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Road to WAR Website Launched
Last week Mythic launched their "Road to WAR" website, allowing users to declare their allegiance, recruit friends, gather gold for the fight, and participate in a simple battle for self, state, and realm every week. In addition to the "prestige" of being on the leaderboard, you also have the ability to win in-game items and titles for launch. Looks like they really are hitting the warpath.
I know patches are unavoidable in MMORPGs, but patching the pre-game website on the day it's announced has to be some sort of new record. Hope it's not an omen for the forthcoming game.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
It appears as if the Road to War Beta is down for maintenance.... oh well.
It does seem like a good marketing strategy - to get players involved/committed prior to release. Especially for an MMO which depends on hooking as many players as possible. Hell, having the site down might even cause some even more anticipation in some sort of sick disappoint-the-customer kinda way.
I only hope it lives up to the hype. An MMO's success largely depends on customer satisfaction since it lives off of not only number of units sold, but also monthly subscriptions. Unsatisfied players will quit and along with them the people they could have influenced to join. Words travels fast for both the good and the bad. Now, I'm still iffy to get it (blame the fiance), but I do hope it brings something innovative to the table.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
First, here's the actual site: http://www.road-to-war.com/
Next, it's down for maintenance, which I guess is temporary but not a good time for an announcement.
This is, though, a better way to promote the game than monthly emails with new information that amount to "no you're still not in the beta."
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
Mythic is fighting an uphill battle:
They are launching a fraction of the content they were intending to have. Significant content too. Its like Blizzard shipping WoW with just Stormwind and the Undercity as capital cities.
Blizzard licensed their IP, so a lot of people consider WAR to be WoW with meaner looking/dumber orcs and elves with pointier headgear.
People are content with WoW, especially with a new expansion releasing in 3-4 months. They don't feel like levelling up a new character in a MMO which is redone DAoC content.
No PvE endgame in WAR. Endgame just like DAoC, a game made over five years ago.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
Are the comments decrying this post, like there always are for WoW ones?
War, war never changes....
Whoops.. wrong game.
Obviously since no one thought it prudent to mention what game this post is about, it must be about CounterStrike, since those are the only people with the sort of tunnel vision to think that everyone else in the world plays the same and only game as them.
Actually, IMHO 20 classes are entirely too much. I don't know about WAR, but I can compare WoW to EQ2's 24 class bonanza, and actually WoW is the more fun one there.
In WoW, the classes are distinct _and_ have a decent amount of flexibility, allowing them to be more than one-trick ponies. Except in end-game raids, I guess.
By comparison, EQ2's classes are confusing _and_ 1-2 trick ponies all the time. When you spread things that thin, either you have massive overlap, or have to slice abilities too thin to keep them unique. And thus end up with linear, non-interesting classes. Or, if you're bad at it, the worst of both worlds.
E.g., did we need _two_ druid classes in EQ2? One is better at offense, but can put it's talents into becoming a good healer too. The other one starts better at healing, but ends up sucking at both. Well, I guess at least you have a choice ;)
For that matter, why do we even need the druids as yet another healer class too? At least in WoW each druid shape has its unique gamplay, and the class is a unique jack-of-all-trades. In EQ2 they sliced classes too thin, that essentially they have 6 healer classes which differ only in whether they got healing, _or_ healing-over-time, _or_ preventing damage as their primary focus. Or one flavour is actually bad at all 3. The druid's animal shapes are just minor self-buffs. (And in a typical Sony stupidity, you can have two polymorphs, like, say, be a Wolf _and_ a Lion at the same time. But let's not go there.) It just illustrates what I'm talking about. All those classes just mean that each of them gets a small, uninteresting mix of tricks, because they had to slice it too thin.
Or did it need Assassin, Swashbuckler _and_ Brigand as rogues? Wth is wrong with one class and having the Assassin, Combat and Subtlety specs as talent trees, like in WoW? And again, all that slicing classes thin, pegs you into one narrow role from start to finish. Each gets less tricks up your sleeve than a WoW Rogue, which makes for rather less interesting gameplay.
Did the mages really need to be split the hard way into single-target mages and AOE mages? WTF?
Did we really need two Bard classes, where one buffs melee types and one buffs mages? WTF?
Etc.
And worse yet, it makes you choose something from the start, when you don't even know or understand the subtle differences between them all. Which healer class suits your play style better, if you want to be a healer in EQ2? Do you even understand what you forsake by picking Warden instead of Templar, on your very first day when you bought the game? Fuck if I knew, myself.
So, basically, I'm not impressed that it has more classes. More isn't necessarily better, as I've illustrated with EQ2. Now if you were to tell me that WAR has some unique classes that can do things a WoW class never dreamt of, I'd listen and be interested. But just splitting the same abilities among more slices, doesn't make a game better.
Still sounds like a half arse launch to me, either way.
Ah, yes, that cate
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Yawn.
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Re-yawn.
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Good bad or ugly a lot of Aussies are going to play this just because it has servers based in Australia. Hooray! Goodbye 500ms pings!
I played Warhammer Beta... it's alright, fun even. But it's a MMORPGer and I just don't have the time for the grind any more :(
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -- Leo Tolstoy
"Plus, if having your name on the Leaderboard isn't enough incentive to win, there are plenty of valuable prizes at stake, including a Never Ending Bowl of Custard"
Those Australians and their custard.
It's just like New Zealanders and sheep.
Disgusting.
Oh, and I think four classes should be enough for anyone (F/Th/MU/Cl);)
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
If you're a republican, you might be more inclined towards the War Song message. Click "The War Song" in the Flash doohickey on Max for president site. Part of the lyrics:
Ohh, War!
What is it good for? (What is it good for?)
Oh, it strengthens the economy!
It shows the world that we've got stones! (We've got stones!)
And carriers... with fighter drones! (Vo doh dee oh!)
War!
Oh, what is it good for? (What is it good for?)
It's good for you it's good for me!
My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.