Crispy Gamer News

Electronic Arts has tapped NHN’s Hangame, one of Korea’s largest game portals, to bring Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to the region. Developed by Mythic Entertainment, and based on the popular tabletop games from Games workshop, WAR launched in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceanic territories in September and has managed to attract more than 800,000 registered users since launch. Not a bad start for Mythic’s game, though nowhere near the level of World of Warcraft..

The game will be launched in Korea in 2009. Korean gamers looking forward to WAR in their region can check out www.warhammer-online.co.kr.

If you have been enjoying Warhammer Online but longed for a true tank class, then your dreams are about to come true. Mythic Entertainment announced today that two new classes are on the way this winter to its popular MMO game. The two new career paths to be launched this winter include�
the Empire’s Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Dark Elf Black Guard. Mythic promises that these two new careers will do exactly what players are asking for: take as much punishment as they dish out.

The Knights of the Blazing Sun are devoted to the cult of Myrmidia, goddess of warfare and protector of civilization. These heroes specialize in Battlefield Commands, using applied tactical knowledge to outmaneuver their enemies (translation - they kick much ass). The Dark Elf Black Guard rely less on tactics or guile instead focusing on the power of hate and disdain, in serving the Witch King.

Expect to hear more on these classes in the weeks ahead.

Mythic Entertainment today announced that 750,000 players have registered for the critically acclaimed fantasy MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories. WAR topped the PC sales charts around the world at launch, and is on track to be one of the best-selling PC games of 2008. While it is far from surpassing the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft, it has managed to garner its own fair share of subscribers and will continue to do so.

You can learn more about it by visiting www.warhammeronline.com. It should also be noted that Warhammer Online has landed in the number 2 spot on the PC sales charts in the United states for the week ending Sept. 27 - according to NPD’s sales data.

In a Develop Magazine article, Mythic Entertainment CEO Mark Jacobs responded to criticism by IGDA chairperson Jennifer MacLean over not giving credit to some developers in Warhammer Online and some of its past games. Jacobs announced a new crediting policy that will properly credit those past and present Mythic employees who may have been left out by putting them online in a database. Manual and game credits will still be reserved for launch teams, but Mythic says it will go out of its way to disseminate omitted credits to credit and history website and the IGDA.

Jacobs admits that this was the right thing to do, but points out on his blog that he had been working on and talking about this topic well before the IGDA chair sent out an action alert about it in the August IGDA newsletter. After learning of this, MacLean apologized for jumping the gun.
This new policy is a step in the right direction for Mythic, but it’s hard to understand why they can’t, in the future add these extra names in the in-game credits. It’s not like two or three more scrolling pages are going to make a difference. That point aside, good for Mythic to take this bull by the horns.
An interesting side note to this story is a comment left by an anonymous poster who hinted that he or she had once worked at EA Chertsey and was not properly credited for several games:

“maybe EA Chertsey will do the same - I should be on the credits for Shogun: Mongol Invasion, Harry Potter: Chamber of secrets and I was more involved in 007 Nightfire, the Sims and Medal Of Honor than some of the folk that are on the credits…I am on the roll for for F1-2002, but I didnt get to go on the jolly to Silverstone - my boss and the sysadmin blagged that one. If I had known then…aint hindsight wonderful?”

Perhaps Mythic can drop a note to corporate and let them know that this policy should be adopted company-wide.

Source: Develop Magazine

Today Mythic Entertainment officially launched Warhammer Online, the company’s MMO based on the popular Warhammer universe created by Games Workshop.

The game went live today in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories. With the game’s servers now officially live, all players are invited to enter WAR’s dark fantasy world, swear allegiance to the armies of Order or Destruction, and give Realm vs. Realm combat a try. Mythic also announced subscription pricing plans, which come in one, three and six month increments.

Warhammer Online costs $14.99 USD a month, $41.97 ($13.99 per month) USD for three months and $77.94 ($12.99 per month) USD for six months. You will still need to pick up a retail boxed copy of the game to get started. Check out Crispy Gamer’s feature, Bringing Down the Warhammer on World of Warcraft, to get some early impressions of the game.

The Gargoyles are coming and they are playable. Mythic Entertainment and EA have launched the official web site for the upcoming Ultima Online expansion, Stygian Abyss. Like Ultima VI, the Stygian Abyss revolves the emergence of the gargoyle lands and the gargoyle as a playable character in the long-running MMO for EA. It is simply amazing to me that Ultima Online is still running strong after all these years. I wish that EA had that kind of dedication to the series on which it is based.

In the Stygian Abyss expansion players can use the playable Gargoyle race, new spells, new weapons and armor, a brand new high level dungeon, and a variety of new high level monsters. First details on some of these new things as well as new screenshots and art form the expansion can be found at www.uo.com/stygianabyss.

But the most interesting details available on the site are about the new playable race. Gargoyles are the first race to have the power of flight (which makes them move faster and gain access to secret areas), a new power called Berserk (grants speed and power at the cost of defenses), master artisan skills (can imbue, enhance, and unravel magical items), deadly aim (which gives a bonus to missile weapons), and a deep understanding of Mysticism magic. Sounds interesting.

Ultima Online:Stygian Abyss is scheduled to be released in 2009.