Comments on: Warhammer Online Content Cuts

By: CryoDeath

CryoDeath — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:32:14 +0000

well i guess this game is just going to suck now. well for those who like the cuts good for you and i hope you like the game. i have moved of to another game that coming out this year. so good luck to everyone who still wants to play this game.

By: Bob Bobson

Bob Bobson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:05:47 +0000

I’ve seen masses of people in Thunderbluff and Darnassus. Specifically masses of horde in Darnassus and masses of alliance in Thunder Bluff. On a PvP server every part of the world gets used. Either the people who are supposed to live there use the services – or the enemies see it as an easy target because its so empty.
With WAR being a PvP based game any and all cities will have a role and the more the better. But if they are all bland because they are rushed out then that would suck, so I think Mythic are doing the right thing. Agile development demands you have a list of things you want to write. When the deadline can’t be pushed any further you start crossing things off that list. Naturally with them taking such core things off, their initial estimates on how big a job this is were out, and that’s a shame, but I don’t find it unforgivable. So long as they don’t have to spend all their time post release on bug fixes and balance issues we’ll see the content Mythic want in the game before too long.

By: Bursar

Bursar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:54:42 +0000

How long as the beta test been running? I rember reading somewhere that they were in one the various beta stages.

If this is a result of feedback from the beta test then that surely is a good thing is it not?

On a side note is anyone in the beta who can comment on the classes/content (unless there is a scary NDA)

By: Kanakotka

Kanakotka — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:10:19 +0000

In the frantic effort of ‘cleverly not trying to be WoW’ it still fails quite badly. Ever see any large flocks of people in say… Darnassus or Thunderbluff? Me neither.

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:20:08 +0000

My opinion appears to move in the opposite direction to everyone else on this matter, here and on Warhammer Alliance(which I’m currently suspended from for being a bit too forward in pushing it, will be back there in August). I think this is brilliant news for two main reasons.

The first is that Mythic have avoided doing what FunCom did with Age of Conan where specific information about the game was kept out of the public domain until the last possible time before release, thus contributing to AoC being a well-undeserved success. Yes, FunCom did cut some classes and ‘merge’ others and announced it in due time, but we never had much specific information on the world those classes were going to be interacting with in the first place. Thus AoC was not the PvP extravaganza it was hyped to be. The class changes were not even as bold as they should have been.

Mythic revealed this information knowing full the reaction it would get, to no advantage for themselves. I’ve been critical of matters I consider moral failings in EA and Mythic. Their decision to announce this when WAR’s release date is far enough of to remain ambigious even if it is in beta, has swung my view of their moral fibre right the other way now. I will be trying WAR for a few months now regardless of anything else.

The second reason is to address concerns about the game balance: I think this will benefit it, greatly. Mythic must now make a competitive PvP game balanced less around the old and tired and frankly absurd tank-healer-dps system which has stifled the imagination and ambition of MMOs since Everquest and is the worst part of WoW completely. With less tanks, remaining classes will be made much tougher and with less melee DPS, the remaining tanks are better at doing damage. The Everquest cycle is broken and when the delayed classes(or whatever might replace them) are put in, they will be balanced around a more flexible system forced to be more innovative out of the neccessity.

If Mythic are not simply another company wanting to make a money-spinner and instead care about the game(as I think point one indicates) then they will manage to make point two actually happen.

By: Subjective Effect

Subjective Effect — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:22:37 +0000

Disappointing but now that the races are unbalanced in terms of possible career choice I’m sure they will come back once they are tweaked properly. Ditto with the cities.

This game will offer RvR as well as PvE. For that reason it is completely different to WoW. You don’t compare apples with oranges.

By: Hmm-hmm.

Hmm-hmm. — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:42:09 +0000

I suspected they’d do something like this ever since reading some comments from http://www.Massively.com accompanying their preview. It was probably either this, deliver unfinished content, or delay yet again. This was probably the best choice for them to make.

And I agree, it’s incredibly difficult to deliver an entire MMO’s content on time, with the quality you’d like it to have. You can see this from the fact that no MMO to date has delivered this (as far as I am aware).

Maybe in the future MMOs will be delivered to the player in parts (say, certain classes, races, areas, level ranges) to cut on content-pressure, while keeping to the set quality of the product. Oh, certainly, it would incur criticism, but at least it would be a much more stable, less economically and time hazardly way of developing an MMO. And it would be more clear towards the customer as well.

By: Anthony Damiani

Anthony Damiani — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:07:00 +0000

This has suck written all over it.

By: Chiablo

Chiablo — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:21:28 +0000

Vanguard was too ambitious for it’s own good. It was an attempt to make a massive world that’s populated with a ton of content.

They got the massive world part, that’s for sure… but that’s about it.

By: WhiteRabbit

WhiteRabbit — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:01:36 +0000

@ Icarus: I think you meant it the other way around.

If any of you actually read the interview, you would realize that Mythic wanted to set the release date back a few more months to get all these things worked out. EA said they needed to release. So, Mythic made the right move and made some cuts. Instead of releasing a game with unenjoyable parts, they are releasing the game with those parts removed so they can fix them and release them in a later patch.

These things aren’t gone forever, just delayed for a little bit. At least they are honest in letting us know now, unlike what AoC did.

Of course this game isn’t going to be as big as WoW when it launches. Blizzard has been adding tons of content to it for years. For an MMO just staring out, there’s so much to do that a player will never be bored.

As far as the PvP goes, this will be just fine, as the main conflicts with the capitol cities won’t happen until the end-game. Beta testers have been claiming it takes a few months to fully level up, so that gives Mythic a few months to polish their other four cities before they actually become important.

The things that are going to make this game awesome were not taken from the launch. It is still going to be one of the best MMOs to ever be released.

By: Icarus

Icarus — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:47:27 +0000

Thing is, Blizzard would never do this. They wouldn’t sacrifice a launch date for game content. This is why World of WarCraft is the best MMO and it will remain so for a long long time.

By: cyrenic

cyrenic — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:40:03 +0000

I’m betting they’re cutting this stuff so they can release before WotLK comes out. I’d expect the stuff that got cut will turn up in an expansion or post release patch.

That said, if the world PvP in this game is as good as I hope, I’ll still happily play it.