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Warhammer Online Beta Shutdown
Garthilk writes "Most MMOs typically go through delays in release date; EA Mythic's Warhammer Online has already been pushed back to early next year. A recent announcement from the company on their beta boards has given fans pause, though. EA Mythic is shutting down their external beta test program, and possibly won't reopen it until December. Mythic says this pause in external testing will serve as an opportunity to refine and polish the games core mechanics. A public announcement is said to follow soon."
Did they fail a 2D6 roll against their INT?
At the bottom of the
Feels like Vanguard all over again, only this the devs/publisher cut the beta-testers out of the loop. I'm not in the Warhammer Beta, but was in the Vanguard Beta. I read this and thought of how many times the Sigil crew said they were reworking the "core mechanics" and ended up releasing a product with no direction (and way too early.)
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Everyone knows they are not playable till ya paint 'em.
Translation: "We realized that the whole thing was a steaming pile of crap, and needed to be seriously re-engineered."
Sometimes you just have to realize that your "Beta" is more of an "Alpha."
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
Blizzard will still continue to copy off of Warhammer, regardless if it comes out or not.
Previewing comments are for sissies!
Gotta love how the news got leaked out. This was supposed to be covered by the NDA but it escaped from the forums (and it was emailed to testers as well).
It's a lot easier to deal with an internal test team than a large external one. Don't have to worry about supporting the end-users (testers) as much. Don't need to worry about server downtimes and preparing/serving up patches. If Mythic feels they need to do this, it may be good. I still have a lot of faith in the company because of DAoC.
Its not what it is, its something else.
Call me when Skaven is a playable race.
Comment of the year
Gordon Walton, co-studio director at BioWare Austin, summed it up in a speech he gave last month at the Austin Game Developer's Conference. (a write up on the speech can be found here
"I think that quality was a true innovation on Blizzard's part. Nobody had done that before at that level of play. Because they did that, their game stood out night and day above everybody else's games. What's the biggest mistake? What everybody did without exception -- shoving it out the door.
"You have one chance to make a first impression; the brand value of an MMO is created within the first week of launch. End of story. You're done the first week... I say a week, but it might even be a day. It's a post-World Of Warcraft world. You better do that."
So I take this as a positive sign that Mythic wants to make a bunch of money, and realize that if they don't take the time to do it right the first time, it will not make the kind of money they want.
I...I'm attacking the darkness!
Games Workshop is widely known to be very hands on and overly protective of their IP. It could be that Mythic is obligated to make sure that everything they do as far a gameplay and strategy is the most perfect blend of table-top style gaming and the MMORPG style of gaming. If they don't get it just right, I have a feeling they could see a lawsuit from the IP holder, whether Mythic is able to make a killing on the game or not.
This is of course, all speculation.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
We're tired of babysitting all these crybabies who think they're playing a production game.
Yeah, yeah, your fucking horse fell off the cliff, shut up already; I'm trying to track down the money dupe bug your clan-mates have been exploiting for the past two weeks.
Yes, we know about it. No, we're not going to punish you, we want to figure out how you're doing it.
What?? Now you other fuckers from another clan are bitching that we're 'not enforcing the rules' and how 'this game is totally gonna suck cause the admins don't do anything to prevent cheating'?
This is a BETA people; wait, fuck it, it's now an ALPHA. Get off our servers and let us do some real work. We'll let 10% of you assholes back in when we need some real help.
Thank you, and get a life.
After seeing so many MMOs fall flat-out on their faces after launch, if they managed to fix the game (I played a demo at Comic-Con, it was far from completed) then I say keep on delaying it.
"Code for the code god! Code for the code god!"
I play Skaven all the time. Skaven rocks!
Though some days, I dig Purple Motion just a bit more.
The release of Mass Effect is approaching?
Mark Jacobs (head of Mythic) has responded here: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11052.msg351002#msg351002
For what it's worth, I don't think the game is in any serious trouble. Unlike many MMO studios, they've shown lots of playable content to the public. If they don't restart the beta after two months, maybe then it's a sign of trouble.
The bastards at Games Workshop has released a new series of figures and all old figures are no longer playable causing the mmo team to go back and redesign all of their character models.
Redo the game's core mechanics? Come on, how hard is it to implement big meat bags with taunt, healers, blasters, and retarded AI that recognizes none of this?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.