More freaks than elves, what happened to the NE Huntard kiddies?

Posted on September 23, 2008 by SynCaine

During the Warhammer Online beta, each poll showed Destruction being more popular than Order, sometimes vastly more popular. These numbers were always taken with a grain of salt, with the common response of “it’s beta, the casuals don’t play beta, and the hardcore like evil”. We all thought once the game went live and the casuals arrived, Order would see a spike in popularity from all the Alliance players jumping from WoW to WAR. We are still waiting for the kids bus to drop them off…

In a somewhat unexpected development, Destruction dominates most servers in total population, and this has created some very notable problems. Scenario queues are quite long for Destro players, server queues generally only affect Destro players, and Order gets dominated in open world RvR, with Destroction holding control of most areas 90% of the time.

Now the big question for both sides is whether the casuals who will play Order are still coming, or is this just a rare case of the majority picking the bad guys? Warhammer has had a phenomenal launch, and the total number of players is sure to continue to rise, even with the ‘ten of the same’ expansion coming in November, but I’m not convinced those new players will pick Order over Destruction in any amount larger than beta or first week players did.

If we assume new players will follow the current trend, and go more towards Destro than Order, what can Mythic do to remedy the situation? Clearly in the long run, WAR needs both sides more or less even for the overarching conflict to work, and Mythic can’t just let the current imbalance persist. I’m not saying make any drastic changes right now, as the dust of launch is still settling, but in the coming months something needs to be done.

The first and most obvious change is adding back the previously cut classes. Empire missing a tank is killing them, and who would not love to play a psycho melee dps dwarf? The Dark Elves will get a flimsy elf tank, and the Greenskins will get… well ok most likely a badass melee dps orc that will own, but still… If those added classes are slightly overpowered in favor of Order… well that should help the population balance right? You can always nerf stick them later once things settle down.

The other option would be to offer in-game bonuses to under populated Order servers. Perhaps each new character would start with one of those bonus xp books with three charges, or some kind of underdog title/trophy/tome unlock. History has shown it does not take much to influence MMO players (see every game with pointless fluff that people chase for hours/days), and a small bonus might be the tipping factor for someone deciding to roll Order or Destro.

It’s an issue that I’m sure Mythic is monitoring closely, and I would be very surprised if they don’t already have a plan. Lets just hope they roll it out before all the weakling Order players pack up and go back to Power Ranger land. Oh and if you are thinking of playing WAR, roll Order on Thorgrim so CoW can beat you up. We might even blog about your epic fail!

Posted in MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 17 Comments

The true value of the CE edition of Warhammer, and my busted 9600GT card.

Posted on September 23, 2008 by SynCaine

I received my Collectors Edition of Warhammer Online over the weekend, and it was $30 well spent. All of the in-game stuff is hit or miss depending on preference (I like the DE face, most don’t), but at worst it gives you a few simple quests and some fluff stuff for your character. The real value of the CE, for me, comes with the art book. I still flip through my WoW CE art book, and I know I’ll be doing the same with the Warhammer one.

One of the really cool things about the art books is that not everything in them is in the game yet, but will be at a later date. It’s almost like getting a sneak preview of future patches. Looking through the WoW art book, a ton of stuff that is in that book was added much, much later to WoW. I’ll have to really sit down and look over everything in the WAR art book to see if I can get a feel for where Mythic might be going with the game.

On Monday we also received the regular edition of the game in the mail from Gamestop, meaning we avoided any account interruption. It’s funny to look at the size of the regular box and compare it to the behemoth that is the CE.

Finally, I believe I’ve identified the issue with the second computer always crashing. It seems a slew of 9600GT cards are known to be defective, and I get EXACTLY the error (black screen, no signal) that people are reporting. I’ll make a trip to Best Buy tomorrow and see if I can swap it out, or get store credit and buy a 9800GT instead. Worst case scenario, I’ll have to send it back to BFG Tech and wait for a new one. Oh, and if a new graphics card does not solve this issue, expect to read about a murderous rampage in the MA area, as I’m well past the breaking point with this whole ordeal. (note: not really, so in the rare event that there is a rampage in MA, it’s not me)

Posted in Random, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 4 Comments

Weekend of WAR

Posted on September 22, 2008 by SynCaine

Warhammer Online has been out for a full week now if we count the Collectors Edition head start date, and generally the response has been overly positive. There is little doubt that WAR is indeed the next ‘it’ game in MMO land, and if momentum continues, it could indeed provide a challenge to WoW. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Wrath expansion is released; will WAR players be too deep into the game to care, or will the now common ‘cap and done’ syndrome effect WAR and have players jumping back to WoW?

WAR has its share of issues of course, from imbalanced scenarios to server population concerns, and more will crop up as players visit the higher tiers. Some are frustrating, like waiting 30+ minutes in a scenario queue, while others could potentially spell disaster, such as Destruction dominating most servers in terms of population. It’s far too early to hit the panic button, but it will be something to keep an eye out for.

On a more personal level, Aria and I are a quest or two away from Rank 11 with our Dark Elves, and I got my Warrior Priest to Rank 14 as well. CoW did some keep raids over the weekend. We took down four (I think), but had little resistance from other players, despite it being peak time on Saturday. Perhaps the other side just did not want to step in front of a swarm of players, who knows… I also got a taste of some early level dungeons, and they play as one might expect a typical WoW instance to play. Nothing amazing, but a solid experience as long as you have a capable group. The simplified class selection of WAR works well here, as it’s fairly easy to come up with tank/healer/dps, and you don’t need to tinker as much with having the exact combo of classes for an encounter. We will see if this holds true at higher levels.

Posted in PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | Comments Off on Weekend of WAR

This might be a problem…

Posted on September 19, 2008 by SynCaine

The SE version of Warhammer was ordered through Gamestop, and even though the order has shipped, it was shipped using the then promotion (free) value shipping, which according to Gamestop means 5-10 business days. Mythic turned off pre-order accounts this morning. If I don’t have that SE box in the mail today, shits going to hit the fan…

Posted in Warhammer Online | 9 Comments

WAR innovation: The Overlord speaks.

Posted on September 18, 2008 by SynCaine

As is usually the case, Tobold says what many of us have been trying to say; he just says it better.

While I have been saying for a while now that WAR is innovative not because of one feature, but the sum of it’s parts, Tobold goes one (very important) step further and makes the connection to player behavior. To paraphrase, the WAR formula changes player behavior, taking us out of solo mode and into social situation naturally, without forced grouping. Changing a player’s behavior is indeed far more innovative than any one feature on the back of a box, and WAR does that in spades.

Posted in MMO design, Warhammer Online | 9 Comments

Warhammer in the mail, woot!

Posted on September 18, 2008 by SynCaine

I figured I would make a quick post letting people know I’ve now received confirmation on my two Warhammer Online orders. Yesterday I received an email from Gamestop that my regular edition has shipped, and this morning I received an email from the EA Store that my collector’s edition is also in the mail. The 7 pounds of WAR goodness can’t arrive soon enough!

Also interesting, I received an email yesterday from the EA Store saying my CE might be delayed, but that EA and Mythic would be sending me a code so I don’t lose access to my account while I wait, which I thought was very up front of them. I won’t need it of course, but good for Mythic and EA to have a back up plan like that, and avoid any pre-emptive nerd rage, very smart.

This also wraps up my ‘beta experience’ with EA and Mythic, and for me at least, it was almost flawless. Yes downloading 9 gigs over a painfully slow bit torrent took 34 hours, but considering the servers were down during that time, it was a minor annoyance at best. I also did not get my beta keys for a few weeks after I ordered the CE, but again, non factor since I got them well ahead of actually needing them. The servers were up for a good portion of beta, the game was never in a state that made me hate it, and it was impressive seeing Mythic handle the bugs that did pop up. They were also very upfront with the status of beta and their future plans, and did not feed fans ‘press talk’ when addressing concerns.

So with 1.5 million preorders, and who knows how many week one retail sales, things are looking bright for WAR and Mythic, and the ride has just begun!

Posted in Warhammer Online | Tagged | 2 Comments

Is Warhammer boring solo, and should anyone care?

Posted on September 17, 2008 by SynCaine

Reading over the numerous blogs covering Warhammer Online, it seems the game has managed to pull some solo-minded players out of their old habits and shown them the light with grouping. People are going so far as to say running solo in WAR is boring compared to when they are in a group, which begs the question: is WAR boring solo, or just MORE fun in a group?

WoW is clearly more efficient, if not entirely more fun solo. Then you hit the level cap, the game does a 180, and poof, raiding or afk-pvp you go. But it’s a great game to play solo 1-70, with lots to see and experience. Now is WAR less fun than WoW solo, or is it just that we compare the fun of PQs, scenarios, and RvR to the solo nature of the quests in WAR? If someone is dead-set on playing solo, no matter what, is WAR a bad game for them?

And if we say ‘yes’ to the last question, does it matter? Should being a great solo game EVER matter in an MMO? It should always be an option of course, but does it need to be a focus? Blizzard expanded the MMO market into the millions by making it easy to solo, yet even WoW 1.0 was not the ‘solo or die’ world it is now. What if instead of making the solo experience easier and easier, Blizzard had instead used the last four years to enhance grouping, like WAR currently does. Where would the MMO space be today? Instead of the massive re-education happening on WAR servers right now, with solo players learning to play together, would all MMO gamers be far more receptive to the ‘multiplayer’ portion of an MMO? Would we demand better multiplayer gameplay instead of worrying if we can make it to the cap solo?

We will never know of course, because Blizzard followed the path they did, and continue to push the solo and e-sport aspects of WoW. And it’s too early to say whether WAR will change the mind frame of MMO gamers with its brilliant grouping tools and setting; it could be a huge wave going forward, but it could also be a small ripple in the solo-MMO pond.

Posted in Warhammer Online | Tagged | 16 Comments

Escaping the queue monster, we jump ship and reroll!

Posted on September 17, 2008 by SynCaine

The lesser pre-orders logged in yesterday, and being the cheap lowlifes that they are, they caused server issues for all the true WAR fans that got a Collector’s Edition. DIAF scum!

We should have seen it coming, that the server we picked for Destruction would become a queue nightmare, but somehow we missed the warning signs and ended up on a server with a massive population. Luckily the guild acted quickly, and before people got too far into the game, we switched servers and said ‘bye bye’ to Volkmar and it’s hour+ queue.

Our new server is low/med population for both Destruction and Order right now, and will hopefully hit high, but not full, shortly after retail launch. The tricky thing about Warhammer Online is you don’t want to be on a low population server (no RvR, no scenarios, no PQs), but obviously you don’t want to wait in a queue either. More so than most MMOs, Warhammer is very dependant on having JUST the right amount of players on both sides. Too early to say if Mythic’s planning will eventually give us balanced servers, but it will be something to keep an eye on.

So we all re-rolled on Thorgrim, created the guild, and got to gaming. Aria and I played for about two hours, hit Rank 5, and finished chapter 1. We are playing dark elves, a witch elf for her, a soon-to-be-nerfed Disciple of Khaine for me. We melee, things bleed and die quickly, we move on. Oh and we both have white hair, so we look like two albino freaks with blades. L33tsauce, I know.

Posted in Warhammer Online | 5 Comments

RvR goodness in Warhammer Online

Posted on September 16, 2008 by SynCaine

Now that the ‘official’ report is over with (see previous post), lets get into the last two days and go over some highlights. Overall it was a great start for Warhammer Online, and despite the game being the same version as Open Beta, it has a different feel to it now that everything ‘counts’.

I logged in on Sunday to find a 3+ hour queue for Volkmar Destruction side, which was not cool. All that pre-planning to pick an ‘unpopular’ server seemed to have failed, at least for now. Not wanting to wait it out, I instead logged on to Averheim and rolled a Warrior Priest to play with the Order side of Casualties of War. In the first PQ, I saw Tobold the Bright Wizard with the guild tag over his head, and got an invite to the guild.

All of Sunday was smooth sailing, and a healthy combo of quests, PQs, scenarios, and open field RvR all contributing to my Warrior Priest hitting Rank 9. As I had Monday off, the plan was to stay up late and try to get out of tier one (Rank 11ish), but Comcast had other ideas and decided to turn off the Internet at 2am. Great time to have a rare service interruption, thanks…

One of the major highlights on Sunday was forming a warband with other CoW members in the Empire T1 RvR area and trying to take over the objectives. At first we casually walked into the area unorganized, and promptly got rolled by a huge mob of Destruction players. Licking our wounds, we gathered at the warcamp and planned our assault. Traveling as a group, we hit the docks and found them empty. We made quick work of the NPC guards, flagged the objective, and waiting for the inevitable freak show mob to arrive. Not being ones to disappoint, the red wave descended on us, easily outnumbering us a good 2-1. In most MMOs we would have been rolled instantly, but strategy and planning actually matter in WAR.

We had our tanks up front, blocking the entrance to the dock, with healers and dps waiting behind. Being the unorganized mob that the enemy was, they targeted the closest thing to them, and begin wailing on our tanks. Also unlike most MMOs, being a tank in WAR means you actually can take a good amount of damage while holding your ground, and with healer support, a decent tank can hold 3-4 players easy. Once the enemy had settled on their targets, our dps ran out and around the main horde and started dropping the squishy healers and ranged dps. It took them a moment, but eventually the Destruction players caught on, and turned their attention away from our tanks and on to our own dps classes in their midst. The delay was decisive however; as it bought us enough time to secure the objective. As our last member was cut down on the dock, the timer expired and the objective was secured for 15 minutes. I cheer went up over Vent, and our little group claimed victory in the face of overwhelming odds.

Once we get more members online today, we should be able to field a formidable force, and hopefully hold our ground. We will hopefully start laying siege to the tier two keeps, flying our banner high once we crush the Keep Lord.

Good times ahead, that’s for sure.

Posted in MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online | 10 Comments

WAR launch Report *Official*

Posted on September 15, 2008 by SynCaine

MMO Jesus has arrived.

Posted in Warhammer Online | 2 Comments