WAR (Warhammer Online)

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I started with UO way back in the day, and I loved the sandbox feeling to it: the ability to do whatever you want when you want to do it, to build your character any way you please, the wide open world to explore (fully) at your leisure from day 1. EverQuest continued that awesome feeling, though to a lesser extend in some departments, and DAoC lived up to it fine also. And then came a spider that "revolutionized" the industry, not by giving players more options, but rather by taking options away.

That is the legacy of WoW: take away 90% of the content so the remaining 10% can be perfected and made as droning as possible. Grinding became the WoW core philosophy, and almost anything you could possibly do in the game could be focused into one of four simple goals: rep gain, honor gain, experience gain, or raiding progression. I played WoW for awhile, and I enjoyed it for awhile. Azeroth as least maintained the illusion of a sandbox world with a simplified crafting system and a variety of illusory "goals" for players to pursue. But when all the points are tallied in WoW, you realize that those 4 categories I mentioned earlier utterly dominate the game. You cannot possibly, in any way, shape, or form, escape them--there is no way to do new, creative, and/or exciting things. So, in the hope that Warhammer could do one better than WoW, I quit and waited for the open beta.

Wow, am I disappointed. My problems with Warhammer are numerous, so I'll begin laying them out by category:

The PvE Game: Probably my single biggest beef with the way things are right now. PQs are a joke, general PvE is absolutely laughable. Not one single class has any difficulty whatsoever soloing normal class mobs, and most classes can handle champions just fine with some preparation. Heroes obviously present a problem, but it's rare to encounter them, except in PQs. Because of the ease of monster killing, questing literally becomes a chain of "run here, smash these buttons, run back." And PQs are equally as redundant, with each one seeming exactly the same as the last. And because of the way the victory point system is currently structured, PvE counts almost for nothing anyway: the victory point reward for capturing tier objectives HEAVILY outweighs that of completing multiple quests or PQs. So why PvE? It's not a fun alternative to PvP, it's not a fun way to effectively earn victory points, and it's flat out not fun.

Scenarios: While sometimes scenarios can be entertaining, there is no way balancing the combat. Level or class distributions can heavily shift the inherent advantage from one team to another, and the sad fact is that on each racial front, one side does have an inherent class distribution advantage against the other. Even if you do manage to get a fairly even distribution of careers and levels for your scenario, frankly, the scenery gets boring. Since you can only queue for the single scenario for the battlefront you are in, your only Tier 1 option as an elf is to literally do Khane's Embrace over and over and over again, unless you have a friend in a different battlefront who can queue up for you. The inability to queue for other scenarios without huffing it a couple hundred miles across the ocen really puts a damper on things. Also, the queue system, in my opinion, is heavily flawed, oftentimes preventing players of heavily populated realms from joining scenarios at all. The game frankly needs more scenarios and a better way of managing realm populations--otherwise, scenarios should have never been implemented, as they take away from the only other fun thing to do:

Open RvR: While 3/4 of your realm is either hacking it out in scenarios or standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting to get into one, you and your small band of lackeys decide to scour the countryside, searching for some fresh enemy meat. Trouble is, there isn't any. Despite having spent many hours in the Tiers 1 and 2 open RvR areas, I have seen a grand total of 2 people and have effectively killed exactly one. Capturing objectives, too, is something of a joke, since there is no incentive for the enemy to defend them. You can buy renown gear at any keep you control, which means if you simply go out and take a different keep instead of defending the one you currently control, you can just as easily get the stuff you need. Capturing a new keep also almost always awards more renown and exp than defending one you already control, so why the hell should I defend? Why should my enemies defend? And what good is open RvR if the RvR aspect of it -takes away- from the good old PvP?

WHERE'S DA FIGHT?: The chat system is probably the worst suited for what it needs to do that I've seen in recent history. There is no way to warn or be warned about incoming enemy attacks or the location of a nearby group of enemy soldiers. The map indicates ongoing fights, but what if there are none? If a few of my buddies and I are out riding the countryside and spot a dastardly group of our arrogant brethren--but are too vastly outnumbered to engage them--wtf do we do? Hide? Run away? Send a carrier pigeon with a greeting card to beg for mercy? The inability to call for reinforcements is sorely missed, and with it is missed the sense of community created by defending your homeland alongside your brothers. While guild and warband chat can be used to this extent, the viability of this versus intel coming from your entire realm in that area is next to nil. This game doesn't need a better way to find the fight--not really. It needs more interaction between friendly players. Without it, we might as well be playing Planetside, Guild Wars, or, well, Crysis for that matter.

So What?: Nothing you can do in this game--nothing--matters. If you capture your enemy's capital city, the conflict resets. Whoop da whoop. If you reach R40 RR80, you are still a single person with only a very, VERY slightly increased ability to contribute to the overall war effort. There is no overall sense of war effort like there was in DAoC, where capturing your enemy's relic meant the display of a PERMANENT symbol of glory and a realm-wide buff--but only for as long as you could defend those precious objects. In WAR, I wonder why I should care about my enemy's city. Sure, it's big, it's shiny. It would suck for them if we blew it up. But then the thought hits me: wait, no it wouldn't... it's not even all that great for us. I can't see anything at all to accomplish as a realm in this game. And that, for an RvR experience, is a devastatingly crippling blow.

So far, I can't understand why people are so excited about this game. It seems lackluster, at best, continuing with WoW's trend of limiting things you can actually do in an effort to perfect those possible playstyles. Yet, despite Mythic's efforts to focus on the RvR experiene, it seems a bit beyond 12 steps below lackluster to me. There is no iconinc force in the game, nothing to make me care about the war my race is fighting. There is no sense of cooperation between players, no common goal or unifying spirit. The PvE game is laughable, the PvP game is not truly focused on PvP (but rather on "winning," which can theoretically be done without killing a single player), and the epic experience that an RPG is supposed to offer is depressingly absent.

Yes, this game is very bug-free for release; yes, it performs very well. But have any of you stopped to consider why this should be hailed as a "good" game? I'm sad to say it, but I don't think this game will be the one that stands this genre back up on its feet. If anything, this is the straw that pierced the lion's heart: I firmly believe that we may never see a truly solid MMO experience ever again. And the fact that the sentiments expressed above are those of a small minority only push that expectation forward. Sorry guys: I just don't get it.

To me, it seems like your just nitpicking.  Good job and blinding your self.

Unlike you, I didn't want to like the game; in fact, was sure I wouldn't, because I prefer free for all PvP and graphic quality like AoC.    I also starrted with UO and prefer sandbox games, so we have a lot in common.

Unlike you, my experience with WAR is totally different.

Where's the war?  Are you serious?   I PvP over 90% of the time.   Whether it's in scenerios, or in tier 1, over in Nordland, there is constant RvR, and that only gets more intense as you level up.   I had the opportunity to get bumped up to level 32 during a closed beta stage, participated in Siege warfare, with hundreds of players fighting, along with siege equpment , and it was a total blast.

I've tried every single class in each realm, and with the exception of a few, I can see myself having fun playing any of them.

Our experience with WAR is very different.   Given our similarities, while I can't speak in totality, I do  believe you have a very limited experience of this game from which your conclusions are being drawn upon.

Aside from what I've written, I see no point in going further.   With any game, what makes people excited usually, is the "Fun Factor".    It's off the charts for many, and whether you simply haven't had the opportunity to experience it yet, or it just doesn't do it for you, is for you to decide.

Good luck -CC

I could not agree more. Dead on.

As is, Warhammer should remove leveling completely-- Hell --Make a steam game, because if this is what mmorpgs have to offer.. Then this genre is lacking. What is our hope now? Aion-- Doubtful. Darkfall -- Very doubtful..

Might be time to reroll for the next 3-5 years.. Oh how the mmorpg industry has changed... Am I am sandbox lover? Of course, to me thats what mmorpgs are-- Depth with fun gameplay.. now a days get in line.. Do this.. Then this.. than that... and this.. Repeat this.. all the while having little to no fun factor.

Do not compare this game to DAOC..

I refuse to drink this koolaid.... Because its far to watered down.

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Originally posted by richmix
I wanted to like this game. I really did. I started with UO way back in the day,

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Not reading any more than this. Ex UO people are fanatical lunatics, and nothing except for Darkfall is going to make them happy again. So, shut your face and wait for Darkfall like all the other good little ex UO players.

Lol, you are so right. I wanted so badly to like this game. The truth is that it is amazingly craptastic!!!

Originally posted by ChinaCat

Where's the war?  Are you serious?   I PvP over 90% of the time.   Whether it's in scenerios, or in tier 1, over in Nordland, there is constant RvR, and that only gets more intense as you level up.   I had the opportunity to get bumped up to level 32 during a closed beta stage, participated in Siege warfare, with hundreds of players fighting, along with siege equpment , and it was a total blast.

I've also pvped about 90% of my time in Warhammer and I just find it to be bland, unorganized, and just not fun.. Well I take that back-- it was somewhat enjoyable for 2-3 hours.. Then I really took a look at what it had to offer.. Also I was hoping for long-term objectives in world rvr-- Which Warhammer really does not have-- (People will say it does)

Edited:

Also just wanted to say I appreciate your post and I really am happy that your enjoying the experience more than I am :)

Originally posted by Jerriescids

I could not agree more. Dead on.

As is, Warhammer should remove leveling completely-- Hell --Make a steam game, because if this is what mmorpgs have to offer.. Then this genre is lacking. What is our hope now? Aion-- Doubtful. Darkfall -- Very doubtful..

Might be time to reroll for the next 3-5 years.. Oh how the mmorpg industry has changed... Am I am sandbox lover? Of course, to me thats what mmorpgs are-- Depth with fun gameplay.. now a days get in line.. Do this.. Then this.. than that... and this.. Repeat this.. all the while having little to no fun factor.

Do not compare this game to DAOC..

I refuse to drink this koolaid.... Because its far to watered down.

Lol every RL friend thats played DAOC loves WAR so much more. 

But that explains it.  Your a sanbox fanboi.  Guess were your sanbox is?  It was in your backyard after you grew too old to play in it so it was taken out.

Get it?  Sandbox is of the past and is gone for many reasons.  Do i know them? No but devs do.