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Even before I had asked the previous question, I had guessed that Games Workshop and WAR were enjoying a very solid relationship. However, once the game is eventually released, are the folks at Games Workshop thinking of taking some of the ideas from WAR and putting them into the tabletop game?

“We never plan to do that,” Jon said. “Our relationship with the licensees and the licensed products tends to be somewhat distant in that regard, because on our side of the business we’re very focused on what we do. For those that don’t know, we’ve got stores around the world that are specifically there to introduce players to tabletop war gaming and Warhammer, along with our other products.”

“On top of that, we ask a lot of the guys in our stores,” Jon continued. “They have to deal with all sorts of different types of customers, and lots of different products. If we start throwing different things in there to confuse them, it’d just start being overwhelming.”

A scene of Warhammer Online in action.

“What we do though, when it comes to these licensed products, is that if we find something that is quite cool, it’ll probably end up creeping its way into the lore,” Jon said. “Look at Dawn of War with THQ. They wanted to create their own Space Bridge Chapter. That’s fine because we intentionally left the Space Bridge Chapters open ended. There may be a thousand in the universe, but we’ve only detailed may a hundred or so. So when they asked us that, we said that their ideas looked pretty cool and its actually been adopted into the lore of Warhammer 40k.”

“Eventually, we might end up adopting some of the characters or troop types that you see in Warhammer Online into the lore,” Jon continued. “One example that is already out there is the Warhammer Online novel (which was just recently revealed). In the novelizations, the specific storyline and characters from the game have been fleshed out into a whole series based on the Age of Reckoning.”

With so much resting on the sheer imagination and creativity of the developers of their games, how did Games Workshop come into contact with the guys at EA Mythic, and how was that deal ever arranged? When I initially heard about it, I thought it was a sort of spontaneous deal, one that Mythic had been hoping for, but after Jon’s answer, my initial assumption turned out to be very wrong.

“We initially met Paul when he was interested in doing a MUD based on Warhammer,” Jon said. “He did eventually do that, but he’s also been a consultant for me on various things. He actually got involved with the original venture with Climax, the first iteration of Warhammer Online. On top of that, we’ve been very familiar with the products that EA Mythic has released and we’re very confident in their abilities to make a solid game.”

Another shot of Warhammer Online from the show floor.

In Warhammer’s first attempt to field an MMOG, the team that was making that previous game simply couldn’t get anything off the ground. After a bit of time working on the game, Games Workshop pulled the plug and simply cut their losses. According to Jeff, they were incredibly saddened that that had to occur, but Games Workshop wants all of their products to shine with the sort of Warhammer polish that has been a part of Games Workshop for years. But, how does the current Warhammer Online iteration keep from falling into the same trap that the original game from Climax did so many years ago? How is WAR going to succeed, where another game already failed?

“From a player’s standpoint,” Jeff said, “there are things in WAR that exist in other games, but that aren’t really built around that idea. The developers at EA Mythic have really focused their concentration on certain aspects of the game to such a degree that players can’t help but recognize that it’s different. The RvR and PvP aspects draw people in simply because no other game has made RvR and PvP its entire goal. It’s all about war.”

“I was in beta the other day and I started up a character and one of the first things I did was fire some cannons at my enemy,” Jon said. “It was great! I just start the game and I’m already blowing stuff up!”

As we were wrapping up the talk, Jon just wanted to say a few words about the game and the team before we completed the interview.

“Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is looking great, and I think the EA Mythic team is really going to do us proud,” Jon said.

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