For years we waited for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to come out. There was talk about how it would be the greatest game ever. Blogs and forums were made, and conversation ensued. We were treated to a dev team that was very open about the game, what was in it, and what we could expect. There were set backs, as there always are, and the players took them in stride. They weren't happy, but the fact that the game was going to destroy all competition overshadowed most of the issues that popped up. Launch came and the game had it's problems, but no game in history launches too smoothly. The bugs were fixed and the players were happy! This was a game you could sink your teeth into! It had some decent PvE content, some of the best PvP (RvR) of any game on the market, and the Warhammer name going for it. A month after launch, it was revealed that they had 800,000 people and it looked like this would be the game to beat for awhile to come.

style="margin: 10px; float: left; "
border="1">

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62244/preview"
width="167" height="183" border="0">

Fast forward to now. Less than a month ago, the first round of layoffs at Mythic were reported. This was hardly the first ominous news to come out of the WAR camp though. As early as the beginning of November, server transfers were offered in order to balance out the Order/Destruction populations. The City Sieges, up until recently, were crashing like clockwork. Issues arose around RvR Keeps. People grew bored with PvE grind. The bad news wasn't over though.

Just this week, another round of layoffs for the Dev team was announced and it was revealed that the colossal number of people playing the game had dwindled from 800,000 to just over 300,000. What happened to the game that was going to set the standard? Is this just the first sign of the apocalypse for WAR? Can we expect it to fold as Mythic prepares something else? The answer to that, is of course, no. No matter what you read on the internet, no matter which naysayer is telling you the game is doomed, WAR is here for a good long while and I'll tell you a few reasons why.

This is no Tabula Rasa - It's been proven in the past that a game with a strong IP will last for awhile. It won't break any sales records, but it will stay profitable. The biggest example is Star Wars Galaxies. When it launched, a few hundred thousand people bought the game and logged in. For many, this was their very first experience with the world of MMOGs. However, from the get go, SWG was riddled with problems. Classes that were bugged, areas that were bugged, exploits, you name it and SWG had it. Yet, a large amount of people still played. It was Star Wars, and the chance to fight Stormtroopers or meet and run missions for the Rebellion was a lure few Star Wars obsessed fans could resist. SWG has survived two combat upgrades, a severe drop in population, smugglers who were borked from the start, and the NGE. It survived post NGE not because the player base enjoyed it more (even today mention the NGE in a game forum, and it gurantees an massive outcry of disapointment), but because it has a rabid fan base that would chew off your face during a debate of who would win in a duel, Darth Vader or Darth Maul?

style="margin: 10px; float: right; "
border="1">

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/36735/preview"
width="200" height="183" border="0">

That's one mighty fine lookin' Tomb King you got there

Warhammer also has a rabid, hardcore fan base, just smaller. Warhammer isn't just a game, it's a hobby. People invest thousands individually per year to create the perfect army and scenarios. They invest massive amounts of time into making their army look the best it can. These are the people make up a large part of that now 300,000 subscriber base and by doing so, they make the game profitable for Mythic.

Forums? It's about time! - Recently, Mark Jacobs announced that Mythic was revisiting its policy regarding official game forums. Sometime in the next few months, Mythic will be dumping a wad of cash into creating WAR forums for the players to talk about game issues, bugs they've found, what they'd like to see, etc. They have even stated that there will be incentives to be an active, contributing member of the community. For a game that's going belly up to invest the amount of time and money into setting up some official forums that will be manned and maintained would just be silly, especially in light of today's economy. While the decision to backtrack could arguably be based on the direction that game has taken, investing in an official forum is a move that will bring the community closer to Mythic, and in doing so, help improve the game which will keep it around for more than a little while.

WoW has elevnty-bazillion subscribers! - People seem to forget that World of Warcraft was a freak of stinkin' nature in the world of MMOGs! Before WoW, a good indication of success in the MMO market was 250,000 subscribers. Mark Jacobs said of WoW in an interview with MTV in 2008,

"I would say we don’t have to get anywhere near that number (11 million subscribers) to be considered successful. Would I like us to be number one? Well, of course. Do we have to be number one to be successful? No. I want us to be no less than number two; that would make me very happy."

Josh Drescher also said in a summer 2008 interview,

"An interesting "behind the scenes" thing that's happened with our genre is that if you actually look at the success rate of MMOs that launched before WoW, and you compare to the success rate of MMOs that launched after WoW, there is a dramatically significant increase in success rate in the post-WoW world."

style="margin: 10px; float: left; "
border="1">

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/47551/preview"
width="200" height="183" border="0">

A game does not fail if you can't have over a million subscribers. WoW did some things that no online game had done before. Most importantly, it opened the MMOG genre up to the casual gamer who didn't have an hour to play, just 15 minutes. It was the first MMOG to offer instant gratification so completely and that opened the door for millions of people to play. No game that has followed has put up numbers close to WoW, and it will be some time before one does. 300,000 subscribers is a respectable, and even successful, number. If WAR can maintain that many subscribers, then it's in for a long, healthy life.

Didn't WAR have 800k players? - Yes, WAR, in the beginning, did boast 800,000 players, but that was going to drop. For a MMOG to drop subscribers after launch is par for the course, even more so when you consider the current attention span of the market. Many gamers have MMO ADD. They pick one MMOG up and rarely give it enough time to mature before they drop it, expecting things to be perfect 3 weeks after launch. Age of Conan was a good example of this as many people didn't last more than the free month before they gave it up. It was upwards of a million subscribers at launch and fell heavily inside of a month afterwards. Many people left WAR to return to WoW and play through the newest expansion, WotLK. WAR was just something to do while they were waiting.

Granted, I'm not saying people didn't quit due to issues with the game. A good friend of mine quit the game last month citing "a lack of endgame content other than City Sieges". A couple of other close friends are still subscribed to the game, but are currently playing EQ2 again due to the same reason. However, the massive drop in subscriber numbers over the course of five months isn't solely based on game issues, and it's important to understand that.

While it's true that there are more than a few flaws with the game, there are a host of other reasons why Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning isn't in as bad of shape as some people may think it currently is. They range from a horrid economy that was major factor in two separate rounds of layoffs at Mythic, a Russian launch of WAR, preparing for a Korean release of WAR, to a recent content announcement of epic proportions (that included a live event that starts tomorrow). So ignore all the negatives you may be seeing in the news or in forums, WAR's still a contender and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.