Over in the land of Mythic, something interesting appears to be happening. Flying under the radar, Warhammer Online seems to be under the torrent of stormy MMO waters above. If Aion, Champions, and even Fallen Earth are ships sailing above the surface, WAR is a submarine, cruising almost casually underwater.
But as we know through Discovery Channel reports and interesting classics like Crimson Tide and The Hunt of the Red October, a submarine is far from idle. Inside, the crew works feverishly to keep the submersible going, and they only surface or send signal of their presence only when absolutely necessary. Such as it is with WAR, whose team is content to slide along quietly tweaking and fixing long standing problems – and preparing for an inevitable curiosity from players that have left it.
As I’ve written before, talk is cheap unless results deliver. The fixes to performance are definitely noticeable in the latest 1.3.2 patch, as are the changes to city siege and the ability to purchase high end renown gear. More interesting and even more subtle, however, are the communications, which are now appearing in short term bursts – fast and furious. Some of these include:
- An extremely technical report on WAR’s game engine from its Technical Director, along with the Star Trek-like IT jargon that explains where they made a breakthrough on stability, and why it’s taken so long.
- A Producer’s Letter containing details about 1.3.3 – mere days after the 1.3.2 patch and explaining the new things to come such as graphical enhancements and an underdog system to help constantly losing realms.
- A Dev Diary in response to massive player feedback about the long-needed fix to Action Point generation – again, communicated in record time and providing appropriate detail about what’s happened. Think you can SPAM abilities in WAR still? Think again…
These are just some of the ways that Mythic is not only talking about what they are fixing, but actually doing so – and doing it in a way that doesn’t try to desperately grab a lot of attention. This, to me, can be nothing but a good sign for the game, dispelling doomsaying rumors of shutdowns and showing how dedicated, if not stubborn, the Mythic team is regarding WAR. Not surprisingly, I’ve always had some good things to say about WAR on this blog, and if the communications and results that ping people’s radars keep at it, I won’t be one of the few for very long.
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I do think WAR may eventually fix the game. I have been trying to keep up with it, but I just read from your blog here that high end renown gear can be purchased, and the city siege changed. I am going to have to read up more about it.
I think eventually they will get it right. It sounds like they are already taking ideas from Aion with the underdog idea. I really think this one feature could get people to come back. Of course their are other things probably need fixing, but if they keep improving the game people will venture back.
The biggest thing is WAR needs to make sure they fix the game, and than announce a great expansion to get people to officially give the game a second chance. I just hope they don’t rush to try to get people to come back until they know they finally have the FUN factor into the game.
I still think they need something in the game past RR80. Either make RR expand to more levels, or make a new RR influence system or something that makes people want to keep playing past RR80. Currently people hit that milestone, and stop playing that toon, and only log it in to do King encounters.
Players just don’t like handing out Royal crests when they die.
I really hope that eventually this game gets fixed, but can they ever recover is the question? I think the Underdog system will help tons, and tons if its done right.
The problem is if their underwater too long, people will forget about them and move on. Sometimes they need to sink another ship so others hop on theirs.
Some good points here. In the end, I think Mythic has learned that quick, band-aid fixes don’t cure things. Having a long-term plan and creating small victories will. I’d rather they have a better chance of re-acquiring subscribers through fixing what players want fixed rather than desperately grabbing at attention.
[...] Frank re: WAR – “If Aion, Champions, and even Fallen Earth are ships sailing above the surface, WAR is a submarine, cruising almost casually underwater.” [...]