WAR (Warhammer Online)

...that the WAR dev staff takes a good long look at how Funcom is running AoC into the ground and make notes of the following things.

1) Communicate changes/fixes/content updates accurately to your customerbase. No incomplete patch notes, no ninja nerfs/changes, no unannounced downtimes. When you nerf/buff something in the game, give reasons as to why so that people understand the change. Communication between a company and its customers is VERY important.

2) Dont make promises you cant keep. Many players I know have quit simply because Funcom has promised them things and has failed to deliver, on timelines that they themselves set. This goes hand in hand with communicating with your customerbase. Do not tell them things/promise things that are simply not true or will not happen.

3) Fix the game before you tamper with class balance. A huge mistake made by the Funcom staff is that they are trying to balance classes while the game is still poorly optimized. Work on things like memory leaks/server stability/basic core game stuff before you start tweaking classes. Its natural for a PvP game's customers to cry out for class balance, but FFS, ignore the whiners who will inevitably surface, at least until the game is completely stable clientwise/serverwise.

At the rate that people are becoming bored with AoC's lack of mid-high-endgame content and completely worthless PvP system (no rewards/risk to mention). I believe that the game will be a ghosttown come November unless Funcom makes some MASSIVE changes, which at the rate theyve been going, and the direction theyve been heading, seem to be a pipedream of the fanboiz and fangurlz.

I had very high hopes for AoC and they lasted up until I hit level 20.

I hope that WAR does not disappoint in the same way.

From what I remember of DAoC, Mythic was pretty good with not making promises they couldn't keep.  I remember hearing about things they wanted to have but couldn't (e.g. Jousting) but they didn't make any promises they didn't keep (in my memory at least).  As for nerfing, I remember a lot of that but I also remember that for the sake of balancing issues.  And I can't remember any unexplained downtime.

That being said, I really hope WAR doesn't disappoint.  From what I've seen I'm rather excited, and with them pushing the game back a few times (Think it was originally planned to be out by last Christmas, I may be wrong though) I'm confident they're buffing out issues to make an MMO without a flop of a launch.

Originally posted by Moogleboy13

(Think it was originally planned to be out by last Christmas, I may be wrong though)

WAR was originally intended to be released in Q3 of 2007, I believe. It has been pushed back about three times now. To be honest, their first estimate was so insanely optimistic it could not be taken seriously. To their credit, it was only an estimate, but it would have meant developing a AAA MMORPG in about two years from basically scratch, discounting a supplied IP and licensed engine, which does not necessarily speed up the process. In fact, having to stick to lore can slow things down.

As for points of worry, EA Mythic has been extremely transparent regarding WAR, so I would not worry about incomplete notes and hidden buffs/nerfs too much. I am in beta and, having been in quite a few before, can attest to the fact that the developers and everyone else who is involved directly with the community is very open, responsive, and honest. I do not expect this to change in retail.

As for broken promises, thus far I do not think EA Mythic has stuck their foot in their mouths, discounting their estimated release dates, which were only estimates, and ultimately the delays end up allowing the game to be better. There are not too many promised features that have been dropped after being built up as a selling point for the game. EA Mythic seems to be rather careful about waiting until they know something will be in before announcing it. Funcom said a little bit too much about things like sieges and such that ended up being almost blatant lies.

I cannot really comment too much on the last one, except to say that the WAR  is not nearly as ambitious nor as hungry as AoC in terms of graphics, so already stability in comparison should be better. I expect the game to launch in a very playable state with very few bugs that break/lag/crash the game. Balance will certainly see tweaks, but the game should at least run.

Yeah like everyone else has said I think most features they mention are in game. And the stuff that wasn't going to be the quickly said it would be delayed (off the top of my head the sizing of Orcs as they grew). There release dates as they said were "set in mud" although this new release of fall is more solid mud (I actually do expect them to make this time window its the perfect time as to beat WOW expansion to market and such). And from what I hear the dev team is very open with the beta testers and also I hear they take there complaints and such to heart when making changes if they see something isn't working for a good deal of people then they change it. They seem (to me at least) to wanna make a great game that everyone can enjoy.

Originally posted by Sornin

Originally posted by Moogleboy13

(Think it was originally planned to be out by last Christmas, I may be wrong though)

WAR was originally intended to be released in Q3 of 2007, I believe. It has been pushed back about three times now. To be honest, their first estimate was so insanely optimistic it could not be taken seriously. To their credit, it was only an estimate, but it would have meant developing a AAA MMORPG in about two years from basically scratch, discounting a supplied IP and licensed engine, which does not necessarily speed up the process. In fact, having to stick to lore can slow things down.

As for points of worry, EA Mythic has been extremely transparent regarding WAR, so I would not worry about incomplete notes and hidden buffs/nerfs too much. I am in beta and, having been in quite a few before, can attest to the fact that the developers and everyone else who is involved directly with the community is very open, responsive, and honest. I do not expect this to change in retail.

As for broken promises, thus far I do not think EA Mythic has stuck their foot in their mouths, discounting their estimated release dates, which were only estimates, and ultimately the delays end up allowing the game to be better. There are not too many promised features that have been dropped after being built up as a selling point for the game. EA Mythic seems to be rather careful about waiting until they know something will be in before announcing it. Funcom said a little bit too much about things like sieges and such that ended up being almost blatant lies.

I cannot really comment too much on the last one, except to say that the WAR  is not nearly as ambitious nor as hungry as AoC in terms of graphics, so already stability in comparison should be better. I expect the game to launch in a very playable state with very few bugs that break/lag/crash the game. Balance will certainly see tweaks, but the game should at least run.

What he said:) I m in beta as well and i have never seen a dev team so openly involves with what we have to say. That said there will be issues i m sure, but i can honestly say this game could have released at last release date and been better then most games out now. I truly am glad they did delay though because it s turning out to be a gem of a game.

Awesome, thanks guys!

Ive been burned so may times by raising my hopes for MMOs in dev stages only to have them dashed at release. See -> Vanguard, HG:L, AoC... etc. ( Though in their defense, Vanguard and HG:L have shaped up pretty well and are now playable. Currently playing HG:L and having lots of fun  )

Im placing alot of hope on WAR and by what ive seen written from most beta testers (even a few NDA breakers im afraid to say  hehe) its shaping up quite nicely.

Hell, as long as they release with stable servers, a client that dosent crash, and no major core gameplay glitches, ill probably still have a blast.

I just dont want them to make the same stupid mistakes ive seen other dev teams make over and over in the past... you would think that people would flippin learn how NOT to run/launch an MMO after seeing fiascos like AO/DnL/HG:L/Vanguard/AoC releases.

Yeah well I think we're all in the same boat as you there, my friend.

They bragged about having orcs grow physically when they level up.  They won't have this in at launch (or at all, but so far they've just said at launch).  So I think they are being pretty honest about included features.  Come launch I don't think we will find much missing that hasn't already been pointed out.

but its been pushed back a lot.  I just want to get my hands on the game and wouldn't mind playing through a few bugs right now, so I hope it doesn't get pushed back anymore... which I don't think will happen anyway.