The White Tower Speaks: Things We Did Not Want to Hear

The WAR fansite community is abuzz today over Mark Jacob's earlier announcements. You can find those in an MMORPG.com interview here. I'm sure you've already seen it. I'm sure you have an opinion about it, and I'm sure it's not super-duper positive (if it is, you may need a reality check).

I'm going to skip the crap, and get to the part I'm upset over: the cutting of classes.

I have to admit I had to read the passage three or four times to make sure I'd gotten it right. I'm not going to lie, it seems like publicity suicide. I'm pissed and I really didn't have any intention of playing those classes. If they'd cut Swordmaster, I would probably have thrown a hissy fit right there at my computer, logged into my Amazon account, and canceled my pre-order on the spot, and I'm not usually prone to rash decision making, or lording my "customer rights" over the developer.

My group got lucky, we had one guy who was thinking he might go Hammerer, but that's it. I can only imagine the people who had their heart set on one of the cut classes, or guilds who had several people affected by the cuts.

I have to assume that Mythic had an excellent reason for cutting these classes, they said the classes cut were not distinctive or strong enough. This tells me there was a problem with the classes' mechanics. Does this bode ill for the Ironbreaker, who shares a mechanic with the recently cut Blackguard, or the Chosen who shares a mechanic with KotBS?

What exactly wasn't working with the melee DPS (hammerer, choppa)? Were they having problems getting kited, or was it too difficult to balance their survivability (medium armor) with their damage? Why were the stealth (Witch Elves and Hunters) and pet classes (White Lion) not having similar problems? What about the Marauder?

Were the hammerer and choppa's mechanics giving them class specific problems? Did their momentum mechanic make them early and frequent targets for focus fire? Did they not have adequate mitigation or escape mechanisms?

Is it possible that the melee dps were so fragile they couldn't make it to their targets without stealth or a built in tank (aka pet)? Or that they had to resort to running in well after the fight had already commenced to avoid focus fire?

Of course, we do have to salute Mythic for doing what they think is best. Cutting classes must have been very difficult for them to do, and I'm sure they knew the response would be widely negative. Mythic's commitment to excellence is admirable, let's hope it doesn't bite them in the ass.

Look for more on this later,
Stormcrow

Order vs. Overpowered Demi-Gods of Untouchable Awesome (Destruction)

Heh, sorry for the inflammatory title... made ya look! I've talked to a lot of people, asking them their opinions on the Order vs. Chaos match-up. A year ago, when I introduced my roommates to the game, the first thing I did was show them the Cinematic Trailer.

The comments were as follows:

"Wow, that retarded orc that slammed into the wall at the beginning? Totally you, James."
*retarded grin* "Yup, or the guy firing the retarded one into the wall, cause I'm wily like that."

Greenskin vs. Dwarf:
"Wow, never seen a Dwarf like that, he's kinda cool. Think I might play that."
"He's not in the game, they scrapped him."
"Lameyndor (a hybrid of the words Lame and Gryffindor. Before you ask: I have no idea.)

Dark Elf vs. High Elf Fight:
"Is that hottie dual wielding? Oh my God, did she just deflect magic with her swords? Class found."

At the Chaos Chosen Entrance:
"Dear God, what is that thing?"
"That can't be human..."
"I'm changing my class from dual wielding hottie to whatever that hulking piece of awesome is...."
"That priest is about to get rocked."
"Dude, you always think evil's going to win."
"Yeah, cause they do."

At the Chaos Chosen getting his first hits in:
"Told you, that priest is screwed."
"Not over yet, that guy's weapon is on FIYAHHH!"

At the glowing eyes and burning weapon:
"Nice!"
"Oh Schnap."
"What now negative Nancy? What now?
"He's still going to lose... if he doesn't that's such a copout."
"Dude, that priest is totally you."

I, of course, had already seen the trailer. I laughed and said, "More than you know."

At this point the Chosen knees the Warrior-Priest in the gut, and pounds his face in:
"Wow, I totally meant that when I thought you were going to win..."
"Didn't see that one coming..."
"Called that shit..."
"Really... who isn't going to play that?"

*sheepish grin*

"Wow, you totally want us to play Order don't you."
"Um well, that'd be cool..."
"No, not cool, man."
"Don't play with my emotions like that... really. Behemoth of Ungodly Amazing, or guy with broken face, hmm..."
"Party foul, for real."

All humor aside, these guys are Gamer and MMO veterans (most of them hardcore power-gamers), and even they were swayed by the undeniable awesomeness factor of Destruction, and I'm sure many more will be as well.

Games Workshop and by extension Mythic has gone out of their way to say, "Order is in dire straights. Chaos' victory is inevitable."

But, in a way there's also some massive underdog appeal from the side of Order, very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, Zulu, or 300. Just from a lore perspective, it's cool to think that even though you're outnumbered, surrounded on all sides, you won't give up. I'm reminded of this quote from 300 (forgive the cheesiness):

"The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a god-king can bleed."

I know a lot of people watch that Trailer and say, "Wow, that's OP. No duh, everyone's going to be Destruction." But I look at it like this, "Wow, now I've got something worth fighting for."

Stormcrow

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