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In some cases, the hardcore MMO community – such as most people reading this column – too often become fans of the genre, not the games themselves. People spend years on the forums, thinking, talking and wondering about a game. When it actually comes out, they’re already burnt out. This isn’t universal by any stretch, but there is a segment of the market that does this.

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For awhile I've come to the conclusion it's me and not the game. I think I fall into this rut, like last year I pre-ordered in full Warhammer, and didn't pick it up until it already had a price-drop, so my local EB had to pay me $10 back. I still haven't installed it actually. I played it in the beta and it was fun, but I got so burned out I have no desire to play the actual launch. Aion's the same, I pre-ordered for the open beta, I put down $5.00, but having played that and the game releasing, I have no desire to actually play that game too. It's like a tamer more accessible L2.

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Originally posted by Kainis
I'm just waiting for someone to say they don't look at box-art boobies, but pick up the box for the feature list instead.

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Personally, I always looked at system requirements.

Well I played Infantry back in 2002 I think, then went to Planetside around 2004. It was a logical jump I guess. I enjoyed my time at Planetside, and got me hooked on the niche game market. It's not really the massiveness of it, but the requirement of a lot of teamwork to achieve something. Very few gaming experiences I had where I crashed into a vanguard with a reaver, spawned back at base with a Skyguard and drove there to pick up my outfit mates who managed to get the LLU (a thing which we need to cap certain bases, think flags). Drive it to our base with a vanguard (tank) and a reaver (aircraft with rockets) on our tail.

And it may sound funny but the massiveness isn't there in games like COD 4, you and your friends can't hop in a tank and blow up some stuff. Or get into a bomber and then bail out over a base and shoot the other team with chainguns (I played the Terran Republic). Planetside is a unique game, it really deserves a sequel but instead SOE puts money in stuff like: The Realm Online and card battle games. Who knows, probably much cheaper to develop and a great return on investment. Can't live in the past though! Planetside is still around, maybe we gamers should appreciate what's still around rather than always looking outwards and not seeing what we got now. Anyway, my 2 c.

I played Eve a few times and found myself at Eve University twice. Though I didn't enjoy Eve that much, thanks for taking your time to help new players! Take care!

Is Warhammer in trouble? Usually, when threads like this pop-up there is a general consensus it's not doing well or else it will fade to obscurity. It's too bad if the layoffs occurred.

As to answer the OP's question, my best bet would be THQ since they too hold licenses to make games in the Warhammer universe. When you say buy "War", I'm interpreting you mean the property to make an MMO based on Warhammer, not, the finished game itself. But this is bad juju, let's not say anything about it and work on making the atmosphere around Warhammer more positive by discussing the game mechanics and the strange people we meet on local chat.

You could play any of the BF games for a somewhat similar experience. Though, nothing really replaces PS. PS is PS. The closest really for me was maybe... well, nothing really. Maybe, if it's the teamwork you like try World In Conflict or any other games that need teamwork to succeed.

This is cool!

Maybe I'll pick up Warhak, I haven't played that. I think it's funny though about the term "Mag Experience", usually that's not how real game play ends up. It wasn't that organized and you have your teams, knifing/nading you and emote spam.

Looks cool though.

Is this room or world based? I'm thinking room -- nothing wrong with that, though I do feel sneaky sometimes being in the middle of nowhere doing nothing useful. Like: look at me, this is an fps and you don't know where I am because I'm hiding under a branch that looks like a rock from the sky. But the truth is I'm in rexo with no veh. certs and hit the enter button prematurely.

Well, from my brief interaction with the new design, it feels a bit more crowded. I'm sure I can get used to it though.

I don't know what's causing it to feel so crowded, perhaps it's all the options?

Ahh, maybe it's the header such as "MMORPG.com Discussion Forums" right below the options? So when I look at the tabs at the top it's coinciding with the panel I'm look at?

I don't know, other than the GUI feels crowded.

EDIT:

As of 30 minutes later, I have gotten used to it a bit, but the left frame still makes it feel crowded. When I say left frame I mean the place where the "Mail" and "Recent" links are placed in.

Yeah, I have to concur with the Crossfire add. It doesn't slow my browser, but I've only been to three web pages and it's always poppin' up.

It looks like a moth to me, but elegant. I kind of agree with the other concept artists, because, well, the first pic looked like the insect creature was excreteting the cabinet.

Actually, I remember something in a book about this situation. Where the 'wow' factor isn't the 'wow' factor intended. An example from the literature book was: "Her face sparkled like the face of a small-pox victim."

The response would be "Wow!" but not the kind of wow you were looking for. Lol.

Cool stuff though, look forward to the next article.

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Originally posted by Rabenwolf

BIOWARE might become the next blizzard if they do well with their KOTOR mmorpg, since they share Blizzards work ethic, but that is still years away.
 

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I don't know why but this was a very inspiring thing to read.

As for the topic, WoW is still better than WAR in my opinion but the guys who are transferring from AoC who are done with WoW will like and stick around. It's made from the ground up as a RvR game and players like that will get what they want out of it.

TTK is slow compared to to other MMO's. It really depends on how a character is specced by the skill system as well as the tactics that are used by players. The tactics are pretty substantial since it can increase damage by up to 25% and crit rate by 20% and crit damage by 50% if the right ones are chosen.

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Originally posted by Grunties

Hey whats the most overpowered class with the best dps and is
 

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War Priest, seriously.

Yeah WAR is nothing like WoW.

WoW's PvE content was better for me and there was more of it.

WAR's RvR content has really no comparisson other than DAOC.

On a side note, I played DAOC for a small time period and found that it's animation and gameplay was also sort of clunky. The "clunkiness" is also present in WAR, but it's not really a bad thing. The game is polished in one way, presentation and playability, and isn't on another, smoothness of gameplay. I'm sure that if you play it enough you will get accustomed to the "clunkiness" as I'm guessing most DAOC players are. It's more of a developer hallmark more than anything. Sort of how certain people use certain words more than others. The reaction is also the same, some will have no problems adjusting to it, others will and others won't even notice.

You guys will see when you play Open Beta. But don't go into it thinking it will be so much better than WoW. I'll get flak for this but it's not.

For me. with a big background in item grindy games playing WAR had the same feeling of me playing Tabula Rasa. Where the game made me realize how much fun I had in another game. In Tabula Rasa's case it was Planetside, for WAR, it's WoW. But again this is mainly PvE content, as the RvR aspect of WAR is totally unique to it in terms of this comparison.

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Let me understand - WAR lets you que up the abilities ?

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Nope, it looked to be a pretty standard request from when I was browsing the CB forums.

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Originally posted by Cloudink
There are four of five PQ's in one map area, how are the PQs Swarmed?

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They are scattered about in a logical manner. If you look at the map it will tell you the general area associated with the quest. Maybe I'll upload some pics.

To the OP:

Honestly, Black Ork is one of the most boring classes. It's just like the Swordmaster, and the gameplay is stale. It's: 123, 123, 4, 123. All of your battles will be like that, PvE at least unless your tanking in a group.

As for animations, yeah the responsiveness is there but it doesn't trigger most of the time especially if you have a channelling attack. It's still buggy.

On the flipside, the game is very playable. My main problem is these:

1.) Item Drop Mechanic and PvE Gameplay.

Once you finish a Public Quest or let's say capture an enemy keep you are placed in a rank system. Rank high enough, I think it's top 5 you get a "bag". You can right click the bag and choose from what seems to be randomly generated rewards. This is fine, but all in all it's rather weak.

The regular drops you get on mobs are also a little unexciting. But again, these are PvE elements. Honestly, I feel that the PvE portion of Warhammer AoR is really underdeveloped. The PQ's are fun, but I played WoW and the instances there where much funner imo. If you don't like instances or really long PvE raids, then you won't care that much. Again, it seems the PvE portion of the game was designed as an afterthought while the RvR is fully fleshed out.

What I like about Warhammer

2.) RvR

From the little I've played the game seemed to be really inclined to this mechanic. Everything else seems subsituted in someway to this. You have scenarios which you can play in, think deathmatch rooms, or go to contested areas. The areas are limited but your stats will be adjusted to remain competitive. What hurts it though are the combat animations and the smoothness of gameplay. Also be afraid of the Keep doors. It will take 20min of direct attacking at a door from about a full party plus a catapult to take one down, and once you're inside they respawn. This is an unrealistic problem though since taking a keep is suppose to include many more people. It was fun though even with a small party.

There are some other issues such as class playability, some classes are much funner to play than others, an example is the Chosen and Black Orc. Where on paper they both match up but the Chosen is much more fun to play.

Standard MMO issues all in all, if you really like MMO PvP on a large scale you shouldn't really be afraid of dissapointment. WAR will deliver on that point.

I've been playing in the WAR CB for a week or two now.

The Good: Unique zones, and the RVR. Some classes are fun.

The Bad: Character Animations, and boring classes. PvE seems a bit weak also. The crafting system was also not present in the phase I played.

When I say animations, I mean that sometimes animations won't finish or start at all. This includes channelling bars won't pop up and you don't know what the heck you're doing unless you concentrate on the combat log. When you get stunned you don't know you're stunned or disabled. You simply stand there and can't attack.

Just last night we were taking an enemy keep and the guards spawned in a way that made them untargetable. RvR looks to be a blast though, we setup a catapult and spent 20 min destroying an unguarded door. Lol, it's one of those things that more fun with more people participating.

Throught the years I'm sure I was affected by something she did in someway whether it was lurking on the forums or going through articles. I was a big Tabula Rasa fan so I'm sure I read some of her works there.

I can't help but feel somewhat amazed and a little bit ashamed. She is my age and we've probably been in the MMO community the same time and she has accomplished so much more than myself. I can't help but feel I wish I was more like her. She is a prime example of what a great mmo-er is.

GG Taera

This is taken from a user who commented on the article:

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I like this. The idea of a boss which is plausibly defeatable, yet would take over 18 hours to do so? That's how characters with [immortal] tags SHOULD be treated. Because everything can, in theory, be killed...
The players who are mad enough to go for the entire thing, well... 'grats to you, but ya still didn't take it down. This is just the MMO version of Penance or Emerald Weapon, a fine FF traditional of sheer stupidity, the pinnacle of Sisyphean tasks. I would even go so far as to say that FFXI would not deserve its mainline numbering without such an insane quest.

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I see it from angle of that point of view. Not everyone has to do it, it's only for those who dare. I like the idea, it separates from those who want it from those who really want it. It's sorta beautiful, to risk your life for something you love so much. Who cares what others say, kudos to them and I'm happy that none of them suffered permanent injury.

I thought this was going to be a long well thought-out life changing epiphany on the meaning of true happiness. Talk about high hopes, lol.