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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."

19 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. ob by edittard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did they fail a 2D6 roll against their INT?

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:ob by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Funny
      Did they fail a 2D6 roll against their INT?

      No. This is Warhammer, not D&D.

      They succumbed to the corrosive taint of Chaos, and even now in the cubicles, the hideous bloated beasts that were once developers stalk and hunt each other in a vicious battle for supremacy in the loathsome hive of corruption that was once their office. In time one of these abominations of nature will establish itself as the master, and under its appalling leadership a ghastly crew of mutant horrors will stream forth from their lairs to bring woe and misery to the peaceful human lands.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    2. Re:ob by Boronx · · Score: 2, Funny

      So you're saying they've turned into Republicans.

    3. Re:ob by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

      Now, now, no need to assume the worst. I'd say they only forgot to pacify the spirit of the machine properly. That's what you get when you forget to sing the correct hymns.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:ob by Enzo+the+Baker · · Score: 2, Funny

      I got a few emails about herbal pills that can help with that.

      --
      I may twist orthodoxy to partly justify a tyrant. But I can easily make up a German philosophy to justify him entirely.
  2. Feels like Vanguard... by nschubach · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Feels like Vanguard... by Steeltalon · · Score: 2, Informative

      I thought that SWG's bigger problem was that Raph Koster decided to design whatever the hell he wanted and just slap the Star Wars name on it. Next to that albatross the troubles they had with their beta program seem minor.

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      Regards, Ian
  3. they forgot to paint the figures by netsavior · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone knows they are not playable till ya paint 'em.

  4. Sometimes... by Cleon · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!
    1. Re:Sometimes... by Moraelin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, seeing beta-test as "suply the beta testers with a free game for the next 6 weeks for no purpose" is arguably the worst attitude a company can have, and chances are the effects will be seen in the final game.

      1. That's some people who put up with some major bugs and crap balance, to help you fix the game. For the price of a "free game." If you were to hire internal testers for that, even at minimum wage in Elbonia, it would cost you more than 10$-15$ a month. In fact, you'd have to give those a copy of the game too, so that evens out to meaning that the volunteers essentially work for you for 0$ a month.

      If anyone actually sees it as doing them some royal favour by letting them beta-test your crap, it denotes a head-up-the-ass attitude that doesn't put much value on getting those bugs reported and fixed. It doesn't bode well.

      But more importantly

      2. If it had been beta-quality stage, never mind the stage where it would actually be offering a finished game for free, it makes no sense to abort it for 6 months. Either (A) you decide it's actually ready and proceed to the stress test and launch, or (B) that final stage is one of continuous tweaking-and-seeing-the-results and a rush to find as many bugs as you can. Both are things you don't do in short fits and bursts. Well, not if you actually care about delivering a finished and polished product.

      Balance tweaks, for example, you can get sorta right on paper with lots of maths. (Though the average game designer seems unable and uninterested in taking a spreadsheet and nailing that maths in detail.) But to _really_ know if it works or not, you have to see what thousands of players come up with as ways to abuse it. And see what happens if you add 1% to this spell, or subtract 1% from that armour class. It's not something you can get right in 1-2 big sweeping changes tested briefly every 6 months.

      Bugs too don't just mean the big obvious fuck-ups, which shouldn't have made it past the internal testing anyway. It means race conditions that happen to the average player maybe once a month, or stuff that involves the player being on the exact pixel between terrain tiles, or whatever. Because it's that kind of thing that will bite you in the arse at release. A bug that happens only once a month to 1 player, will happen 10,000 times a day when you have 300,000 subscribers.

      So it makes no imaginable sense to abort a beta for 6 months, if the game was indeed at beta stage. It only makes sense if you decide that you fucked up so badly, that you need 6 months just to (hopefully) bring it to a _real_ beta stage.

      It's not pessimism, it's just realism. That's how it works.

      --
      A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
    2. Re:Sometimes... by bateleur · · Score: 2, Funny

      If they balance the races that will hardly be a faithful reproduction of GW's games!

  5. Meh... by madhatter256 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Blizzard will still continue to copy off of Warhammer, regardless if it comes out or not.

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    Previewing comments are for sissies!
    1. Re:Meh... by Rayonic · · Score: 2, Funny

      Blizzard usually does a better job making Warhammer-ish games than whoever has the actual Warhammer license. (Though I hear the latest WH20k RTS is pretty cool.)

    2. Re:Meh... by SkyFalling · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but who wants to wait another 20k years? Besides, sequels always disappoint. I betcha Madden 40k will still be just the same game as it is now. ;)

    3. Re:Meh... by obeythefist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Money talks. It looks like Blizzard did a better copy of Warhammer than Warhammer did. That's okay. The Warhammer guys copied all their stuff off Tolkien anyway, right? Elves, Orks, Dwarves.. jeez.

      Of course, if you think any of that copying is acceptable, then that kinda means you have to also accept that Disney's business practices are in any way "acceptable".

      It's a painful place to be....

      --
      I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  6. Maybe they learned a lesson? by Pearson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!
  7. IP holder. by Telepathetic+Man · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  8. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Warcry... by Shipwack · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Code for the code god! Code for the code god!"