Bringing Down the Warhammer on World of Warcraft
Is this the one? Is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning the massively-multiplayer online game that kills World of Warcraft? It certainly isn't the first to try. In fact, every time a fantasy-themed MMO drops, that's the question that pops up: Will "[Insert Sword-Swinging Game Here]" finally knock WoW off its pedestal?
alt="Character menu"/>Dungeons & Dragons Online took a swipe. That seemed like a real no-brainer, didn't it? It's D&D -- the fantasy license! Millions and millions of role-playing fans have played and loved Dungeons & Dragons. It's part of the gaming vernacular. Of course, you need to build a good game around the license in order for it to have a chance against Warcraft. WoW flicked D&D Online off its shoulder like an annoying flea.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar threw a few hooks at the champ. Another popular and powerful license combined with a veteran MMO design studio (Codemasters) gave LOTRO a fighting shot, but it still didn't so much as dent the WoW juggernaut.
alt="Orc violence"/>Conan? As much as Funcom wants people to believe that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is selling like popcorn at the circus, fact is that Conan got swallowed up just like the rest of these games. Funcom at one point said that Conan had around 400,000 active accounts after launch, a very strong number -- and around 4 percent of the number of people currently playing World of Warcraft.
This isn't to say that fantasy-themed MMOs not called "World of Warcraft" are doomed to failure. D&D Online is still coming out with new content, Lord of the Rings Online is going strong, and Conan does have a slew of players -- but the only game that can kill World of Warcraft is World of Warcraft II. (Or maybe a StarCraft MMO.) When you look at the most recent MMO active subscriber charts, World of Warcraft dominates in a way unlike anything the industry has ever seen. Warcraft is the USA Dream Team versus a bunch of Angolas .
alt="Orc in woods"/>Normally we Orcs don't sneak in the bushes like this?
Here's how out-of-whack it is: According to MMOGChart.com, World of Warcraft has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million active subscriptions. It's the size of Belgium. More people play WoW (or at least pay for it) than live in the state of Virginia. So the next time you drive through Virginia, picture everyone you see as a Tauren Hunter or Orc Warrior. No other MMO has more than 1.5 million active accounts. Lord of the Rings Online is hovering between 200,000 to 300,000 accounts -- which is pretty darn good -- but WoW eats every MMO for lunch when it comes to user base. Frodo can't compete. And in reality, neither will Warhammer.
The goal for the folks at Mythic Entertainment shouldn't be to knock World of Warcraft off its throne, because that flat-out is not going to happen. It needs to find its niche, secure its user base, and go from there. If WAR establishes a solid user base of 300,000 players, it'll be a "Top 5" MMO. It doesn't need 5 million users to be a huge hit; if that were the bar, there'd only be one MMO currently in operation.
alt="Stunties and greekskins"/>Stunties and greekskins battle over a bridge.
So a better question -- instead of the silliness of "killing Warcraft" -- is whether or not Warhammer Online offers MMO fans something different: a reason to stop playing LOTRO, Conan and yes, WoW. Warhammer doesn't need to beat WoW; it just needs to siphon off some of its gluttonous user base. Think of it like this: If 5 percent of the people who play World of Warcraft decide to play Warhammer Online, and stick with it for the long haul, it'll have a user base of 500,000 people.
So far, no other game has been able to do that.
I've been playing WAR since the closed beta, and have watched as the game has slowly morphed into a first-rate, fantasy-themed MMO loaded with Warhammer flavor and features that distinguish it from your everyday sword-and-sorcery MMO.
If the "Head Start" program is any indication, a lot of people are anticipating this game -- just today, I had to wait 35 minutes in order to log on to the server where my level 6 Black Orc resides. The servers are packed with players.
alt="A map"/>The zones that the Orcs and Dwarfs are fighting over
WAR has many features that make it an interesting alternative to other MMOs, but what stands out to me is that the game allows you to level your character any way you wish. Do you want to play nothing but realm-vs.-realm? You can do this and level up without ever killing a single monster. Do you want to simply wander the countryside, doing quests without ever seeing a rival player? Yep, you can do that, too. You can play nothing but "scenarios," which are instanced RvR battles between rival factions, or you can stay and fight in designated RvR areas in order to claim land for your side (and pick up some rewards in the process). Or -- as I suspect most players will do -- you can play a mixture of everything.
alt="Dragon"/>When you catch a flight you get a cut scene, not real-time flying.
The Public Quest is a novel idea, and can be played at a very low level. It's basically a multi-tiered quest in which you can simply hop in and start bashing away in order to earn Renown, which can be used to get free goodies. For example, an early Orc PQ involves a large giant who is being annoyed by a bunch of angry squigs (small green balls with teeth). Everyone in the quest (you can join and leave at any time, and these are not instanced) needs to slaughter the squigs, subsequently find the exhausted giant several kegs of beer, and then fight more squigs. The final stage of the quest, in which multiple waves of dwarves come spilling out of a doorway, requires the group to kill each new wave and culminates with the slaying of a dwarf hero. That's a quest for newbie Orc players, and there are literally hundreds of these quests in the game that you'll stumble upon from time to time.
There is so much to explore within the game. Everything you do is tied to the Tome of Knowledge, which tracks all of your actions and accomplishments, from RvR bragging rights to the new creatures you've unlocked in the bestiary. Besides keeping track of how many monster types you have killed, how many times you've died and how many players you have defeated and it is also where you can read the backstory of each race in the game. If you take the time to read the flavor text, you'll realize that you aren't just fighting a faceless war -- each chapter has a theme and a story to tell.
alt="City"/>Mythic has done a marvelous job in capturing the spirit of Warhammer. Graphically, WAR now looks much better than the visually underwhelming beta. The latest patch has thankfully brought the game up to speed, and it looks fantastic (although I still have yet to see it rain or snow). A lot of people have wondered whether WAR was just going to be World of Warcraft with some new toys, but from a lore point of view the games are very different. In WoW, even the Undead are "noble" in their cause, and the Orcs are more honor-bound tribesmen than rampaging soccer hooligans. In Warhammer, the Orcs, Chaos and Dark Elves are bad guys and evil to the core, while the Empire, Dwarfs and High Elves are the good guys. There is no grey area.
After playing the beta and starting a new character via the Head Start program, the biggest question remains: Is the game fun? Absolutely. Being a Warhammer fan for over 20 years, I admittedly have a soft spot for the license -- but I also know when a company is trying to throw a license out there without properly supporting it with a good game. Mythic has not done that. While there's still a lot more of WAR to see and potential balancing issues to uncover, and I hope the team is eventually able to add the content that had to be scrapped last-minute (The Greenskins need their own capital city and not just the Inevitable City of the Chaos faction. We need to see some Mork and Gork monuments!), my first impression is definitely a positive one. Look for a full review soon.
The observations for this article were based on a final version of the game available through the Head Start program, which made the game available to beta testers three days early. The account is a free press account.
