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Warhammer Online Beta Application Now Open
Eurogamer reports that applications for the Warhammer Online Beta are now open on the official site. The Beta will be open for both American players as well as folks in the EU, and each have their own site available for signup. We had a chat with the Warhammer team late last year, which should give some insight on the game. Eurogamer as a hands-on preview available from January, if that's more your thing. "'Empire is a world about the End of Days,' bellows Paul [Barnett]. 'A world on the brink of extinction. No matter what they do, the Humans must keep fighting or they'll all die. Breed and fight, expand or die, that's all they can do.'"
The beta registration requires you to submit information from DxDiag.
Signed up me and the wife, hopefuly we can get through. Sorta sick of Blizzard, and this looks promising. Gaming is something me and her can sit down at the end of the day and do together. Basic days for us is: wake up, work, come home, go to gym together, come home and I cook dinner, we sit down and watch a movie and eat, then get on the computer and play a game together, 'get busy', then clean up and sleep to start it over again.
Not a perfect life, but through the work week, keeps us busy and in shape :)
Since the article only contains the European beta site links, you will find the North American sign up site here: https://betacenter.eamythic.com/signup.php After signing up there, you confirm your e-mail address (GMail dumped the e-mail into my Spam folder, fyi), and then upload your DxDiag info.
"If you read, you'll judge." --Kurt Cobain
Most Warhammer fantasy players sell their armies and buy cocaine, as it is a cheaper habit to support.
I can see it now: You wish to create a second player alt? That'll be $40, thank you.
I'm generally unhappy with World of Warcraft, and have been looking forward to playing a new MMO.
Personally, I think that Age of Conan has more of what I'm looking for -- a grittier, more mature feel, coupled with a development community that actually listens and responds to its fans.
Warhammer will be interesting to see, but I suspect that AoC will be the "wowkiller".
EA/Mythic are going to make a huge amount of money off of this once it goes retail. Why don't they pay us $20,000 a year (since we'll be telecommuting) and give us benefits (health/dental insurance)? The beta sign up process is like a typical hiring process.
Out of principle I stopped writing and left the site when I saw that they wanted me to write in 1000 characters or less "why I wanted to beta test their game." They know damn well that most people want to play because it is free and a way to pass time. It is a question that doesn't need to be asked.
So to anyone who is still signing up, you have one less person to compete with for this lucrative unpaid intern position. Enjoy.
No Us in WAAAGH.
God I feel like a nerd.
I like muppets.
If you feel you should be paid for playing their game, you are the exact opposite of their target customer (who will want to pay to play). Seriously, if you aren't willing to write a few words to beta-test a game, you probably aren't willing to buy the game either.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
Don't fill out the application form like I did if you're not on a Microsoft machine. You'll just be feeding them lots of personal info, and won't be able to proceed to step 2... plus, there doesn't appear to be any "delete my account info" option. I'll let the legion of other zealots whine about lack of OS X support, my only gripe is that they didn't make it clear up front.
The Europe site is a cruel joke... it requires Flash. :-(
American users get a "usable" site. Not fair.
As far as I'm concerned, the only MMO company with a track record of listening is Turbine. Unfortunately AC2 had too little content and wasn't well tested (not to mention the MS chat software broke down off an on for a few months). Of course the publisher has a lot to do with it--i wont play a MS or SoE run MMORPG.
Turbine's new release, LOTR is high quality (i just played the beta), seemed built on a modified AC2 engine but with massive graphics upgrades, and had much more developed crafting/quest content at release. Hopefully they wont need to work with the community and correct design problems like all the other games. I hope they do well, and come out with something else. LOTR just isnt my style.
All the first/2nd generation MMOs are continuing to make crappy games. As to WoW...horrible design mistakes with PVP, followed by poor customer service and Live management decisions (And they certainly werent responsive/responsible when fixing their design mistakes), poorly designed player skill growth (you can reach 60 knowing nothing about your class in a group)coupled with horrible raid requirements. Yeah they pwn the market, but I hope their brand takes a dive before the next MMO--it got them the users in the first place, now i hope the new folks move to something better.
for EA to botch this up...
It may be me being spoiled by the graphics available on my PS3 system, but I think the screenshots look rather dull and unexciting... I have no clue about the gameplay (haven't looked into it yet), but even the best gameplay can't overcome graphics which looks a couple of years old...
If it's supposed to be new and exciting, at least make it look new and exciting as well... Then, if it looks better than the MMORPGs on the marked then we can get into if it has better gameplay.
But then again, maybe I'm just not be in the target audience for MMORPGs anymore...
Age of Conan may end up being a better game than Warhammer, but there's no way it'll draw more of a population.
Existing fanbase: The Conan world had a few bad Ahnold movies set in it way back when, but the Warhammer IP has flooded gaming for years. Dawn of War, Mark of Chaos, Dark Omen, etc. And rumor has it there are a couple million tabletop Warhammer players out there... Mythic also probably has a slightly higher fanbase from DAOC than Funcom has from Anarchy Online.
Potential User Base: AoC has an M rating. WAR has a T rating. Also, AoC's system requirements are looking quite a bit more painful than WAR's. There's more people that could potentially pick up WAR than AoC.
Advertising: C'mon, it's freaking EA. AoC can't compare with that. WAR has also been getting alot of publicity already. This is like the 4th WAR story on slashdot. I've heard diddly squat about AoC, except on MMO forums.
Gamestyle: WAR looks to be making massive improvements on an already thriving MMO niche: PvP. A niche that a lot of the WoW playerbase has been complaining about for ages. AoC has some cool plans for their game, but I don't think the audience is as defined or large.
The WoW factor: No question WAR looks and plays more like WoW than AoC. It'll be much more natural for a WoW player to make the switch to WAR.
Waiting for Warhammer Online.
Cannot wait for Warhammer Online and the next set of MMOs to hit.
Some great new games in the works and Blizzard may actually start to feel some heat. Someone's gotta convince them to end the EQ1-model gear grind.
Waiting for Warhammer Online.
You missed a couple points on the existing fanbase. AoC is drawing from the books, and more importantly staying true to the gritty gore filled lore. AoC is also coming out for the X-Box 360. As for gamestyle if you haven't checked out the PvP options in AoC then "OMG". They certainly have some cool plans. Drunken bar fights, sieging player towns, last man standing, and a bunch more. Hopefully the M rating will deter some of the "younger generation" from getting their hands on this. I think it's going to be a close call between WAR and AoC.
~Vexed and loving it!
I respectfully disagree with you. Age of Conan will be bigger than War for two reasons: 1. It is coming out first (I think it is still schedule for Fall of this year?) 2. It will be on the 360, and many 360s are going to be sold this holiday season due to Halo 3. I hope both of these games are awesome and I will definitely buy both to at least play for the first month. But I am excited to play an MMO on a console due to the consistent frame rates and control scheme.
360 version isn't scheduled to be released until after Warhammer is -
Also ask EQ2 and Vanguard what a mmorpg that pushes hardware hard at launch does for subscription numbers -
Warhammer will have a much larger potential base simply due to hardware requirements alone