2006 In Retrospect

By: Thurston "Ratboy" Hillman

It’s been over a year since I took up the reigns as Community Manager for the Warhammer Online TenTonHammer site, and it’s been packed with so much that I’ve been spending the past hour just going over everything that we’ve seen in 2006.  With several different news pieces, images, trailers, and other media related updates, 2006 has really been a shining year in the development and “hype raising” of WAR.

Remembering the days when we were happy with the revealing of a single WAR zone, I am now astonished to say that we have pages up for ten different zones with two more shortly coming.  Every month we’ve been privy to new places in Warhammer Online, normally relating to the conflict between the Dwarves & Greenskins (with the exception of one Empire/Chaos zone).  Varying from the darkness of the Marshes of Madness to the snowy terrain of Black Fire Pass, EA Mythic has been good at showing off the varied terrains in just one of their three major battlefronts.  If you are interested in more information about the locations so far, by all means check out our Locations Overview Page for all the existing information & media.

Before I went and rambled on about the locations I probably should have started with the races of WAR.  This year we’ve been privy to the entire career arrangement for the Greenskins & Dwarves as well as some of the Empire & Chaos later in the year.  With a total of fifteen careers being touched on before years end, 2006 has had a big showing when it comes to the races of Warhammer.  With just one Chaos career unannounced and the eight Elf based careers to be declared there is still enough room for nine more careers to dazzle the WAR fans!

Karak Eight Peaks

That being said, there’s also been happening behind the scenes that have impacted WAR in some ways.  The biggest change was the purchase of Mythic by EA Games to form EA Mythic.  While there has been little in terms of obvious changes with the EA acquisition, there is certainly some hesitation from the fans as to how this may impact WAR in the far future.  With the relatively recent scandal involving apparent ‘spyware’ in EA’s Battlefield 2142 there was a less then warm welcome from all of WAR’s fans at the announcement of the EA acquisition.  Personally I think the people at Mythic aren’t going to be bullied into changing their game, the merger seems to have only strengthened them based on released content since then.

WAR is going to be different.  Based on what’s been released so far there seem to be a lot more variations across the board, from classes to zones to enemies and even quests.  The best thought I have in this regards would have to stem from my now ‘infamous’ article; “World of Warhamm... Er… Warhammer Online”.  Having played WoW for so long, I can say that the Warhammer Community is different, and I can say that the game will be different.  With all that’s been released so far in 2006 there is a growing following for WAR and soon we’ll start to see players from other games take interest and likely join up on release.  Stealing is not necessarily good…  but it’s certainly the name of the MMO game at the moment, and based off this year’s releases for content, WAR has me sold!

Greenskin render

The biggest moment of 2006 though had to be my trip to E3.  It was at E3 that I got a hands on taste of Warhammer Online and was able to actually try out the game I had been reporting on, and it was well worth the wait.  On top of playing WAR I got to meet the Mythic staff which is probably one of the best things to accomplish in my field.  I’m sure they’ll never forget the bright yellow shirts we wore during our interview (might have blinded a few of them).  It was also at E3 that I got the opportunity to see the full cinematic trailer for WAR; something that I’m sure all of you have seen by now (hint hint!).

High Elves make a showing!

All in all there have been a lot of releases this year when it comes to Warhammer Online, most of which have really been insightful as to the kind of devotion put into the game.  With more on the way we can only guess as to what the first half of 2007 will have in store for Warhammer Online, and what cool treats we can expect to receive from the lands of the Empire & the frozen Northland of Chaos.  There’s also the distinct possibility of pointy eared elves starting to make their way into the online realm as we see the conflicts of the High & Dark Elves detailed by EA Mythic.

It’s been a good year for WAR.  Here’s hoping to a good future!

You can talk more about the 2006 year and the content released during that time over at our very shiny forums!