Columbus Day!

Explorers beware the dangers of… exploring?

There are always players who live to explore the uncharted and try out new things in an MMO environment, but at what point does exploration begin to negatively impact a game world? That’s the question for this week’s Common Content article here at Warhammer.tentonhammer.com, and there are a lot of angles to explore with a topic as specified as this one. Will Warhammer Online cater enough to the players who want to do nothing but explore and try out new things, or will it be another “inescapable grind” that players are forced to endure.

In every MMO there is a certain amount of exploration that the player wants to take part in and enjoy. Most players enjoy finding new territories and learning “what leads where” and where not to go. In most cases, exploration is a learning experience for most players in the MMO genre; after all most players don’t forget their first venture into the Western Plaguelands in WoW as a level 10 character. The will to explore is in most players and it is an understandable urge for people to discover things on their own and learn the world from their own point of view. So there’s certainly a reason people have to explore and a desire from most to do so, thus how much is too much?

Warhammer is a richly detailed setting with a lot of fantastic locations that have already been given descriptions in an RPG and wargame medium, so it’s safe to say that there will be a large number of players familiar with the general layout of the world. Even with World of Warcraft there are players in WoW who are immersed in the game world and know the story and history of specific locations, but that being said there are a lot of places being introduced in Warhammer Online that seem to diverge from the standard Warhammer Universe, which seems to be a very nice way of giving players the option to explore and not just “look around a bit”. While a lot of Warhammer players may know the different areas of the Empire, they probably don’t know much about the specific locations within. So there is still a lot of wiggle room that Mythic has to play with when it comes to places to explore in WAR.

The really interesting point that links WAR with exploring characters is the idea of “Christmas Quests” that have been previously mentioned by Mythic. This quest type can only be found off the beaten road; meaning that players will have to go out of standard areas in the game and explore some of the uncharted areas of the world. The bonus behind Christmas quests is that they allow players to find better rewards then some of the safer quests in the world. Explorers are by nature extremely daring, having no care for the consequences or danger involved in their actions, so Christmas quests give players who want to fulfill those urges the opportunity to explore the world at their own risk and get some possibly nice rewards.

Countering the explorer driven Christmas quests is the basic concept of Warhammer Online; War. Since there will be a lot of player VS. player action in Warhammer Online, we can expect to see quite a few players who will be playing in the same area over and over again. Much like the repetitive reputation grinds in WoW, it is likely that there will be players in Warhammer Online who will enjoy one PvP zone more then others and spend their time camping about it. This means that players who spend their time at these zones will basically be more inclined to learn that one particular zone inside and out and not spend time to explore the rest of the world. It will be interesting to see how heavy the rewards are when compared to the benefits of “camping” a single zone. Clearly Warhammer Online will need some Counter-Strike equivalent to the AWP rifle, so players can complain about campers!

When does a world become too big to handle? That’s the question that seems to come up a lot with MMO’s. I remember from my days of playing WoW that there would be times that I would be the only person in a specific zone of the world. It surprises me that a game that has such a high player base can have unpopulated zones, but I suppose there can’t be players everywhere at once. So if Warhammer Online is going to encompass the Warhammer World, there are certainly a lot of places that the developers can put into the game for purposes of zone design, and a lot of races that are currently not playable who eventually could be. Right now the plan is 3 different battlezones that encompass 11 regions a piece, making 33 zones for Warhammer Online all together. Since there are quite a few Warhammer Fans who seem intent on at least trying this game, there may be some overcrowding at first, but much like WoW it should thin out over time.

Warhammer Online is based around a well established world, so there should be no lack of zones to implement and places players can explore, but the Developers should be wary of having too much in one game. There are far too many places I see in MMO’s that eventually get overlooked once new and shiny zones come out afterwards, and I hope for Warhammer Online’s sake we do not see this. Players enjoy exploring and there should be a sense of exploration every time you go somewhere new in the world, be it a battleground or a full-blown region of the world. Warhammer Online should not disappoint those who want to see new sights, and those diehard fans who want to live what they’ve gamed for so long.