Hamsters to the Slaughter…

A look at endgame content

Wake up, shower (maybe…), sit in computer chair, load game, grind, grind, grind, work (if needed), and then sleep. Repeat the previous process and you have all the makings of a standard MMO player. This week we’ll be talking about the ‘endgame grind’ and how Warhammer Online seems to be shaping up for game content and what we can expect to see for endgame material. So if you’re in the mood for some intellectual discussion I would suggest going to watch Masterpiece Theater, otherwise keep reading about the endgame grind.

I’m going to start off this article with a story that isn’t specifically Warhammer Online related because I think it’s important. Recently my roommate and I purchased an LCD projector for our basement recreation room, this devices spans about 100 inches across on our downstairs wall. Yesterday I tried setting up the projector to display WoW up on the big screen because I thought it would be cool to try out a Molten Core run on a massive screen. This entire setup of awesome lasted the whole of ten minutes before I tore it all down and set back up in my room on my normal PC, the reason being that I couldn’t stand having WoW on such a non manageable screen. This was how much of a system I had set up for raiding… I was sad.

If there is one thing I feel confident in it is Warhammer Online’s path to completion and how their game seems to be shaping up. While I am sure it will not be a perfect game, I do think that it will be superior to most if not all games on the market at this time. Right now there really isn’t a lot of information released for Warhammer Online’s endgame content, since it seems we’re just getting glimpses at newbie zones and basic class information for all the races. There are however certainly things that we can extrapolate from Warhammer’s released information thus far.

The first thing that strikes me as making the endgame content more interesting for any player is the fact that all the zones can be bought over and that enemies have the ability to sack your capital if they succeed in their attacks. Unlike instanced battlegrounds where players have little to no attachment to the outcome of the battle, if the races capitals are done in a proper manner there will be lots of investment in defending and attacking in Realm VS. Realm combat. I’m sure that the Dark elves have all sorts of things they would benefit from by sacking the High Elf capital, which makes things interesting in the long run.

Another key factor to endgame content is the fact that for the most part it is entirely grinding; repeating the same small amount of content over and over again for miniscule rewards. As I mentioned above, I can no longer do the continual WoW grind on things other then my specially setup computer desk, just because it has become such a routine for me. Player VS. Player action seems to be one of the few things in MMO’s that I get a good kick out of, because it keeps me thinking and is not the repetitive grind that most of endgame content boils down to. If anything I find that a successful MMO has enough different things to do endgame (PvP, Raids, Farming, etc, etc) that players simply switch to something different and the game “feels new again”. Warhammer Online will need this kind of setup if it hopes to survive.

What makes an MMO important? Strong endgame content.

Every MMO on the market today needs to have solid endgame material and a decent build up to that material. A well known game like WoW takes relatively small amounts of time to reach the level cap, but as of now they have enough endgame content to support it. The problem is balancing content to a point where players want to be involved in all of it. Why PvP when the PvE content is more worthwhile (more ph@t l00ts), or why PvE when you prefer PvP and it offers better rewards? There needs to be balance when it comes to doling out rewards, otherwise the content becomes “pick and choose the best” while half of the endgame content gets skipped over. Not something any MMO deserves to have happen, especially if the content is well thought out and planned. Knowing that Warhammer Online is very PvP based, it will be interesting to see how much PvE comes into play and how the player rewards will be distributed.

So it should be known that for a game to survive in this market it needs good endgame content. Warhammer Online seems quite promising for this, with innovations that make PvE content viable to be PvP competitive (insanity points and fate points), and also make players want to explore and branch out into the full world. With so many new MMO’s coming out so quickly, the race to see who can produce the most interesting endgame content is on. Can Warhammer pull it off? Only time will tell… no, it will. Warhammer is awesome!