Producer letter addresses the future of Warhammer Online

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 11th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items, Opinion

It's funny how times change. Not so long ago the most disconcerting thing that players of Warhammer Online players had to deal with were the numerous changes introduced in patch 1.3.2. Now, however, the recent layoffs that have hit EA and Mythic are far more worrisome. Executive producer Jeff Hickman has taken the time to try and assuage the community fears with a recent letter to the community regarding the future of Mythic's franchises and the game's ensuing viability. Hickman doesn't address the layoffs directly, instead using the letter simply to try and reinforce the image that the game is going to continue and keep being improved upon.

The letter becomes a bit more unsettling when Hickman calls the response to the aforementioned patch 1.3.2 "great." It's quite likely nothing negative is going to happen to Warhammer Online, as it has been making an earnest effort to turn around a disappointing first year, but time hasn't yet healed the wound of "triple A and here to stay." Different companies and different games, but it's fresh in our collective memory, and only time will tell what the ultimate impact of recent events will be upon WAR.

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, layoffs, mmo-industry, mythic, mythic-entertainment, news-items, opinion, tabula-rasa, tr, war, war-patch-1.3.2, warhammer-online

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

JP said on 9:25AM 11-11-2009

Well… if that’s not the biggest pile of bloated, deceptive, and uninformative PR letter since NCSoft on TR, I don’t know what is. They’d have been better off saying nothing at all. It’d have been the same thing. How naive is their player base(es) that they’d read this and go “Phew… ok, everything’s hunky-dory”. Please.

I like how he specifically points out all three games, yet gives no insight or information about their future beyond “dedicated teams”. No shit, Sherlock. You mean the people still working there want to actually keep their jobs!?? *shock & awe*

Holgar said on 9:26AM 11-11-2009

"a solid first year despite some issues" If he typed that with a straight face......

GaaaaaH said on 9:37AM 11-11-2009

I have to admit laughing after reading the title and seeing the picture.

It's taken their first year to get to the point that it should have been at release, and the subscription numbers show it. I played at launch and probably would have stuck around if it was as it is now but ow i'm jaded.

Steve said on 9:37AM 11-11-2009

You guys seriously need to cut these guys a break. Its an official letter to the community, what do you want him to say, "Yeah we screwed up bad, our game is crap, and we are just trying to hold on to the subs we got." (Not that I think that is true) If he wrote a letter like that it would be his head on the chopping block.
I know a lot of people were very dissapointed with Warhammer, and they did make a lot of mistakes in their first year, but its been a year and its time for the haters to let it go.
You heard me, let the hate go...

JP said on 9:46AM 11-11-2009

He should have said nothing. Or just made a remorseful letter about the tough decisions that had to be made about staff.

Instead, a day after laying off 40% of their staff, he talks about all the games trying to pump sunshine up everyone's ass.

Don't blow smoke up our asses that everything is great. Everyone, including their community, knows it's not. He should just keep his mouth shut, and work.

Then again... I'm willing to bet a month's salary that he was told by the EA upstairs to release a letter, and this was the best he could muster w/ out out-right lying.

Felnor said on 9:49AM 11-11-2009

Why should we give developers who promised the moon and failed to deliver on a game that was suppose to be oh so much better than WoW a break? Do they deserve one?
Nope and they will continue to get what they deserve.
If I was EA, I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the bottom line and trying to figure out how to best make use of the WAR Servers when SWTOR launches.

Steve said on 2:33PM 11-11-2009

Look I won't pretend that WAR is a perfect game. Truth is I wasn't there at launch, I wasn't on the hype train, and I wasn't dissapointed by the game like all of you were. But joining the game in its current state, I have to say that I'm having a whole lot of fun in tier 1 and recently tier 2. That may change in later tiers and it may not. But the point is I'M HAVING FUN.

Everyone who hates the game just because it wasn't their dream MMO like the devs promised it would be have a right to be angry. But its been a year, move on. Find a new MMO. You don't have to like WAR in its current state, but just know that there are people who do and who want it to suceed.

Also, I have no doubt that this letter says only what EA allowed it to say. So even if Jeff didn't want to sugarcoat it, I doubt he had a choice.

Bryan said on 9:46AM 11-11-2009

Also, having been playing the game this week in tier 1, its is amazing how many people are at least trying the game. RVR has been incredible for my lowbie alts and I have been having a blast. What will be interesting to see is what EA/Mythic will do with this new found influx of players who at the very least in tier 1 are saying good things about the game.

I also ran the Hunters Vale dungeon at level 10 for the first time and it was surprisingly good. Not only that, the section where the eagles pick you up and fly you up to the tree top has a musical section that blew me away, so much in fact that I really wish they would make the music in the game more consistent and prevalent as the score is actually really good.

Lateris said on 10:05AM 11-11-2009

I have to agree. I am having a good time in the starting area. I have no idea what the rest of the game is like. As I am new to the Warhammer games, books, and so forth I Just can't believe how much Blizzard has ripped off from the Warhammer franchise.

Nadril said on 10:29AM 11-11-2009

It's just going to be a barren wasteland once you get out of T1. Everyone is trying out that trial now.

honorshammer said on 10:30AM 11-11-2009

Lateris,

The fantasy genre has been ripping one another off since Tolkien, it's nothing new.

Please, please, please, EA don't screw up on SWTOR.

Blue Kae said on 9:49AM 11-11-2009

Nothing really surprising in the letter, that was pretty much what he had to say. I'm more interested to see what they do in the next 3-6 months.

Chris said on 11:25AM 11-11-2009

There is nothing surprising about what is going on here. The reality is that EA is one of the worst game companies out there. It has a formula of buy successful game companies, milk all the money they can out it and then killing them by getting rid of all the people who produce them.

Apparently a game has to make something close to what the SIMs makes or they kill the game. With MMOs they are almost as bad as Microsoft who basically kills them before they are released.

EA also killed:
Ultima Online 2
Earth and Beyond which I loved.
Motor City Online
BattleTech 2125

Hey at least Dragon Age is really fun and will most likely have a sequel and they are produced by EA.

shinobichocobo said on 12:17PM 11-11-2009

I really wanted to like WAR but the technical issues and the horrible class imbalances drove me off thrice already.

Also for the above comment about EA, that might be EAs past but right now the general consensus about EA is that they are a pretty good publishing house. I was disconnected from the world for about 7 months so when I logged in to a popular videogame forums and saw the vast majority of the posters say good things of EA I was shocked.

The current evil videogame company is activision and boy are they horrible!

M said on 12:30PM 11-11-2009

I agree with Felnor why should developers be given a break, that's why these games ALWAYS ship broken/incomplete. Hold them accountable! NEVER pre-order, NEVER buy these things at launch, they're NOT ready, that's the nature of American style capitalism today, all short-term greed without consideration of long-term quality and profitability.

mpdivo said on 12:39PM 11-11-2009

EA stock has been in a steady decline since the recession hit. It's a solid company capable of making a good game. They also own Bioware which is the Steven Spielberg of the gaming business.

If some of you have not tried Dragonage yet - take a break from your MMO and do it. The only downside is that they didn't create a multiplayer option like NWN.

On the flip side. Warhammer is such a shameless ripoff of WoW, right down to the graphics and the gnome steampunk culture that I find myself actually hoping Warhammer will fail. Before you reply with the WoW is a ripoff of UO or the original Warhammer or DnD, I've heard it all before. Warhammer is almost the exact same game as WoW except for the great RvR concept, which I hope WoW rips off (not to say they haven't already pulled some of the good things from Warhammer).

WoW spend a considerable time in development and not rushed to the presses like Warhammer was.

Warhammer's decision to copy WoW one of the worst business decisions that I've seen since SOE's SWG spiral towards obscurity. If you are going to try and clone WoW - the only way you can do it successfully is to make it better than WoW. That's very hard to do because Blizzard, like Bioware, has their act together.

EA could have made a great MMO, based on RvR without using WoW as a model.

I feel bad for those that were laid off, but it's probably the right thing to do. The blame lies in facts like that Spore was the most pirated game in history. A culture still exists were today's youth feel that these companies are greedy and they "owe" the game players or that they don't want to pay to "try" a game. The money lost is probably immeasurable but the result I think will be companies having to rely on subscription games and in microtransactions.