Carrot on a Squig

What keeps you interested in Warhammer Online

            I’ve always had a love of the Warhammer World, starting almost six years ago when I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battles with my Skaven army.  When I started playing Fantasy, I kept asking myself if the game would ever be turned into a computer game, and eventually I would have my question answered when Climax announced their development of Warhammer Online.  Since the announcement that Warhammer Online was in development, I became an interested follower of both the game and the MMORPG genre.

            Having started in the MMORPG scene by playing traditional MUDs (text based MMO’s) I had an idea of what to expect in terms of Warhammer Online, but my inexperience with more visual based games such as Everquest and Ultima Online led me to start investigating further into the MMORPG family of games.  The idea behind Warhammer Online has resulted in one of my darker sins, as it was directly involved in getting me to play World of Warcraft.  When the original Warhammer Online project was cancelled, I was crushed but still interested in the MMORPG genre after all the research I had done while waiting for Warhammer Online.  Ironically enough, the announcement of Warhammer Online being picked up by Mythic has actually made me play less and less World of Warcraft in anticipation of release of the new Warhammer Online.  So even as just an idea, the Warhammer Online project fostered enough interest to pull me into the MMORPG market, and I’m sure that I’m not the only player who was pulled in by it.

            As for what attracts me to Warhammer Online more then any other MMORPG, I would have to say that the big pull would be the setting and theme of the world.  I’ve always been a fan of the Warhammer world and the darkness that surrounds it.  Having originally played darker games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and even the Ravenloft D&D setting I’ve found myself more and more attracted to the theme that Warhammer portrays.  While Warhammer has the traditional fantasy races (Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, etc, etc) it gives them a darker side that really gives the world itself a dark flavour that makes it interesting to game in.  If I wanted to play in a traditional fantasy world I would likely be playing Lord of the Rings Online or even the recently released Dungeons & Dragons Online, however I am looking for a game that presents a different theme, and for me that would be the Warhammer world.

            Besides my obvious love of the dark theme that is portrayed in Warhammer, I think the next big attraction would have to be the actual number of choices presented by it.  Even with the released information by Mythic there looks like there will be a total of 6 different “races” to chose from (seven if you include Goblins, those tricky little green punks), a prospect that really appeals to me.  With Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I’ve always had difficulty finding a faction that I want to play just because there are so many different factions out there to choose from, I usually find myself picking up a few models for one faction then deciding on another.  At least with Warhammer Online I should be paying less a month then the standard cost of a Games-Workshop boxed set of models (sounds like a good topic for an article right there…).

            I feel obligated to talk about one of the most obvious reasons that I have such high interest in Warhammer Online, the fact that it will be the first time seeing a tabletop war-game translated into an MMO style of computer game.  With any online game there are the obsessive players that find themselves doing things that even the standard gamer would find “too much”, and likely we’ll see a whole new variety of this obsession brought into the online and tabletop world with Warhammer Online.  There has always been a distinct difference (for the most part) between people who play Fantasy Battles and miniature gamers who do historical gaming (Napoleonics, etc, etc), and it will be interesting to see if in the online medium we will see “Historical Warhammer” players come out who point out inaccuracies with the game.  While not something that may necessarily be good, seeing the tabletop game translated into an online world has a strange attraction for me (just like science projects back in grade 6), but I just worry about someone doing an army of his guild and converting each model to match the guild members... because you know it’s going to happen!

            What would Warhammer be without really getting into the War part of the name?  If there’s one thing that has a large majority of players interested, it is the possibilities of Player VS. Player combat set against the backdrop of the Warhammer world.  With a game that’s based around epic army battles, I am sure that there will be some excellent PvP action happening and I look forward to it.  One of the things I found most enjoyable about World of Warcraft was the ability to join in the PvP battlegrounds and actually play against other players, and based off the theme of the game, the PvP action presented in Warhammer Online should be top notch.  If there’s one thing that has me intrigued as to how they will pull it off successfully and still keep the Warhammer feel to the world, it is the Player VS. Player / Realm VS. Realm system that will be implemented.

            Backed by an excellent pre-made theme for a world, a huge number of choices for the players to possibly explore, an interesting concept with a game turned from tabletop to the online world, and the chance for a revolutionary PvP system, Warhammer Online is one of the more interesting games about to hit the market (why else would we cover it here at TenTonHammer?).  In the next few months we should be seeing more information in relation to the game, the mechanics, and even more of the overall theme that Mythic seems to be going for during their development of Warhammer Online.  It should be an interesting few months ahead, and I can tell you that I’m one person who’s hooked all the way!

-Ratboy

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