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

By Justin Webb, Senior Designer for WAR

As the days go by, and the release date gets closer and closer, strange things begin to happen. Activity within the Mythic hive shifts, priorities change, people start catching fire. The “feel” throughout the offices is a bit different than normal. It’s still busy, but there’s a funny taste in the air. People stay later, spirits are imbibed, and prayers are made to the server gods.

But what’s it like? There are hundreds of articles out there about MMO production. But not many describe what it’s like at T-minus-7 and counting. What happens when devs can see, almost touch, the light at the end of the tunnel? What happens in the final few days before the launch of a major MMO?

And more importantly, what does it smell like?

Justin Webb, WAR Blogger on the Prowl

Stardate: Tuesday September 10th 2008: 3PM

Lance Robertson [Insider Note: Lance is the WAR Producer] sends out an email to everyone in the building. It’s just twelve words…

We need everyone to jump into Empire/Chaos from 7:00pm until 9:00pm.

The call has been made. Sides are chosen. Battle commences …

Instead of Vent to communicate, warbands use old-fashioned shouting. The eighth floor is a babble of expletives as QA and our Elder testers school everyone. Adam Gershowitz [Insider Note: Adam runs the Careers & Combat Strike Team] makes the mistake of not checking what realm the rest of the Careers & Combat team is on. He becomes a lone bastion of Order as all his minions pick Destruction. Despite being a marked man (dwarf?), somehow his Engineer manages to rank first place in five consecutive Nordenwatch runs.

8:20PM
Justin: Hey Adam. Are you busy?

Adam: OUT OF MY FACE CRAIG! EAT MY KNOCKBACK! … Sure, come on in.

JW: Thanks. It’s the final week before launch. What is your team working on right now?

AG: We’re playing through making sure the first 10 levels of each race are fun and that the ability progression feels right. We’re also taking a hard look at tweaking combat responsiveness. [He points to the screen] It’s solid and fun. I’m gonna kill Rob now.
[Insider Note: Probably Rob Hinkle: However, Rob is a Mythic-approved name – there’s hundreds of ‘em] C’mere Rob. EAT IT! I’m busy killin’.

JW: Yeah, it felt very smooth when I was playing just now.

AG: NOT FAIR! YOU HAVE HEALERS!!! GET SOME! … Hold on a second, my team is trying to **** me.

JW: Erm, I’ll come back later.

8:30PM
I head toward Paul’s office and the refuge of the comfy chairs. Inside he hands me a large heavy block of plastic. We sit down and Paul presses a button on the block …

[Click]

PB: The first thing Justin’s had to do is to take some information down.

JW: They’re not going to get to hear this. I’m going to transcribe it.

PB: No, no he is. But as a result, he’s going around thinking “well how do I take notes down?” He’s come to my office, where he’s nicked my Richard Nixon tape recorder. Trust the Creative Director to have a piece of wacky pre-Carter-administration technology.

JW: Let’s take a picture of that then.

PB: Yeah, we can do that.

JW: Do they even still make these?

Some tools of the trade.

PB: So, what do I think of the beta? I play the version that we take to shows. It’s a stable version, and its weeks, months sometimes, behind the actual build. And we’ve been in so much crush and so many things have come together at the last minute, that when you actually get to log into the game like I have, its probably the first time I’ve seen it for seven weeks, so the difference is ULTRA dramatic, cos I haven’t gone through the preview weekend and preview weekend plus and that. I’ve just gone Wow, It’s really great, really beautiful, loads of new icons, loads of new faces I’ve never seen before…

Erm, I’m just walking over here to stop my dwarf getting killed.

It’s really nice, it’s really pretty. I’ve got a couple of things I don’t like about it. But that’s what happens innit?

JW: So you’ve been gone for seven weeks …

PB: FOR EVER! … Well, it’s a shade over eight weeks.

JW: Do you want to know what the absolute best thing about you being gone for eight weeks was?

PB: What? You got to go to use my office and sit in my chairs?

Paul's comfy chairs.

JW: No, I got to steal your parking space.

PB: [Chuckles] Thanks a lot. I’m glad it was some use to you.

PB: What’s it like? Erm … Well we’re in open beta, which is actually a con word for blatant marketing. We can’t push this version of the server [points at screen] onto our open-beta people because, actually, they would object. So what we’ve done is we’ve bullied everyone into staying late. So we can throw 300 people at the server in a constrained area and smash it to death. This is the latest print of the latest build. Most people who have worked on it haven’t gone ‘ome. And they smell. And are mostly drinking all the alcohol in Colin Shannon’s office. I’m having a great time so far … but I am playing a dwarf.

Colin Hicks walks in [Insider Note: Colin is the Deputy Producer]

[Barnett starts messing with the interface]

JW: Ooh what’s that?

CH: That’s the CSR Appeal window. It’s got the Knowledge Base. It’s got Frequently Asked Questions. You can put in an appeal. You can say that Jeff Hickman PvPed you. And erm. … [starts typing] … “Jeff Hickman is mean. He’s making me stay here all night. Please call HR to come rescue me.”

JW: Erm… I may have been recording this conversation. … [Silence] … So, seriously Colin, have you seen anything in the last few days that …

An EA Mythic parking space.

PB: I JUST SAW THE TRAILER! I’ve got the gold master and it played the cinematic. That was awesome.

JW: COLIN, have you seen anything in the last couple of days that you hadn’t seen in a while and ….

PB: OOOH! The new crafting window! I saw that! That was really nice. The one with the mushrooms … that grow.

JW: That’s been in for six months.

CH: He hasn’t played. He’s been being an internet celebrity for the past six months. I don’t think he’s ever seen the game.

PB: OOOOH! Look at that! Noooo! Colin, can’t we have it added back in?

CH: We can’t. It’s done. The game is done! We are literally putting the last four changes in the game right now.

PB: Can’t I have 4.1 changes?

CH: If you’d like the game to blow up and break on launch day we can put it in.

JW: That would not be good.

8:45PM
Careers & Combat become afflicted by the red mist. Tempers flare. Weaponry and ordnance is quickly assembled as the battlefield switches from Deathsword to the hallways of the eighth floor. There are many Nerf casualties.