WAR (Warhammer Online)

Personally i like ot do both but i never liked wow pvp. For some reason i just couldn't do it unless it was a premade and with guildies.  However in war i feel the opposite.  I find myself doing alot of scenarios lol its so much fun adn then i do some quest then scenarios again and so and so forth.  As of now i'm glad to have the noob feeling again not knowing anyone and not knowing where my character is going to end up. 

I actually like WAR better than WoW. I just quit it to play WAR and haveent had this much fun since I played FFXI 3 or more years ago.  Ive played  VG,GW,SWG,MxO,Eq2,DDO,LOTRO and other games inbetween all that and just couldn't find a home.   War has become my new home and most likely will for a while.

Originally posted by invsblmn

But there's Darkfall, which if it actually exists and is as good as advertised will be better than books or girls.

People complain about WAR's graphics, just wait until they try Darkfall.

Originally posted by invsblmn

WAR is a good game, no doubt about it. It has some great ideas to contribute. But its problem is not that it lacks big ideas. Rather, it falls short in the details and the polish that makes WoW so fun to play (or even to grind).

Yes, I believe the WoW comparison has to be made. WAR is clearly influenced by WoW and is simply begging for that comparison. Now, on to the points:

1) The combat just doesn't "feel" good. I think it's a combination of subpar sound effects and the poor animation not synchronizing well together. Grinding mobs with my warrior priest is half as fun as tearing through mobs with my warrior in WoW. Here's the thing. I'm a big fan or games like Minesweeper and Tetris. They are addictive not because they have groundbreaking graphics or epic ideas but because they are satisfying. There's just that "click" when you clear a line. Just like how combat in WoW simply had that satisfying feel to it - from the charge to the devastate. Everything clicks. It feels like a mini-game in its own way. I actually like grinding motes in WoW. It's therapeutic just like playing Tetris. No joke. 

2) Questing is so easy it's trivial. I don't feel like any of it matters because I can get much better experience doing scenarios anyway. I know you will say that's the point but it really trivializes the feeling of exploration. The WoW quests ARE time-sinks but it is because of that that completing a quest actually feels like an accomplishment. As it stands, the current ultra-fast questing system is fine were it not for 1). Grinding is no fun, either with a Black Orc and especially with my Warrior Priest (my main). 

3) WAR is basically an amusement park, where you are ushered through a set path and wait in line for the rides. Everything is geared toward your satisfaction - the experience, renown points keep rolling in, at every moment upgrades geared specifically for you are shoved in your face, the PQs dole out rewards suitable specifically for your class. The game basically bends over backwards to make sure you, the gamer, is having a good time and feeling rewarded. Frankly, it feels a bit patronizing.

WoW is a time-sink and is also linear, etc. But its brilliance lies in its ability to create the illusion that it is free and open. The difficulty (i.e. raids and the harder 5-mans) and grind and time commitment needed to advance in WoW is not NECESSARILY a bad thing - just like accomplishing things in real life, raiding takes effort (PvP is a different matter). In WAR I can just stand around in scenarios or RvR and half-assedly do some damage and healing and I'd come away with a healthy stream of points. 

I did not regret buying WAR at all. But I probably won't resubscribe and will take WotLK instead. I don't mean to insult WAR - I'm just stating that its design goals and philosophy doesn't really suit my playing style.

To summarize: WAR feels contrived. The gameplay feels like the game world is designed for the gamer and not your character, if that makes any sense. 

In my view of MMORPG history, WAR represents another step taken on the road away from UO and EQ (when MMOs were a fringe hobby). Now it's all about instant gratification, FPS style. I'm interested in MMOs for the stories - both the ones written in-game and the ones you make for yourself. Of course, many of us are looking for a game that returns to the roots of the genre - a sandbox, no hand-holding game that takes commitment and effort to learn. A game that has an element of risk and you might actually get screwed over by other players or if you get unlucky.

WoW took that first step on the road, of course, but it disguised it so well that the game felt perfect. Speaking of which, I really should go get my warrior alt to 70 in time for WotLK. 

This is not a flame nor is it a review. Just some thoughts. But feel free to disagree and get angry like some in this community likes to do.

 

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ADDED:

To elaborate: I think the Tome of Knowledge is brilliant. The idea of tracking quests, lore, exploration is fantastic. The ToK would fit a game like WoW perfectly. But in WAR, when there are so many mindless 3-minute quests the greatness of the ToK idea doesn't fit with the forgettable nature of the quests themselves. The ToK feels less like a record of what I've done as it  does a record of what I don't know I did but might read up on afterwards if I'm bored. You know what I mean?

I would say that WAR contributed a few genuine innovations to the genre:

Public quests - though the 3-step pattern in WAR is far too predictable, but the concept can be expanded on in future games

Tome of Knowledge - a logical next step for MMOs that I'm sure Blizzard will catch onto (in WotLK)

Permanent RvR-style war-effort effects on your capital city - of course this is actually due to DAoC

Collision detection - minor but of great tactical significance

No MMO should be judged in its 1st month especially if you are already enjoying a mmo. I have learned from my years of gaming to never start a new mmo if I am already playing an mmo I still enjoy and not burnt out on,you will never truly give a fair review when your in this state.Now that being said,I am not saying what you wrote here is bad,just that it sounds to me you are still enjoying your wow experience and do not want to stick with another game long enough to fairly revview it. There is no way you have played this game long enough to come to some of these conclusions,unless you played in beta and finished the game. I hope you enjoy Lich King,but maybe later on after you get sick of wow come back and review the game again.

All of these low post guys bashing WAR and saying that WoW is funny as hell.

With all of the WotLK advertisements all over the WAR fansites there is no doubt in my mind that these are 80% made up of people hired by Blizzard.

the OP is clearly closed minded... "eeewww change" is what i can sum up his thoughs about warhammer.

Let him go back to wow, he will be right back on these forums looking for a new game to hate in a month when he bores of doing the same old sht for another 10 level.

Honestly the less kids like this in warhammer the better the community will be.

i just love how everyones expecting a new game to be as polished as a game 4years old

i also love the extreme nitpicking, these kids really like to overlook the big picture and turn things a normal person wouldnt even notice into huge game breaking problems

please....go back to wow

 Well... we have truly and officially passed the torch to the next generation. I honestly never thought I would see the day where someone was comparing WOW to another game and explaining how WOW offers quests and gameplay that is difficult to the point where achievment is satisfying.

You want satisfying, play EQ1. When I played WOW that was my primary argument. Everything was handed to you, quest icons, quest markers, choose of rewards, insane amounts of quests, quests that are easy...  In EQ when you were lucky enough to find a quest, it was never just go and kill x of these and come back. You traveled across 18 zones, talked to 49 different people, had to get 7 different faction standings, waited 9 hours for an NPC to spawn, then finally killed some extremely underconned mob .... that was a satisfying end. Then when you got the quest reward, it was junk in 10 levels.

Wow is a kiddie game, and WAR is a kiddie game to. Its like trying to determine what game is more sophisticated Candy Land or Hungry Hungry Hippos. Just enjoy the game for what its worth, when it becomes boring then move along. I like WARs PvP and think that is what will define it when the hype is over. 

LOL to the post above. I suppose so but I have to say right now (and perhaps it's because it's new and the lack of tutioral WAR seems less childish... less flight paths more running around avoiding stong mobs that are in your way ect... but yeah EQ or FFXI those weren't easy games... thus they were more rewarding... hopefully someone in the industry will take note of that.  Anyway back to the OP:

One thing I majorly disagree... I think the world in WAR is very immersive. It encourages you to explore to find all the different objects in a particular zone. Each zone feels alive and at war. I don't think WoW matchs WAR in that regards. I love the world it feels like I'm apart of something instead of just creating a character to level up.

Also yes some of the comments you made are true but most of the things you said are fine tuning... which they have and are working on. WoW went through a LOT of changes (good and bad) before it became what it is today. I have no doubt that WAR will be the same. If we could freeze time and only let WAR move forward it would be very soild and I think WAR my actually come out on top. But if you want to compare old WoW to new WAR then yes of course WoW is going to run more smoothly. *shrug*

Anyway I enjoy both games though right now I'm going play WAR since I got bored with WoW. Might get the WoW expansion but when I hit 80 I'll get bored again and go back to WAR I'm sure.. which will probably be even more stable by then. Although one last point... the more I play WAR the more I'm debating if I should even get WotLK. Inside of me "feeling the grind" in WAR I am actually getting more and more interested in the lore and the world as I level up and that hasn't happened since FFXI... or maybe Guild Wars but that's a bit different.