WAR (Warhammer Online)

Desclaimer** this was denied by my publisher to make it so it would get published, but unfortunately they are currently looking for guides on WAR.  So if you can make on, sent it in.

Disappointed with WAR:

Intro:

I was one of the lucky ones; I was browsing the forums when Admin stated they had WAR beta keys. Since then I had kept a small eye on WAR, reading up on the game every now and then and taking a peak at the features when I was bored. I had decided that this would be the time to play the game and see if the game could live up to its hype.

After receiving my key, I went to File Planet and began downloading the game; or should I say waiting in line. After crying for a couple minutes after I realized that I had to wait in line for over 300 minutes, I decided it was time to go to bed. After all, you know the saying: “Early sleep, early morning RvR in WAR!” Okay, maybe it doesn’t go exactly like that, but it’s somewhere along those lines. As dreams of yelling “WAAAGH!” ran through my head, I drifted off to sleep and looked forward to logging into WAR tomorrow.
 

But, on a more serious note, I am in no way biased. I hardly followed the development of WAR, I never made any “hate” posts on WAR, I am completely neutral. I’m like the guy who needs the same exact amount of peanut butter and jelly on his sandwich (yes, I’m that neutral).

Why are you disappointed, Mike?

There will be several sections explaining my disappointments with WAR: RvR, Community, and PvE; three key parts of WAR.

Community:

The community is dead. No discussions, no people yelling “LFG level 17 Wizard”; just one quiet chat box. When I play MMOs, one of the things I love is interacting with other players I don’t know and having good, lengthy, interesting discussions about the game and its features; unfortunately, none of this happens in WAR. I haven’t been able to hold a discussion with anyone; I don’t even think I’ve seen more than three people actually say something, let alone having a lengthy discussion.

Even when players have questions, they go unanswered; no matter where you are, it is hard to get help from the community. I have asked several questions, all of which were ignored. You’ll have to join a guild if you want some kind of constant communication, as well as some help.

PvE:

The PvE disappointment isn’t much to explain, it’s just that is didn’t “wow” me at all. The combat was slow paced and uninteresting, I felt myself drifting off to sleep after 5-10 minutes. There was no real challenge, I found myself just button mashing the same fireball spell over and over.

The AI for the PvE wasn’t all that impressive, just the same old mobs you see in any game. Then again, I suppose you could say WAR is a PvP based game, which is where my next disappointment comes in.
 

RvR:

The RvR was probably one of the largest disappointments in WAR for me. When I first read about the RvR in WAR, I was excited. I expected a game that would have great PvP, PvP that actually had an effect on the game, and maybe even that excitement which I so desperately long for in an MMO. Unfortunately, I was not pleased with the results.

One thing that really peeves me about the RvR is that there is NO death penalty. This takes away the risk of the PvP; no more sitting at the edge of your chair yelling profanities as your character is killed. There’s none of that risk in WAR, you can just run in and die over and over (and people actually do this) without worrying about death (I’m assuming some people enjoy that, but I find it too simple for my tastes).

Now, without risk, you would assume that no risk = no reward? WRONG. WAR throws experience and money at you like crazy when you’re in an RvR battle. Sometimes you don’t even have to be fighting someone; you’ll just get renown points and some brass coins for doing nothing. Now, from my view, this is a bad thing; I don’t want rewards without any risk. It’s just too simple for my tastes, if I am going to receive rewards, then I should be put through a challenge do so; this ‘no risk’ thing just isn’t for me.
 

Besides that, I also saw the lack of teamwork. Especially on the order side, I saw the lack of players sticking together and discussing strategic ideas about how they would take down their opponents. This reflects about how dead the community is, since I don’t see anyone discussing plans, ideas, or recommendations about how to take down the other side.

As well as the lack of teamwork, there is also a lack of strategic plans; everyone sticking together and attacking the other side is NOT strategic. The WAR RvR doesn’t make you use your mind; it doesn’t make you wonder about your next move, thinking that your next move might be costly, instead, you just kill players without thinking.

So overall, I was very disappointed with the RvR. I love PvP, but WAR’s PvP is, and I can’t believe I’m using this term, “carebearish”. There’s no way to deny it, you are just given rewards without any real risk. I expected something great, and I wasn’t given anything near that.

Conclusion:

I will not be playing WAR when it releases; I will continue my search for something new and innovative, since WAR clearly is not. In fact, I couldn’t have said it any better than the forum user Abrahmm put it: “I didn't think it was a "breath of fresh air", but a "breath of the same air I've been breathing for 3 years". I found it to be the same boring format with a few sprinkles of new ideas. I really don't think it deserves the hype or rave reviews it has been getting.” I agree 100% with what this user said, and it is what I was trying to get across with this article. WAR is an okay game, and seems like it will be polished for release, but it is nothing special.
 

Cheers.

I mean... the game just came out dude... I'm sure there will be tons of teamwork guilds made within the first few days of release.. right now people just want to kill and grind. At level 40 there is guaranteed more teamwork then at the lower leels. Just an idea, thanks for the input though man, ery interesting

WAR doesn't suit a death penalty because you die tons in RVR :\ Imagine having a harsh penalty all the time it would piss you right off.

this game hasnt fully been out  for over a day?? this game will improve over time, the community will be flooded with people, and hopefully they can keep improving on the other aspects of the game.

{ Mod Edit }

It may not be the game for you and that's fine.  Really it is.  Some of you arguements though are really a reflection of where the game is at pre-release not where it's going to be down the road. 

I'm in a guild that is already working on ways to approach RvR effectively and it'll be a learning curve and we're discussing it a lot.  Chat has been quiet I agree but it doesn't surprise me too much.  As more players learn the game they'll be more helpful and willing to give avice.  As far as LFG tells?  I don't see a ton of those but then again there's an icon you can click and invite yourself into a group at any time.

As far as PvE?  Well PvE has been boring as long as I've played MMOs.  I can't argue with you there.  Nothing new In WAR for PvE really (except PQs) but then again I don't play WAR to PvE.  It's something I do on occasion but I'd rather play it differently.  My preference.

RvR, sure there's no risk to your player as far as items or assets are concerned.  It can have an effect on later tiers where players may be handcuffed because the other realm controls certain areas.  It's fun for me.  I'm not a big PvP fan but I like RvR.  I like getting together with a bunch of guys on vent and smashing some skulls.

I hope you find what you are looking for elsewhere.  Everyone should be able to find a game they like playing.  I stopped looking for games that had absoultely everything on my check list a while ago and I've been quite happy playing games that are just fun and meet some of my criteria. 

Reads like some kind of religious program;

When did you let Jezus in your life, Mike?

Well, it was just after I ...

Nah, I mean, the question made it a little too dramatic for my taste :)

And I think the community and pve aspects are maybe easily tweaked; pve by making mobs more challenging and the community interaction by making access to chat channels more obvious. And like someone else said; community interaction will improve when everyone has stopped grinding and sucking up the game like lunatics. The hardcore headstart folks are doing their proffessional best at the moment and have no time for chit chat. Just wait untill casual chat trolls like myself log in, mate. ;-)

That's a fair review. But in some cases there are different ways of looking at the same situation:

1) Community - this almost kept me from buying the game and it may keep me from subbing for a significant length of time. Other than a guild I joined there is very little communication compared to number of players in the zone. It's depressing and is obviously a mechanic of there being 0 downtime in the game. However, the one point in the game where I've been involved in the type of communication that reminds me I'm playing a game is during RvR. Whether it's coordinating where to strike next or just mindless banter waiting for a defend timer to countdown I have had enough community that it's not bad. It's just not a plus.

2) PvE - Agreed for the most part. Combat is more interesting post level 15 just because of the skills you acquire but PvE is PvE no matter what game. PQs are mildly more entertaining the first time through but there's too many of them...

3) PvP - This game requires good teamwork. It's unfair to expect a pug to play well together. The amount of coordination required to play well is a big reason I ended up purchasing the game. Now as to risk vs. reward. There is no risk and there's a lot of reward. It encourages everyone to PvP so to that end there is a good reason for it. Warhammer does not feel like a virtual world but it is good fun and I do still enjoy the competition.

Originally posted by WOTDOUPLAY

this game hasnt fully been out for over a day?? this game will improve over time, the community will be flooded with people, and hopefully they can keep improving on the other aspects of the game.

{ Mod Edit }

if u bothered to read everything u can see mike is complaining about the core elements of WAR which wont/cant get fixed.. its not the bugs or lack of content but the way the whole game works.

atlho i havent played WAR i do check all the news and ingame vids (which are mainly RVR) and i saw no1 chatting, no strategies, just two forces zerging.. and without a death penalty its just one big wave of players rushing dieing and rushing back.. but im not gonna judge a game on that just saying this review fits the image.