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Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review: Come for PvP, Stay for WAAAGH! - Edit
7.4
| Pros |
 Endless free trial Fast, furious PvP Much improved performance |
| Cons |
 Hard to recommend subscription Small player base outside Tier 1 Some generic visuals |
The Warhammer franchises have been receiving quite a lot of attention lately. Warhammer 40K recently saw releases for the twin-stick shooter Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team and third-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, while the Warhammer Fantasy setting is getting its own MOBA in the form of Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. With all of the buzz around Games Workshop’s originally miniatures-based settings, we thought it would be a perfect time to dip back into Mythic Entertainment/Electronic Arts’ Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
As we mentioned in our Review and Re-Review, WAR didn’t have the best launch and experienced a mass exodus of players that resulted in several server merges, a streamlining of starter areas, and the general feeling that very few people are playing the game outside of the free trial area. Mythic has done excellently in responding to player feedback about the structure of the game’s World PvP, known as Open Realm vs. Realm (ORvR), added a bunch of new content, and made the Tier 1 starting area an endless free trial, doing a pretty bang-up job in trying to keep the existing population happy and bring in new players.
Plus, WAR still has some of the best PvP action out there, which is only diminished by a lack of players in the middle levels of the game. In our recent experience with Mythic’s MMO, we’ve found that WAR still has some of the same problems we’ve taken issue with, but is much improved and has a very active group of developers behind it that continue to push the MMORPG toward its original vision.
Aesthetics: 7/10
True to its Games Workshop source material, WAR has a refreshing, gritty take on the fantasy genre aesthetic. From the minute you load up the game, you’ll get the sense of constant warfare, either defending your Realm from waves of attackers or pressing forward on the offensive. Dilapidated buildings abound and the architecture, outfits, and designs have an appropriately military feel to them. Mythic has done a great job capturing both the Warhammer aesthetic and feeling of being constantly under siege or always on the attack.
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Combat is pretty fast and furious in WAR.
However, WAR has always looked a little drab, and that hasn’t improved. What has changed is the game’s competition, and while WAR’s stylized approach holds up well enough, it doesn’t compare well to recently released MMOs or others coming down the pipe. This is especially true of the Order side of the game, which includes the Dwarf, Empire humans, and High Elf quest areas. The at-war mentality may be a defining characteristic for these regions, but they otherwise look like generic fantasy locales.
The Destruction side is a lot more interesting, as you get to play alongside a bunch of Greenskins, Chaos humans, and Dark Elves in much more stylized and humorous areas. The Cockney-speaking Greenskins can be hilarious and very close to the Warhammer fiction, while the Chaos human and Dark Elf quest areas are at least a little more colorful than most of the Order regions. The Greenskins in particular pack more personality into the game than most races in other MMOs, and if you like the horde mentality of swarming your enemies, you’ll love fighting with WAAAGH!
The sound and music in WAR are mostly unremarkable, except for the ring of your blades against those of your enemies, which you’ll be hearing a lot of. That’s something!
Gameplay 8/10
WAR’s core combat mechanic is pretty standard, and you’ll find yourself comfortably at home with hotbars, skill rotations, and the like. As you level, you can unlock new abilities at a career trainer and earn Career Mastery points to spend on further specializing your character, and receive “Morale” skills that you can activate after building up morale through combat. You can also earn “Tactics” through PvE and PvP, which are basically slottable bonuses that you can switch out at any time based on your needs in battle. The feel of the combat is pretty fast and fun, while characters feel a little weightless even though the game has collision detection.
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Fight for the glory of WAAAGH!
The questing regions in WAR are split up into Tiers 1-4, which correspond to player levels (Tier 1 is level 1-10, Tier 2 is 11-20, etc.). Each area pits one of the races and their correlates against each other in a battle for control, and all of the quests relate in one way or another to that struggle. So, if you have a vendetta against Dwarves and pick a Greenskin character, you’re in for a treat. The quests themselves are very standard kill and fetch stuff, but being couched within the epic scale of Realm vs. Realm battle helps to keep them interesting.
Plus, everything – and we do mean everything – from quest tracking, rich lore-driven stories for each area, and information about notable figures that you come across, to a collection of the titles you’ve earned, your progress towards different achievements, and lore entries for every type of monster that you meet, are included in the Tome of Knowledge. The Tome is really very handy and a spectacular addition to what could have been a very mediocre PvE experience. Many MMOs have tried to implement something similar, to varying degrees of success, but WAR was the first to do it so cleanly and comprehensively. If you like lore, reading quest text, or even just having all of your achievements and titles in one place, the Tome of Knowledge will add a neat dimension to your gameplay.
Another interesting addition that WAR was first to promote well is the Public Quest system, which allows you to join other players to engage in gated, objective-based quests scattered throughout quest areas. They usually consist of killing a certain amount of mobs, which unlocks the next, harder phase of the quest, which in turn spawns a huge monster or some such to complete the series. All players can join or avoid them as much as they like, and participants are rewarded individually based on their contribution. Participating in PQ’s also works toward your overall “Influence” with the region’s faction, which has its own rewards for doing quest-related objectives. As cool as they are, the Public Quests have been much maligned because of their repetitive nature and the increasing difficulty for finding a group to take them on, with the rapidly diminishing player base. A lot of them have “easy” stages which can be soloed, but tend to be slogfests and don’t offer the same kind of rewards you’d expect from the real thing.
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Some of the environments in WAR are pretty bland...
Keep in mind, everything we’ve discussed so far is the PvE content in WAR (except for the combat, which is the same throughout). On the flipside, PvP is the game’s main focus and where WAR truly shines. What good would all the war-like aesthetics be if you didn’t get to unleash your wrath against other noobs?! WAR’s PvP is some of the fastest, most furious, and satisfying player-versus-player combat in any type of game, and there’s a whole lot of it. Every Tier of leveling is supported by open world, Realm vs. Realm battles for region control, while you can also queue up for instanced scenarios anywhere, or participate in high-level campaigns to take over the opposing side’s Capital City. The action is tremendously fun and crunchy, and you get “Renown,” or PvP XP, as well as regular XP for doing pretty much anything, making PvP a viable leveling track and great way to get uber rewards and bragging rights. Plus, all of this is tracked and embellished in the Tome of Knowledge alongside the PvE content.
Our favorite PvP’ing has to be the quick-fix scenarios, but they exhibit the same issue that exists within all of the PvP in WAR, which is the lack of people to play with in Tiers 2 and 3. There’s understandably a bunch of face-punching going on in the free trial area, and top-level players seem to be active as well, but not enough people in the middling areas to give it a go. If you queue up for a scenario, be prepared to go questing, read up on your Tome of Knowledge or make a sandwich while you wait for a group to fill up. Open Realm vs. Realm is no better in this respect, as you can usually just jaunt up to a control point and click on it to claim it for your faction and move onto the next one without any resistance. Taking an enemy keep requires a little more coordination with a party but is still easy to do without any opposition. Plus, there are several quests that require you to fight enemy players, which will sit in your quest log until you find other people online.
Mythic has been really good about responding to player feedback and trying to work with the need for more players in PvP. Capturing zones in ORvR is now much more streamlined, only requiring one faction to grab the other side’s keep, rather than waiting for timers or depending on victory points. The devs have also added a “WAR Report,” which gives you information on different battlefield objectives and hotly contested areas, and lets you know which regions are experiencing a high population. The server merges have helped consolidate the player base as well, and you’re no longer required to split your Order and Destruction characters among servers, although you’ll have to wait to switch sides if you engage in ORvR.
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...while others are pretty epic.
Mythic is also always shuffling and balancing PvP scenarios and adding new content, such as the Skaven, which are a Tier 4 race that you can play with in RvR, and regular world-wide events. The endless free trial is certainly helping to bring people to the game, but not necessarily getting them to continue on past the Tier 1 content. We still think PvP is WAR’s strongest selling point, but in the middle levels the low player population leaves much to be desired.
Innovation: 8/10
The Tome of knowledge is a fantastic addition to WAR and adds a layer of personality that’s sometimes lacking in the game. Similarly, Public Quests, problematic though they may be, break up the monotony of questing and provide some fun opportunities for group content that is well-steeped in the Tome’s lore. We can’t help but compare both the Tome and PQ’s to similar features in more recent MMOs that implement them a bit more elegantly (hint: starts with “T” and ends with “rion Worlds’ Rift”) , but WAR opened the door in the MMO genre for these additions.
PvP in WAR is still some of the best available. Mythic’s approach to PvP, fashioned through their experience developing Dark Age of Camelot, results in very satisfying and fast-paced brawls between players that other MMOs have yet to catch up with. There are few games out there that offer as feature-rich of a PvP experience as WAR, or that do it as effectively.
Polish 8/10
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is much more polished than at launch. It’s much more stable and feels more like a complete product than it has in the past. Quests and NPCs work as they should, PvP isn’t perfect (depending on who you ask) but is continuously being tweaked, and the UI, while somewhat cluttered, is fully functional.
WAR has basic crafting and equipment dye systems, which work fine, but aren’t as full-featured as in other MMOs. The crafting system in particular is fun to play around with but otherwise not very compelling in the whole scheme of the game. We’re not of the mind that every MMO needs to have a huge emphasis on crafting, but we do think that if it’s included, it should be as detailed as the rest of the game, with clear incentives for participating in it.
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Watch the beard!!
Longevity 7/10
There are 24 different careers to choose from (some of which were added post-launch), split between Order and Destruction, and four Tiers to play through if you like WAR’s content. The careers are pretty varied and have a lot of personality, and are worth checking out if you like making alts. Seriously, we have over 10 characters across both factions. If you have a few friends to play with, you can certainly have a blast plugging through the PvE areas and Public Quests, but you might have a hard time finding bigger groups.
As we’ve mentioned, PvP is a completely viable leveling track if you’re not interested in PvE, but it’s especially hard to find active scenarios and Open Realm vs. Realm groups in the middle level range, so your mileage may vary. PvP is also your best long-term option for endgame play, so if you’re the bloodthirsty type, you’ll be right at home.
Social 7/10
It’s clear that WAR was originally designed for a lot of interaction between players, simply through the nature of Public Quests and the different PvP modes. It’s very easy to join public groups for questing and ORvR, and you can join scenario queues from anywhere in the world. There’s also a well-made guild finder, and joining a guild might be the way to go to tackle some of the harder content and coordinate PvP offensives. Otherwise, as we’ve mentioned, it can be very hard to find other people in the middle level range.
Mythic’s continuous efforts toward increasing the population and implementing player feedback is readily apparent, and goes a long way toward improving the general perception of the game. It feels as though WAR ‘s population is slowly growing, which is exactly what it needs to show off its best features. Although numbers are nowhere near what they were at launch, if Mythic continues to incentivize players to come to the game and make it easier for them to immediately get their PvP on, we could easily see WAR becoming more popular pretty quickly.
Value 7/10
You can’t beat the endless free trial area, which allows you to play through Tier 1 of the Empire and Chaos human pairing, although restricting you from the Capital Cities or from sending in-game mail and using the Auction House or Bank. After getting a taste of the action, you’ll probably want more, but it’s a little hard to recommend the $14.99 subscription fee when the game experience changes drastically after Tier 1 because of the small population.
We can’t help but think a full free-to-play overhaul would help WAR’s population and success immeasurably. It makes a certain kind of sense to offer entry to each Tier through separate purchases so that you can pay as you go, or give some kind of discount for buying all of the content at once. Mythic is already using EA’s Origin store to sell packs that unlock Renown ranks, accelerated leveling, tokens to change your character’s look, vanity pets, and mounts. We have to think it would be relatively easy to implement a new revenue model, and well worth their – and your – time.
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WAR's PvP is still some of the best.
Conclusion
If all of this sounds like we’re being overly harsh on WAR, let’s get one thing straight: Mythic’s MMORPG is fun. It’s certainly still some of the best PvP on the market and the active developer updates and involvement with the community are a big plus. The core game is still there, and much more polished than at launch, and while the low population makes it harder to get into Open Realm vs. Realm and the scenarios, there’s still a lot to do in WAR and Mythic seems to be working hard to bring players to the game.
We’re also really excited to get our hands on Wrath of Heroes, which seems like it distills the fast and furious action from WAR while doing away with the PvE bits. Curiously, Mythic’s new MOBA will be F2P and is branded under the Warhammer Online name, which makes us think that Wrath of Heroes could be a great way to introduce gamers to the Warhammer Universe and act as a gateway to the MMORPG. We certainly hope that it’s great and that Mythic finds a way to tie it in easily with WAR, and uses its projected popularity to bring players to their MMO.
A switch to free-to-play for WAR itself would do wonders for the game’s population and improve the PvP experience immensely, although nothing has been announced along those lines. Wrath of Heroes could provide the exposure the MMORPG needs to revitalize its player base and realize its potential as one of the best PvP MMOs in the genre, which is certainly no less than it deserves.
Perfect example of "too little, too late"
This game had tons of wasted potential...
I can summarise the important points here:
Pros: Endless free trial that caps at end of Tier1 (level 15)
Cons: Small player base outside Tier 1
In conclusion, as long as you don't mind a slight limitation in content, play it for free and enjoy nearly constant Tier 1 rvr. Win win. To be honest, I never enjoyed the transition into Tier 2 anyway since everyone and his grandmother gets knockbacks which makes combat a fairly frustrating affair being bounced about the place every time you try to cast a heal.
WAR would do much better under freemium due to the lack of playerbase outside of tier 1 or max level. It seems Mythic is afraid of the freemium model and it's literally impossible to ask players that want new characters to pay to play a game that is 75% deserted. At least freemium would add players to the game and make ORVR more interesting.
Personaly I loved the nedless free trail i had a blast while playing it and loved the look and the feel to the game what kill me was there is not many players. I think if this game went free to play like AOC did it would be great or if they made there sub like 9.99 instead of 14.99 . I think that would help alot to
The game stinks, end of story.
Warhammer is the best MMORPG ive been played. This game isn't for those fanboys from WoW. Really, I tried WoW but it so retarded. For those who love PvP, never will forget the adrenaline seeing the timer going down when you get in a pvp lake.
I miss War so much, and I hope to get back to this game next year :)
Meh... I'l keep an eye on it to see if it will get any love at all once Heroes is out and running.
My personal bet is not a chance in hell but who knows maybe they can pull this mess together and punt out a GOOD expansion (looking at games like WoW and City of Heroes here) instead of the ten penny stuff that have come out so far.
Also... Woodelves please =P
Overly harsh? o.0
Pretty far from it. In fact I'd characterize this re-re-review as overly charitable if anything. WAR has languished for months (if not years) with minimal updates - most of which consisted of removing content rather than adding it (streamlining is the buzzword du jour).
While what you say about the Tome of Knowledge, the PvE and so on is true at the core, it's irrelevant as the PvE areas are deserted the vast majority of the time. Because of the aforementioned lack of attention - PvP is the only thing that matters in the game, which means anyone that is leveling an alt avoids PvE like the plague. Reason being, if you gain character levels faster than you gain renown rank (the PvP experience point ladder) you'll wind up in Tier 4 vastly underpowered compared to what you can do if you maximize your renown rank ahead of your character level.
So, you're left with half a game that demands a premium subscription rate. Half a game that receives very very few updates relative to other games that command a similar price. That alone would be enough to downgrade the rating from what has been given here.
If EA ever decided to devote a reasonable amount of development resources to the game again (i.e. post SWTOR launch) and try a more inventive subscription plan (freemium or something new) it might be worth rating WAR higher - but as it stands this is a game with a lot of potential that needs to receive a failing grade for implementation.
still not freemium?. Still not playing!.
I loved this game when it first came out, tier 1 was a blast. Then I hit tier 2 and the fun just stopped. I hung on for a long time just making new chars and having fun in pvp until level 19. I went back a while ago and the open world events are deserted so you cant really do them anymore. This is a game that was built around group play and sadly, the sub base just is not there to support group play anymore.
WAR was very fun up until end game, then there wasn't really much to do. But up to T4 was probably some of the most fun, if not THE most fun I've had in an MMO. But as said, the game really only strives on having an active community. But sadly, the community just isn't there anymore and I don't see that changing unless they go F2P.
I don't think WoH will breath new life into WAR while it still has a subscription fee. Especially when people will soon be able play a game like GW2 without a sub fee which will have a lot of the features (and vastly improved upon I might add) that WAR totes. Namely dynamic events and WvWvW PvP.
I never noticed that much in terms of change with this game...it feels about like it did three years ago.
I wanted this game to succeed but did not expect it with only 2 factions. They might have accomplished improvements but not worth my money when I quit during PvP where I could not see anything from the lag and finally catch up to be losing health rapidly being in middle of enemy army or already dead. It was funny to a degree but so many were having the issue because so many of us that it just ended all my desire to play.
Hope it finds enough people to continue but would much rather see a DAoC 2 released.
It's a shame about WAR. This game really, really, really needs to go Freemium. I think this is a good re-review, but the game's continuing problem is its lack of a population after Tier 1. EA and Mythic are making a big mistake in keeping it at the $14.99/mth pay scheme. I would gladly go back if it went Freemium. I had a lot of fun with it for several months after its launch.. specially with the PVP and the Siege Captures.. but once you hit Tier 2 is Dead-City! Empty landscapes and what have you. EA and Mythic really need to think outside the box and come up with a good F2P strategy to bring back customers or this one will be unplugged soon.
Make it $19.99 to unlock tiers 2 and 3 f2p, then charge $4.99/month for tier 4. Continue selling cosmetics, pets, mounts, etc at the origin store, and create adventure packs all aimed at tier 4 priced $7.99 every 4-5 months= profit
I agree. I enjoyed this game quite a bit for about a year. It had its problems, but it also did quite a few things really well.
It became apparent that EA/Bioware/Mythic were not going to support WAR as a AAA game, allowing it to languish in maintenance mode now for years. If they were to really make an effort and spend some money on real development, making some necessary changes and a whole lot of additions, it could be at least a moderately successful game. As it is now, it is simply languishing until eventually they'll pull the plug. What a waste.
war is ok!! and by no means fantastic or great, it could be though!! all they need to do is reign back on the rvr and start working more on the pve aspect of the game, maybe even make the pve side to the game slightly sand box, allow guilds to construct keeps of their own in pve territory and introduce resources and crafting into the game.
as it stands war is to put it simple! pvp onle. the pve content is utterly pointless as it is. the loot is not useful in any way, and the quests are so lonely due to the poor rewards that no one really does the pve aspect of the game, war is also a giant linear gear grind. every one races and grinding renown rank to unlock that all important next set of armour to make them a little more effective in pvp.
sure the rvr side of the game is probably the best pvp out there on the market todate, but its destroying other aspects of warhammer online which could potentially make the game a great game. i think mythic are missing the boat here.
its ok but it could be oh so much better, they could even take more of the warhammer world and introduce it into the game and have scale and scope unrivaled by any other game.
i stopped playing because its just pvp. and pvp is only entertaining for a few weeks a month at best. take a break come back a few months later have another month of pvp get bored play something else.
if they fix that vicious little circle the game will be great.
I got capped exp wise at Level 10, but I can finish T1 though.
I do love the Waaagh
Not harsh enough IMO.
Where did you mention the lack of class balance when it comes to PvP? That was one of the reasons so many people left in droves (among many other reasons).
Look, the game wasn't terrible and had some interesting features, but when one side dominates to such an extent in PvP, the opposing side leaves/quits and thus you have a massive decline in PvP activity, and then another server merge. It's a cycle that just keeps repeating itself.
I suppose recommending the endless free trial is something (since it's free), but that's about it.
the last thing that drove me away from this game was change of my approach from "hey, it has really cool and fast pvp" to "oh hey, theres nothing more to this game than endless repetitive pvp" because lets face it... pve sucks, since its practically impossible to find someone to play with and RP is basically nonexistent
Ah right, haven't played recently, I recall they had extended T1 to level 15 though.
To a certain extent I respect what they tried to do at launch. In the final analysis, the game has diminishing returns but it is good for a bit of mindless hangover rvr'ing. Since the utterly souless pve element is unplayable for all but the most forgiving (or braindead) and since the BGs that open with the tiers don't exactly blow ones mind with advancing novelty (not to mention the fact that keep captures these days mainly entail watching resource carrier NPCs run between point A and point B) I would argue that you'd pretty much seen everything there was to see in the game in T1 and what remained certainly isn't worth a monthly sub.
Played it at launch, it was shit.
Played it a year later, cuz I was bored, well it was still even more shit.
Played it again another year later, cuz i was bored, now i learned if i'm ever bored again dont go back to this game, cuz it just shit.
I dont need to tell what part is bad about the game because, mostly all aspects are - best pvp? lol the realm pvp are people sitting afk in zones to get free points, the biggest faction own their oppasite factions town 24/7 .. best PVP u guys call it? hardly .. more or less the worse excuse for a good pvp game. If you wanna waste time, play this.
While you try to look cool, using the common term of "Im cool cuz i hate WoW" - If you, kid, had tried any of the old MMORPG based on PVP you would laugh at this clueless attempt. Mythic Entertainment, made a game long ago, DAOC that was a serious PVP game, why? 3rd faction .. and hundred other thing.
They made a game year before this that was awesome, now they made this EA speedprduction shit while they have the talent to make a good game.
Nah - try some of the old pvp game, UO/DAOC beofer you raise finger at wow-players.
I came back a month or two ago, and found myself in a difficult way. I was RR 53 in T4. Now, even if the RR cap had stayed at 80, I'd have some work to do. But now, with RR 100 being the limit, T4 is extremely frustrating. The baseline for being even mildly competitive is RR 70, so you can grab your Worn Soveriegn gear (which is why no one does Scens in T2 and T3, to maximize RR and repress XP gain). I struggled through to RR 61, full Warlord, several better iterations of my weapons, and still get hammered on if I am not careful. The best I can do is mill around the back to defend healers, not up in the kill zone where I should be.
It may not be so bad for ranged/casters, but a low RR melee combatant like myself really feels the gulf. I could grind 9 more RR for full Worn Soveriegn, but, honestly, that would only let me live another 2 seconds. Essentially, for me, the game can only really start now at RR 70.
But, I have to admit, when I can find that rare enemy that has comparable gear to me, I enjoy beating them.
I'm surprised Som missed the biggest reason why I don't go back, though he may not have played it long enough to notice.
Once you get to T4 - end game - the grind to get competative gear is absolutely ludicrious and it's only superceded by the disparity between players in R100 gear, and you on your fresh Level 40, R30-50 character. I've seen videos of a low gear Bright Wizard unloading on an AFK R100 gear Chosen, and the Bright Wizard dies first because of his classes Burnout mechanic before he can deal enough damage to kill the Chosen.
It drove me away about a year ago and from what I understand, nothing has been done to fix it.
Patch 1.2 April the 3rd 09 was the beginning of the end for this game.
balancng faction population by nerfing one faction and buffing the other leads to max exodus, then add the Failure of Land of the Dead, and the Raid crowd hammering Mythic for 20 man dungeons, wasn't this game suppose to be a War and not a raiding extranvaganza?
anyways if SWTOR kills it, i doubt Mythic/EA/BioWare will do the F2P thing with it. they'll kill it and let everyone play the second class F2P game Wraith of Heros and hope some company wants to pay big bucks for the IP some day in the future to recoup their loses
You guys should try Realms Online (also known as Regnum Online). It has faction RvR PvP just like Warhammer but there is ALWAYS combat going on in the war areas. I have never been logged in where there hasn't been people fighting in RvR. Beats the pants of Warhammer.
I'm a current subscriber. Coming up on my one year anniversary.
I LOVE the game and play at least two hours daily. But the key things that keep me coming back are:
1) 4 months ago, I found a terrific group of people / guild. [ Shout-out to "Krit Happens" (Order) and "Hammer Kult" (Destro)! ]
2) The huge number of character classes, plus the fact that each one has three different "paths" of mastery skills you can go with, makes each character quite interesting to play.
Yes, there are days when I wish there were more people online. But those days are rare. I really don't have any problem with a zone only having only 10-20 people in it. You can still have some pretty intense fights and zone-struggles with those numbers. And there are MANY when EACH side has roughly 48 people in that zone.
The thing I don't like is how quite often the BALANCE of those numbers is clearly out-of-whack. There are days when it's the Destro Zerg steamrolling over 4 Order players. And there are days when Order has that Zerg and it's hard to find a Destro player to throw a stick at.
Another example of that is the current "Live Event". There are something like 10 objectives you have to complete in order to finish it. Well, I think three of the objectives require a particular scenario to pop. We're playing Tier 2 right now nightly and that scenario just is NOT popping. Scenarios, again, require a number BALANCE between the sides... or at least something reasonably CLOSE.
That's the part that can be a real drag....low enough numbers to cause a huge imbalance between the Factions. So perhaps opening up the game to F2P would help that situation.
That and I DO wish there was more reason to do PVE... because whenever I do go do some PVE, I find the game world to be very, very interesting. Some of it is truly gorgeous and some of the towns and their "problems" (PVE story line) are interesting.
Even if they go F2P, I would probably continue to pay monthly, because I'm having tons of fun every night and I don't want any limits imposed on my favorite toon: ShammyDavisjnr (Shammy...errr....Shaman) !!