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WAR - Launch Interview Part One: Jeff Hickman
Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down in separate interviews with Jeff Hickman, Josh Drescher and Mark Jacobs to talk about the launch of Warhammer Online, the game that they have both been working on diligently for the last three years. In today's Part One Jeff Hickman answers the questions.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down in separate interviews with Jeff Hickman, Josh Drescher and Mark Jacobs to talk about the launch of Warhammer Online, the game that they have both been working on diligently for the last three years.
I asked both Jeff and Josh of them the same set of questions about the game and its launch. In Part One, Jeff Hickman answers our questions, Part Two will give us Josh’s answers to the same questions and Part Three will give you an overview of my one-on-one conversation with Mark Jacobs about not only the launch, but EA, Mythic’s future and more.
In Part One though, It’s Jeff Hickman’s turn to answer our launch questions:
How do you feel now that this stage of development is over for Warhammer Online?
Jeff’s answer:
“I feel fantastic,” he answered. He went on to talk about the fact that he, and everybody in the building, is feeling a bit ecstatic. They are excited, he tells us, because they feel that they have made an awesome game. He told me that he is enjoying the ecstatic feeling that seems to be going around.
All in all, and for all of the enthusiasm that he clearly has for his title, you can literally hear the exhaustion in his voice.
Did anything make it into the game near the end that you thought might not make it?
Jeff’s Answer:
Jeff told us that the project had been run on a very strict timeline and that the focus for the end of development was difficult to decide on. In the end though, it was the Auction House feature that wasn’t where they wanted it to be two months out. They had to think about how they wanted to proceed and even considered (at least for a short time) not having it in at launch (Which, Jeff admitted, would have been a very bad thing as the auction house plays such an important role in the game’s economy).
He said that going in-game now and seeing it in the game and watching people use it, putting things up and watching them buy things, feels great.
“Our plan came together,” he said. “We planned it out the way that it is when you play the game now, it’s what we talked about three years ago (in general).”
Is there anything that didn’t make it into the game that you’re looking to add in the next few updates?
Jeff’s Answer:
While he couldn’t give any timeline details, he was able to tell us a little bit about what features they hoped to add in the future including additions to the Tome of Knowledge (crafting, competitive aspects, etc.).
“Most of our primary systems,” he said, “RvR, Public Quests… The way that we put all of those together are pretty much exactly how we wanted them to be. We have some more cool things that we will do, but our systems are right where they’re at.”
He expanded on this by talking a bit about wanting to improve character customization by giving players more options, more trophies and the like.
Were there any announced features that didn’t make it into the game and we don’t know about?
Jeff’s answer:
“There’s none of that for us,” he said, “The things that we said were going to be in, or announced wouldn’t be in (the classes and capital cities, for example) are or aren’t there.”
Basically, what he was saying was that if they said previously that it would be in and didn’t tell us otherwise, it’s there. He did admit that there are probably a few things that might have been said early on that just didn’t make it (This is almost inevitable on some level). The example that he gave me came from a while back when the plan was to have the character models change as they progressed…. Orcs would get larger, Drawf beards would grow… Somewhere along the time this idea got tossed. As Jeff pointed out, it was really cool for those two races, but what do you do for Empire? High Elves?
He did assure us though that there wouldn’t be any big surprises as may have been the case with other releases.
There has been some concern among head-starters that Destruction populations are going to dwarf (excuse the pun) Order. What can you say to this?
Jeff’s Answer:
It’s something that they saw coming and there are a number of steps that they are taking to prevent this:
- Servers are capped by realm so that in the long run, it’s going to be hard for a server to be truly unbalanced.
- Hardcore fans (those who pre-ordered or got the CE) were expected to “hit Destruction really hard”. They also expect that to balance out after launch as the standard edition players hit the servers today.
What makes Warhammer stand out the most (especially from World of Warcraft, which some people accuse WAR of cloning)?
Jeff’s Answer:
“Nobody said this is a revolution in MMO making,” he answered. “This is evolutionary. There are some thing that we do that are fundamentally awesome. Take RvR for example. Some people could claim that it’s just another PvP game, but it’s not... It’s game changing. Public Quests… I think 100% that while they are evolutionary from quests that other games have done, the way that we’ve integrated them into our game and the things that we do with public quests are outstanding.”
fix link please
Yea so far the launch has went awesome, at least the NA launch has, dont know about over seas. Yea destruction is way out numbering the order right now which sucks because the que times for scenarios is long sometimes, other times its right away. Having a blast though, just wish they would give more information on the cut classes not really a time line more of a we are working on it and we expect them to be in. You can see the Black Guards as NPC's in the game and they look awesome.
Unfortunately there are several issue with GOA's release over here in the EU. Website not working properly, people not beeing able to register an account, then not beeing able to enter cd-key, then slow patching (looks like it will take 10 hours for me with 100MB connection).
It will all be forgiven if the game runs ok once the patching is done, but I think it was a bad decision not to allow people without head start to download the patch in advance.
So, in the reply to "Is there anything that didn’t make it into the game that you’re looking to add in the next few updates?", i dont see anything about the cities cut before launch......
I also dont see where the "reporter" asks about such a large ommision in said reply ?
So are those cities gone for good ?
Or was the "reporter" just trying to avoid asking questions that the customers might not like the answers too?
Yes, no mention of the missing classes. Could it be that they'll try to skate by without adding them, confident that people will adapt? This omission speaks volumes about their prioritizing. Capitol cities a higher priority than sufficient class coverage so that all races start out on even footing? I give it three months before the imbalances start alienating people. Mythic may be used to operating a game with a dwindling population, but I'm not sure EA is going to stand for it long.
This "reporter" felt that this had been covered over and over again at the time of the announcement. Also, if you look at the actual response, Jeff said something about the fact that there were things missing from the game that we knew about and they weren't there. That wasn't the question.
The Capital cities and the classes being cut is a story that we covered extensively. Actually, it was this "reporter" who originally broke the story with an interview with Mark Jacobs. It's old news and doesn't need to be re-hashed every time the game is discussed. They cut them. They were open and honest about it. What more do you want?
Just so you don't have to look it up again:
“There’s none of that for us,” he said, “The things that we said were going to be in, or announced wouldn’t be in (the classes and capital cities, for example) are or aren’t there.”
Basically, what he was saying was that if they said previously that it would be in and didn’t tell us otherwise, it’s there.
So, with all of that in m ind, maybe the "reader" should have read the article more carefully before making an offensive and uninformed "accusation" on the forums?
after playing war a two city system works better. I hope they add the classes back in again..i wanted to play dark elves but none of classes appeal to me..please mythic bring back the blackguard.
This "reporter" felt that this had been covered over and over again at the time of the announcement. Also, if you look at the actual response, Jeff said something about the fact that there were things missing from the game that we knew about and they weren't there. That wasn't the question.
The Capital cities and the classes being cut is a story that we covered extensively. Actually, it was this "reporter" who originally broke the story with an interview with Mark Jacobs. It's old news and doesn't need to be re-hashed every time the game is discussed. They cut them. They were open and honest about it. What more do you want?
Just so you don't have to look it up again:
“There’s none of that for us,” he said, “The things that we said were going to be in, or announced wouldn’t be in (the classes and capital cities, for example) are or aren’t there.”
Basically, what he was saying was that if they said previously that it would be in and didn’t tell us otherwise, it’s there.
So, with all of that in m ind, maybe the "reader" should have read the article more carefully before making an offensive and uninformed "accusation" on the forums?
That won’t happen with the community you have created here, and lack of tone set, as well as the culture this site has become.
Only one game can "Not fail" and all others must be flamed.
There is no room for this thing called "Discussion".
I enjoyed the article.
I'm going to stop reading the replies here, ther're too negative overall.
Problem is, the question was "Is there anything that didn’t make it into the game that you’re looking to add in the next few updates?"
Note its a question about the FUTURE, so saying well the things we said arent there now, wont be there now doesnt do anything to answer it
The next question "Were there any announced features that didn’t make it into the game and we don’t know about?" Is COMPLETELY different and has no bearing on the first as related to cities.Since the dropped cities WERE features players "knew" existed and knew they were dropped.
Surely the difference is not hard to see?The asker did make these questions up right ?
SOOOO>>> are the dropped cities planned to be un-dropped sometime in the future ?Are there any plans to re-include them in the game ?
The answer to this as reported previously is yes they will be. They'll introduce another two cities at a later date. Whether they remove the ones we have now and only ever operate with two cities but rotate them is something that remains to be verified. The intention however is to observe how the cities run and how they're used then improve on what we have in game now. An ongoing process of improvement.
The launch for the Oceanic servers went very smoothly so far. No trouble with anything. Account all verfified all my preorder items and CE items available. Launch imo was as smmoth as CoH which had and still does imo the best launch ever in a MMO.
Having fun, love the Tome as it is to date and looking forward to tier 3 and 4! :)
Well done Mythic!
They have said before that they plan to add in the cities, and if they can get the classes right and the way they want them, they'll add them in. If not, not so much.
You may want to consider looking back at some of our and other site's coverage of the original announcement if you want these answers. The media has more than adequately covered this story.
This "reporter" felt that this had been covered over and over again at the time of the announcement. Also, if you look at the actual response, Jeff said something about the fact that there were things missing from the game that we knew about and they weren't there. That wasn't the question.
The Capital cities and the classes being cut is a story that we covered extensively. Actually, it was this "reporter" who originally broke the story with an interview with Mark Jacobs. It's old news and doesn't need to be re-hashed every time the game is discussed. They cut them. They were open and honest about it. What more do you want?
Just so you don't have to look it up again:
“There’s none of that for us,” he said, “The things that we said were going to be in, or announced wouldn’t be in (the classes and capital cities, for example) are or aren’t there.”
Basically, what he was saying was that if they said previously that it would be in and didn’t tell us otherwise, it’s there.
So, with all of that in m ind, maybe the "reader" should have read the article more carefully before making an offensive and uninformed "accusation" on the forums?
Get em, dice... POW!!!
That was awesome, and I salute you, sir.
This is incredibly offensive, and even though I've read this sort of stuff since the "golden" days of Usenet, it never ceases to amaze me how people can be so sickeningly slanderous without any facts to go on.
I don't know about the work you do and how you do it and the ethics you may or may not keep up while doing it... but *softballing questions for the benefit of an interviewee* is not stuff taken lightly in journalism. And despite what a lot of forum posters may think, it's not that common in the job at all.
I hope you're aware that your remarks do not just criticize the work someone is doing, but also attack the ethical integrity of the person doing it - in short, insult that person.
I wish people would think twice and see if they had anything tangible to go by before they come out with some serious accusation like this.
This is incredibly offensive, and even though I've read this sort of stuff since the "golden" days of Usenet, it never ceases to amaze me how people can be so sickeningly slanderous without any facts to go on.
I don't know about the work you do and how you do it and the ethics you may or may not keep up while doing it... but *softballing questions for the benefit of an interviewee* is not stuff taken lightly in journalism. And despite what a lot of forum posters may think, it's not that common in the job at all.
I hope you're aware that your remarks do not just criticize the work someone is doing, but also attack the ethical integrity of the person doing it - in short, insult that person.
I wish people would think twice and see if they had anything tangible to go by before they come out with some serious accusation like this.
Not only that, but even if the tougher questions are asked, there might not be an answer for it (or it's given off the record). Plus, there's a difference between asking the tough questions and being insulting... something tkobo might want to learn...
This is incredibly offensive, and even though I've read this sort of stuff since the "golden" days of Usenet, it never ceases to amaze me how people can be so sickeningly slanderous without any facts to go on.
I don't know about the work you do and how you do it and the ethics you may or may not keep up while doing it... but *softballing questions for the benefit of an interviewee* is not stuff taken lightly in journalism. And despite what a lot of forum posters may think, it's not that common in the job at all.
I hope you're aware that your remarks do not just criticize the work someone is doing, but also attack the ethical integrity of the person doing it - in short, insult that person.
I wish people would think twice and see if they had anything tangible to go by before they come out with some serious accusation like this.
Unfortunately..some folks don't care about how their comments affect others, I tend to think because we're dealing with the "me" generation...they can't see beyond the ends of their own noses.
If folks had been reading the reviews from this site and from Jon on a regular basis they would already have all the answers to their questions. Like the author suggested, go back in the news items and read up on any news articles where Mythic staff, particularly Mark Jacobs were talking.
They did mention an idea of rotating thru the cities..two at a time I believe, so that it would not always be the same battle objective...different cities ..different setups I would imagine to winning.
They also mentioned that "IF" the cities and the cut classes were coming back in......these would happen in FREE UPDATES to the game and not a paid expansion.
So I really don't see what anyone would be worried about...I see folks get it wrong often enough though...in regard to when or if ...these items that were cut will be back in and how they will be presented.
Reading and comprehending are two good habits that people should have acquired in school long ago...if I am not mistaken.
Cend
Please.. duh it was a smooth launch the graphics are what.. dated at best. If you played in beta lmao after 2 years the graphics didnt take a JUMPING LEAP. Look at World or Warcrafts new expansion coming out. It will dynamic shadows that a NEW.. BRAND NEW mmo wont have. And people were asking for it in beta over and over 1 1 /2 years ago. You cant do silly things like WALK, everyone looks the same if you dont believe me just watch .. level to 20 with ANY toon you wish.. you will look like everyone else down to the HAT, CLOAK, sword, axe. And WOW you can DIE your clothes. This is their way of NOT having to put in more armor, weapons, gear.
And play RVR on the med, high and MAX servers and WATCH what side wins most he time. It was that way ALL through beta.