WAR look any good to you guys?

[Pow42]

Just through my shifting around, I thought I'd take a shot at starting a discussion about an up-and-coming game that scheduled for release Q3 2K8 (which clearly translated to early 2K9 ).

Warhammer Online (WAR for short) is based off of Games Workshops' tabletop fantasy battle game called "Warhammer" (big surprise there I know). EA Mythic boasts that this isn't the typical fantasy game. There's evidently a lot of grit, satire, and hatred sprinkled throughout.

In the game there's supposed to be 2 factions, each consisting of 3 unique races. Each of the 6 races (total) has 4 unique classes (none of which are pure healers ). While the game does have an element PvE, the main focus is RvR. Ransacking cities, and working in a "team" to take down the other faction. Personally being a recovering PvP WoW addict, I can see this game appealing to both the hardcore PvPer, and casual alike.

As anyone who has walked into a computer gaming store in the past year knows, MMOGs are far from sparse. Some of WAR's pay-to-play competitors are WoW, Everquest, Guild Wars, and EVE-Online. This is clearly EA's way of launching itself into this lucrative market full of expensive clients, and monthly fees.

So, in the spirit of healthy discussion, I'd like to forward a few questions to get things going:

-Do you think this game is going to flop like other PvP-oriented MMOs? (i.e. Fury)

-Are you inclined to pick up this game? Have you ever played an MMO before? If so, are you planning to stick with your MMO?

-If you do pick this game up, what race/faction are you planning to play as?

-Do you think the Warhammer universe adds to, or detracts from the overall game play experience?

[Jack.Sparrow]

-Do you think this game is going to flop like other PvP-oriented MMOs? (i.e. Fury) It's probably too early to say, but I don't think it will. EA isn't known for that

-Are you inclined to pick up this game? Have you ever played an MMO before? If so, are you planning to stick with your MMO? No

-If you do pick this game up, what race/faction are you planning to play as? I don't think I'll be getting it, I'm not and have never been a fan of Pay to play.

-Do you think the Warhammer universe adds to, or detracts from the overall game play experience? I don't think it's going to make much of an impact.

[Cellus]

Ahh well now, we'll see won't we? The class mechanics certainly have some unique and interesting twists compared to other MMOs, and if you are a fan of Warhammer Fantasy you might drool at all the lore used.

Mind you not all Warhammer Fantasy games have gone well. Personally, for example, I found Warhammer: Mark of Chaos to be an atrocious game. On the otherhand, for 40K I loved Dawn of War to death.

True you can't compared RTS's and MMO's, but I can tell you Games Workshop does have standards on just how badly you can bork up a game using their intellectual property.

[Pow42]

I couldn't agree more about the whole borked up games. I remember renting that steaming pile of **** called "Fire Warrior" for PS2. While it was fun for the first hour, eventually it got mind-numbingly repetitive, and the final boss felt like it was just another baddie.

Somehow I see the Warhammer license scaring away some prospective people. I mean while the creatures are generally the same as what you'd see in WoW, there's a whole bunch of lore that people would either have to catch up with, or ignore completely.

[Cellus]

Either that or the lore will actually be woven in expertly enough so as to properly introduce newcomers to it. Which I hope it will, because I'd hate to be sucked into buying a nice fat reference book-thick rulebook. I already have two of them from the last two versions of 40K, and while I love the lore to death, the cost would hurt. They ain't cheap.

I hope some people will keep in mind that Warhammer Fantasy really did introduce some concepts IP-wise which were actually taken by others. For example I still hear people after the popular release of Dawn of War complain that it steals from Starcraft. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times: Starcraft stole from Warhammer 40,000.

Then again as a 40K lore-junky, it does please me to no end to envision a duel between a 40K Space Marine and a Starcraft Marine. Anyone who knows just a little about the lore and capabilities of both will snicker with me.

EDIT: Devout genetically-enhanced armored super soldier zealot with rapid-fire micro-rockets > Criminal in tin-plated armor with machinegun. Everytime.

[Pow42]

Apparently Warhammer Fantasy was the first fantasy realm to have green orcs.

One thing that particularly interests me is the idea that your character physically changes the more that you level, and the fact that every class maintains physical distinctions. For example, if I roll a disciple of khaine, then he'll look like one the whole way through the game.

[DumberDrummer]

-Do you think this game is going to flop like other PvP-oriented MMOs? (i.e. Fury)

EA Mythic, formerly Mythic, runs Dark Age of Camelot, one of my favorite PvP MMOs. I have no doubts about their ability to create and run an MMO. Much of DAoC's fanbase is going to move to WAR (me and my guild included)

-Are you inclined to pick up this game? Have you ever played an MMO before? If so, are you planning to stick with your MMO?

Yeah, I'm gonna pick it up to replace the aging DAoC... if it sucks, back to DAoC.

-If you do pick this game up, what race/faction are you planning to play as?

Order probably. I was thinking Caster, dunno which race yet though.

-Do you think the Warhammer universe adds to, or detracts from the overall game play experience?

As an avid fan, I have nothing but high hopes for the WH franchise in this area.

[Cellus]

I loved DAoC. I really hope it will be good. If the initial reviews come out strong I will probably be picking it up.

Mmm... new RvR potential... with dystopic Games Workshop lore to boot!