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"Live Expansion" Announced for Warhammer Online

Posted by Soulskill on from the stepping-up-their-game dept.

Zonk brings word that Mythic has announced their plans to expand Warhammer Online in the coming months using a series of live events that will open up new careers, gear, and zones. The first event, planned for sometime in March, will allow access to the Dwarf Slayer and the Orc Choppa, as well as a new RvR scenario. Later, players will race to unlock a massive new zone, the Lands of the Dead. The expansion itself is titled "A Call to Arms," and it will be rolled out free of charge.

7 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Of course its free by Daswolfen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its just content that was originally planned for release that got cut just so they could beat Blizzards Wrath Expansion out of the gate.

    --
    Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
  2. Please! by whisper_jeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...and it will be rolled out free of charge. "

    Translation: PLEASE COME BACK! We know millions of you tried our game when we launched but then Wrath of the Lich King came out and you all went back to WoW and dropped us but we'd REALLY like it if you came back. Please. Pretty please.

    Ok, smartass comment out of the way, I feel bad for the Mythic crew. They had the best chance to take a substantial bite out of WoW's rather massive pie. But, in the end, they're playing in the same fantasy-genre sandbox and they just cannot compete with WoW. Yes, Warhammer may do some (or even many) things better than WoW but WoW also does many things better than Warhammer. More importantly, 11.5 million people play WoW. That's a MASSIVE player base and, given that the type of game is a massively multiplayer online game, that "massive" part is kind of important.

    In my opinion, it will take a long time before another fantasy MMO comes out that has a similar real chance to take a substantial chunk of the market from WoW. If Warhammer couldn't do it, with all it's legacy behind it, it will require something truly spectacular to do it. Blizzard will need to screw things up at the same time that another company does a lot of things REALLY well with a hot IP (kinda like what WoW did to Everquest...). Warhammer had it's chance but missed the target. It'll be a while before another game has a shot. In my opinion.

    1. Re:Please! by zergl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      More importantly, 11.5 million people play WoW. That's a MASSIVE player base and, given that the type of game is a massively multiplayer online game, that "massive" part is kind of important.

      And how many of those players play on one same shard? The massive part matters only if I can actually interact with those other players and the biggest US realms have about 35k characters of levels 10+ rolled on it. That's characters only, mind you.
      I don't have any numbers on it, but if you could count only actual accounts/players (and/or players logged in at the same time), those numbers would be way less than that, too.

      Anyway, if you're gonna go with this argument, EvE Online beats the whole bunch in that department without breaking a sweat. It's where the massively multiplayer aspect is truly massive with a peak of around 45k accounts (probably a bit less if you discard alt accounts) logged in at the same time in one persistent game universe.

    2. Re:Please! by drsquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Strange how every article about MMOs is quickly filled with EVE fans telling everyone how great and unique it is, even though no-one cares because EVE is boring as hell.

  3. Re:"and it will be rolled out free of charge. " by DreamsAreOkToo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They're gouging the hell out of casual players. When was the last time they ever added anything for casuals, (read: those who don't have to "clock in" for a raid or arena)

    I haven't been paying attention for the last 14 months, but in the 3 years I played, the only and last one was Dire Maul.

    Also, if you've been playing since release and bought the expansions, you've paid $700 (50 mo x 15 + 50 x 2). Since when was $700 reasonable for a game?

  4. Re:"and it will be rolled out free of charge. " by _KiTA_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If anything Blizzard is completely catering to the casual player.

    Really? Catering to 95% of their player base? What crazy rebels!

    ... seriously. Is it "catering" at that point or "producing the product their player base is expecting?"

  5. Re:"and it will be rolled out free of charge. " by PaladinAlpha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, and you can pick up a copy of Dos 6.11 for fifty cents and spend TEN years writing batch files, and it comes out to like a billionth of a cent per hour!!!1! The problem with your reasoning is you are assuming that "Playing WoW" is equivalent to "Playing a wide variety of story-driven self-contained RPGs." It's like saying that since an unabridged dictionary/thesaurus is cheaper per-page than 20 sci-fi books it makes for better reading.