Several Pretty Good Reasons Why Warhammer Looks Like it Might Be Awesome (Most Likely):

Hello everyone, this is Stormcrow here at The White Tower of Hoeth! Today I'm going to talk to you about a few factors that I think will make Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning a success. First, let's look at a few things that go into making a great game (MMO).

1. Show me the MONEY! Let's face it folks, if you want to make a great game, you've got to have the capital to make it happen, captain. At first I was a little worried about how much money would be going into Age of Reckoning, but once I learned EA had teamed up with Mythic, I knew the money would be in the bag.

2. Experience: If you want to make a great game, you've gotta have experience. Some things you just simply can't get right the first time. There are just some things you can't see coming. Luckily for us, Mythic has already produced an excellent RvR game, and can overcome many of the pitfalls from Dark Age of Camelot, meanwhile lending their otherwise excellent features to WAR (read: keeps).

3. Time Spent: It's said you can't rush greatness. Hopefully this is the case for WAR. A lot of people are upset about the delays, and it is true that delay doesn't necessarily mean a better game. I think we need only look at the Dev Team to see how dedicated they are to Warhammer Online. Jeff Hickman has said on many occasions, "If it's not done, it's not getting released." Despite all the Blizzard hate running amok on forums and blogs, I think it's good Mythic has taken a page from Blizzard's play book in this case.

4. Devoted Developers: Never have I felt more in touch with a development team, and never have I seen such diversity among the "faces" of any game. On the one hand you have the boisterous Paul Barnett whose excitement and fervor seems to know no bounds. What I really like about Paul is that he seems to draw in those new to MMO's without scaring them away with overly technical language. On the other hand you have the (moderately?) more serious Jeff Hickman who really hits those technical nails on the head (when he can!) and really seems to answer questions as forthrightly and honestly as possible. And then, somewhere in the middle, taking the best from both worlds, is Josh Drescher.

There are other faces, of course, Mark Jacobs won my respect when he responded to some forum posts bashing his people (Go Mark). And I've never heard someone so excited about their job than Carrie, the creator of the ToK (Tome of Knowledge). When you have people who care that much about what they do, they moderate themselves. They know what they're making is going to be quality.

5. Rich Intellectual Property: Warcraft.... Star Wars.... Lord of the Rings... Warhammer. It's difficult (impossible?) to make a beautiful, rich, world from scratch. Thank goodness the developers in these games didn't have to. The lore practically writes itself, ancient battlefields and vicious blood feuds are common place in the Warhammer Universe.

So there you have it folks. If you ever start to get down, wondering if this game is going to make it, stop focusing on details, those come with Open Beta, and the dropping of the NDA. Understand that there are many elements that go into making a game, and Warhammer is poised in a market that is desperately looking for something new, exciting, and provocative. If Warhammer releases, and is a solid, polished, and fun game at launch, I think we can safely say that it will be around for a long time to come.

Thanks for reading,
Stormcrow