Snorehammer to Launch Unfinished
Posted July 15th, 2008 by Isobelle
Well, well, well! It seems as though EAMythic is having problems with the content in their big upcoming MMO title Warhammer Online. Apparently, two thirds of the much lauded RvR locations in the game are dull and boring, and will therefore be not included in the version that people end up buying. The devs themselves acknowledge “…we looked at the Greenskin home, the Dwarf home and we went ‘there’s an awful lot to do here and there are some issues‘”. While the logical thing to do would be to wait until the game is ready to launch before launching it, apparently AoC has given everyone the green light to just release unfinished product, and hope that the subscribers don’t notice things like the fact that four out of six major RvR conflict zones are not playable.
There's an interview up on MMORPG.com detailing some of the things to get the Axehammer. RvR, or Realm versus Realm, is supposed to be pretty much THE defining characteristic of Warhammer, the thing that sets it apart from Blizzard’s World of Warcraft’s PvP implementations of Arenas and Battlegrounds. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really give a shit about Arenas or Battlegrounds, but saying “our pancakes are going to be twelve times as delicious as your pancakes because of all the fucking BLUEBERRIES(!)”, and then launching pancakes with one blueberry in them apiece… it just seems a little silly.
Capitol cities were supposed to be the big hot ticket. Supposedly, you start out in your city, with the enemy having its city on the other side of the region. You both run around in the fields, picking cotton, collecting rat anuses, or (gasp!) PvPing, and eventually gain control of certain zones. Eventually you meet in the center of the region, and a tug of war begins where you can push the other army all the way back to its main city, bum rush the front gates, and sack their city for epic Trash Talking Capes of +5 Forum Trolling. Ah! Wait. That’s right, of the six playable races, that epic game play only applies to the Order and Destruction cities.
They go on to blow my mind with such statements as “…their other option, which would have been to delay the game on behalf of the Capital Cities. In the end, that wasn’t really an option as even delaying the game to accommodate the cities would have resulted in issues and in the end, wouldn’t have resolved the issues listed above.
“Once something goes live,” he added, “it becomes much more difficult to change so you have to be more careful. You can‘t make as many sweeping changes and when you make changes you have to look at the impact on the existing player base. There are so many bad things that can happen post-launch when you make significant adjustments. By doing it this way, we don‘t have to worry about that. We can make the adjustments to the new cities and then rotate in those cities.”
Just to make sure I understand… delaying the cities would have created issues (I’m imagining the issues here are money issues, because EA is a horribly poor underdog in the grand scheme of gaming), and once the game launches it’s hard to make “sweeping changes”, so that’s why they’re going to wait for the game to go live before patching in these huge sweeping changes. Gotcha.
I’m sure Warhammer won’t suffer from issues with lag or bugs during these sweeping RvR battles, since the entire game’s population is going to be in one region. Tarren Mill vs Southshore, round 2, COMMENCE!
There are more gems in the article, such as certain race and class combos being cut because they weren’t fun to play. Each race was supposed to have four classes available to them, but the Greenskins and Dwarfs are losing their melee DPS classes, and the Dark Elves and Empire are losing their tanks.
“This isn’t something that I can say that it is really a good thing for the player,” he began. “We’re cutting out some classes. I can say that we are doing this for quality, absolutely. Unfortunately, what I can’t say, and I won’t because I’ve never lied to the player base and while this would be a great place to start, I’m not going to.”
I don’t even get that last sentence. He doesn’t want to lie, so he’s not going to say anything at all? Well, take from it what you will. Video Pocast Fanboys who haven’t played the game will undoubtedly cheer, saying they're focusing on more important matters, but I just keep thinking about all those blueberries they promised, and how the resulting pancake coming out of the kitchen might as well be labeled Plain.
Bah.
90% of the stuff I've read about this game so far has been fairly negative. I was hoping this game would really sell itself on the PvP aspect of it but even that seems to be getting less and less appealing. Are they this eager to get the game out?
They explained the thing in much greater detail on the beta forums which is under NDA, I'm not worried. The PvP has been fine as it is even while being limited to only one pairing, considering that only the capitals are being shut for now there are still tons of RvR to be had, I doubt anyone would get past the final stronghold before the capital until a few months in unless there is a massive imbalance on some server.
WoW launched lacking 2 finished cities , gladiator arenas, underwater dungeons and content, hero classes, honor system, siege warfare and battlegrounds. Hunter was literally implemented last second and it showed at release. The paladin class was changed for the first live patch so it had no closed/open beta testing.
I love people that make broad generalizations on games when:
a) the game is in beta
b) said person isn't in beta
The content on this webpage has become trash. The articles used to be funny and actually apply to MMOs. Now its half-assed reviews and rants that don't really ammount to anything at all.
You're usually pretty intelligent, but it's kind of funny that you don't grasp the concept behind their reasoning in the 4th paragraph. Also, it would only be following the footsteps of AoC if they DID release the other unfinished cities. It's not that hard to comprehend.
Fanboi more Hater. No please, because there is 0.1% room left on your fanboi o meter. It's all HILARIOUS lampooning until they say something negative about the game you're on board with/looking forward to/having a sexual relationship with.
If this website is indeed as shitty as you say then it begs the obvious and cliche question of why are you reading it?
Surely you'd much more enjoy firing off a few knuckle children to some Warhammer Online concept art?
Is there an archer type class in Warhammer?
Lame motherfucking wannabe Legolas asking if there is a ranged class in-game: CHECK!
All is complete now. This game is fucking doomed to 10-year-old retards.
Thank you Iso!!
I'm so happy to see people finally analyzing these games for what they are as opposed to listening to the fanboi-hyped buzz that circulates the internet when a game is announced. I realize we all want to be first in line for the next powerhouse MMO but lets be realistic, there have been LOTS of MMO's and very very few to match the depth of play of say WoW or EQ.
Lets face obvious facts here. WoW is nearly perfect. For as much bitching as we do about it's flaws it really is an amazing game. And for all the bitching we do, it doesn't discourage us from playing, if anything it pumps you up to play even more! As a holy pally I hate locks, so I run a cleave 5v5 and we kill them endlessly. Other than flaming WoW websites thats how I handle my frustration with the game, play it more.
And I don't mean to sound like a Blizzard lover here. But the next game that will take WoW's place in my life will undoubtably be Diablo 3. That game looks absolutely stunning. And thanks to the experience of WoW, Blizzards MMOint is about +750 right now from where it was for D2. They will fix many of the issues (balancing, etc) that existed in D2.
In my experience it will be a very long time before Blizzard is unseated from the throne of the MMO world. There might be better niche games, like an extremely PvP heavy game, that will appeal to the FPS fans. But in terms of making the whole package. Well, like AoC, don't expect Warhammer to put a dent in Blizzards market share.
I like how you rip on fanboys, then in the very next paragraph say "WoW is nearly perfect" and that you're only going to play Blizzard games.
Thats really funny.
I have never really heard much encouraging about this game from anyone who isn't a complete mythic fanboi. Which makes me think it will really suck because I think DAoC is one of the worst mainstream MMOs ever made. It came out at the perfect time when everyone was getting sick of EQ and it ran okay at release (this also has worked well for Age of Conan). Now you have a few hundred thousand people running around the internets thinking that DAoC had good PvP. I want all of those people to die...... Also I hate "RVR" which is the gayest thing evar... FUCK YOU MYTHIC!!!
Oh yeah back to warhammer. As I said I haven't heard much that is redeeming but then AoC turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would (translation - it went from completely unplayable shit to just plain shit). Maybe Mythic will pull something amazing out of their asses to keep this game from yet another pile of suck. I doubt it though.
Thing about DAOC RvR was, it required legitimate effort to learn to play well. Not to mention a modicum of intelligence. Either of these could explain why you didn't like it.
All in all this news is pretty scary, since Warhammer was the last great hope of a decent MMO for 2008.
Age of Conan fell flat on its face with its "bug-o-rama" gameplay and "cropped to hell" content, Hellgate London has all but crashed and burned with Flagship loosing the IP and everything out of Korea being yet another mindless Asian "click to grind" fest, has resulted in 2008 sucking as bad as 2007, 2006 and 2005.
So, if Warhammer does release sans most of the content which was supposed to make it great, what do I have to look forward to??!!... Fallen Earth? Stargate Worlds?
I think 2008 should be refereed to the year of slim-pick'ins in the sewerage pit!
LOL @ the blueberry pancakes analogy.
But yeah, you really need to get some of your claims right, Iso.
Firstly, you say that EAMythic think that "two thirds of the much lauded RvR locations in the game are dull and boring", but if you had read the follow-on articles, you would have come to realise that the RvR locations (Tier 1-4) in all three of the race pairings, are still going to be available at release, it is just the cities themselves that are being canned.
And after recently quitting AOC as well, I have to say I'm relieved EAMythic have acted in this way, by telling everyone relatively early on about class & gameplay issues, and subsequently cutting them for launch. It's refreshing.
And I love how anyone that says anything positive about a game is instantly labelled as a fanboi...get a fkn clue, seriously.
yeah, i guess the zones will still be there, but they'll just have no "end zone". imagine pushing all the way to the end of Alterac Valley to find Captain Placeholder with a "sorry, check back in a few months" gossip panel.
while my language selection is harsh, i'm just saying what they won't. if the zones weren't dull and boring, they'd be in the game still. they apparently got into such a fevered pitch over the two that they DO have that they looked at doing that 4 more times and were like "fuck that. that'd be too much work".
here's my disclaimer that i end up having to put in anything i write about warhammer: I REALLY HOPE THEY GET IT RIGHT, AND IT'S FUN TO PLAY, but when news like this is released, you have to wonder. maybe the two cities they did manage to finish will be so fun that it'll be worth it in the end to wait for. I'm kinda leaning towards everyone doing it once, then saying "this is the big deal? that's it?" at the anitclimax.
the problem with their 'epic RvR' is that it doesn't last. speaking again in terms of wow, say the horde were able to capture ironforge, and the alliance couldn't have it back until they TOOK it back... that would be fucking awesome. but in WAR, after sacking an opposing city, you get some buff or whatever, and the city remains 'sacked' for an unspecified amout of time, then it 'returns' to its owners, so it can be sacked again. sounds kinda pointless; in fact, it actually sounds eerily like a grind.
imagine that... :(
You've missed a podcast/newsletter or two. Mechanic is different. Read up a bit and try again.
orly? so the city remains sacked forever until the other team can win it back? that would be impressive; i'll believe it when i see it.
Iso, isn't that how the Pirate game works? You work and work, twist and turn only to have the game "reset" after you "win" by controlling the bay or whatever? I never tried it, but I have to admit that I was tempted til I heard that.
RVR has to have a Goal. Not an "yay we did it, come back tomorrow to re-sack, eh?" But a serious Goal along the lines of "That Orc honky lit my house on fire and I really want my city back."
I care about Ironforge, I'd fight to get it back. Probably not if they gave it back to me...
Warhammer is fucking fail. The beta is fucking terrible, and I know that doesn't mean that the game is going to be fucking terrible; but it's like a fetus having down syndrome and expecting the baby to be born normal.
Fucking Failhammer.
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