If I Had a Hammer...

With Warhammer Online almost ready to go live, we get the skinny on this next-level MMORPG.
8/27/2008 8:40 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 4

After years in development, the fantasy MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will finally open its worlds for questing on Sept. 18. But its biggest battle won't be against a giant troll army or a pissy dragon; it will be against a monarch. Specifically, The Wrath of the Lich King, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft that's scheduled for release before the end of the year, and is sure to keep some people playing WoW for a while. Well, at least until they get their characters all up to level 80. Once they do, what will be waiting for them in the world of Warhammer? According to Mythic's Paul Barnett, the game's creative director, something that might just make them say, "Wow."

Crispy Gamer: For starters, how does this fit in with other games, computer and otherwise, in the Warhammer series?

Paul Barnett: Warhammer is an idea that is, at its heart, very similar to Batman, in that Batman is a bloke in a cape in Gotham with criminals, but Batman also changes -- sometimes he's dark, sometimes he's comedic, and sometimes he's made of LEGO. So we took the core cauldron of Warhammer and manifested it as a fantasy game.

Crispy Gamer: In terms of MMO gameplay, how does this compare?

Barnett: It's basically the greatest hits of modern MMOs. Eighty percent of what we do is standard MMO fare: We use levels, we have classes, we used the WASD key system, we have quests. Twenty percent is new, push-the-boundaries, crazy thinking. We have Public Quests, the Tome of Knowledge, and our realm-vs.-realm (RvR) system. So it should feel comfortable enough for MMO players, but will still have new features.

Crispy Gamer: What are Public Quests?

Barnett: They're a solution to one of the downfalls of modern MMOs. I want to do something epic, I want to do something cinematic, I want to do something that makes me feel good. But to do that, you have to find a group of people, you have to figure out a time to get them together, and you have to commit to a heavy amount of time to get something done. Public quests are these cinematic moments that are scattered around the land -- we have 300 of them -- that you can join at any time, they take about 15 minutes to complete, they always end with something epic and interesting, and there's always a bit of fat treasure at the end, though the game looks at how much you contributed and gives you the appropriate part of the reward.

Crispy Gamer: So it's kind of like a regular scheduled event? On Monday, November 17, there will be an attack on this castle, and if you're around, you can join in?

Barnett: Yes, except that they happen all the time. They reset every five minutes, so every 20 minutes they're back up. And you can join them at any time.