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The Tome of Knowledge is a large part of the Warhammer Online and helps the player personalize the game. The Tome tracks everything that you do in the game. “We’re spending a lot on the Tome of Knowledge because we really believe that it is a revolutionary feature, especially when we announced it two years ago,” Mark said. “We continue to expand on it. We want to make it something that becomes uniquely Warhammer. We also hope to do the same with Public Quests.” EA Mythic is hoping that these game features are what set Warhammer apart from other MMOs. The Public Quest system allows players to join quests solo or as a group just by entering an area. Both the Tome and Public Quest system are innovative features that will bring Warhammer to life for the player.  

However, a concern among many MMO players is that a game can become an arms race, especially when RvR plays such an important role. Some games focus on loot, others skill. Where will Warhammer fall?

“We’re trying to have a balance,” Mark stated. “Loot is certainly going to be more plentiful and more interesting than in Dark Age of Camelot.”

“Is it going to be an arms race?” he continued. “No, but you have to give people options. We don’t want to go down the route of being a simple grind for loot. We want to reward players for doing the things that they should be doing like RvR and sacking a city. Things that give you bragging rights. So there is a fine line that we have to walk.” Mark did say that they are testing a new loot system right now to keep loot interesting as well as logical.

A view of the Warhammer booth.

As part of the interview, I mentioned the Darkness Falls dungeon in Dark Age of Camelot and what a success it was. For those who may not know, Darkness Falls was a raid style dungeon that could be won over by the different factions of DAoC through RvR combat. If another faction took over the majority of relics and won the dungeon, a huge fight would break out as the winners could go in and fight the faction that held it before them. The result was always a mad battle that broke out among the halls of Darkness Falls. I asked Mark about rumors that they would implement such a crazy RvR format in Warhammer.  He didn’t answer specifically but laughed and said, “That’s a good rumor, though.”

Now that Mythic is part of the EA family I wanted to know if they were looking at any other games after Warhammer. “Lots of ideas are coming up,” Mark said. “I think there are a lot of interesting possibilities out there, including another fantasy game. I remain 100% convinced that the fantasy market is no where near tapped out.”

“But I am a firm believer that we need to expand the market. We need to get other genres involved. I hope over the next year we’ll be able to talk about what we [EA Myhic] are doing in the future.” This paints a great picture that EA Mythic will be moving forward and driving the industry with more games to come.

Continuing the conversation on the MMO market as a whole, we talked about subscriptions for MMOs and how they play into someone’s entertainment budget. “MMOs are the best entertainment value in the industry today…because you get to play the game 24/7,” Mark said. It comes down to what is in your budget and when you compare the value you get from an MMO you get nothing else for the price.

I did ask about crossing Warhammer into the console gaming world, but Mark could not comment on that side of things. However, he did say this regarding the console, MMO connection: “When looking at the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3, I believe these are the consoles where MMOs can flourish.” We’ll just have to wait and see what the future will hold as far as playing Warhammer on any of the current console systems.

In the end, Mark brought the interview back to Games Day itself. He was very happy to be in there with the fans answering questions and talking about Warhammer. The relationship that EA Mythic has had with Games Workshop was clearly seen with their participation at the Baltimore Games Day. The fans seemed very excited, and it was fascinating to watch Mark taking the time to talk with them. With a huge game on the horizon, I want to thank Mark for spending time with us and talking about Warhammer, the MMO industry, and the Games Day event.  

Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning news and features!

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