by Jeff Woleslagle on Sep 17, 2009
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Executive Producer Jeff Hickman took the podium at Austin Game
Development Conference and shared the biggest mistakes (and some of the
successes) of Warhammer Online as he saw them. Many ex-WAR players are
using the opportunity to vent their own views of WAR's shortcomings, so
we'll try to separate face from fiction in today's Loading... Make
Blame, Not WAR.
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Much is being made of Jeff Hickman's comments about what went so wrong
with Warhammer Online as reported by Gamasutra. To summarize his take
on WAR's mistakes: 1) PvE content was too easy at the beginning, 2) WAR
didn't have enough reasons for players to socialize, despite the game
having social tools, and 3) the unimportance of the economy, which
"brings people together". No mention was made about communication
between devs and players, specifically the lack of an official forum at
launch, or the single-biggest issue the average ex-WAR player is likely
to point to: class balance.
Up until recently, the official word from Mythic was that the problems
with imbalance were minor, that they had the numbers to back up their
claim, and to be expected with a predominantly PvP game, and these were
being addressed, as with any other MMO, in a series of tweaks. Whatever
the reality about the severity of imbalance in WAR, and I'm certainly
not going to play referee, I think it's unfortunate that Mythic didn't
do more to at least deal with the perception of imbalance, instead
treating it as a bromide.
Players who voiced genuine concerns about the game were mostly met with
talk of live events and the Land of the Dead expansion.
Well-intentioned marketing initiatives were viewed by players as
misdirection, and the disenchantment only grew. Some sort of fan summit
or elected player council, along with good faith action to redress some
of the player complaints, might have done much to preserve the good
opinion of many WAR devotees. Instead, it seemed to many like Mythic
was constantly trying to change the subject or simply pushing forward
on their own agenda, an agenda that failed to interest many fans of the
game.
But, along with Jeff Hickman's more humble tack at AGDC, Mythic's
perspective on balance seems to be changing with 1.32. From a Ten Ton
Hammer interview
posted today with Producer Josh Drescher:
"We're looking at (sort of broadly) trying to normalize abilities
across both realms. We've kind of noticed over the past few months that
there has been an up tick in dissatisfaction with some of the abilities
that exist in one realm, but not the other... And then sort of on a per
career basis, just making sure that everybody is as close to balanced
as you can ever get in an MMO. Sort of tied to that, we're going to
continue our struggle with crowd control, trying to make sure that is
not a particularly frustrating experience."
I have little doubt that Warhammer Online will become a better and
better game, and talk of the past is only really useful if it can
enable future successes. Some of the MMOs coming to market are just as
competitive and complex as WAR is, so in that vein, everyone has their
own theory about Warhammer Online's downturn, so here's mine. When you
make a competitive game, whether you like it or not, you
incorporate the players into the design of the game and, to some
extent, invite the players onto the development team. The more complex
and competitive the game, the more the players feel like they should be
part of the decision process, whether or not they really want
to be part of the process. Consequently, if things go south, people
start to bail - they feel obliged to take on more commitment than they
signed up for. For, despite ever growing beta numbers, testing still
requires an uncommon dedication and mindset, and that sort of
selflessness is, if anything, on the decline in today's gaming
culture. If, on top of testing the game, they have to fight
to be heard, that just might be a bridge too far for even some of the
most dedicated players.
Instead of addressing PvE difficulty, lack of socializing, or a
lackluster economy, gaining and keeping the trust of the overwhelming
majority of your players is critical. That what all this talk
of running games as a "service" should boil down to. Too
often, that "service" element is just an excuse for a premature launch,
but that's another topic for another day.
What do you think? Instead of what did Mythic do wrong with WAR, what
steps could Mythic have taken to help the game reach its potential? Do
you disagree with Jeff Hickman that a big, sweeping revamp patch would
be "a shot to the head" for the game? Your thoughts welcome in the
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