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Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs posted a Warhammer Online dev blog today, titled "Open RvR Update" which maps out the future of open realm-vs-realm in the game. Jacobs writes that the coming months will bring some changes and additions to WAR:

• An RvR Influence system. "This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR," he says.

• Increased visibility of open RvR, made possible through numerous improvements such as improved maps and travel systems, second bind points, a campaign HUD, and tier-wide messaging about the status of battlefield objectives and keeps.

• Greater incentives for oRvR participation, namely through keep quests, 'Daily Event Quests,' and chained RvR missions.

• Better rewards for guilds that take and control keeps, and a system of keep upgrades.

• Allowing characters to gain oRvR "Fame", linked to the Tome of Knowledge and thus rewards, titles, and experience that come with oRvR success.

Jacobs cautions though, "Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months." Jacobs hopes that open RvR enhancements will inject more risk and challenge into this aspect of the game, and ultimately more rewards. Check out his dev blog where he outlines the changes to open RvR and let us know, do you think Mythic is headed in the right direction with this system revamp?

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

The Heavy Metal live event for Warhammer Online has been well-received, albeit with some complaints about scenario frequency. Reikland Factory is a unique 'event-only' scenario in WAR, which some players lament will end with Heavy Metal. If this is indeed the case, at least one blogger out there decided to capture it in video for posterity.

Snafzg from The Greenskin blog has put up video footage of his participation in the Reikland Factory scenario. The footage, with Snafzg's commentary throughout, walks the viewer through the scenario and its multiple types of terrain, both indoors and open air. Snafzg is in combat for much of the walkthrough so it's an interesting way to get a quick visual tour of the scenario. You can find The Greenskin's "Reikland Factory Heavy Metal Scenario RvR" video embedded below the cut:

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Any massively multiplayer online game built around the twin pillars of PvP and territorial control can't go wrong by providing realtime status updates of the struggle via the web. Warhammer Online has endeavored to do just that with the Realm War site, as addressed in a dev diary by the title's Web Development Lead, Scott Stricklin. The dev blog touches on what Mythic has accomplished thus far with bringing WAR to the web, and what they hope to accomplish in the future -- namely, podcasts, community news, and character and guild profiles. While they have no shortage of ideas about how to expand WAR outside of the client, their first objective has been to bring Realm vs. Realm data to the web. That goal has now been realized, and Stricklin walks the reader through the features of the newly revamped Realm War site.

Players now have access to updated information about the overall campaign and the status of each capital city, Stricklin writes. This information is also presented visually, with each capital city's look changing based on its status, ranging from peaceful to besieged. This can all be kept in a pop up box in your browser to provide continual updates for when the tide of battle turns. Further information is provided through selectors which represent a server's racial pairings, giving a snapshot of what's happening with each tier's zone control. An added bonus to this are influence maps for each zone, similar to the in-game maps, which show the status of the various RvR objectives and allow a player to mouse over keeps, seeing when it was last captured and by which guild. Have a look at Scott Stricklin's dev diary for more on the Realm War site, or better yet, just head over there and try it out for yourself.

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

There was a time when the western MMO market was flooded with imports of popular Korean titles. While there's still a steady influx of Asian games reworked to fit western playstyles, there's also a growing number of western MMOs being exported to Asia, particularly Korea. The obvious title that succeeds anywhere it goes is World of Warcraft, whose Asian following is legion. But smaller games have also been making inroads. EVE Online has been operating in China for years and Hellgate: London gained a new lease on life in Korea. They're not alone in this. Turbine has its eyes set on expanding into Korea with Lord of the Rings Online, and we know that Age of Conan is marching eastward, too. The latest successful western title to look east is Warhammer Online, which will soon be played in Korea as well.

Electronic Arts and Hangame are partnering to bring WAR to South Korea. In a related press statement, Mythic's Mark Jacobs said, "By partnering with Hangame, we hope to provide Korean gamers with a fresh, new fantasy experience and years' worth of Realm vs. Realm adventures on the frontlines of WAR." You can see the full announcement about WAR's attempt to capture Korean gamers over at The Earth Times. Given how PvP-centric Korean MMOs tend to be, do you think Warhammer Online would be a natural fit for gamers in this market?

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

As a game that has promoted its PvP aspects so much, Warhammer Online's Realm vs Realm feature has become a big hit among players. In a recent article over at Eurogamer, they analyze the sport aspect of WAR's RvR system, and what makes it different from the PvP in other MMOs.

This article touches on many key points, including collision detection, control point logistics and more. However, this article is not simply another praise-fest. On the subject of what Mythic got right or wrong in RvR: "Right: always ensuring you've got something fast, satisfying and combat-centric to achieve, with none of the waiting around and grinding of... well, I won't bring up That Other Game here. Wrong: guarding capture points for a set number of seconds, or running a flag to specific spots to score points is so inescapably gamey, so artificial."

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Well, Warhammer Online, in the very least, let me get away with putting that song in the title.

We're in the thick of it now -- WAR has launched and been installed on the machines of many. Some proclaim it to be the new timewaster, others find it to be a rip-off of World of Warcraft, and still others believe that it is, in fact, the digital messiah.

Well I don't know about digital messiahs, I just work the game design angles. And when it comes to game design, WAR is filled with new ideas. I like new ideas as much as the next person, but new ideas aren't very good when they don't work. Does WAR go the distance? I'll be glad to tell you, and you know I'm not going to pull punches.

With that said, let's get to the big gorilla -- the Realm vs. Realm combat. On the surface, it looks good. Letting people walk into clearly defined battlefields to fight over with incentives in the form of quests from the specific RvR warcamps and not to mention exp for killing other players as well as renown points, it looks like it's a winner. And, to be extremely honest, the system does win when you get a bunch of players in one place.

"Player vs. player combat comes extremely naturally to WAR to the point where sometimes I forget I'm in PvP because I'm having so much fun."

Player vs. player combat comes extremely naturally to WAR to the point where sometimes I forget I'm in PvP because I'm having so much fun. Yes, that line just came from the guy who'd rather do reputation grinds than visit Alterac Valley in World of Warcraft. I despise PvP, I despise battlegrounds, and grinding reputation is fun compared to getting killed every three seconds and then teabagged.

WAR makes sure that each person can actualy survive in PvP, have a chance to get away, and they make it into a worthwhile endeavor. Even if you lose a scenario, you can still turn in the specific PvP quest and get experience because you completed the scenario. PvP is tactical, interesting, and just overflowing with rewards. That's a good system.

The bad news comes in the form of World RvR battlegrounds. Once again, they're barren wastelands. No I mean that, they are barren wastelands. Haven't you seen the screenshots? (Insert rimshot here.) But, there's not enough people to really support the battlegrounds system. What we really have here is a "go in, take what you want before someone notices, and leave" system. Sure, there are quests that have owners of the landmarks "check up" on their property --

"Should that problem stop you from playing Warhammer Online? Absolutely not."

quests that will bring the enemy back to their control points -- but even those aren't being taken advantage of by the players.

So, what is WAR good for? WAR is good for a bloody fun time. The game's systems are all well done and are fun to play. The problem is that WAR is missing the fundamental oil in the machine, people to WAR with. The endgame is secure, as everyone is going to end up there, turning the endgame into a giant, vicious struggle (as it should be) but the first and second tiers are going to struggle no matter what. Even in overpopulated servers just a short while from the launch, we're already seeing signs of attrition in the design. Mythic simply thought they'd have more people constantly flowing in or making new characters.

Should that problem stop you from playing Warhammer Online? Absolutely not. The state of the game is still strong, and it's still more fun than you can get in any other game. In fact, if you jump in, you're going to only going to help in curing the problems it has. So go ahead, WAR away. The game is good for it.

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Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who finally is having fun with RvR. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane roommates. If you want to message him, you can do so in Second Life (SL: Seraphina Reymont), or send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.

Last week at Comic-Con in San Diego, I sat down with Warhammer Online producer Jeff Skalski and got my hands on the beta for the first time. I could go in-depth on all the new features and functions of the game, but our own Michael Zenke beat me to the punch on that one. Instead I want to give my impressions of the game from the perspective of a long-time MMOG player with little time to play these days and even less interest in PvP.

You may be asking yourself why I would be drawn to yet another MMOG, much less one largely centered on PvP given my statement above. The answer is simple: revirginization. In a discussion I had with 38 Studios at Comic-Con, I questioned them about how they thought yet another fantasy-based MMOG could succeed in an already heavily saturated market. The answer they gave me was simple and true: gamers have had wonderful experiences when they've first played other fantasy-based titles, but the thrill has been lost by repetitive gameplay. Now, many of us are looking to recapture that newbie experience again with a new title. Warhammer Online may be that game for me, not for its PvE content, but for its Realm vs Realm PvP set-up.

Lets go back about ten years or so to the original EverQuest. Now it isn't my intention to pick on any one game, I just happen to be more familiar with it than Ultima Online or Meridian 59. For the sake of immersion let me assume the role of a 1999 copy of EverQuest that you happen to be playing on your gaming machine back in the last year of the last century.

You just died in EverQuest. How dare you die! Since you had the nerve to be defeated in combat, you'll now be required to run from your binding point -- which could potentially be very far away -- to your dead body, which contains all of your equipment and bags that just happen to hold all of your inventory. If you fail to do this, then you lose all of these items. Oh but you've already lost some experience and possibly de-leveled if you happened to have recently leveled up.

Hey! Why are you logging out? So what if you think you'd rather play Half-Life right now, this is the game you're paying for monthly. Don't you think you'd better get the most out of it? Hah! See? I knew you were only bluffing. All right, now get to running, noob.

If you just can't get yourself enough Warhammer Online information, then let us point your by-now strained-from-lack-of-sleep eyes towards this MMORPG.com preview of the game's career system. EA Mythic has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about their classes and with very good reason. In a game that's centered around the developer's patented Realm vs Realm combat system it matters very much that there is a close-as-possible balance between the two factions of Order and Chaos.

This is of course a subject that's been touched on by us and other people all around the MMO blogosphere, which is probably making the guys responsible for realm balance over at EA Mythic feel a little stressed -- that is if they weren't to begin with.

If that preview still doesn't sate your now-obviously insatiable desire to know more about Squig Herders and Chaos Magi or essentially any other class featured in the game, we've got you covered.

Our sister site Big Download put up an interview today with EA Mythic's senior producer Jeff Hickman and it's all about Warhammer Online. Mostly there's a lot of RvR (Realm vs Realm, Mythic's special brand of world PvP) talk but that's somewhat difficult to avoid when discussing a game that's so very intertwined with the feature. Overall though it's a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the upcoming realm-pride focused production.

A lot of the RvR discussion takes place towards the end of the interview and actually contains some new pieces of information that we find most tantalizing. Included among said information are Jeff's thoughts on the topic of VoIP and socialization elements in RvR. So if you salivate for any new nuggets of information about Warhammer Online or its various features you should definitely check it out.

The men and women behind Warhammer Online love their job. It's not hard to see, or hear, and yesterday we had the opportunity to listen in as Warhammer's leading lights chatted about their favorite subject. EA Mythic participated in a conference call aiming to update fans and press alike with the latest news of their much-anticipated title. The team went through a slew of general questions, fleshing out our understanding of the features coming with the game's fall release. Sitting in on the call were Adam Gershowitz (Combat and Careers lead), Josh Drescher (Associate Producer), Paul Barnett (mouth-full-of-pizza), Jeff Hickman (Senior Producer), and Destin Bales (Content Director).

Join us as we walk through the often-humorous commentary from the WAR boys. We'll learn about RvR, keeps and siege, cooperative gameplay, the makeup of the endgame, the viability of PvE, and what you have to do to end up on Paul Barnett's whiteboard. Read on to find out, and to see some exclusive screenshots of the game in action.

Earlier this week, folks in London got a chance to preview the Realm-vs-Realm style of PvP combat that will be central to Warhammer Online. EA Mythic was on-hand to demonstrate the game to press at a huge Electronic Arts booth, alongside other PC superstars like Battlefield Heroes, Mass Effect PC, and Battleforge. Gamespot had a chance to get an update on the game's current progress, and states that the folks at Mythic are firmly in the "polish and iteration" phase. Though there was little new information given out at the event, it's interested to hear that the developers plan to offer player regular cinematic interludes as rewards. City Sieges, for example, will conclude with a dramatic cinema event that moves forward the gameworld's story.

Seeing the demo environment must have been a sight as well. A blog entry on game producer Josh Drescher's personal site describes the venue as a large room "with crazy sets (we've got a Marshes-of-Madness set) and a GIANT rotating platform in the middle that the press sit on. The platform moves them around to look at each title in order, which is hilariously awesome to see." We hope Josh recovers from his illness, and that more information on WAR's central PvP elements become available soon.

It's not stating the situation too excessively to remark that people are excited about this game. Many are anticipating it with the same fervor mustered by religious zealots. Some use the phrase 'WoW Killer'. And all of this without even having played the thing at all.

Well, there's news that might mitigate that last little bit: If you can't wait for the eventual open beta download, you can play WAR at a few events across the country! The list of events, with locations and dates, after the jump!

Every massively game has a core element that it is built upon and all are a bit different in their strengths and weaknesses. World of Warcraft and the upcoming Warhammer Online have two very different core designs, but in more ways than you might think. World of Warcraft -- at its core -- is a PvE game with lots of vertical progression (levels, levels and more levels) where PvP takes a backseat to the overall focus of the raid endgame. Basically, because WoW is so heavily focused on raiding dungeons and the experience that goes along with it -- levels have become a necessity with each expansion. The essential problem to a design like this is easily apparent if you create a new character in WoW today and work your way through the first 60 levels of the game. You're not going to find a whole lot of people to play with because they're all level 70s that are either raiding, participating in battlegrounds or at the arena. This gap is only going to become wider once Wraith of the Lich King releases, adding another ten levels between your brand new character and everyone else at the endgame -- for a total of 70 levels.

Instead of building upwards, Warhammer Online has a chance to do something different -- something that works better. The reason I believe this to be true is because at its core WAR is about the RvR experience. In an endgame where players are fighting other players, you want to keep them together as best you can and adding more levels is counter-productive to that. So as a developer what will EA Mythic most likely do instead?