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Ask the Warhammer Online Team
In my recap of 2006's GenCon event, I was somewhat unkind to Warhammer Online. They are far better people than I am, thankfully, and the folks from Mythic Entertainment are extending a hand to the members of the Slashdot community. We have the chance to ask them any questions we'd like about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. We'll look through your questions, and pass on the best to the development team at Mythic. We've gotten assurances that responses will be attributed, too, so you'll know who is answering what. Whether you're a Massive game fan or an old-school wargamer Warhammer Online has to have something to interest you, so ask away. One question per post, please, and we'll post the answers as soon as we get them.
uhm... What's Warhammer?
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This is a joke. I am joking. You have been joked with.
Will the end-game of WAR really, truly be PvP / RvR? WoW was just a PvP tease on top of a quest and loot-oriented PvE game, and it lost the hardcore PvP crowd. Will WAR abandon DAoC's PvP/RvR roots just to appeal to the masses of carebears out there?
What's unique about Warhammer Online, other than the universe that its set in? This could be anything, really: design philosophy, new innovations in gameplay, new technical acomplishments.
Put slightly more bluntly, tell me why I should chose Warhammer Online over World of Warcraft.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
Do you want to chew into WoW's player base or are you targeting players from other games, most notably other Warhammer titles? If you're targeting WoW, what do you do you have to offer and do you think they'll really jump ship? And if you do convince players, how do you intend to keep them playing WH other than eternal grind for herbs or whatever?
One of the most entertaining aspects of WH (IMO) next to strategy, planning, and decimating our enemies is the craft and care of the minitures. And one of the enjoyable parts of playing MMOs is the mod community, wether sanctioned or not. With DAoC there was a definate progression between Mythic and the Mod community. What started out as a non-existant link slowly became a colaboration between Mythic and the modders. Mythic introduced a tool (or information about the tool) to allow modders to impliment custom GUI solutions. An idea that has since been used widely in the MMO field.
Are there currently any plans to have a simlar system that would allow for the introduction of player contributed art to the game? Banners, skins, asorted textures, and the like? Such a system would allow players to not only take pride in their victories, but also in their craftsmanship.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Is there any chance of a version set in the Warhammer 40k universe? While the Warhammer Fantasy universe doesn't appeal to me, I'd be more than willing to give a 40k version a try, and I have never played a single online game. I don't even play "Dawn of War" (40k RTS) online, yet I just built a brand new computer to play the new DoW expansion.
Z.
Will it feature Skaven???
A playable race even?? Pretty please...
So to compete with World of Warcraft you'll be supporting multiple platforms at launch right? Or is this just another Windows only game that will get a possibly half-assed port if the Windows version is profitable?
I'm a crafter at heart, in fact, I play MMORPGs to craft gear. So what do we loonies get? How do you want to avoid the two pitfalls "Making it so easy that everyone has some sort of crafter, and market prices plummet for everything but the bits that only the primary top guild builders have prints for (see WoW)" and "Making it so hard that you'd rather go with the once-in-a-lifetime-drop 'cause getting it is faster than finding a crafter who can build you something similar (see DAoC)"? Can I sustain myself crafting, or is it at best a hobby for people who have too much money already? Will crafted gear be, economically, be at least on par with drop-only gear?
Oh, only one question. Ok: Is being a crafter a choice that can keep you entertained and sustained by itself?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
One of the best features of WoW is the way you can customize your entire interface and create custom modifications. Will players have the same ability to tweak the interface of Warhammer Online?
Has any thought been given to Mac OS X and Linux versions?
Well, I'll ask it!!
My understanding is that Blizzard (not sure if it was called that at the time) was creating a RTS based on Warhammer FOR Games Workshop. Somehow or another Games Workshop decided they didn't like/want/need the development team anymore, so the game and the team walked and created what is now known as WarCraft I. The rest is history really - it was hugely successful, spawned many sequels, and is now the #1 online RPG in the world.
So now GW is making their own MMORPG, based on their own proprietary game and story. Will it resemble WoW? Of course, but that's because WoW's foundation *IS* Warhammer. It will be what the WarCraft Universe was SUPPOSED to be in the beginning.
If this information is accurate (I've read it somewhere before, wish I could quote a source..) does GW ever 'kick themselves' for the lost opportunity in what would have been their domination of the MMORPG market, and how do they expect to overcome the hurdle of people (who aren't aware of the 'facts(?)') believing that Warhammer is a copycat of WoW?
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
What are you going to do in order to prevent the repetitive grind that most MMOs are [in]famous for ? How many quests in your game follow ye olde template of "kill 20 goblins and bring me their noses... but a goblin only has a 30% chance to drop a nose" ?
At higher levels, will your game require a massive investment of time into raiding the same dungeon over and over, in order to stay competitive with other players ?
>|<*:=
Item duplication is one of the many banes of the on-line RPG, what will you be doing to counter that kind of abuse? And frankly, what will you do to keep griefers in line?
I ask many of these relative to WoW. This should suprise nobody, as any MMO hoping to compete with WoW should liberally compare itself with - though not necessarily model itself after - WoW.
1.) PvP:
- a.WAR seems to have a PvP focus. Is it possible to focus primarily on PvP and earn enough EXP from PvP so that I will not be forced to "grind up" *for* PvP like players are forced to do in WoW?
- b. In WoW, there are two clear channels of play: PvP and PvE, and PvE must be done to be competative in PvP. What kind of effort will I need to put into PvE to be competative in PvP? I ask this for the players who, like myself, do not want to put anything more than minimal time into PvE because we prefer PvP.
- c. Will PvP be balanced with items, levels/skills, or player skill in mind? IE: Who would win in a fight, the player with the most skill, the best gear, or the highest levels and in-game skills? Again, with WoW as an example, levels and gear are very clearly more important than actual player skill, which I find extremely damaging toward gameplay. Having to mindlessly acquire in-game stuff (I won't even say earn, because earning implies a skill investment as well as the MMO-standard time investment) to play the part of the game I actually like without constanly losing really, really sucks.
- d. What will make PvP in your game different from PvP in other MMOs, again, notably WoW. Will you implement Warhammer's gameplay depth (formations, terrain, etc) to WAR?
- e. How will you address the weaknesses of PvP in today's MMOs. IE: Characters bunnyhopping to avoid enemy meelee and spells, generic "press auto attack and wait" no-player-skill meelee, etc.
2.) Customization:
- a. What kind of UI system are you implementing? I've been critical of WoW here, but I must say that their extremely robust UI modding system is simply excellent and one of the best features of the game.
- b. To many people, part of the appeal of the Warhammer tabletop game is being able to customize your units and create "your" army. Will this , or anything similar, be implemented in WAR? Custom armor color schemes/logos, custom guild banners, etc, all spring to mind as possibilities.
3.) MMO General:
- a. What, if any, MMO conventions will you be breaking? Nobody wants to see gimmicks, but there are some ideas that have struck me as being very good. IE: Allowing players to join more than one guild at a time instead of locking them into a single community of players.
- b. What else do you want us to know about WAR, and why should we play it? I can visit your website for your generic PR pitch, so give us some personal opinions, strenghts and weaknesses of the game, etc, not the usual stuff.
4.) The Most Important Question to Me:
- I want your game to actually feel like the cutscenes available on your website. I do not want to watch these visceral and intense CG videos only to find combat in your game is just more of the same that I've grown tired of months ago. Will combat feel like the videos, or will it be sterile MMO combat?
When I first heard of Warhammer Online I had a slight hope that the designers were going to create an online version of the table top game, something akin to what Wizards of the Coast did with Magic The Gathering Online. Judging by the people I've talked to, this game would be of great interest to current and former battlegamers. Instead you've gone the route of many former Warhammer based games, i.e. simply selected the most popular genre and slapped on the Warhammer universe onto it (ex. Dawn of War).
I'd like to know, besides the Warhammer universe, why should this game appeal to a Warhammer battlegamer. And more importantly, why hasn't a serious online Table Top port been attempted.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I noticed that the vampire counts, tomb kings, as well as the dark elves are not shown in the trailer at all; does this mean they're not in the game? That they're the 'bad' guys and thus unplayable? Or was there some reason the trailer simply couldn't include them?
Boy those grapes are up really high, I bet they are sour anyways.
.. its cheaper to produce them, but at over 250k lbs just for the MOLD tooling itself - how many plastic skaven do you think it takes to recover that ? I worked there when Jess Godwin sculpted the Eldar Falcon Grav Tank. the model was something crazy like 4 feet wide for the tooling. [A 6mm 'epic' figurine pre tooling is sculpted at a height of about 9 inches.] Jess, A full time artist, spent over three months on that project. There are a LOT of costs involved in high detailed plastic molds, which is why you don't see a lot of 'poor' gaming companies with many of them. At least not outside of China. And everyone knows how hard it is to keep up on quality control there.
.. what your PROBABLY comparing the prices to is the cost for a metal box set X number of years ago when *YOU* last bought one. [in 1996 a squad of 10 metal figures was roughtly $25, with a bloodbowl team of 12-14 figures going for $29.99] But you see, now adays, almost all the 'bulk' army figures are plastic, the metal box sets are far and inbetween, and certainly not rank and file troops. Plastic figures for your 'bulk' troops makes sence both from a pocket-book and from a 'bordom of painting the same damn figure 18 times' point of view. Plastic models are easier for a kid to modify, hell - they can just stick the parts on differently and they have a new figure.
Xbox 360 dvd's only cost pennies to press, but they cost $60.00.
MP3's are just files, why do they cost $1 ?
It costs just about as much to make a Honda Accord as it does to make a Series 5 BMW, why can't I get one for the same price ?
Toy soldiers are priced at what GW thinks they should be priced at. It is, regardless of how much people want it to be not, a luxury item, the cataliac of Table Top Miniatures. And as such, yeah, its expensive, but so is a BMW. And I still want me one of those.
Having spent time in the studio, I can assure you that a LOT of man hours goes into making a mold for plastic figures, yes
Ignoring costs for a second, lets look at your base argument.
A box of plastic empire figures (30 some odd figures if I remember correctly) is probably about $35.00 usd now. between $1-$2 a figure. A blister pack of 2-3 empire figures runs about $10 USD. The math is pretty clear.
Now
Older people who cant afford to buy everything they want, are the ones who complain about the price of GW stuff. Spoiled by the years of cheap gaming fixes like MTG and the low $$ output games like D&D where a $20 book is all you need, they expect everything to be like that. I can say this safely, because everytime you complain about the high costs of their product, what I *HEAR* is, 'I want that, I may not be able to afford, or WANT to afford it, but I still want it'.
What you might not understand is that, from an overall focus, Games Workshop doesn't care about people older than 12.
GW's target market is 12 year old boys. I know this, because it was drilled into our heads for YEARS. There are new 12 year old boys every year. Ones who have never heard of Games-Workshop yet, but would love it when they do. 12 year old boy's don't care if Karl Franz on a war griffon costs $35 quid, they just care that he has a WS of 5 and 3 attacks and is kack hard.
12 year old boys will save their pocket money for 4 weeks to buy Karl Franz [or their army's equilivant.] then spend a few weeks painting it. They will come into a store that sells games-workshop once every week to two weeks and spend 7-15 lbs. (10-20 usd) buying their army a few figures at a time. A 12 year old boy is HAPPY when he buys Karl Franz, even if his army isn't done yet, because he now has WEEKS to obsess over the model until its painted and ready to play. Thats how 12 year old boys are wired up. Old beardy men [like you and me] want an army done TOMORROW so we can play. A Part of working at GW that was so rewarding was getting back in touch with my inner 12 year old boy.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
Simple question, will we ever see a Necromunda MMORPG? Warhammer is fun but only half as popular as 40k, and the market for warhammer online seems fairly saturated already. Necromunda seems to lend itself almost perfectly to the MMORPG style. I heard that Warhammer 40k was rejected by GW as an option for you as it was being worked on by another company (and was cancelled by them well into your development process). Are there any plans to pick up the pieces? (Necromunda!! :))
Warhammer forums
Wizards TOTALLY failed by becoming too popular :P lol I Met Peter Adkinson At the head office of GW in Lenton. He had come there to talk to Tom about how to manage the explosive growth of his company, and how GW managed it.
.. in the late 90's almost exploded. Its one of the reasons I left. The staff was underpaid horribly. [I was responsible for MILLIONS in sales a year, but was non commissioned, and made less than $30k a year - and THAT was after I help start Games-Workshop Japan.] The Board was losing focus, The market in the UK was starting to saturate, and no one there wanted to shift production to other companies because they were worried about quality control.
.. some went to other gameing companies, including WOTC heh.] If you didn't toe the company line without question, you were put into 'go nowhere' positions. A friend of mine was 'promoted' to the customer service sales line after refusing to cut his hair. A former boss was told on his 10 year anniversery with the company that if he didn't cut his hair, he might as well quit. At the end I personally had a dick-head manager who literally compared his team to the hitler youth, and would expect the same obediance. He wrote me up one August afternoon for sitting down at my desk after lunch without my tie on. [In baltimore, in August, the tempratures can hit 102 easy, with 95% humitity pushing it to an effective heat index of over 115] That was when I decided to go elsewhere. That same manager was fired about a year later under similar circumstances and now sells real-estate.
:)
In the several months following this, they slowly imploded until a few years later the company was finally sold to Hasbro.
Workshop
The company was also losing focus on its products. The imaginative minds at the studio were burning out. The company was starting to focus on profit, and bottom lines - and migrating away from the 'we hire hobbiests' motto they had previously.
We were expected to work longer hours, even to come in on weekend, for no additional money. Cries of 'you can be replaced tomorrow' were used by a lot of the managers who were simply in over their heads.
I was lucky, I had a degree in computer programming, and I left. Some of my friends and co-workers were not so lucky. [Some are still there
It was a big transition from an office that employed 60 people in the US were you would come in wearing a t-shirt and jeans, to an office employing 120 people, and most of you were expected to wear a full suit and tie.
Apparantly its a nicer place to work now, people are better compensated, the company actually has health insurance now. Following on a number of lawsuits where they mistreated former employees, GW US is now required to keep a HR attourney on staff as a consulting position due to these practices.
For a real wage, I would go back, even with all the crap we had to wade through, I made some great friends there [80% of which VANISHED as soon as I left the company, which should tell you about how close knit they are there.] I just don't think they could afford me now
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!