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Warhammer Online Delayed Again
EA Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs, in a new 'State of the Game' address on the Warhammer Herald site, revealed that Warhammer Online has been pushed back to at least April of next year. The game was originally slated for release this fall, and then was pushed to around February of next year. As always, the fearsome demon of polish is what's keeping the team hard at work through the holidays: "When we looked at our options, two paths lay before us: 1) Ship the game on time with fewer features and less polish, or 2) Extend the development cycle and spend the needed time and money to make WAR great. We chose the latter path - to invest additional time and effort in implementation and polish to make WAR great. Fortunately, we have the resources and support of EA behind us to extend our development cycle; time that will be used to make sure the game is everything we want it to be. WAR is coming, and it will be glorious." He notes also that they'll begin a new phase of testing next month, kicking Beta back into high gear.
It's good to see them taking the time to release the best game they possibly can rather than pushing an incomplete project out the door and trying to make money from it with the promise of finishing later. It never happens.
In my opinion, this is a very good decision.
If I only had a moose...
Polish? No. They ran out of paint.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Realm vs. Realm I think
It's a term from DaoC meaning Realm vs Realm, aka faction PvP. Having never played DaoC, and not really liking WoW PvP myself (which is mostly factional), I never understood the fascination with it.
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
The fascination with it in DAOC is the high you get when you kill another player other then a computer controlled character. It is like seeing who has the biggest dick. The more kills you have the more respect you get. On top of that you get to retake castles (this sometimes takes hours) and by taking back the castles you get your realm (or faction) things like +5% to experience earned for everyone in the realm. Also when you kill people in RVR you get bounty points. With these points you can gain new abilities to use in battle or new armor etc. So it adds a fun element to the game rather then the normal grind, or do this quest. It is dynamic content because it is PVP.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
Sounds like the folks over at Warhammer online need to get their story straight.
Last time they delayed it (and actually shut down the beta!) it was to "refine and polish the games core mechanics". To me there's a big difference between "polishing the game" and "polishing the CORE MECHANICS".
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/08/2120228&from=rss
So which is it? Are they just "adding more features and polish"? or are the core mechanics still in need of work?
For me, what I (and I think a lot of people) liked was the fact that except on special servers, there was a clear delineation between PvE (cooperative) areas and RvR (competitive teamplay) areas.
Also, while PvP in many games can be to varying degrees a free-for-all with large teams (guilds/alliances) usually forming and becoming successfull, DAoC was definately "large team" based by design. Also, the frontiers had a pretty well designed capture-and-hold objective system, although over time the rewards for killing other people by roaming with a small group became significantly more than cooperating with your realmmates to capture and hold an objective. The balance of the game shifted away from epic battles with large amounts of cooperation to splintered groups of 8 running all over competing for kills.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
I don't get it: even if you win, you're still checking out some other dude's junk.
Yeah, the "Duke Nukem Forever" Award. ;)
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
They know they're competing against World of Warcraft, a game that's had 2.5 years to iron out all the bugs, improve the interface, and turn it from an okay to a great experience. This is their core market, they are seeking to take players from WoW (mostly bored ones, of course) so they have to get it absolutely right on launch, or they'll lose momentum.
WoW is the game that brought MMORPGs into the mainstream - existing MMORPG players from pre-WoW are a small part of their audience. WAR is going to be aiming for that same audience, so they have to actively lure people away from one game into another.
As one of those WoW players, I am hugely looking forward to WAR and have been for a long time, I'm happy to raid SSC/BT for a couple of extra months to make sure they get everything right.
And let me into the beta, damnit.
A bug free or complete MMO does NOT exist. Although new standards are being set, quit frankly we can only say that MMO's are improving at the moment because what came before was so god awfull.
I am not just talking Ultima Online or Everquest or Star Wars Galaxies here. WoW was a bugged piece of crap as well, it is only in comparison with what came before that it seemed okay. Really, go through to patch notes and see just how much had to be fixed.
Same thing with Lord of the Rings Online, reviewed as the least bugged MMO in history. Does that mean it is bug free? No, it is like how windows users say XP is stable, as in it didn't crash once, during the posting of their comment.
Now we got an MMO company saying they need more time. Is that good or bad? Frankly no MMO ever launched on time, so it being delayed is about as much news as that the sun came up this morning. Will they really be fixing things that need to be fixed so the forums won't be filled with bugs within a day of launch? It is possible. Unlikely, but it is possible.
Since MMO companies have a long history of launching with bugs, how serious are the bugs still in the game that force it to be delayed. Game crippling bugs? Why are they still there after all this time? Is it gameplay instead that is flawed? Wouldn't be the first time that an MMO went through years of development only to realize at the last moment the game just didn't work.
I seen some comments in other forums that the game balancing ain't complete yet, but perhaps, just perhaps this company is finally trying to achieve what nobody has done before. A bug free MMO launch.
No, I don't believe it either, but hey, it is possible.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
damned if you don't. There was no easy answer. Either they put out an unfinished game or they take the time to do it right. Kudos for taking the time to do it right.
I played both games and currently play WoW. I'll try to break it down.
DAOCWOW
WoW has been slowly trying to make their PVP more like DAoC but without land or castles to take control of it still falls short.
Imagine, instead of silly capture-the-flag-like gameplay in small teams without long term effects, a competitive playing style that involves everyone on "your" side against the "other" sides, where you can claim persistant targets (well, persistant until the others claim them back, that is), with 100 vs. 100 people engaging in siege warfare.
I'm not really a big fan of PvP playing style, but when it starts to gain numbers, it's no longer just "chaaaaaarge" and hope. With people joining and leaving, such a battle can quite literally last days.
Or could, rather. Unfortunately DAoC is pretty much dead now. What's left of RvR is groups of 8 roaming the lands trying to pick away on stragglers and others that have to go into contested areas to complete a quest or two. It used to be great. But I guess this can be said of any MMORPG. It had its shiny days, it was good, it was a great time, it's over.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.