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.
alt="Warhammer Booth" title="Warhammer Booth"
name="photo_j" border="0" height="113" width="150">
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.
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