I tried to go back. Hope you have better luck. On my return to WAR the problems even more obvious and my patience this time around was far less than the first time. I also think the decrease in players made it almost impossible to do ANY public quests....sad.

Reply

Cool. Looking forward to Brooke's piece.

As far as losing a point, they should be glad it's just one. When games release, there's a certain amount of forgiveness that's allowed b/c launching is daunting, and getting the game into the hands of the masses will show where the holes are. So, based on strictly a launch client, I’d say WAR was a 8/10.

It was in the following months that players encountered moments “WTF?” over and over and over w/ extremist adjustments. They were either to little or over-the-top adjustments. Or completely ignored. Then, the ideas and changes aren’t tested nearly enough, and pushed onto live in a “one step forward, two steps back” situation.

In a year, WAR’s failed to really embrace what the player base wanted. Which is why the player base has reduced so much, and they are only NOW implementing some the changes players suggested last Nov.

It’s very telling though, that in the month after Jacobs got the boot, one of the biggest complaints about the game – keep ramps – is being adjusted.

Oh well. I’m less angry about their decisions then I was. I’m just very disappointed at this point. I think when I was angry, it was more b/c there was this faint wanting of the game, an interest that wouldn’t go away, a spark that hoped the game would improve and I’d start to really enjoy a game w/ lots of potential. When I didn’t, I was just mad that “they couldn’t get this shit straight” Now, that feeling is just really gone. At this point, I don’t think there’s anything that’d bring me back to WAR. It’s just gone through so many mismanaged transformations and sweeping adjustments, I just don’t care anymore.

Reply

I just started playing WAR when the Mac client came out, and here are my impressions.

I was blown away with how much fun the first tier was, but as soon as a I got to tier two, it was like hitting a brick wall. While the PvE content is fine, the emphasis is obviously on RvR - which is great... if people are playing. I typically have to wait 30m+ to find a scenario which lasts for maybe five minutes. Ideally, you'd be able to do scenario after scenario - kinda like in that other game... What's it called again?

They need to do something about this population problem, and FAST. It's simply not a fun world to adventure in alone. RvR is fun as hell when people are participating, but the fact of the matter is that the world feels empty. There are obviously other problems with the game, but to me this is the reason WAR doesn't work for new players. As someone who has loved the Wahammer universe for a long time, this is a huge disappointment.

I think WAR is a great game with alot of potential, but Mythic needs to recognize what's going on a consolidate some servers.

Reply

I was very behind this game around launch. I took two weeks off of work to play with some friends and really dive into what I was hoping would become a game I would play for years.

I came from a mostly DAOC background with experience in many others. I knew it wasn't going to be DAOC^2, but I was hoping that the RvR experience would be there and be engaging and fun.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't enjoyable enough to stay. I want to say that the reasons behind my disappointment was core design, and not fixable issues. However, I can't quite put my finger directly on it.

I *really* wanted to love this game without equivocation, and I still *really* want to come back and enjoy it. I'm looking forward to the review, however I think being gone so long has made it lose it's luster.

Reply

I'll be very very interested to read your "Snafzg returns to WAR" articles. There were really only a handful of things that truly irritated me with the game (I was a Black Orc), but unfortunately they were dealbreakers (in order):

* Stability Issues & Lag - I got my Black Orc up to rank 33 or so, and the Keep sieges were unplayable...and I bought a hardcore new computer JUST to play WAR! If I wasn't lagging out all to hell, I was getting crashes to desktop.

* Incredibly boring/frustrating Keep Sieges - everything else about RvR was fantastic, but the Keeps were terrible. If you were attacking a Keep, it was beat on a door, then beat on the next door, then try to go up a single ramp and kill an NPC. Beating on doors for 5 minutes is a yawnfest. If I was *defending* a Keep...well as a melee player if you don't grab a siege weapon you really are just waiting around for them to break through that first door. And if you happen to die, it's a run back from your warcamp, where somehow you gotta get through the mob of Order to get back into the Keep (which I guess makes sense but is still really frustrating)

* Extremely low population - I think I'm one of the few that loved the graphics and the look of WAR. It wasn't dull at all to me...as a matter of fact it was a welcome change from the candyland colors of WoW (which I have recently quit playing...again lol) The WAR world is MASSIVE, but it's no fun if there's no one around to play with/against! It felt that they needed like 10x more players per server to make the world alive. And public quests? They were AWESOME, I could do them all day long...but forget even trying given the population.

Of course the lack of decent crafting, class imbalance (oh how i hated AOE knockbacks into the lava), etc didn't help matters, but those three things were the main reasons I left.

I *really* wanted to love this game, so maybe you will give us hope in your return to WAR! If you do this though, you are going to have to go all the way to Tier 4 and report on how it is, ok? Also, pick the highest pop server there is!

Reply

When a game is so heavily focused on pvp and rvr releasing with gross imbalances is a big no-no. Toss in various exploits (walls, chosen auras, etc) and you've just got a mess that should have been sorted out in beta.

In addition the game also requires a very large and active population on each server to make it interesting, which they didn't have at launch due to too many servers and I gather they don't have now because the total population is so small.

I enjoyed aspects of warhammer, I would love to see certain aspects be picked up by other games, but unless a huge amount of people start yelling "It's finally worth it, come back!" I see no real reason to even try a month.

Reply

I can agree to thosee comments that WAR doesn't feel exactly like a world. While i usually root for this game, because it isn't the crap that most posters try to say it is, i have to agree that it lacks on immersion and on doing things to keep you in the game.
Clearly, this is a game that was released way to ealy and they focused on releasing the wrong improvements for a while. They should've postponed the launch of LotD untill after they nerfed AoE and CC (done in 1.3.0b) and the improvements to RvR that everyone was asking for like reworking city sieges and the second ramp in keeps.(if you guys are interested to know feedback to the changes in 1.3.1 are overwhelmingly positive and finally include noticeable improvements to performance and animations).
I wonder if it had something to do with the direction that Mark Jacobs was trying to direct the game to. Because after he left Mythic really started to fix the community's problems.

Right now, i think they should consider releasing 2 or 3 more crafting professions and introduce a couple of stuff to make the game feel more like a world without forgeting to continue the improvement to core features of the game.

An advice to you Brooke: play in the Iron Rock server if you are in NA. That's the best server from what I've heard and try to take a character to rank 40 and participate in the new city sieges and keep sieges and tell us how your experience is in those. If they don't release this patch before you are finished then jump on the PTS!

Reply

WAR is a bad game not the design or the content (well the lag of content is a big issue for me) but the problem is at the core the game runs on a core that was not make for this kind of online games resold is lots of lag and painfully getting killed like the game does not respond on time. The sad part is that this can not be fix without complete remake the game on a better core!

Reply

This is so true. I like to hop on WAR every now and then for a quick pvp fix, and hoping for something more. But the lack of world feeling and depth DOES make me log off and go play something like LOTRO or FFXI or EQ2. I'd like to stay in WAR for longer periods but I always feel detached from my character and just don't care about them. They need to change this. Somehow.

If anything, WAR is the perfect FTP mmo, almost like a stand alone RTS or FPS game, it's great for a quick half hour to hour play. Unfortunately it makes you pay for a monthly sub.

Reply

Big problem for me was EVERYONE looks the same...the armor is the same..the NPC's look the same...animations are stiff and broken in a lot of cases...just felt like they used a cookie cutter on so much of the game...the land and terrain was well put together but everything else lacked.

Reply

WAR made me realize something I was not aware of when it comes to MMOs until that point, which is how big the role of immersion is in the genre. If players don't feel like they are involved in a interactive world, they won't form a connection.

I think a big part of that is the design of the zones. I never felt like i was in a real world in WAR, it all felt very confined, unlike games like WoW, EQ, or even Vanguard. Those games made me feel like if i wanted to just explore, i could wander for hours without really being impeded too severely. WAR had a very closed feel where I knew that if I wandered in any direction for too long, i would hit another impassable mountain. I guess I'm just a sucker for good world design.

Reply

"The reviewer's opinion is that the game feels less like a world and more like a collection of numbers, icons, and systems."

Ermm... Isn't WoW, and in perspective EVERY MMO like this?
Sure first time in the game looks amazing, living, breathing, but after a while you just focus on whatever the main goal is. In which War and WoWs case is getting better gear, which is just numbers and icons.

Not saying WoW isn't perfect, or that War is either... Just the flaw of MMOs, and perception of players, is that these games will somehow last, or you have a mind set of what you want it to be and just can't change what you want.

Reply

I recently re-subbed after a long (4-5 month) break. I've been amazed at how much better the game has gotten... I'm truly enjoying my time back. I'm not sure why (it may be the art), but WAR is really the only MMO that holds my interest, or that I have any desire to play long term. If they keep improving the game in leaps and bounds, like they are now, I am sure to be around for a long time.

My favorite aspect of the game is smaller group skirmishes, so my main hope for the future is that they implement things that help break up the zergs. I have recently started playing on a Taiwanese server, because of ping issues, and the fact that I really want to improve my Chinese. Two things have struck me. One, that the game has really improved since 1.2, and two, that having people operate as a team like they do on my new server adds a huge dimension to the game.

WAR is hugely dependent on who you play with, as I'm sure you know, so I wish you the best of luck finding a great group of people to kick some butt with. For myself, this is where WAR really shines...

Reply

“The gist of the second review is that while WAR is an extremely accessible game that players can jump into and out of for quick rows of skull-thumping, it lacks any depth to keep those players around.”

I am torn on this aspect ..

I enjoy the fact I can jump into WAR, do one or two scenarios, jump into any oRvR warbands and(or) little PQs, ToK stuff. Then done. Short bits of fun; but npt a deep pf a RPG experience I want.
vs.
Vanguard / EQ2 / LOTRO expansive crafting, housing and large open worlds; however I feel these days I done have the time to comment to such depth and feel I spend most time soloing and crafting.

I wish I could find little of both in one game.

Reply

I found that to be an excellent review, in particular:

"The sad side-effect of such single-mindedness is a glaring loss of personality. With everything so distilled to pure mechanics, WAR slaps you around the face with its sheer gameyness. This isn't a world. This isn't a place."
+
"Players are never more than templates, and the hugely welcome addition of four extra classes since launch hasn't reduced the dread sense of seeing the same faces again and again and again. Oh, hey, it's Dwarf With A Shield again, and there goes Chaos Bloke With The Funny Arm. Again."

I agree with the positive aspects too of course, but those are The Deal Breakers for me and hardly any reviews made mention of them at all last year.

Looking forward to the Snafzg series, though only for entertainment & nostalgia as my own re-try was my final WAR experience.

Reply

I don't know what it was about WAR but it just never managed to grip me in the same way that WoW or LOTRO did. Maybe it was the fact that I was being shunted along a very narrow path with no reason to return to earlier parts that did it. I like to explore. I need to explore. I like the freedom to be able to just wander off randomly into the wilderness but in WAR I never had that freedom.

It was also horribly buggy for me. My character would often hit someone with a sword and the sword animation would continue for several seconds after the mob was dead. Or I'd be running and suddenly come to a dead halt because a small stone barely up to my ankle had got in my path.

And don't even get me started on how lame the achievements are. I've just been killed by an orc? Woot achievement time! They call *this* an achievement?

Reply

I felt these reviews pretty much got it right. I played the ten day trial and I just wasn’t feeling it. I like PVP and I like mmo’s, but WAR’s setting and layout just felt kind of boring to me. There wasn’t one class that I just felt I had to play and once in I just felt like I was locked in a very specific area of movement. Combat just felt off as well, being too slow with some abilities and too fast with others. It’s altogether a very grim, structured game that just doesn’t seem to have all the freedom and exploration many have come to love about this genre. Which is fine, but it’s not for me, and arguably, it’s not for much of the player base that was expecting a DAOC type game or an open world WAR mmo. It was arguably those two groups that mythic should have sought out to please and they just didn’t.

Reply