So…what about Warhammer?
By now everyone knows that Mythic Entertainment announced some major cuts to Warhammer and the product that will hit the shelves. Two capital cities instead of six and, this one is a doozy, the loss of four classes, to possibly be introduced in a later update. So what’s the general consensus? Obviously disappointment, but the community seems to be rallying around their title. Some comments from the blogosphere;
There are a ton of folks coming out on the side of the Mythic team, which is really heartening to see. I agree that it’s better to ship with fewer, better features - MMOG Nation
I’m not worried about WAR because of this announcement…far from it. We will see these features in either an expansion or a future update - Common Sense Gamer
But not all are this positive. The Grouchy Gamer had this to say.
I’m really starting to get concerned that WAR is going to be a (relative) market flop. Not because of the quality of the game. Not because of anything I have seen in beta. I’m just concerned because I’m hearing way too many people put their eggs in this basket.
And then there’s these comments from Keen.
The game is still in development and changes are often made. These changes are huge changes to be made months before release but at least Mythic came out and told us about it ….. In the end we’re still going to receive a finished product …
I’m not surprised by Keen’s comments. I know his a DAoC fan (as am I), but they come across as hypocritical when juxtaposed with his topic on releasing unfinished MMOs.
I simply do not understand where people picked up the notion that simply because MMORPGs are ever evolving and changing worlds that they can be underdeveloped and unfinished.
Warhammer will be a success despite this news provided there are no major issues on release, and this is where I owe Tipa an apology. She argued that it would be the masses fleeing World of Warcraft that would be the ones playing Warhammer. I didn’t agree with her, since I planned to play WAR and I never really got into WoW. But I have to say that now I agree with her; it is the WoW fanbois who are and will be the WAR fanbois.
Comments
Comment from Keen
Time: July 12, 2008, 5:00 pm
Bleh, typing too fast for my own good. That last thought should read: “WAR WOULD HAVE BEEN underdeveloped and unfinished if they launched with these things still in the game”.
And I want to add that this doesn’t mean WAR can’t still launch as unfinished or underdeveloped - it just won’t be for THESE reasons.
Comment from 
caliga
Time: July 12, 2008, 10:59 pm
Thanks Keen, I was wondering if I’d get a bite 
The loss of four classes, four, is a shame though not devastating. I was looking forward to trying the Blackguard and the Knight /shrug. The removal of the four cities does sound like they’re reneging on a promise, a key part of the game. And Mythic E is doing this why, so they can meet a release date? Shouldn’t they hold off and release a “finished” product.
Nice to see you visit my blog btw 
Comment from Openedge1
Time: July 13, 2008, 3:59 pm
But, because this is a Mythic product and Mythic did it BEFORE release…it’s all ok. It makes them better than Funcom…
*snicker*
Please…
Mythic is in the same boat right now as every developer who is trying to release an MMO. It is sad, but money drives our economy, and it is what a game is based on nowadays.
WAR will be light on content at release, just like AoC. AoC decided to launch and kept people in the dark about how much was missing…fine, bad mistake.
Mythic is stating the loss and game issues now, and having the fanboi regime cover their butts.
As right now you can see every “WAR Fans” site citing reasons it is a “good” thing.
Sure..whatever.
WAR will be the same ole, same ole…guaranteed. It is not original, and MMO’s as a rule are losing ground. A major focus needs to happen to change this genre or else it will belly up…big time.
First rule should be to not “bite off more than you can chew”.
Comment from
caliga
Time: July 13, 2008, 4:20 pm
Well done Openedge for seeing the point of my post. I probably owe Keen a wee apology for perhaps taking his quotes “slightly” out of context but I did it to highlight a point. Fanboyism (is that a word?). I’m looking forward to playing WAR and one or two other upcoming releases but don’t go saying “bad funcom, bad SOE” and and in the same breath say “nice work Mythic”.
Comment from JoBildo
Time: July 14, 2008, 9:08 am
I feel like I’m running everywhere to post on this topic… so many people covered it!
Re: cities:
Cities in WAR are far more than your usual vendor hubs. There’s a lot more content in 1 city in WAR than there has been any other game’s city. Public Quests, raid bosses, winged PvE dungeons… tons of content. I sort of expected some of these 6 cities to get cut because we hadn’t heard about others aside from Altdorf and Inevitable City for ages. They’re releasing the game in September-October and my guess is that the others just aren’t near as done as Alt and IC. Also, having the War focused on 1 city each side will make it OODLES easier for people to band together in the WAR, which is the true elder-game for this one. With a 3-front war, people would be bickering left and right over which side to take and work on. Having a centralized point for the WAR makes this a non-issue.
Re: Classes -
Of the 4 cut, only 2 were ever seen in beta (I’m not in the beta, but I know thanks to some very nice friends of mine). The BG and the KotBS were never even tested. My guess? They really couldn’t get them feeling original and fun and had to cut them rather than finish them after release. Reminds me of the WoW hunter and how gimped they were for months after launch. I suspect we’ll see some if not all of these classes down the line.
Re: Content in general -
I love Age of Conan. I really do. But it’s hurting right now. It needed more time in the oven. This is not the case with WAR. I cannot say how I know this to be true, and you can choose to believe me or not, but Warhammer Online has more content and polish than AoC does, still months from launch. Part of this, I believe is due to the deep pockets Mythic has access to. I hope AoC can get their own PvP and end-game content patched together before WAR hits. They really need to.
Comment from
caliga
Time: July 14, 2008, 7:22 pm
I wasn’t going to cover this topic Bildo, I only ended up doing so to highlight the fanboyism that followed the news of the cuts. Personally I couldn’t care less whether there’s two cities or twenty at release, it won’t affect my decision to play it.
As for AoC, after playing yesterday I experienced my first “meh” moment, logged off early, and considered reactivating one of my other MMO accounts. I might do a post on it; let’s see if I have another one.
Comment from JoBildo
Time: July 15, 2008, 6:59 am
It’s always to damn hard to find that perfect game, isn’t it?
I often wish I could just have one account for every MMOG so I could float between them at will.
Comment from
caliga
Time: July 15, 2008, 8:54 am
*gives Bildo a bearhug*
If only you could take a bit from here, a bit from there, add this and, BAM, the perfect MMO, at least for me. I keep hoping that developers will build something that’s perfect for me but they always offer just one or two things, and leave the rest behind.
And it’s not that I can’t afford to have multiple accounts running, I just don’t have the time. I need to focus on one game, with, maybe, a no brainer FPS or something in between.
Comment from Keen
Time: July 12, 2008, 4:59 pm
You should read my blog entries.
I explain how my statements are anything but hypocritical.
What would have happened if Mythic left the unfinished and unpolished cities in the game? What would have happened if they left the broken classes in the game? The answer is the game would have been unfinished and broken. They would have done what Funcom did by releasing something hoping the patch it later.
Since WAR is still in development, anything they remove now and disclose as not being in the release build does not count against them. This is a game being developed here. Look at any game being developed and there are things being added and chucked all the time. That’s what the beta process is for!
So Mythic feels 6 cities can not possibly be done in time nor would they be up to the standards Mythic wants for their game. They cut back to 2 and maintain that level of quality, polish, and completion.
Mythic removes 4 classes that they simply can’t get ‘right’. Removing them now avoids the atrocious problems caused by broken classes and balancing broken classes post-release.
Would WOULD HAVE BEEN underdeveloped and unfinished if they launched with these things still in the game.
I hope that clears things up for you.