What Warhammer Online will always be remembered for

by Kyle Horner Apr 5th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

There are a lot of subjects to talk about when it comes to EA Mythic's upcoming MMO Warhammer Online. However, one particular subject still hasn't seemed to really come into the limelight -- the features in WAR that will likely forever alter what people expect from MMOs. This week's Digital Continuum will focus on just that.

Most features are evolutions of old ones in some ways, although some evolve in such huge leaps that they become entirely new features altogether. There are definitely a few huge concepts WAR has adopted that I think are going to become as prolific as those little yellow exclamation points above NPC heads.

I know that's quite the claim, but hopefully this feature will convince at least a few nay-sayers otherwise. Click the image above to see my reasoning on what landscape changing features WAR has in store.

How WAR will leave its mark >>>>>

Gallery: The Digital Continuum: How WAR will leave its mark

Tags: ea-mythic, electronic-arts, featured, joystiqfeatures, the-digital-continuum, war, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Scopique said on 10:36PM 4-05-2008

I dunno..sounds like the Public Quests is really the only new thing that WAR is bringing to the table. I hardly think that pimping out your avatar with hardpoints is revolutionary, or a genre-shaking, and stat tracking via the Tome is just a way of institutionalizing the number-crunching that WoW players do now in their heads.

I really don't see WAR as much more then WoW 1.5.

Rollins said on 1:09AM 4-06-2008

"I really don't see WAR as much more then WoW 1.5."

And as such, it may very well be the first game to rival WoW in popularity. That's my prediction. Although I'll be playing AoC, I acknowlege that it's not made for the masses. Warhammer definitely is.

Although Warhammer is lacking in one thing...a good acronym like WoW. WHO? WHO! YES!

"What are you playing?"
"WHO"
"Huh? I said what"
"WHO!"
"WTF?"

esloan said on 2:50AM 4-06-2008

The acronym is WAR. As in Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. It hasn't been Warhammer Online since the last developer folded.

The ToK is pretty revolutionary as is the RvR system. City Sieges are unlike anything in any MMO and do a very good job of combining both PvP and PvE.

That is one thing that Mythic has planned extremely well:

The PvPers need the PvEers to succeed so that they can get enough Victory Points to lay siege to the cities and the PvEers need the PvPers to succeed so they can take advantage of the Raids and instances after the city falls.

Rollins said on 8:58AM 4-06-2008

Ah, okay. I thought WAR was just a really poorly improvised acronym for Warhammer Online. Forgot about the subtitle.

Green Armadillo said on 3:07PM 4-06-2008

The "WAR" acronym is also a not too subtle dig at WoW's more constrained PVP experience. I always write out Warhammer on principle.

As to the original post? I think it's a bit early to be deciding what Warhammer will always be remember for. For example, the famed city sieges - it might be so hard to break the stalemate that none of the cities ever actually come under siege, or you might get a situation where one side owns the opposing city so often that the losing side can't stand never having access to basic amenities and rerolls or cancels en masse. Public quests sound like a fun idea, but if the incentives aren't good enough high level players won't show up for the final round, and if the rewards are too good, high level players may overrun low level zones. The Lorebook may be a neat reward for doing unexpected things, or it may turn out to be a hideous grind.

I suppose people will remember how this goes down no matter what, but whether those memories are fond has yet to be seen.

Justin Wood said on 8:50AM 4-07-2008

It's hard to say. Other's bring up "city sieges" and talk about it as if it's something entirely new. It is, and it isn't. Age of Conan will be out May 20th, and "city sieges"(though unique compared to WAR's style) will be in at launch. Whereas WAR is going to be in Beta for quite some time. Hard to claim "first" there.

I think WAR will probably be remembered for being "that game"....not the one to trump WoW but the one to actually make Blizzard notice a decent loss in subscribers. This in turn could be great news for the WoW community as well, as Blizzard could jump into action trying to "steal some thunder", easily done by hijacking some of the easier translated ideas used in WAR that are causing it to be so popular.

supbreh said on 12:28AM 5-12-2008

man, honestly wow is ganna need that linch king expan to come out now and get a load of subscribers, cause WAR (WHO) is ganna take them away, lvling cities, no over powered mage shots,
npc intelligence, i could go on and on and on, this game will be great, i have been playing wow for 2 years so don't anyone accuse me on being a FAN-BOY, i truly think this game will take if at the least half of wows subscribers.