- Image by She Takes The Cake via Flickr
Today marks the first anniversary of the release of Warhammer Online, the spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot, and Mythic’s 2nd major attempt at an MMO. It was one year ago today that WAR, the darling of the MMO playerbase at the time, released to major fanfare and anticipation.
Even someone as optimistic as I am can’t really ignore the fact that WAR has had a bit of a rocky first year. Growing pains, a child that stays up most of the night crying, and difficulty potty training – you can pretty much use any analogy you want if you’re a parent and you’ve had issues with the trials and tribulations of taking care of a baby, as WAR has been. A dip in subscriptions and being plagued with a variety of core issues have meant that WAR has taken a body blow this past year in terms of its success.
But to be honest, WAR is far from dead. Making it to the one year mark without being shut down by EA, known to cut off products that are underperforming, says something. It says that EA is still committed to making a mark in the MMO business, and though Star Wars: The Old Republic is miles away, funding is still being poured into the WAR machine, with Mythic’s employees toiling away at smashing bugs and fixing imbalances. There are a lot of people who want to write off WAR’s little baby of an MMO, but it’s not done learning to crawl just yet. In fact, having others not pay attention to it for a while might be a good thing, as other MMOs like Aion and Champions take the harsh light of criticism from an increasingly discerning playerbase.
I’ve written about this before, but a curious shift in the way WAR’s developers communicate with the playerbase, as well as incremental changes rather than sweeping ones, has led to the last couple of patches introducing some much needed changes, such as the reduction of AoE and CC, the beginning of the revision of city siege, the upcoming removal of stun as a crowd control element, and the modification of fortress roles in RvR. All of this points to an understanding of WAR’s problems – which frankly, are few, but happen to be core issues that cause players to unsub in frustration. Some time to fix these issues without worrying about what more to lose is the ticket WAR needs to stabalize itself as an MMO in this saturated market, and the slow progress towards those goals is being realized even as we speak.
Really, for as much as WAR has had trouble with, objectively speaking they have gotten a lot of things right. Public Quests are a huge innovation that has made it into releases as recent as Champions Online. PvP experience and casual scenario-play has seamlessly worked well in WAR, making PvP not just a nice diversion but also a means to advancement. Quest marking through red circles for marked locations has saved a lot of time and effort for PvE players. Many fundamental things with WAR are actually right, overshadowed by admittedly public and glaring core issues such as stability, RvR campaign problems, and class balance. So as much as the game has been touted by some negative Nancies as a failure or an upcoming failure, it’s had a bit of both in the win/loss department.
The coming months are going to be an interesting time for Mythic. With many of its former subscribers off to check out other games, they are now working in a mode where they have to gain the equity of its observers back with a few solid patches and perhaps the tease towards something major to redesign core elements of the game. Speaking of observers, if WAR can take a bit of hope away, it’s that just about everyone I talk to, and everyone who posts in places, says that they haven’t stopped following WAR and at least check up on it to see what’s different or changed. The offering of a more extensive free trial following a couple of solid under-the-hood patches is just the ticket to entice players to see what WAR can do, and it’s up to Mythic to get the job done. Working from a position of nothing to lose and everything to gain has its advantages.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the Mythic folks, and as much as people like to trash on them for not caring, it simply isn’t true. You won’t find a more dedicated, passionate, down-to-earth bunch of folks in the game developer industry, who feel more keenly than anyone the growing pains their game, which people seem to forget is their way of paying the bills. The future of WAR is still an open book, but were the WAR baby to fall flat on its face after celebrating its birthday, it won’t be for lack of trying on the part of the parents for trying to get the child to walk.
Happy birthday WAR. As one of the most fun MMOs I’ve played that I could play casually, I’ll continue to give you my (overly positive) support. Cheers!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dc464724-5c8b-4204-a8ee-416d26e6e2d6)
Subscribe for Optimism!
Happy Birthday, Warhammer!
There are so many things that I liked about that game, it was smart and innovative in so many ways. I find it sad that lots of people write it off as a failure because it was fun and I don’t see how any fun game is failure.
The thing is, is that it’s still fun. You can do as advertised – login for a few hours, or login for 30 minutes. You can have as simple or as complex of an experience as you want. Where WAR has succeeded with casual players like myself, it’s had some troubles creating a hook to keep people interested, which, combined with some core problems, are the source of its struggles. It’s still got a fair chance.
I feel that in many ways, this was the game that begged for a F2P model because it really really needs the numbers. The only reason I’m not subbed at the moment is because I can’t really justify a monthly sub for the amount I’d want to play.
The big mistake they made IMO was dimensioning their game such that it really needed one massive server and not a lot of little ones, and not realising it. It’s such a brilliant MASSIVE game that needs the numbers to get it moving.
Nice write-up and I also wish WAR a Happy Birthday!
Having past observers playing the new offerings is one thing, but I’m slightly concerned at the amount of current players that will also be taking a trip, even if it’s only brief (1-2 months). I’m talking about threads like (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=293119) this and screenshots like this (http://twitpic.com/hxwz5).
The first is a Phoenix Throne server forum discussion 121 pages long about people wanting to try out Aion. The second is a screenshot of current WAR guild leaders/officers chatting in Vent about their move to Aion.
That’s just one server and it doesn’t bode well imho. I’m quite sure at least half will come back, but still. Aion is really going to hurt WAR in terms of ongoing subs.
Yep, we consolidated the Aion discussion to one thread, hence the discussion length.
I have an upcoming article coming on Warhammer Alliance on this whole situation as well. It’s not AS positive, but it’s sobering enough to put things into perspective.
I enjoy your blog!
I’ve played WAR since launch and still am quite active in it today. It’s my first MMO so I didn’t have any preconceived notions of what it should or should not be. I wasn’t plugged into the hype machine that I’ve read was so close to bursting, people couldn’t wait for this game to launch.
To me, it is a lot of fun and I never knew I’d be a diehard PvPer. That’s what I truly enjoy about it. There are class imbalances but Mythic tries to tweak here and there to achieve some semblance of equalness but there will always be whiners. And from what I understand, WoW has some OP classes and apparently many games do. Achieving balance doesn’t seem like something so easy to implement. Some whines are warranted while some are not. Some classes have not received the love they deserve while some seem to be favored. It’s a good, group PvP game that is just that: you need to group up. There are solo opportunities but playing as a coordinated team is what makes WAR fun. So being in a fun and active guild is also important.
Large-scale conflicts are sure to attract zergs and they do happen … often. But in between getting steamrolled there are many fun skirmishes at keeps and battlefield objectives that I walk away from — winner or loser — saying “that was fun”! And that’s what it’s about for me, fun. It’s not my life. It’s not the end-all-be-all for me. So when people complain that crafting stinks … I just can’t imagine it to be fun simply sitting around crafting things. My toons each have two crafting skills but I look at them as a means to getting something, not as something fun. But that’s just me. Then there are those who say the PvE in WAR stinks … that it’s so much better in WoW. Sorry, PvE is PvE and once you figure out how to beat it, it’s not really a challenge anymore. If folks stop to read the Quest text and do follow the story … it’s actually pretty good. Each race’s pairing has different unique quest chains that tell a story all the way to the end. That’s if people take the time to read them. Sorry but the lore of Warhammer is way better than the lore of WoW and there’s way more of it. But all people do is read what they need to kill or where they need to go and that’s it. (I finally decided I’m going to try the WoW 10-day trial so I can experience how much more awesome the PvE is … so we’ll see if I’m bowled over.)
Mythic has put in a lot of work to make the game better and I feel it’s on the Road to Wellville. They made the end game more PvP focused which is what the players wanted. And having taken part in it … it is worlds more fun than before. Once they remove Forts from the overall campaign things should be even more fun. Sure flipping zones back and forth can be a grind, but find me one MMO that doesn’t have grind in it. From what I’ve been told all MMOs have grind. If you don’t like grind you shouldn’t be playing one. Play consoles or single-player RPGs. To me the grind is about progression and there are multiple ways to progress in WAR.
My first few toons were done via a mix of PvE and RvR. I’ve since stuck solely to RvR on other toons as it’s more fun. You can also just run scenarios. Must be a good idea since WoW recently announced that folks will get XP for PvP. How could that not have been in WoW prior? So Blizz isn’t perfect after all.
Many people like to take a crap on WAR … why? … probably some feel jilted that WAR didn’t meet their expectations. Others perhaps felt it wasn’t WoW. Some complaints are warranted while some I feel are too critical. The game is not perfect and it needs work. Probably the biggest mistake made was releasing it too early … was that a Mythic decision or was it pressure from EA? Theories abound.
Should be interesting to hear the raves and then complaints now that Champions has launched and soon with Aion. My one-year tour in MMO land has taught me that the typical MMO gamer is a fickle one … not easy to impress and quick to draw ire. Shame … folks should just learn to relax more and accept these for what they are: a game.
I’m pleased that you enjoy hearing about sunny optimism, day after day. Tell your friends if they’re tired of the rantishness of the Net to come visit here. They won’t regret it. ^_^
So… a year already.
It’s been like watching a child learning to walk as the child’s uncle. I can’t help but want to comment on how the child should be put one step at a time, instead of letting it run and fall, but I am too polite to scream at the child’s parents. That said, the child is well-grown, his footwork is improving, and his parents are kindly talked to so they now try to encourage it to walk properly.
I may not play anymore, but I’ll still wish it a Happy Birthday. ^_^
Honestly, a lot of things have been dealt with in this past year. In fact it’s moved forward a massive amount, if we just cast our minds back one year and what we were playing at the start.
I just think for some people, they will pick fault with anything, since it’s easier to destroy than create. Hell I do it sometimes, but I also like to offer suggestions of fixes when possible.
But they released when they did, thinking that the end game would be engaging enough to play, while they filled out the flesh on the bones. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time, the games release date was poor and the games performance for a lot of people was dire.
Anyway heads have rolled and there have been changes. It’s just sad that the vast experience that Mythic had with DAOC was not fully realised.
Regardless of the issues in the last 12 months, I will still be around for a while more. A MMO is not just for Christmas, it’s for life (Ok, a good couple of years).
[...] does Frank spend WAR’s first anniversary? Find out! [...]