Warhammer Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Syp: My parents bought an Atari 2600 in 1982, and it was downhill from there. How can World of Warcraft top River Raid? Asteroids? YAR'S REVENGE? But still I've soldiered on over the years, mostly gravitating toward computer games and role-playing in particular: Wasteland, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and various MMOs. I've dabbled a bit in both the role-playing community (as I have a hard time with Victorian English and finding Elves sexy, I get spotted as a poser easily) and PvP aspects (where my jumping skills are only challenged by my eating death skills). Generally, as a gamer, I'm what I call casual-hardcore: I play too much and too regularly to be truly casual, but if an MMO starts to become grindy or chore-like I back off no matter what the rewards might be for continuing on. As my guild motto goes, "If you're not having fun, you're not playing a game".

Syp: As I've admitted on WAAAGH!, I might well be the worst person to cover WAR: I'm not a lifelong PvPer, nor am I extremely well-versed in the Warhammer universe. However, I'm exactly the type of person that Mythic is trying to reach out to and include in the Warhammer community, so I don't see my viewpoint or growing experience in the Warhammer universe invalid either. It's funny, WAR's RvR focus turned me off to the concept for the longest time, as I'm not overly crazy about a 13-year-old rogue stabbing me to death while my character decides it's a good time to take a nap. But over the past year, previously anticipated titles like Age of Conan or Wrath of the Lich King have dulled in my heart, while WAR's coverage began to win me over. The "feel" of the game seems perfect, the Tome of Knowledge is a collector/achiever's dream, and I absolutely applaud Mythic's get-out-and-talk-with-the-fans approach to keeping us informed and in the loop. Blizzard, in comparison, is a clandestine government organization when it comes to community relations.

Syp: A lot of people predict that WAR's delay from summer '08 to fall will cause a lot of previously-committed WAR players to switch over to Conan. And they certainly might, for sure, but I think Conan will end up being a very niche game, and in getting its release out of the way, we'll regain the hype momentum for WAR by mid- to late-summer. As for Lich King, listen -- we all will buy it. We know that. But it's simply not causing gamers, even die hard WoW vets, to wet their pants in excitement. If WAR comes out at the exact same time as Lich King, and both games are well-polished, then gamers have a choice: to play "more of the same" yet to continue existing characters, to try something refreshingly new and different, or to do both. I think Mythic's attitude of fearlessness when it comes to going head-to-head with WoW says a lot about their confidence in their project, and their dedication to make a great game first and worry about marketing dates later.

By 2009, I think Mythic should have at least a quarter million players, but I'm prepared to be surprised to the tune of one million or more.

Syp: Conventional wisdom says, hey, no MMO to date has given us a title that fully satiates both the PvP and PvE crowd -- so why will WAR be any different? The answer to that is "options". WAR is built around an RvR focus, and there's no denying that it's their crown jewel feature. They're not going to downplay that or to try to woo PvE players by saying "We're going to make a nice, safe, tame PvE section and never encourage you to get your nose bloody in PvP". They're saying, "This is a PvP, RvR-centric game, and it'll be far richer for it than any MMO you've experienced yet. However, we're going to give you options. We're going to encourage you to be well-rounded in your game time. There's PvE for when you don't want to be ganked. There's raids for when you want a huge group of buddies to accomplish something major. There's public quests for that solo/group hybrid mentality, and there are Tome unlocks and character leveling for your solo enjoyment." As a gamer, I adore options. Narrow the options, and I get miserable; widen them and I'm ecstatic.

Syp: "Lore" is a bit of an insidery RP term that most casual players don't get. Let's use "story" instead to refer to both the ongoing narrative of the game and the backstory behind it. My biggest disappointment with MMOs is that they have incredibly failed with implementing good story in comparison to single-player RPGs and Adventure titles. Because combat is a repeatable feature and story is not, story gets shoved to the back burner: clunky boxes of quest text that no one reads, references here and there to people and places you don't get because you're not a human encyclopedia, and a problem making you the center hero of a story while you're sharing that story with thousands of others. Devs need to realize that the average player doesn't want to do homework to understand the depth and richness of the game world's lore -- we really need it spelled out for us in a natural way. Think cut scenes (a la Guild Wars) that involve our characters. Think WAR's Tome, which will write a "book" of your explorations, accomplishments and observations in the world (a la Wikipedia). Think a world that reacts and interacts with you without you having to initiate it first (a la Fable).

Undoubtably, WAR has a great rich story behind it, and the devs hopefully will see the need to bring casual players up to the level of hardcore Warhammer fans in terms of story knowledge just as much as bringing up the causal player's skill to compete with the hardcore.

Syp: I purchased mine and couldn't be happier. I don't think there's a downside to CE's, unless there are gamers out there who truly want one (or the features contained within) but can't afford them. CE's are a huge "thank you!" to the dedicated fan who wants to jump start in the game with a premium taste in their mouths. I hope we keep hearing more and more countries selling out their CE's, as this is a great sign that Mythic's built up a serious fan base. You have to be, to pay $30 extra (and $80 on the whole) for a title that won't be out for at least a half of a year. If they can sell a CE, they know they have a better-than-average chance of retaining that customer for a long time.