Warhammer Online wins X-Play MMO of the Year
Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Warhammer Online

Just days after our own Best of 2008 were announced, G4 TV show X-Play has confirmed Warhammer Online as the best game release of the year. Their reasons mirror many voiced here including the RvR combat system, solo-able character classes, and public quests.
Other contenders mentioned in the segment were World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Age of Conan. Each brought a new twist to the party, but ultimately could not top Warhammer in originality. So congratulations to Mythic for all that they've achieved in 2008. We can hardly wait for more improvements coming in 2009.



















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
david said on 10:30AM 12-25-2008
Congradulations WAR! Everyone knew that AOC would never win this because it was a complete failure...
Merry Christmas! :)
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Hades said on 10:31AM 12-25-2008
The PVP is original?
"You are disabled, you are disabled, you are disabled, you are knocked down, you are knocked back, you are disoriented, you are disabled, you are disabled, you have been killed by player xyz."
70% of combat these days is some type of disable where you can't do anything. Mythic's crowd control is simply out of control. Its cool to be knocked through the air since it doesn't happen in other MMO's, but too much crowd control means you sit there helplessly while your team mates get killed.
Mythic had this problem in DAOC, they sort of fixed it, and then turned around in Warhammer and created the crowd control problem all over again.
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Abriael said on 1:09PM 12-25-2008
Crowd control has two kind of 12 seconds immunities so, well, you might not have played at all lately.
The amount of time i spend disable is minimal compared to that i spent fighting, and it's not even slightly comparable to first generation DAOC.
Again, you might want to get your facts straight and then come again.
Anyway, Completely deserved award, and it's not the only one since they got the MMO of the year from gamespot as well. Mythic shown that a successful fantasy MMO that isn't WoW can be made, and it can only improve and expand further from now on. The future is much brighter than some doomsayers dribble.
MightyIdle said on 1:46PM 12-25-2008
Agreed. Crowd control is a minor annoyance in WAR. It pisses you off when it happens to you, of course, but it's not game altering and it breaks easily. The've done it really well.
You'll never have the WoW crowd control experiences where you spend the whole fight stun locked, feared, or otherwise out of control and never get a shot off before you die.
Nadril said on 1:55PM 12-25-2008
I agree. And it's not like I haven't played the game, I was an R40 RR45 Warrior Priest in the top PvP guild on my server, and played until a couple of weeks ago. Disabling and knockdown effects ruin the game in mass PvP. The diminishing returns almost never work as intended and all RvR becomes is who has the most disables.
Let me tell you it gets boring when the only fight you get on your server is against almost twice your numbers with all their members using AoE disables and the like. Maybe you play on destruction (order has almost no disables or knockdowns) because destro has a TON of retarded crowd control.
So I don't know what you guy's are experiencing, but it certainly wasn't the game I played. I applaud them because the RvR was fun when it ended up being even numbers, didn't lag and the enemy didn't immediately run with their tail behind their legs. But sadly for me I never got many of those good experiences, instead my server deciding that trading keeps was a much more fun pastime.
Abriael said on 4:14PM 12-25-2008
I play order, which got a nice reinforcement in it's crowd control with the KOTBS (a MUCH needed and welcomed addition), and you probably quit before the latest very extensive changes to CC immunities were made. Again. I'm afraid your vision of the game is outdated.
In two weeks MMORPGs can change a lot, expecially warhammer, which is handled by a very reactive company that actually works hard on solving the problems as soon as possible.
MightyIdle said on 10:34AM 12-25-2008
Congratulations WAR. It was well deserved.
The only measuring stick I use is the amount of fun I'm having. From this, WAR wins for me.
Based on the other games I've tried this year, here's my runner up list from an MMO standpoint. I'm deviating from the article's premise in that they all weren't just released.
Eve Online
This is an amazing game. It's complex, though, and I don't think I'm either smart enough or patient enough to play it. I'm still fascinated by it. 8)
Age of Conan
This was a really fun game with a lot of innovation and the best combat system out there. Their delivery was less than stellar, however. It's improved greatly but the lack of population still hinders it.
WoW
I had a lot of fun with WoW. Unfortunately, I spent too many hours trying to find something fun to do once I got relatively deep into end game. The constant grinding they provide for entertainment finally lost its appeal. A very weak, personal epeen based PvP model and a community composed of a very vocal minority of idiots also did it in for me.
D&D Online
I tried this early on and liked it, just not enough to stick with it. It was rather unique and I love the D&D universe. As I understand it, they have morphed it into a totally different game by now. It may be worth a try again.
Pirates of the Burning Sea
I downloaded it and started the free trial. It wasn't bad at all, but it never hooked me and reeled me in.
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Ghiest said on 1:17PM 12-25-2008
ah that reminds me of our gank group in daoc, running two Healers AE stun / AE mez pick em off one by one ... could neutralize 40 people with 2 healers and rest dps group.
Don't think WAR is 'that' bad :P
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Abriael said on 1:42PM 12-25-2008
Not even nearly. :D As a frontline tank in both games i can most definately tell that the CC in WAR is much, much more mild than what we used to face in DAOC.
Shadowlords said on 7:07PM 12-28-2008
People still play WAR? What is wrong with you people? If i wanted to play a game where the entire game is to run the same scenario over and over and over again, I'd play a solo play game and save myself the $15.
Worst MMO, ever. What a fail of a game.
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Gemski said on 5:51PM 12-25-2008
WAR didn't have much competition for new MMOs. Against WoW or LOTRO though it is not even close, yet. I wonder how many X-Play editors got to T4...
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Abriael said on 4:03AM 12-26-2008
Actually WOTLK was between the competitors, (and it'0s very safe to assume that so was mine of moria, since an expansion is considered for the MMO of the year). They simply got beaten. Why? because they're both inferior to Warhammer, in more ways than one, at least for the editors that decided the award. And I woleheartedly agree.
Lethality said on 10:32AM 12-26-2008
The only inferiority of WoW is that it came out 4 years ago and people have been playing it for 4 years.
Categorically, every single other feature is already done better in WoW, but some people after doing the same thing for 4 years want something a little different. And WAR is a little different. But inferior point for point. It's just newer, and that certainly doesn't equal better.
Abriael said on 11:11AM 12-26-2008
Lol you're seriously delirious, lethalithy. Talk about being a rabid and completely blind wow fanboy. There's basically nothing that WoW has done better than Warhammer, other than making it EASY to appease to kids that can't really face an ounce of challenge. But dodn't worry. You can continue being spanked by mobs, since your evident hate for warhammer most obviously comes from having been smashed in RvR too much. IF you did even try to play it, of course.
Mr. Pickles said on 9:58PM 12-25-2008
Beating Age of Conan was expected...but having WoW players (those two have admited time and time again to playing WoW and having characters) select WAR over WotLK is not only an honor, but a freakin' miracle!
I've always hated tiny annoying MMO player sayings, but can anyone say "WTFBBQ, owned!" to WotLK?!
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Lethality said on 10:29AM 12-26-2008
It's a completely non-innovative game - there's nothing new that WoW hasn't done better already.
If you define success as 200,000 niche players, then grats, it's successful.
Abriael said on 11:19AM 12-26-2008
Ahah, Lethality what orifice did you pull those numbers from? A game doesn't have a certain number of players because you wish it to, you know? This is, though, one of your most hilarious fanboyish statements.
You, a wow fanboy, accuse another game of not being innovative? While you worship THE game that brought absolutely NO innovation to the MMORPG genre and still does nothing else than copying features from other games?
Sorry to rain on your parade of sillyness, kid, but Warhammer's innovative features have been explained and shown hundreds of times, so you have really nothing to back up your misguided argument.
Public quests, the campaign system, livinc cities, open groups, the ability to exp to cap completely in PvP, living guilds, and quite a lot more. There's been MUCH more innovation in three months of warhammer than in all of WoW's years (not that it's hard to do more than zero).
Eat it up. Warhammer won the award, and it's not the only one, and won't be the last one, now you can go sulk in a corner.
The Claw said on 5:50AM 12-27-2008
Given the choice between the award from some random TV show, and the record-breaking sales of WotLK, combined with universally positive reviews - I think most companies would say thanks, but no thanks, to the award.
Nadril said on 12:44PM 12-26-2008
Abriael, I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say that WoW is an "ez mode" game and WAR is not.
1) The dungeons in WAR are horribly boring. Even in lost vale it took my guild barely any time to clear the place. And yeah, sure, it's not based around PvE -- but still... when you compare the PvE challenge in WAR to WoW WoW's is a lot harder.
2) PvP is carebear. There is no threat at all mostly because you don't even see anyone most of the time. People complain about WoW being battlegrounds focused yet Warhammer as well is very scenario focused. Open RvR is the thing you do to trade keeps through PvE.
3) The game isn't that inovative. It's got some great features, I will give you that. Tactics are nice (although not as fledged out as they led me to believe) and I can apreiciate the focus on PvP, or at least them trying too.
Public quests? Sure, inovative. Just good luck ever finding someone to do one with you. Other than that they may as well just be grinding spots.
The rest of your innovative things have been done before (guilds have had levels before. And while the PvP xp hasn't happened too much from what I remember it also is boring because all you do is level through scenarios).
I've got a lot of respect for Mythic, but WAR just has a lot of work.
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Nadril said on 12:46PM 12-26-2008
Also, in regards to CC, I was there for the latest patch (I've looked over the patch notes) and it really didn't make a difference to me. What class are you playing? The reason I ask is, because I played a healer (and a MELEE HEALER) I got to see every ounce of CC people had.