Warhammer Online: Massively goes to WAR

Massively goes to WAR:
Your Warhammer questions answered

All week long, Massively.com has been offering up feature after feature on EA Mythic's in-development MMO, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The Massively goes to WAR feature series has taken you front to back through almost every moment of our time at Mythic's Virginia headquarters. Whether you're into hardcore PvP, dungeon delving, crafting, or are a total MMO newb, we've got you covered. Click on through, and explore the world of Warhammer.

	Massively goes to WAR: Your Warhammer questions answered We spent the better part of yesterday under the auspices of EA Mythic, talking with them about the many and sundry parts that make up the Warhammer whole. You're going to see plenty of content about the game going up today and into next week, but right away we wanted to respond to you - the reader.
	Massively goes to WAR: Jeff Hickman's view of Warhammer Online We sat down with Jeff Hickman, EA Mythic's senior producer for Warhammer Online - and his enthusiasm for the game was contagious. It was hard not to be enthused just listening to him speak!
	Massively goes to WAR: Interview with Senior Designer Dan Enright Senior Designer Dan Enright is an industry veteran, having worked on Massively multiplayer games of varying stripes for the better part of a decade. We had the chance to chat with him, to get a sense of his part of the Warhammer world.
	Massively goes to WAR: Emotions behind the Tome of Knowledge In the same way that everyone on the Warhammer team seems to be suffused with passion for the game, Tome of Knowledge lead Carrie Gouskos couldn't help but pass on information about one of the game's most innovative features.
	Massively goes to WAR: Insights into Warhammer's crafting system The bread and butter of the game is combat, adventuring, and excitement. Which is not to say that a few moments of quiet time aren't appropriate even in the harsh world of WAR.
	Massively goes to WAR: Exploring Warhammer's capital cities Warhammer Online Development Manager Mike Stone is one of the minds behind the massive cities that sit brooding at either end of the racial pairings. Under his guidance, Altdorf (the Empire capital) and the Inevitable City rose before us in all their majesty.
	Massively goes to WAR: How to conquer a capital city The keep and siege gameplay of Warhammer Online all leads up to just one thing: sacking the opposing race's capital. Weeks, perhaps months of gameplay all leads up to one final confrontation between the forces of Order and the forces of Destruction. But what happens once the final Fortress falls?
	Massively goes to WAR: The early days of Mythic Entertainment In the midst of chatting with Christian Bales and Josh Drescher about the Living Guild system in Warhammer Online, we got to talking about their early days at Mythic Entertainment. Unlike many of the AAA MMO developers today, Mythic originally started out as a 'garage-style' development house.
	Massively goes to WAR: Everything you need to know about guilds Thankfully, some topics are complicated enough that they warrant a second look. Warhammer's Living Guilds system, for example, was the subject of a great video just a few weeks back. And yet, there are still a number of questions you can walk away with.
	Massively goes to WAR: Spotlight on the Goblin Shaman Sitting down with Josh Drescher and Adam Gershowitz to discuss the classes in Warhammer Online is somewhat like getting to sit next to the director during a feature film. They're so intimately tied to the game that every race, class, and locale in the game has an associated story.
	Massively goes to WAR: Spotlight on the Dwarven Engineer Did you know that the user interface for every class in the game has been given a complete makeover? Not only will every class receive a neat widgety component (ala the Goblin Shaman's Mork n' Gork heads), but the bar itself is themed to the class's role.
	Massively goes to WAR: Spotlight on the Chaos Marauder At Josh's urging, Adam logged into a Chaos Marauder to show off the mutational fury of that faction's front line. This melee warrior's capabilities are predicated on the internal darkness that boils into his skin, malforms his limbs, and gives him the capability to cause massive amounts of damage.
	Massively goes to WAR: Every Warhammer class explained For roughly an hour we moved quickly from class to class, visiting the highpoints of several different types of gameplay. Much of our discussion explored the karmic doppelgangers across classes; different races entirely that share similar roles or playstyles.
	Massively goes to WAR: How to get your Public Quest loot There's a great explanation of what Public Quests are over at the official Warhammer site, but there aren't a lot of gorey details. What's it like to complete one, for example? How long does it take to fill up your influence bar, and how do you get loot after the PQ finishes?
	Massively goes to WAR: Is there any PvE in Warhammer's endgame? "How much did they work on the PVE aspect of the game? Are there just a couple of end game dungeons to appease the crowd or is it more in depth? Do they have any endgame raid dungeons?" The answer to those questions, we can now safely say, are: "A lot, it's more in-depth, and yes."
	Massively goes to WAR: RvR Scenarios explored Scenarios are EA Mythic's answer to the instanced PvP mini-game popularized by World of Warcraft and (more recently) Age of Conan. Each is an enclosed, objective-based event that a player can opt into or out of at any time.
	Massively goes to WAR: Sieging keeps and assaulting fortresses RvR Lead Designer Brian Wheeler and Producer Jeff Skalski sat down with us on Friday to go through Keep capturing and siege gameplay. It's one of the most compelling parts of Realm vs. Realm combat from Dark Age of Camelot buffed, shined, and retooled for the Warhammer crowd.
	Massively goes to WAR: What worries us about Warhammer The components that make the back of Warhammer's box look mighty interesting – RvR, Scenarios, Public Quests, the Tome of Knowledge – are all generally very solid. However, here is the stuff I'm unsure about when it comes to Warhammer Online; the unanswered questions, the balls in the air, the shadows under the bed.

Massively Speaking Podcast Episode 8
Massively Speaking Episode 8 runs down news and features from Massively.com for the week of May 26th - June 1st. It's a two-topic podcast, as Michael Zenke and Shawn Schuster are joined by guest hosts Cameron Sorden and WoW Insider notable Mike Schramm.

Gallery: Warhammer Online: Massively goes to WAR