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No “Stop! Warhammer Time”?
Written by Kieron Gillen on March 30, 2008 at 3:54 pm.
It was going to be that or “Guildy Feet Have Got No Rhythm”, but it wouldn’t fit on the title line. First I heard of this was John Walker appearing on a late night MSN chat this informing me, in a clear panic, that there was apparently to be no dancing in the forthcoming Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and we should campaign against it. He was gone before I could type “Huh”. However, PCG’s jovial Dep-Ed Tim Edwards has reported further…
“Having just played the game, and tried, as usual, to pass the time between skirmishes by /dancing with my friends, my avatar refused. ‘Hank refuses to dance’, said my Elven Warrior, shrugging his shoulders. I’m absolutely gobsmacked. But the controversy doesn’t end there. I asked around. Who made the decision not to include dancing? According to Erik Morgensen, who looks after the Warhammer Online project for Games Workshop, whether the Warhammer lore supported dancing. “Yes,” he said. “It was Mythic’s call.”
What to make of such things? My personal take is that a lack of dancing is entirely fine. THERE IS ONLY WAR.
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Tags: Bad puns, No Dancing, THERE IS ONLY POLKA!, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning
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Bozzley says:
Please Warhammer, don’t hurt ‘em.
March 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
BrokenSymmetry says:
I’m always amazed about the work that must have gone into designing and implementing the very detailed dance routines in games like WoW and Guild Wars, with separate dancing routines for every combination of gender and race (or class in Guild Wars). It’s a unique feature for MMOs, and I like it. Somehow seeing a few hundred people dancing during one of the special holiday activities in Guild Wars makes me happy.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Al says:
But this isn’t set in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future. There therefore is more than Only War.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Arnulf says:
Hehe.
While WOW’s dancing certainly was funny, which other MMO really had dancing emotes before that? There must be one since Blizzard never invented anything; they just polish. ;) Was it Ultima Online?
Anyway, dancing in WOW is fine with me, since the Warcraft universe was from the get-go a parody of all things Tolkien, Dungeon & Dragons etc.
Why should orcs in Warhammer dance?
Interesting side-note: WOW preserves some cultural heritage. The MC Hammer dance, the Michael Jackson crotch grab, the Napolean “funky” dance. Whoever remembers Alizee if not for the sexy nightelves’ moves?
Another thing I just remember: for years (really!) the previous successful MMORPG before the advent of WOW was FFXI. FFXI had the /dance emote already. Unfortunately it would just amount to an emotive line in the chat window. No actual dancing of the character was shown. Now recently they added the Dancer job/class with the last expansion. And three months after that they added four emotes that allows every character to do the four different dance steps of that class: /dance1-4. The original /dance still does nothing…
March 30th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Danny says:
Mythic’s previous MMO – Dark Age of Camelot – had dancing emotes, and they probably ’stole’ it from EQ, although i’m not sure of that.
I won’t cry myself to sleep because of this though…Although some of the /silly’s in WoW made me smile. Shortly.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
martin says:
just imagine dancing orks.
would kill the immersion, they should instead include some kind of brawl mode where the orcs beat the shit out of each other (with their fists not weapons).
March 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Nick says:
Eq had a dance, it was very very short and everyones was the same.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Caiman says:
After 2 years of WoW, seeing some human / night elf character strip all their clothes and dance in the middle of a campfire gets OLD. Let’s hear it for /randombrawl!
March 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
drunkymonkey says:
Yeah. I was surprised too. I shouted at my Winter Hunter, but no.
Still, it’s a nice touch that they refuse, I guess.
And that is like, the best pun ever.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:31 am
Zâv says:
Just thought I’d throw in a couple of relevant links to Paul Barnett’s video blog, October 2006:
http://warherald.warhammeronline.com/videoblog/videoViewer.php?date=2006_10&vidFile=2006_10_WeAreNotADancingSimulator1.swf
http://warherald.warhammeronline.com/videoblog/videoViewer.php?date=2006_10&vidFile=2006_10_WeAreNotADancingSimulator2.swf
March 31st, 2008 at 12:34 am
Anthony Damiani says:
Disappointing. This is expected functionality that adds charm and life to an MMO. The suggestion that they are “refusing” to dance creates a perception that they think they’re too-cool-for-school. I don’t know that I’m looking for a game that takes itself oh-so-very-seriously.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:39 am
Winterborn says:
Good for them.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:53 am
James T says:
IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FUTURE, THERE IS ONLY WAR… AND DANCING.
“What are those Eldar doing?”
“They’re STOMPIN’ THE YARD, where YOU from?!”
“I’m sorry, I’m from one of the fraternities where we don’t spontaeneously dance with each other.”
March 31st, 2008 at 9:37 am
matt says:
At least they refuse and don’t just ignore you and stare blankly away.. but it’s kind of sad.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:52 am
Pane says:
Anarchy Online had dances too, in fact you could make your toon do /ballet /disco and several others I forgot.
It’s all flavor, but we know how much mmo-ers value this kind of thing. One of THE key gripes I hear people have with Guildwars is the absence of jump, after all.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am
indirectx says:
Surely dances are to MMOs as barrels and crates are to FPSs. Or is that a bit too fundamental?
March 31st, 2008 at 10:51 am
The Pope says:
Dance animations were originally a novelty that were interesting purely because of that. Now, every game has one and characters refusing is a novelty.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Jody Macgregor says:
They should combine random, riotous fistbrawling with the dancing — a /mosh command.
Either that, or /morrisdance.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
James T says:
There should be a compulsory victory dance animation every single time you kill someone. Can’t you just picture a Blood Angel getting his Harlem Shake on?
“GET DOWN, MARINES!”
“Go Bloody! Go Bloody! Go Bloody!…”
It’s what Warhammer’s always meant to be.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
DragonSix says:
They should sing, instead. /sing would activate a karaoke mode ala singstar.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
mujadaddy says:
@arnulf (”which other MMO really had dancing emotes before that?“):
Star Wars Galaxies had a Dancer CLASS, and was released 18 months or so before W0W.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Garreett says:
@ Mujadaddy: Everquest, I believe, had dances, and that was released ages before SWG.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
mujadaddy says:
Sure, but that’s not what I said.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Xilnold says:
The only thing I’ll miss is inter-faction dancing.
the gurubashi arena turning into a dance off is a sight I’ll never forget.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am
Nallen says:
It’ll just be WAR and EVE without dancing then?
Hooray!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:29 am
J says:
It’s been a (long) while but aren’t there war dancers in Warhammer?
April 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Acosta says:
Agree. ONLY WAR!
If people want party and hippy dancing with fairies LOTRO is in that direction. I won´t miss /dance on Age of Reckoning.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Okami says:
J: The Wood Elves have Wardancers, but since they’re not a playable race in WAR, it doesn’t really matter.
Of course in 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles there were Sea Elf Wardancers avaible to High Elf players. But then again GW changed allmost every aspect of Warhammer lore since then..
(I’m such a dork!)
April 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
SkillPsycho says:
so your telling me that ive conquered the capital and gone back to the pub for a party and im drunk but still simply refuse to get down? i want some kind of dance lol. QQ QQ QQ :(
October 19th, 2008 at 5:33 am
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Stop! Warhammer time!
March 30th, 2008 at 4:29 pm