is not much used other than that. If MJ does not believe me I strongly suggest he checks his metrics.

People join up with a mate and they take on a hero/champ they reckon they can take. I see 'em do it and join in only to find they didn't know how/forgot to close their group. After the first few times those of us who don't particlarly enjoy being sworn at except by people we're killing stop joining outside of pq's. I made a joke about this in a warband pq and was shocked. A previously silent group came alive with people sharing similar stories while nailing the final boss. We ended up sticking together and doing all the pq's in the area but it led me to believe it's not just me feeling that way.

Also, if you're a casual and looking to do the instances how is this supposed to happen? I tried hanging around IC spamming chat and looking for groups to join on my Shamie. Nada. I've been outlevelled by everybody in my guild so need to find a PUG. Outside of PQ's the current limited LFG system is so unfriendly to PUG's. So yes, great guild system but spot the obvious flaw pre-end game.

My third example is scens. I'm getting bored with being constantly rolled by guilds/TS'd/Vented groups. If there was an lfg system we could actually pre-plan. People who did not want to could just pop as now but those of us who would like to have a chance of winning could benefit from an lfg system where we could use a search engine to find like-minded people and together plan ahead for when the scen pops.

I wondered why I'd stopped playing my (still lowbie) shamie and become an altoholic. That should not have happened for months. I sat down this morning and thought about it after reading MJ's announcement. i think it's the fact that I feel like renown fodder for order and not enough is done in the game mechanics to help prevent that. I like this game. I like it's look and feel but I do not like the fact it currently feels like a third person shooter with a lot of solo content and occasional flashes of MMO (PQ's). For a casual not hunting with their guild having vent and TS is useless and there is nothing in-game to compensate for this. I believe this is fixable.

I've spent a night taking a keep and another failing to hold one. Both great nights. Lousy xp but amazing fun so I know why the devs are so excited about their game but yesterday I did go and check up on the WoW expansion for the first time since the day I quit AoC. and I don't want to feel like that about this game. So i'm excited about the patch and will be subscribing but its not the absence of cities I've never seen or classes I've never played that's causing me frustration.

Hopefully the improvements to chat will be enough but I did not want to make some pink l33t crit without offering a suggestion considering how open to ideas the Mythic team have proven themselves to be.Another reason I like this game. So, please, an Lfg engine with the ability to specify what you are looking for just like MMO's usually have.

/rant

Finally, to the people constantly trolling editorials and articles like this on this site with 'Ohmygod you're so biassed an im rite cos i'm grate mummy tells me so'. Please shut up. This is a gaming fansite. articles are meant to be from people who like the game they're writing about. They don't have to think its absolutely superduperperfect but they are expected to err on the side of 'i'm one of those that like the game i'm writing about'. Those of us with an ounce of intelligence are meant to understand that and consider it when we think about what they  have written. It gets boring having to wade past pages of your sh1t to read other gamers who have something interesting to say.

/rantoff

WOW Pinkcat can you come off your high horse please.

Funny how when jon clearly asked how you are a professional gamer....instead of answering you just said something to the extent of "lol instead of just proving how i am a gamer, im going to act like you are ignorant for not automatically knowing".

Clearly you are not one.

As others have pointed out...professional games are professionals.  They make $ in some way shape or form through playing video games. 

If you simply just play a bunch of video games, that doesnt count.

But hey if you are one, show us.  Answer Jon's questions cause i too would be interested to hear your resume on your professional gaming.

Also....yes KotBS will hopefully add a little something something, but i think it is far from solving the unfortunate problems in the game.  I have to decide whether to subscribe after my trial is up and to be honest it is not an easy choice.  If it wasnt for my guild it would be a no brainer.  I joined WAR for the open world RVR and pvp experience and it is a ghost town. 

"While the performance of WAR is great on most higher spec machines, we know that we can improve its performance on lower spec machines."

LOL!!! Low end pc? If calling a core 2, 8600gts card and 4 gig ram low end! Dude! please post your system spec !!!

Thanks again for a great article Jon, I enjoyed the talking head perspective. 

While I won't claim to be a "professional" gamer, I've been MMO'ing since MUDs and have to say that I'm quite happy with the amount of information coming out of Mythic.  I feel that most of it is useful and while not overly detailed it often answers some of my questions and gives me a sense they actually are a bit more connected to their subscriber base - even without official forums.

And as for balance whines... in the end just suck it up, be the best at the class you play. 

Great reading

 Luckily you included FOX when describing the talking heads, because your commentary sounds like FOX commenting president Bush. You're just repeating whatever marketing BS Mythic is feeding you. Lets do a comment on your comment:

"It’s important to note the language here as he says “750K+ worldwide account holders”. In the first month, this is really the only statistic that is really valid. There’s no real way to talk about current players until we see results past the included 30 days of free play. In any case, this is quite an accomplishment."

No its not the only statisic we can look at. You can look at dwindling xfire numbers, empty servers and guildies not playing anymore. I like WAR a lot, but there are serious problems with keeping people hooked to the game. Tier 3 & 4 are just not interesting enough to keep the same interest up as Tier 1 & 2.

"Here, Mark announces the game’s first major patch in the form of 1.1. There was some speculation as to whether or not Mythic would keep up with a schedule of big, free updates with all of the small free fixes that have been happening since launch. Mark does a great job here of explaining where the focus has been and where it’s going. We also know that we’re not going to have to wait too long as it’s been promised by later this fall."

Here you go again. Just repeating the marketing speak with no analysis what so ever. It this really a big update? Comparable to the last big WoW update for instance? Or are they just adding a few quests and two professions. WAR professions seem to be pretty much four types with some flavour to make them play a little different.

"While some might say that this won’t help the perceived imbalance between the number of Order Tanks vs Destruction Tanks, I respectfully disagree. I think that many order side players have been waiting to be able to roll an Empire Tank and they will soon have their chance."

Ah, a bit of analysis. Too bad it is wrong. If current order players are going to roll empire tanks, that does nothing to change the imbalance between order and destruction. We need destruction players to roll empire tanks. If that isn't going to happen, the imbalance remains.

It’s nice to hear them talking about solving performance issues, and nicer still to hear that they’ve got a focus on lower end machines.

sure, its nice, but is it an analysis?

Mail system upgrade: Woot! I’m not really sure what else to say here other than once again, it’s interesting how Jacobs manages to put a positive spin on the issue without appearing to “sweep it under the rug”.

Eh, maybe you should stop sucking up to advertisers, just like members should stop to suck up to managing editors. Not for my sake, but because objective real analysis will keep more people glued to mmorpg and that will keep your advertisers. If mmorpg loses its reputation, no sucking up will keep the advertisers here.

Anything that helps to promote RvR in this game is going to be a positive. While there any many aspects to the game, RvR is Mythic’s crown jewel.

But why, why is it to be positive? Well, because there is almost no RvR going on. You want to travel safely through an open RvR server where I play? Take a route through the RvR area, the change you encounter the ennemy is extremely small. Only if order takes the trouble to organise an attack, there will be RvR, but as order is creamed most of the time (all destruction players finally happy that some RvR is going are attracted like a strong magnet), order will decrease the number of attacks.  By completely ignoring this issue, you appear to be either ignorant or willingly covering up the major problems Mythic has. It sure doesnt help mmorpg, nor mythic.

Allowing players to move from low pop servers to medium pop servers is going to make a big difference for those players who started out early on a server that just didn’t catch on. Population is such a key to enjoyment in Warhammer. While it’s possible to enjoy yourself on a low pop server, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it isn’t the design of the game

See you agree on the main issue with Mythic, but are afraid to say so directly. Fear makes for bad writing.  But what is the difference between a low and a medium populated server? None. Both are extremely empty. How can WAR be so succesful and need server mergers? Interesting questions you don't touch at all. I am sure that if Mythic wants some applause they could buy some advertisement with you. 

Originally posted by arctarus

"While the performance of WAR is great on most higher spec machines, we know that we can improve its performance on lower spec machines."

 

LOL!!! Low end pc? If calling a core 2, 8600gts card and 4 gig ram low end! Dude! please post your system spec !!!

sorry to say it but that spec you posted is lowend, mid range these days is quad core with 2 cards in Sli or an X2 card, 4 gig or ram is mid range, high end it the top end quad core with high end Sli cards or X2 in crossfire ( esentially 4 cards) and 8 gig of ram. Dell outlet sell machines with 8 gig btw.

I sadly have a low end system with a high end graphics card the card does ALOT to solve issues but I only run 2 gig of ram so get the slow loading times rather than the lag in graphics in big battles.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

 

---

Jon's Comments

 

Has it really come to the point where the guys has to make a point of saying that this report on what they’re planning to put in the game isn’t a guarantee and that they’re just talking about what they’re planning? I mean, I commend Mark for putting this in there as a “just in case” way of managing expectations (a game’s development is constantly changing and adapting) but shouldn’t that just be a given?

---

Yes. See: Your forums

The majority of posters here have no clue about development, or would even be open to the idea that "Shit happens"…… Nope, they will just flame all day long that "It was promised!!" That and start saying things like "They are incompetent!!SHIFT1!", or something about monkeys and type writers.

I know! It's almost as if they're paying for a service or something.

Why the need to tell anybody about what you are thinking of adding to the game except the dev team?

To bait players?  To create undeserved hype?  Why?

Originally posted by PinkCat

I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's.  For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems.  Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's  and offers nothing to the hardcores.  Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1. 

This made me laugh , dont u mean a professional no lifer , so thats what u call it when u play games 24hrs a day , yeah good one mate.

I might even understand if u was getting payed to play games , but sitting at your computer in your house "Thinking your a Professional Gamer" is just silly.

Originally posted by Zanthorn

Originally posted by sairusco

Professional gamers.. hardcore.. times have changed I guess. (I seem to be one of the rare individuals that plays a game for fun and to relax after a hard day of work)

 

Thank you, I was begining to think I was alone in feeling this way.

Way to many have forgotten what the words "Game",and "Gamer" means.

Yeah, people take games way too seriously. Was talking to a friend of mine about this regarding this one linkshell (guild) on his server in FFXI who have declared themselves "THE Elite End-game LS". They treat  anyone not in their LS like dirt. They regard all the high end HNMs (raid bosses) as their sole property, and anyone else who tries to claim them is treated as though they're some kind of criminal. They expect anyone in their LS to drop whatever they're doing, on a second's notice, and go to whatever event they decide they're doing; if you don't, you're kicked after the first offense because you haven't made them your #1 top priority at all times. And on and on.

In short, they take the game, and themselves way too seriously.

Last I checked, games are supposed to be a fun, casual pastime. Not a second job, or military tour of duty.

"Loss of perspective" comes to mind when I think about it.

Originally posted by Horusra

Ok this is ingorant.  Coming from a programing background when talking about developing something you only speak in basics that can be delivered.  If you tell a client that you will delivery some functionality and then a month before supplying the final product tell the client you could not put in the promised items that is called "You will not be hired again."  Development or no you do not make promises and then fail to produce them.  If you underestimate what you can produce then the client will be much happier.  Think Scotty from Star Trek...say 5 hours to fix, but do it in 2 so people think you are a miracle worker.

You are clrearly coming from the bussiness/government software side then.  There is a well know double standard in software developement between commercial and bussiness software.  Bussiness software has to meet spec and fulfill promises, commercial does not.  Has Microsoft ever released an operating system that met all the original promises made?  How about Vista?  And games are typicly the worst of the commercial side.  I come from the bussiness/government side myself and it bugs me when commercial developers claim that all SW has bugs; mine does not, it cannot.  However, it has become the standard for commercial software to be released with bugs and missing content.  I don't think you can blame a reported for expressing this.

Nice to see the devs know the real problems of the game, nice comments Jon.

BTW who the fuck are u PinkCat? At least try to be professional In Real Life.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by PinkCat

I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's.  For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems.  Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's  and offers nothing to the hardcores.  Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1. 

 

I may be a writer and a journalist, but I'm also a gamer. I am many things, sir. Many of them unplesant, but ignorant is not one of them.

Critical Hit

Originally posted by Kalmarth

sorry to say it but that spec you posted is lowend, mid range these days is quad core with 2 cards in Sli or an X2 card, 4 gig or ram is mid range, high end it the top end quad core with high end Sli cards or X2 in crossfire ( esentially 4 cards) and 8 gig of ram. Dell outlet sell machines with 8 gig btw.

I sadly have a low end system with a high end graphics card the card does ALOT to solve issues but I only run 2 gig of ram so get the slow loading times rather than the lag in graphics in big battles.

 

LMAO! Go dream!

SLI is the crappiest invention ever! It's a pure ripoff. Nothing more, nothing less!

People that are paying another 300-600 bucks for just a couple FPS more are idiots!

You have highest FPS with 2 cards in SLI, just to have a new card come out a month later who outperforms the 2 older cards in SLI!

Low end systems are still the single core 64bit CPU's, with 1-2GB of RAM and the GeForce7xxx series.

Mid end systems are the dual cores with 2-4GB of RAM and the GeForce8xxx series.

High end systems are the quad cores with 4-8GB of RAM and the GeForce9xxx or GeForce2xx series.

As example.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by Kalmarth

sorry to say it but that spec you posted is lowend, mid range these days is quad core with 2 cards in Sli or an X2 card, 4 gig or ram is mid range, high end it the top end quad core with high end Sli cards or X2 in crossfire ( esentially 4 cards) and 8 gig of ram. Dell outlet sell machines with 8 gig btw.

I sadly have a low end system with a high end graphics card the card does ALOT to solve issues but I only run 2 gig of ram so get the slow loading times rather than the lag in graphics in big battles.

 

 

LMAO! Go dream!

SLI is the crappiest invention ever! It's a pure ripoff. Nothing more, nothing less!

People that are paying another 300-600 bucks for just a couple FPS more are idiots!

You have highest FPS with 2 cards in SLI, just to have a new card come out a month later who outperforms the 2 older cards in SLI!

Low end systems are still the single core 64bit CPU's, with 1-2GB of RAM and the GeForce7xxx series.

Mid end systems are the dual cores with 2-4GB of RAM and the GeForce8xxx series.

High end systems are the quad cores with 4-8GB of RAM and the GeForce9xxx or GeForce2xx series.

As example.

Cheers

This is not a PC discussion topic.

Originally posted by Proto23

 Luckily you included FOX when describing the talking heads, because your commentary sounds like FOX commenting president Bush. You're just repeating whatever marketing BS Mythic is feeding you. Lets do a comment on your comment:

"It’s important to note the language here as he says “750K+ worldwide account holders”. In the first month, this is really the only statistic that is really valid. There’s no real way to talk about current players until we see results past the included 30 days of free play. In any case, this is quite an accomplishment."

No its not the only statisic we can look at. You can look at dwindling xfire numbers, empty servers and guildies not playing anymore. I like WAR a lot, but there are serious problems with keeping people hooked to the game. Tier 3 & 4 are just not interesting enough to keep the same interest up as Tier 1 & 2.

"Here, Mark announces the game’s first major patch in the form of 1.1. There was some speculation as to whether or not Mythic would keep up with a schedule of big, free updates with all of the small free fixes that have been happening since launch. Mark does a great job here of explaining where the focus has been and where it’s going. We also know that we’re not going to have to wait too long as it’s been promised by later this fall."

Here you go again. Just repeating the marketing speak with no analysis what so ever. It this really a big update? Comparable to the last big WoW update for instance? Or are they just adding a few quests and two professions. WAR professions seem to be pretty much four types with some flavour to make them play a little different.

"While some might say that this won’t help the perceived imbalance between the number of Order Tanks vs Destruction Tanks, I respectfully disagree. I think that many order side players have been waiting to be able to roll an Empire Tank and they will soon have their chance."

Ah, a bit of analysis. Too bad it is wrong. If current order players are going to roll empire tanks, that does nothing to change the imbalance between order and destruction. We need destruction players to roll empire tanks. If that isn't going to happen, the imbalance remains.

It’s nice to hear them talking about solving performance issues, and nicer still to hear that they’ve got a focus on lower end machines.

sure, its nice, but is it an analysis?

Mail system upgrade: Woot! I’m not really sure what else to say here other than once again, it’s interesting how Jacobs manages to put a positive spin on the issue without appearing to “sweep it under the rug”.

Eh, maybe you should stop sucking up to advertisers, just like members should stop to suck up to managing editors. Not for my sake, but because objective real analysis will keep more people glued to mmorpg and that will keep your advertisers. If mmorpg loses its reputation, no sucking up will keep the advertisers here.

Anything that helps to promote RvR in this game is going to be a positive. While there any many aspects to the game, RvR is Mythic’s crown jewel.

But why, why is it to be positive? Well, because there is almost no RvR going on. You want to travel safely through an open RvR server where I play? Take a route through the RvR area, the change you encounter the ennemy is extremely small. Only if order takes the trouble to organise an attack, there will be RvR, but as order is creamed most of the time (all destruction players finally happy that some RvR is going are attracted like a strong magnet), order will decrease the number of attacks.  By completely ignoring this issue, you appear to be either ignorant or willingly covering up the major problems Mythic has. It sure doesnt help mmorpg, nor mythic.

Allowing players to move from low pop servers to medium pop servers is going to make a big difference for those players who started out early on a server that just didn’t catch on. Population is such a key to enjoyment in Warhammer. While it’s possible to enjoy yourself on a low pop server, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it isn’t the design of the game

See you agree on the main issue with Mythic, but are afraid to say so directly. Fear makes for bad writing.  But what is the difference between a low and a medium populated server? None. Both are extremely empty. How can WAR be so succesful and need server mergers? Interesting questions you don't touch at all. I am sure that if Mythic wants some applause they could buy some advertisement with you. 

Look, I don't care if you disagree with me. That's totally your perogative, but I would think that you could find a more productive way to do that than ranting and raving and making baseless accusations. If you want to hear my full response to your accusations, seek out the many threads where I have explained why doing what you accuse me of is just plain stupid.

I am entitled to my opinion and you are entitled to yours. That doesn't mean that eoither one of us is being somehow bought off, it means that we have a difference of opinion and I'm sorry that you were unable to remain civil about it.

Originally posted by Proto23

 Luckily you included FOX when describing the talking heads, because your commentary sounds like FOX commenting president Bush. You're just repeating whatever marketing BS Mythic is feeding you. Lets do a comment on your comment:

Do you kick and scream and otherwise act childish in front of the television too? 

On the balance issue, I'm happy to see that this hasn't decended into a "nerf BW now!" flame fest. Lets face it without a tanking class the only chance Empire had was to out damage Chaos. Introducing the KotBS ( yes, I will be rolling one myself) Mythic can address the concerns many Destruction players have with the BW.

As mentioned elsewhere I hope it's more pleasing to the eye than a fat dwarf shoved into a tin can. One thing the Chosen and Black Orc have going for them over the Ironbreaker and Swordmaster is they just look bad ass. If I didn't love being a sawed-off, beer swilling dwarf with a foul disposition and a gun I'd probably play as a Chosen.

All in all good news IMHO

 

 It's your website and your job and please do it any way you see fit. But by not even trying to defend your writing and just referring to elsewhere, that's pretty lame. I am not claiming your receive money or anything, just that you have bad judgement what is the best for this site. And that your writing was seriously lacking in this piece. 

Of course I could be completely wrong, but I somehow doubt it. Only time will tell, but I am pretty sure that who ever pays for all this, is going to have to reorganize the team running this site, if this is the quality you stand behind.

As to the tone. When someone has no arguments they always start to complain to the tone of the discussion. Either you are way too sensitive, or this has been a nice, clean and civil comment.

---

Originally posted by Proto23
 It's your website and your job and please do it any way you see fit. But by not even trying to defend your writing and just referring to elsewhere, that's pretty lame. I am not claiming your receive money or anything, just that you have bad judgement what is the best for this site. And that your writing was seriously lacking in this piece. 
Of course I could be completely wrong, but I somehow doubt it. Only time will tell, but I am pretty sure that who ever pays for all this, is going to have to reorganize the team running this site, if this is the quality you stand behind.
As to the tone. When someone has no arguments they always start to complain to the tone of the discussion. Either you are way too sensitive, or this has been a nice, clean and civil comment.

---

Yes, I think you are completely wrong. He hit the nail on the head, without the ignorant comments.

Straden: 1 Proto23: 0

Does anyone know for certain if the Black Guard will be able to dual wield?