Massively^™

With today's retail launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, what could possibly make your game experience any better? How about if you played it absolutely free for 60 days? The good folks at gamerDNA have announced a contest that will give you the chance to do just that. From Friday, September 19th through Sunday, September 28th, you can enter to win one of five 60 day Warhammer Online prepaid time cards.

To play, you simply need to create a profile on the gamerDNA site and add any WAR-related information to your profile, post a WAR experience or play WAR. Then on Wednesday, October 1st, they'll announce the lucky winners drawn randomly. Be sure to check out the complete rules on the site, and good luck!

WAR is finally upon us, and as the gates open and players flood the servers hungry for blood, their first Realm versus Realm experience is most likely going to come from "scenarios". Scenarios are instanced battlegrounds that you can join by clicking a button near your minimap, and will differ depending on which part of the world you're in. Once you get into one, there will be a number of objectives to fight for, all the while holding off players from the opposing realm.

Each racial pairing has its own scenario, totalling three unique battlegrounds per tier. We've braved the frontlines in each of the Tier 1 scenarios in order to give you a preview of the landscape and objectives that are the backdrop for the RvR mayhem. First up, we'll take a look at the High Elf vs. Dark Elf pairing, then Dwarf vs. Greenskin, and finally Empire vs. Chaos. Join us after the break to view our gallery guide for the Elf pairing scenario, Khaine's Embrace, and for guides to the other two scenarios as well!

---

	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

The last stop on our tour of the Tier 1 scenarios is Nordenwatch. This scenario can be reached from the Nordland and Norsca zones, and is the home turf for the Empire and Chaos races. Similar to the Gates of Ekrund, there is one central objective that both teams will meet up at for an epic clash, almost every time. Our last gallery guide of this series features a closer look at what you can expect to find in Nordenwatch. Do you have a favorite scenario? Is there one that you can't stand and refuse to queue for? Tell us about it in the comments below.

While you sit and wait patiently for the September 18th retail release of Warhammer Online to unfold, take comfort in the fact that the Age of Reckoning lore is building up all around you. The first novel set in Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Empire in Chaos, has been released just in time for the game's launch.

Written by Anthony Reynolds, formerly of Games Workshop's UK Design Studio, this book covers the lore set in place for the WAR MMO. According to the book's description, "In the Empire, mutants and brigands run riot, and a ghastly plague breaks out. Is this illness a natural occurrence, or does it herald a far greater evil? As the apocalypse draws ever closer, can our heroes rally the defenders of the Empire to face the most terrible of all enemies – the hordes of Chaos?"

Anticipation is a beautiful thing. Anticipation without news leads to dangerous speculation, yet anticipation combined with tons of news and activity websites can seal the deal for your launch-date purchase of a game. This seems to be the plan with Warhammer Online's Road to WAR website launched last week by Mythic Entertainment.

On this site you can claim your allegiance to the Order or Destruction Realm, recruit friends and gather gold for the fight. What fight, you might ask? Each week until launch, you can participate in a battle for yourself, your state and your Realm. Plus, if having your name on the Leaderboard isn't enough incentive to win, there are plenty of valuable prizes at stake, including a Never Ending Bowl of Custard and a special in-game title. Head on over to the official website to get yourself registered and learn more.

Writing a compelling game story is no easy feat. Now imagine being responsible for the innumerable and layered storylines in an MMO, constantly evolving and needing to fit with everything else -- sounds like a nightmare, doesn't it? Lead writer for Warhammer Online Matt Daniels would beg to differ. He has penned a new developer diary, in which he goes over his role in bringing the Warhammer setting to life, and it sounds like it's nothing but fun. A big challenge, but still fun.

It seems we somehow missed the previous developer diary as well, which features content director Destin Bales talking about the roughly-ten-thousand pages of documentation that the content team has come up with for WAR. This covers a huge range of things, from the basic premise of the game, to very detailed content information. You'll even get to read an example of the work found in the content documents, with a full description of the "Mount Bloodthorn" zone pasted at the bottom of the article. Check out both Daniels' and Bales' dev diaries, and we'll be sure to keep our eyes out for the next one.

Partners-in-crime IGN and Gamespy recently visited Mythic to get some hands-on time with a couple of the starting areas in Warhammer Online. IGN ended up with the High Elves, taking Swordmaster as their class, and Gamespy chose the Dark Elves and picked Sorceress.

One of the things that Gamespy commented on was the close proximity of the High Elf and Dark Elf starting areas to each other. They also noted that some of the newbie quests deliberately brought the two races together, within striking distance, giving players the choice to either scowl menacingly, or jump straight into PvP. There was unfortunately no mention of a meet-up and subsequent rumble with their noble High Elven counterparts though. Both teams ended their playtime by participating in a public quest, and you can read all about it from either IGN's or Gamespy's perspective.

Remember the WAR 'this is glory' video from a few weeks back? It was a scripted pile of crap, but anyone with some common sense knew it didn't actually portray WAR's RvR realistically. What is realistic? Chaotic bedlam! This new video ganked from Gamespot showcases how PvP plays out on a smaller and more nubish scale. Classes in on the action: Witch Hunter, Chaos Chosen, and the Witch Elf.

Paul Barnett appears, surprise, and dials down the hyperbole explaining in calmer terms the hobby experience that will make WAR a free-time friendly fun MMO to play. That way WAR players can still go to the bar wearing Warhammer shirts, and bring along some Warhammer figurines to impress the svelte ladies or the burly gents. While I really enjoy the hobby versus immersion outlook, there will always be hardcores that take it to the immersive extreme and play until someone in a bio-hazard suit shows up with the eviction notice.

It's nice that there are some MMO developers that want to make sure their players stay safe and function as normal law-abiding citizens that can afford their subscriptions and buy all sorts of WAR loots. I still have a bad feeling WAR will be an immersive soul-sucking experience. I better get to work on fire-proofing whatever I can. If you still hunger for more footage, and like me you're stuck back in the line for a beta invite, there are more gameplay videos to watch. If you want to join the line, be sure to register for the Warhammer Online beta.

[via Keen and Graev]
[Video Source]

Warhammer Online, which is probably (as is often claimed) the most anticipated MMO of 2008, will be having a developer chat next Wednesday, January 30th, at 8pm EST at Warcry. Details about this game are still a bit thinner than I would like, so any information we can get on it is nice to have. To connect, join #WarCouncil on irc.chatspike.net:6667 (#warcry for discussion), or use one of the web clients available on Warcry's page.

Personally, I'm not that interested in the game, since it seems quite PvP (sorry, RvR) heavy, and I'm more of a PvE guy. It is, however, still the strongest competition I can see on the horizon for WoW, at least until Blizzard announces their own "next-gen MMO" that they keep trying to hire folks for.

A recent newsletter for Warhammer Online gave us a glimpse at the concept art for some of the player mounts that the game will have, and TenTonHammer has posted these up in a handy gallery. Featured are mounts for the Greenskin, Dwarf, High Elf, Chaos, and Empire armies. For some races, we see a Light, Heavy and Medium version of the mounts, and the Greenskins have two different kinds of mount shown, boars and wolves.

The newsletter that these images came from gave us a few scraps of information on some mount mechanics. There will be temporary mounts for rent, aimed at lower level characters, and riding into water will throw you off your mount. Similarly, you can be shot off your mount if you ride into battle (though no word yet on whether mounted combat will at all be possible). Missing from any of the concept art shown was a mount for the Dark Elves. The newsletter promises more details soon on mounts in general, and perhaps we will learn about their mode of transportation at that time.

EA Mythic has filled the top-spot in their community ranks by inviting Robert Mull to lead the way as their new Community Relations Director. Mull's new duties revolve around everything community, especially overseeing the Community Coordinators for Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and the recently absorbed Ultima Online.

What grates on my nerves are community personnel that don't really play MMOs, which isn't as uncommon as one might think, any player can definitely tell when that big-head community rep replies on the forums doesn't even bother responding to important posts because they don't know jack about the game, and is instead jollying around in off-topic talking about the latest CSI episode.

Well, according to his personal welcoming address on the Warhammer Herald, Mull is a long-time MMOG player and his past roots include working for Wizards of the Coast supporting Avalon Hill, Axis & Allies, Dreamblade, Duel Masters, and other products. Nice, roots. We here at Massively, would like to extend a welcoming hand to our new EA Mythic community overlords. (I am attempting to gain faction for beta invites for our readers when the time comes – if it comes!) If you have been out of the Warhammer loop for the past week, please be sure to check out all our recent Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning coverage.

It doesn't matter where you go in the world of MMOs, everyone knows that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is coming. We've heard it touted as (among many things) the WoW-killer. (Of course, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that phrase thrown around, I'd at least be writing this on a much better laptop.) From what many folks have said, the PvP in Warhammer is going to be a truly amazing system, far beyond anything we have seen in an MMO to date. Of course, outside of what is on the official WAR site, many of the details are slim since EA/Mythic have pushed the release date back again and beta testers are left twiddling their thumbs until December.

Thus, since we can't give away a game that isn't out, nor a beta that isn't open -- we're featuring some excellent gaming equipment for today's giveaway. Yep! Today's contest winner will walk away from the fray carrying a sweet Logitech G15 gaming keyboard to help them out in future battles. (Of course, you must 18+, a resident of the United States, leave your comment by 1:00 PM Eastern tomorrow, and the rest of the official rules stuff.)

So if you want to win a G15 all for your very own, just leave a comment with what you think below. Do you think WAR is really going to be the WoW-killer? Do you think it's all over-hyped? Or do you suspect that they'll learn to play nice and share the crayons in the ever-expanding MMO toy box?

In case you missed it, Warhammer Online's October State of the Game, released the other day, dropped the fact that the game had been pushed back to a Q2 2008 launch. Since that announcement, Gamespot had an opportunity to talk with developer EA Mythic's VP and general manager, Mark Jacobs, to allow him to elaborate on the decision to delay the highly anticipated title.

Jacobs goes into a lot of detail with his responses to Gamespot's questions, but the main message he would like to get across is that his studio would not have been satisfied with the game's state, at release, if confined to their previous schedule. They have received a lot of helpful feedback, both positive and negative, from people in their beta testing program, and now wish to take the time to better the game based on that -- although, Jacobs emphasizes that the beta was not brought down solely to address issues in the negative feedback, but that the shutdown had been in their plans all along.

As the holiday season approaches and our favorite videogame genre bulges with new titles, it seems like many of them are intellectual properties (IP) that have been made massive: that is, an IP that somebody, somewhere thought would be cool (or profitable) to turn into an online experience. Past MMOGs based on well-known IPs have had mixed success. Star Wars Galaxies, for instance, converted arguably the world's best known IP into an MMOG but fizzled. The Matrix Online tried to take advantage of a pop-culture phenomenon but that didn't work out either. City of Heroes/Villains cashed in on our love of comic books – not an IP exactly, but close. Lord of the Rings Online has had some success, as well, but not overwhelmingly so. In the near future, Games Workshop's Warhammer IP will be making its MMO debut as Warhammer Online (developed by EA-Mythic), along with Age of Conan (Funcom's ambitious interpretation of Robert E. Howard's barbarous world). Even MMOGs based on other videogames could fit into this 'make-massive' trend: Blizzard Entertainment turned its own real-time strategy Warcraft franchise into an online world, as did Square-Enix with Final Fantasy.

That got me thinking: if I had the power to make an MMOG, what would it be? A series of books, or a movie? Personally, I think that Perpetual Entertainment's Star Trek Online has great potential, but that could be due to the fact that I always thought I would look really good in a red and black uniform commanding a starship. Maybe Harry Potter? Though who knows how that one would work. As Matt points out, fans don't always make the best game developers, and it's certainly true that converting a big, complex IP into an MMOG can have its pitfalls. But ideally, in your most secret heart of hearts, which world would you love to see be made massive? Where would your dream MMOG be set?