War is Upon Us!

Now that the NDA has lifted with the official launch of the game, I can talk about the new MMO on the market, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, or WAR for short.  I was lucky to be included in the beta test for the game and, overall, I have to say this is fun.  While it’s no WoW killer, it’s as about as close as anyone but WoW will ever come.  While it doesn’t bring too many surprise, except for the Public Quests, it does provide a solid entry into the MMO business while maintaining its roots as a war game.

A little back-story on where the roots of this new MMO come from for you.  Warhammer, published as a table top fantasy war game that relies heavily on painted minuatiures in 1983 by Games Workshop, has always operated in a niche market.  It is easily the largest and most popular game of its type, and has offered stock fantasy race armies so you can settle the question who would win in a fight orcs or elves.  It has spawned several spin-offs in the form of board games, a far future versions, and various rpg products.  However, it has always required a serious monetary investment to play the game, so it has never really captured a broad audience.

Until recently, that is.

With the on-line game in development for over three years and a rich catalogue of source material to draw from,  EA games has put
together a solid game.  It presents the core concept of the game, war and the
factions involved. Which, in this case, is the war between the forces of Order
and Chaos. And, from the outside the MMO makes it clear the player is involved in this war either as a defender, the forces of Order, or as an invader, the forces of Chaos. 

Warhamer does offer some standard war game features, such as battles
the players can take place in and even offers direct conflicts in small groups between the
players themselves for control of a map. Which is a really fancy way of saying that there's a lot of PVP available if you want it.  While large scale battles and map control are all features MMO's have seen for some time, what Warhammer does offer that is new is the Public Quest

The Public Quests are a small mini-game within the game that takes place in a small
geographical area and requires a small to large team to complete.  This is new
because the only requirement to take part in these mini-games to find their
location on the map.  Traditionally, these sort of things are handled by a
series of NPC’s within the game or just a simple large wandering monster
that has a huge amount hp. 
And, for those of you
with MMORPG experience under your belt, the Public Quests are raids
introduced at an early level to make it consistent with the end game.

Which I think is important to introduce the concept of raiding at an early level to make it consistant with the goals of the end game so it is no longer a paradigm shift from the previous levels to a continuation of what you have been doing the whole game.  Or, to say that less fancy, make raiding a early part of the game so when you run out of levels you keep playing the way you've always played. 

However, for those of y'all that aren't as into game construction as I am, it's a fine game that offers a lot of content that remains consistant and entertaining throughout.  Additionally, the graphics are very up to date, making other MMO's appear, as my wife put it, so 10 years ago.  So, if you're tired of grinding on your 60th level Hunter, pick the game up and give it a try.  You'll like it.