WAR (Warhammer Online)

Originally posted by vesavius

Well, that was short and, mostly, sweet.

I got 2 weeks out of WAR, about the same as AoC tbh, and now I'm done.

I can't play a game that is this lonely. Boy, talk about destroy the soul of a MMORPG through system design choices. WAR has no community beyond introverted utility (as opposed to 'family') guilds that just exist to zerg the content in the most basic way. Noone talks, noone listens, noone co-operates.

PQs are dead where ever I go, scenerios are mindless zerg fests where victory or defeat is random and nothing to do with skill, PvE is 100% solo quest grind. It's all so soulless.

Open world PvP is broken on the PvP server I play on, with people just using scenerios to level to the max allowed and then sitting around and picking off players 10 levels below them that are trying to do their quests, while actually thinking that this is what quality PvP is. Frustrating and boring.

Achievment rewards are pointless and dull. Itemisation and customisation are, frankly, rubbish. I feel no drive at all to develop my character, because I already know what she will look and handle like by looking at the (solo) guy running by me that is 2 levels higher. Pointless.

Despite the core lore being good, the PvE quests are GPS led idiot drivel, leading you through safari parks of static mobs just wait for you to kill them.

WAR imo isnt even really a MMORPG tbh... any more then TR is. It feels that everything that defines  a MMORPG has been tacked as an afterthought onto the PvP core, which is fine if you are only looking for a solo zerg grind PvP game, but it makes it a terrible MMORPG. I would rather play Savage then this game, its honest about what it is, a fantasy PvP/ RTS game, and is way more fun. I guess it didnt have the hype machine of WAR though, so most won't even try it, which is a shame.

WAR is such a merengue of a game... Light and sugary, which gives you a rush for a little while, but leaving you to crash when it wears off... I seriously wonder if this game has any longevity at all for the general public.

All I know is that It hasnt for me.

Btw people, change the skin on this game and it really isnt all that different from AoC, so I have no idea why you all hate one and love the other. They have far more similarities then differences if you take a better look.

Both are a really sad indicator on the state of the genre to me.

I think your comments are dead on.  I only blame myself, however, because I sort of had an idea, before I bought the game, of what it might turn out to be.

Not WAAAAHHH, WAAAAAAGHHH.  All MMO's are just what you make of them.  They are playgrounds for us to do with what we want with rules set in place.  You people have forgotten how to make your own fun with what's available and you want your fun handed to you on a platter in a nice little template with a funbot holding your hand all the way through.

Take the system and make what you will of it.  Stop talking about old games and go back and play them if they are so good.  I still play the old games and guess what?  They are still the same.  All you need is 1 full server.  Who cares if WoW has 10 million when there are only a few thousand on a server at a time to play with anyway?  Either pick a game and make it fun for yourself or switch genres for a while. 

Originally posted by ProfRed

Not WAAAAHHH, WAAAAAAGHHH.  All MMO's are just what you make of them.  They are playgrounds for us to do with what we want with rules set in place.  You people have forgotten how to make your own fun with what's available and you want your fun handed to you on a platter in a nice little template with a funbot holding your hand all the way through.

Take the system and make what you will of it.  Stop talking about old games and go back and play them if they are so good.  I still play the old games and guess what?  They are still the same.  All you need is 1 full server.  Who cares if WoW has 10 million when there are only a few thousand on a server at a time to play with anyway?  Either pick a game and make it fun for yourself or switch genres for a while. 

AMEN BROTHER! well said.

Originally posted by ProfRed

Not WAAAAHHH, WAAAAAAGHHH.  All MMO's are just what you make of them.  They are playgrounds for us to do with what we want with rules set in place.  You people have forgotten how to make your own fun with what's available and you want your fun handed to you on a platter in a nice little template with a funbot holding your hand all the way through.

Take the system and make what you will of it.  Stop talking about old games and go back and play them if they are so good.  I still play the old games and guess what?  They are still the same.  All you need is 1 full server.  Who cares if WoW has 10 million when there are only a few thousand on a server at a time to play with anyway?  Either pick a game and make it fun for yourself or switch genres for a while. 

... Because of this:

http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/player

Ranking of the best Wow PvP players ... on world, on continent, on battlegroup (clustered 12 servers), on server!  With links to talents used and gear used through the in game Armoury of each player.

or this:

http://www.wowjutsu.com/eu/alakir/

Ranking of the guilds you belong to and try to progress in competition with world, continent, server wise.

Our guild is still progressing and every time we down a new boss we climb on the ladder.

Gives a whole other feeling to these accomplishments. We do raiding now to view the last bosses and climb with our guild. I only raid once a week though ...

Guild pride it's called.

I hope the achievements system is also tracked this way btw. So, so far the Myth Wow is only played for personal greed and gear.

The other game I play is PotBS. All population on one EU server. Also a good game, but lacking in dimension.

Belonging to those infamous top ranked guilds is still adding something. Wasn't that you were searching for in "rvr pride" or "honor pride", but on a smaller scale I suppose.

Originally posted by vesavius

Well, that was short and, mostly, sweet.

I got 2 weeks out of WAR, about the same as AoC tbh, and now I'm done.

I can't play a game that is this lonely. Boy, talk about destroy the soul of a MMORPG through system design choices. WAR has no community beyond introverted utility (as opposed to 'family') guilds that just exist to zerg the content in the most basic way. Noone talks, noone listens, noone co-operates.

PQs are dead where ever I go, scenerios are mindless zerg fests where victory or defeat is random and nothing to do with skill, PvE is 100% solo quest grind. It's all so soulless.

Open world PvP is broken on the PvP server I play on, with people just using scenerios to level to the max allowed and then sitting around and picking off players 10 levels below them that are trying to do their quests, while actually thinking that this is what quality PvP is. Frustrating and boring.

Achievment rewards are pointless and dull. Itemisation and customisation are, frankly, rubbish. I feel no drive at all to develop my character, because I already know what she will look and handle like by looking at the (solo) guy running by me that is 2 levels higher. Pointless.

Despite the core lore being good, the PvE quests are GPS led idiot drivel, leading you through safari parks of static mobs just wait for you to kill them.

WAR imo isnt even really a MMORPG tbh... any more then TR is. It feels that everything that defines  a MMORPG has been tacked as an afterthought onto the PvP core, which is fine if you are only looking for a solo zerg grind PvP game, but it makes it a terrible MMORPG. I would rather play Savage then this game, its honest about what it is, a fantasy PvP/ RTS game, and is way more fun. I guess it didnt have the hype machine of WAR though, so most won't even try it, which is a shame.

WAR is such a merengue of a game... Light and sugary, which gives you a rush for a little while, but leaving you to crash when it wears off... I seriously wonder if this game has any longevity at all for the general public.

All I know is that It hasnt for me.

Btw people, change the skin on this game and it really isnt all that different from AoC, so I have no idea why you all hate one and love the other. They have far more similarities then differences if you take a better look.

Both are a really sad indicator on the state of the genre to me.

Solo... meaning alone

Zerg.. meaning many

Grind.. meaning difficult and tedious

PvP... player vs player..

Somehow.. you can solo as a zerg while you grind and pvp at the same time.  Yeah.. I don't know what the heck that means at all.  AoC isn't an any way.. remotely similar to WAR.  Different world design, different combat design, much better graphics, instanced and capped end-game PvP, large focus on PvE play, guild cities, ridiculous amounts of items and completely every man for himself on the PvP servers.  No factions.

How is WAR similar to any of that?  AoC had to make major patches, twice a week, for several months.. just to make the game playable for the majority of the players.  And STILL couldn't manage to present a product as polished as WAR.  I'm not a fanboi, I've played AoC, DAoC, WoW, UO, EQ1, TR, LoTR..  I know a good MMO when I see it.  There were major fundamental and design flaws in AoC.  AoC was on par with Vanguard or Dark and Light.  WAR's launch has been a lot better than even WoW's launch. 

Not liking the game is one thing, but making baseless and factless claims just because something isn't for you is rather immature.  WAR, is a pretty solid game thus far.  That's it.  It's a PvP game.  It is meant to be unforgiving in some aspects.  I'm sorry if you have to have everything handed to you.  If you have a problem with WAR's PvE, in any aspect.. then you must be horrified with WoW's.  They are nearly identicle.. except one has a much shorter grind involved. 

If everything is pointless and stupid.. why do you even play MMO's? 

Typical oldschool vs. new casual gamer debatte.

The casual gamer plays a game just for the sake of playing, wasting some time, and have the short fun. And that within 30min-1hour. Log out and log a few days later in, and do the same. They are not ready, and they dont want involvment in a community.. and how could you with 6 hours a week divided into 10 session?

MMORPGs nowadays are a lot more for those casual gamers.. everything is simple, everything is easy to get into, everything is automated.. a lot of options to make things simplier.

But the drawback is a lack of community, involving and thrilling and dramatic environment /world.

This development didnt started with WAR, not even with WoW.. those two games just got some steps forward in that direction.

It is also about torn apart communities and communications.

Look, at UO you talked to everyone around you, or everyone around you heard what you said to another player. No group chat, no trade chat, no nothing.. just world chat limited just in the locality depending if you had whispered, said or yelled. So when you logged in you were within the world and a part of the world and the community.. you could just listining the conversations of others or take part in it. And there were no levels, a newcomer could easily play and talk with a veteran player.. and they did it.

After that EQ introduced different chats and seperated withit the community. Now you got group chat, guild chat and area chats. So the community divided itself into different groups and guild.. nomore you could here the discussions of other groups nearby.. the world was a lot quiter. And the community were also seperated by levels. Not a lot of interaction between newcomers and veterans. One of the main problems of all level based mmorpgs.. if someone would ask me.

With WoW they have on top of that also introduced Instances, where a lot of ppl were seperated not just with the communication side from the world, even more with everything seperated. The world felt more empty and dead, and the community was more torn apart as ever before.

And now comes WAR into play.. they have all that from WoW(instances are now PvP instead of pve, but almost from lvl1 ongoing). But the player base is also devided intro realms, in each realms in 3 different factions, in each faction into 4 different tiers, with instances on top of that..

No need to talk about, that everything became a lot easier with one millions tutorials or informations how everything is to do.. no more the need to ask questions, or to involve yourself in anyway with the community or the world.

But however.. the point is, this trend will go on. Because the majority of gamers are casuals, and the subscriber numbers of wow have proven that.. and the numbers of WAR will prove it. Because WAR will be and is a success, despite of all those complaining on mmorpg.com in general. We mmorpg veterans of different periods are a minority.. and the community strong games are a niche.. not even talk about the virtual worlds or sandboxes, which are what a lot of those old old schoolers are dreaming of.

Nevertheless.. i really would wish for a more oldschool mmorpg, even if it is just a niche product. But the problem is really even worse. Because the oldschoold community is divided into theme park(EQ) vs. sandbox(UO), pvp vs. pve and one hundred million other things.. we oldschoolers are really picky, because we have seen a lot, and have played even more.

But however.. i play those new games, too. At the moment WAR, but i felt since years now. That those new games could be better, they could have more rpg, more community, more sandbox, more virtual world, more of a open world, more involving and meaningful pvp. But i have to live with what is available, and take it, as what it is... and just dream from time to time for a new, innovative, but oldschool kind of game.

PS: And the real casual dont post in forums or even read it. So noone, who are reading or commenting this is a real one. ;)

I only joined WAR because of the open world PvP and now that is the least played thing in this game. Scenarios are over crowded and we have a whole new WoW.

They should buff xp gained and rewards in general from open world RvR.

This game at its current state doesnt offer anything special. They have a great idea and design on their hand but the execution is just poor.