Seems like everyone’s talkin’ about Warhammer these days. Including, you know, those wacky guys who work on the most popular MMO ever made. Jeff Kaplan in particular had a few things to say:
Now that “Warhammer Online” has been out for almost a month, I wondered if Kaplan had gotten a chance to try it. Even though he’s been busy working on “Wrath of the Lich King,” he revealed he has spent a little time with it.
“My character is like level 13 right now, and I’m playing Destruction on a server that’s imbalanced,” he said, referring to the factions in the game. He also said leveling his character has been going a bit slowly. “I’m at the point where I’m thinking about quitting because it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds,” he explained.
Hmm, sounds kind of familiar. And you’d think it would make sense for the Lead Designer of World of Warcraft to keep himself aware of the state of the MMO marketplace, right? However, the interviewer decided to poke Kaplan a bit about Mythic’s somewhat draconian beta/NDA policies:
I asked Kaplan why he thought he and other Blizzard employees weren’t allowed into the “Warhammer” beta. “That’s a great question,” he said. “I’m always fascinated by betas in general and [non-disclosure agreements] and how tight-lipped they tend to be. It’s Blizzard philosophy that if you’re really confident in your game, then you have nothing to worry about. So I guess that would be my big take away from that.”
WELL then. That’s a pretty diplomatic way to say “O SNAP”, I thought. Surprisingly, Mark Jacobs disagreed.
Frankly, what got me steamed is a piece at MTV where the guy talks a bit of smack about WAR, our Beta policy and stuff like that. My reaction to that was, interesting.
You don’t say.
I’ve always said nice things about WoW as I thank Blizzard for expanding the market, bringing more attention to this space, most important MMO of this generation, etc. But for Kaplan to shoot off his mouth about our beta policy, lack of confidence or criticism about WAR is just BS and it’s wrong. And so, I deviated from my long-standing policy of not criticizing other developers, especially on subjective issues. It will be an interesting read.
No, really. You don’t say.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I remember one interview with Pardo prior to WoW’s launch where he saud that WoW’s PvP system/realm point/honor point/etc. would be, unlike DAoC, useful. Hmm, how many times have they redone that system? Developers should stick to worrying about their own games and companies as none of us are perfect. People who live in glass castles and all that.
No, really. You don’t say.
“I’m disappointed with the decision from a leader in the MMO industry to go down a path which in the past, has been an anathema to them and remains so to just about every other MMORPG company in the industry. I think that not only supporting the sale of in-game characters, items and currency, but also taking a ‘cut’ of those sales, is not only a mistake but one of the worst decisions in the history of the MMORPG industry,” says Jacobs.
I guess “long-standing policies” began in 2005. Hey, it’s a long time in Internet years! Or maybe John Smedley made fun of DAOC. Because, as Mark says, he gets an exemption when those fools be steppin’ up.
They have made billions off WoW and they really don’t need Kaplan dissing, in any way, a competitive product. That’s just wrong, period. I didn’t diss EQ/AC/UO when we were developing DAoC and that’s always been a standing rule of mine. If another developer doesn’t want to play by the same rule, I reserve the right to respond, which I did. In Kaplan’s case, talking about “his issues” with WAR during it’s first 30 days is laughable especially since WoW had plenty of issues of their own at launch and considering that they spent 2x as long working on WoW as we did on WAR, some of their issues were just as bad or worse than ours. And his nonsense about our Beta is even more laughable considering Blizzard runs internal-only (NDAed by employment agreements) alphas at the same point where we would already be inviting thousands of regular people (under NDA) into our game.
I’m not normally a conspiracy kind of guy but within a few days of each other the COO and the Game Director of Blizzard both diss our game (though Paul did damn us with faint praise) does make me wonder.
Yes, of course the fact that, you know, Warhammer Online launched last month and garnered almost a million subs and people in the MMO industry might have opinons on that is besides the point: BLIZZARD IS GOING TO TAKE MYTHIC DOWN. Oh, if only a corporation with very large pockets stood behind plucky little Mythic.
As Mark clarified to the same MTV reporter (who is apparently hellbent on making MTV A GAMING JOURNALISM FORCE):
Referring to Kaplan’s mention of the 30-45 minute wait times for battlegrounds (called “Scenarios” in “Warhammer Online”), Jacobs said that “World of Warcraft” also had long queues just to get into the servers to play the game when it first launched in 2004.
Well, yes, to a neophyte on online games (like, dare I say, the MTV reporter), sure, that’s a fair cop. Of course, Blizzard’s queue times (which were often far greater than 45 minutes) were the result of half the known world trying to access the game servers, and Mythic’s queue times are the result of, well, half the known world choosing Destruction. Note to Mythic: not buying enough servers is something your Ops team can fix. Making one side have heavy metal Vikings who can turn their arms into battering rams and the other side having poncy elves? Um, that’s not something Ops can fix.
Responding to the user interface similarities, Jacobs said that “World of Warcraft” wasn’t the first game to feature customizable interfaces. While he credited them for polishing it, he also said that it should be pointed out that “World of Warcraft” learned from Sony Online’s “EverQuest” and Mythic’s “Dark Age of Camelot.”
Again, Mark taking advantage of a credulous reporter’s lack of knowledge here. Actual MMO players would know that there is a WORLD of difference between the ability to skin an interface (seen in EQ and DAOC) and the ability to SCRIPT an interface (seen in WoW and Warhammer). Now, if Mark had simply said “Yes, Warcraft’s interface scripting set the standards for user interfaces, much as Everquest set the standards for easy UI skinning and the whole getting 40 friends to kill a dragon thing”, that would have been more accurate. As it is, I have to wonder if he’s been giving debate advice to John McCain.
“If you look at ‘Warhammer,’ there were so many points [where] we consciously made the decision not to be like ‘WoW’ and to try to push the envelope. I think you’ll find that if you’re actually going to compare the two products, I would say ‘WoW’ is certainly a more polished game now than ‘Warhammer is — of course they’ve had four years and billions of dollars — but if you look at the innovations in ‘Warhammer,’ you’d be hard-pressed to find as many in ‘WoW.’”
Billions? BILLIONS of dollars? Um, no. Bobby Kotick said it would TAKE a billion dollars to compete with WoW – which, ironically enough, Mark Jacobs quite correctly called him on. To date, the most expensive video game production has been Grand Theft Auto 4, whose budget is in the $100 million range. But that’s a side tangent – the point is that if World of Warcraft and Warhammer developers are going to get into a slapfight over which team was the most derivative, um… er… I think we’ll all laugh quite a bit. And then both developers can collapse, tired and beaten, into their HUGE VATS FULL OF MONEY.
For more cranky bastard commentary, see the relevant f13.net thread, where I ganked these thread links from (apologies for the inexact direct linking, but, hey, you know, Vault Network.)
[polldaddy poll=1006596]
(Edited 7:45p Central: added Mark’s comments to MTV, testing KEWL POLLING HYPERTECHNOLOGY)
#1 by Apache on October 16th, 2008
you aren’t just banging along the sides for those links
#2 by Ian on October 16th, 2008
This is like gangsta rap rivalries, only nerdier and a lot funnier.
#3 by isobelle on October 16th, 2008
I myself was horrifically banned from the Warhammer beta for posting a review of the beta (titled “Snorehammer Online”) over at NotAddicted. I mentioned a complete lack of anything resembling fun in the combat mechanics of Tha Choppa class (which, surprise, was cut before launch), and a general disinterest in PQs past the first 5 or so. It’s awesome when everyone is a brand new level 1, and everyone bands together for PQs, but in tier 2 and 3 I’m finding them harder and harder to complete.
I’m still playing the game (level 23 black orc, and a new 13 shaman), but only because logging into WoW is just so tired. WoW hit the big 3.0 patch recently, and I logged in, stood around the mailbox in Ogrimmar for 5 minutes then logged out. I didn’t even spend my refunded talent points. There seems to be no point.
If THAT’s the reason people are playing your game (“I’m sick to death of the alternative”), don’t go slapping yourself on the back, and high fiving each other in the hallways. Maybe you should go out to lunch with the Age of Conan team, and drown yourself in beers?
#4 by Rog on October 16th, 2008
Smack talk with Mark Jacobs versus other MMORPG developers. That never happens, does it?
*cough*
Rob Pardo contradicting Blizzard’s own development history with a rewrite based on their high position now. That never happens either, does it?
*cough*
I think I’m getting a cold.
#5 by Big Dubya on October 16th, 2008
Someday, the Crafts and the Hammers need to get into a real fight and point out that the Crafts have ripped off far more from the Ds in the last 10 years while the Hammers have always been more like the Rings.
Then the debate will get even lamer once they realize that the Ds were originaly Rings.
Then BULLETS WILL FLY!!!
#6 by Count Nerfedalot on October 16th, 2008
Is it just me or did anyone else find Jacobs way out of line/prickly/over-sensitive to some really bland and generally amiable comments by Kaplan? I dunno, maybe it’s just my disgust with the tone of public discourse in general these days, but the response seemed way out of proportion to me.
Oh, and I would have voted in your cute little polling thingumy except I couldn’t figure out wtf any of the options meant. You’ve made me feel old today.
#7 by Apache on October 16th, 2008
I like MJ
#8 by rattran on October 16th, 2008
Nerdfights are always fun to watch. But I think MJ is losing this one. Kaplan didn’t say anything I haven’t heard multiple times from players, Jacobs seems to have gotten all butthurt over it.
I suppose we’ll see how things stand the month after WotLK and see how many people WAR has to see if it’s competitive, or another AoC.
#9 by J. on October 16th, 2008
Is there an online game developer Marc Jacobs hasn’t picked a fight with? It’s like he thinks he lost if he can’t get someone else as pissed off as he sounds.
Next comes Bioware. Bet. Yeah, I know they’re both owned by EA now.
#10 by DrewC on October 16th, 2008
It’s generally bad business to slam your competitor’s product publicly. It tends to make you look petty, and you never know when the vagaries of business are going to place you on the same team as that former competitor. However, for Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Kaplan, who’s compensation packages can probably be expressed in Yachts, this may not be a concern.
#11 by Sjofn on October 16th, 2008
It’s not like dark elves aren’t poncy TOO. But yeah, heavy metal vikings > pilgrim hats to most people, I guess.
Also, Mark Jacobs is a giant baby and it amuses the shit out of me.
#12 by Athryn on October 17th, 2008
I find this highly amusing, considering all the smack talk that Barnett had been talking about Wow.
#13 by ubvman on October 17th, 2008
Yup, Paul Barnett in his burn the heretics article – just google it.
He really lays it on WoW. Professionalism only applies to other devs and not your own team? Oh yeah, Mark Jacobs; “Mr. Pot – Mr. Kettle just called.”
Meh! Oh yeah – Mark Jacobs is copying Brad McQuaid as the blowhard windbag dev of MMOGs – hows that for originality…
#14 by zeal on October 17th, 2008
Lets see.. 5 years, 4 million approx paying 10-15 dollars a month (who knows really how much people in countries outside of EU/US are paying) = 3-5 biliion. So yes, billions. Profit = who knows but maybe more than half? So yes, still billions. Yes Blizzard has had awfully deep pockets and their game still sucks.
#15 by Rob Drimmie on October 17th, 2008
I’m not sure, maybe it was just clever snidery I’m being oblivious to (I am frequently oblivious to a lot), but the MTV Multiplayer blog has seemed to garner a fair bit of respect among industry journalists for quite a few years now.
#16 by Hades on October 17th, 2008
Its not like itemization, PQ grinds, leveling speed, etc were not brought up to Mythic before retail. War is just like AOC in the aspect that once you move past the midpoint of the game (level 22 for War), the gameplay completely changes from being PVP focused to forcing you into a bad PVE grind.
Because the PVE and Open RVR is so bad for leveling, people use PVP scenarios to level for maximum exp per hour. Then because RVR gear sets suck so bad, they have to grind PVE quests or Public Quests for PVE gear that is superior to the PVP gear. F13 does a great job of boiling it all down, and you can see people complaining about the same core issues across multiple fansites.
War is a decent game. It won’t be a mega hit until it makes the PVP more exciting and rewarding across the board while also seriously revamping its PVE after level 22.
#17 by D-0ne on October 17th, 2008
It’s fun to watch people who make nearly identical games berating each other on game design and release issues…
It’s like Krystals going after Dairy Queen…
#18 by Bonedead on October 17th, 2008
I voted twice, EAST SIDE WUT WUT
#19 by Marc on October 17th, 2008
isn’t Krystals more like White Castle?
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm white castle
#20 by wowpanda on October 17th, 2008
OH I love that movie, was a bit long but funny
#21 by glasseye on October 17th, 2008
“it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds.”
Well, it’s clear he didn’t get very far in the game if he really believes that.
My DoK hit level 40 last night, and by comparing the played times of the various 40s in my guild (we have about a dozen,) I can tell you that the fastest way to level is by AoE grinding PQs.
By a healthy margin.
Scenarios are great to break up leveling, they sure are a lot of fun, and they do give some XP, but the XP/hour rate simply does not compare to AoE grinding, or even solo questing (which is what I did.)
Most of this guy’s criticism could be solved by, y’know, getting into an active GUILD.
#22 by Winde on October 17th, 2008
Considering WoW has been out for a while and the possibility of a revenue stream of 700 million $ a year (estimate 4 million players paying 15$ a month); they’ve had those billions of dollars available to spend in the game.
The fact that they did spend those on it or not would be a different mater.
#23 by roXet on October 17th, 2008
The thing that “bothers” me about this whole thing is the fact that Tigs has the nerve to complain about things in Warhammer when the EXACT same problems were present in WoW right after launch. The only difference is Mythic is actually trying to fix the problem whereas Blizzard sat on their hands. Complaining about the very same problems we were screaming about to him about his own game 4 years ago makes him look like a cunt.
#24 by Random Poster on October 17th, 2008
:My DoK hit level 40 last night, and by comparing the played times of the various 40s in my guild (we have about a dozen,) I can tell you that the fastest way to level is by AoE grinding PQs.”
Well he did say he was only at the lower range of levels and there it is in fact much faster to level by doing Scenarios than anything else.
As an aside I am so sick of Nordenwatch and Mourkain temple. Ever since they added the damn join all feature those two scenarios pop 90 percent of the time in T1 and T2. It makes an already grindy process feel even more so when you never see the other Scenarios.
#25 by D-0ne on October 17th, 2008
isn’t Krystals more like White Castle?
Yes? Kind of more so than Dairy Queen is to Krystals but that was kind of the point. The same damn thing but not really the exact same thing…
What if I said it was like Burger King going after McDonald’s? To close?
Or Wendy’s going after In and Out Burger? To different?
Or maybe the “New” Hardee’s going after Jack In The Box? To obscure?
Some analogy help here? Please.
#26 by Iconic on October 17th, 2008
MJ got mad because Kaplan summed up the issues with the game in two sentences.
On a totally unrelated note:
Has any one ever noticed that when a smaller weaker person punches a larger, stronger person in the arm, or pushes them, it’s seen as plucky, but when a larger person does the same to a smaller person, they’re a bully? It’s weird how people will let you off the hook when you’re just an upstart, but they demand perfect restraint in the face of all provocation when you’re the heavyweight.
Anyway, I forgot what I was talking about.
Man it was so plucky when Paul Barnett was taking shots at World of Warcraft. It really showed that Mythic isn’t intimidated!
#27 by Zelmor on October 17th, 2008
‘I’ve always said nice things about WoW’ -MJ
yeah.. about that.. :p
#28 by hsinclair on October 17th, 2008
All I’ll say is if that Kaplan had said the same kind of things in an interview about a game I had worked on, I would have been beyond pissed off. It’s unprofessional.
#29 by Nasum on October 17th, 2008
Poor poor MJ… You’re such a soft-skinned dolt.
Kaplan responds to a interview question and states his opinion, like a 3rd grader trying to protect the macaroni drawing of the Mona-Lisa on a school bus, MJ get’s butt hurt and defensive.
MJ next time keep your mouth shut. I’m really surprised folks at EA don’t have you on a leash and I’m sure you ill soon be given a muzzle. Just because someone makes a comment about your shitty game (not renewing my subscription, nor am I a WoW fanboy) doesn’t mean they’re attacking you or your beloved game.
People can have an opinion, especially on a product that they paid for, even if they are a competitor, defending it in this manner makes you look like a child, keep off the internet forums and try making a half way decent game, I’d suggest first; fixing the horrible animation problems.
#30 by Delmania on October 17th, 2008
Kaplan is an incredibly arrogant asshole.
Jacobs is annoying, holier than thou know-it-all.
What a matchup!
#31 by Belsameth on October 17th, 2008
“As an aside I am so sick of Nordenwatch and Mourkain temple. Ever since they added the damn join all feature those two scenarios pop 90 percent of the time in T1 and T2. It makes an already grindy process feel even more so when you never see the other Scenarios.”
It’s just as bad in T3 with Tor Anoc. Only that scenario has annoying Insta Death lava below narrow bridges. Order also has an annoying amount of knockback.
#32 by Aepoch on October 17th, 2008
This article is utter bullshit.
It’s clearly written with such an insurmountable bias for Blizzard/WoW that it would be pointless to even argue.
WAR has, by a significant margin, had a stronger release than WoW, and is on par for polish with WoW after a month of being out, whereas the latter took the last 4 years to get where they are.
#33 by Viz on October 17th, 2008
This may surprise you, but entry-level standards also rise over time.
#34 by glasseye on October 17th, 2008
The thing is that DAOC also had a nearly perfect launch, whereas WoW’s launch was an utter disaster.
#35 by rkoster on October 17th, 2008
“Is there an online game developer Marc Jacobs hasn’t picked a fight with?”
Me, I think. But then, everyone likes me.
#36 by Mark Jacobs on October 17th, 2008
Actually, I have only ever *picked* a fight with Sony over what I called EQBay. Please let me know who else I have ever said anything bad about.
However, to save time, let’s review shall we?
1) Sony – Other than EQBay, I have never said a bad word about EQ or any other Sony game. And as Scott might remember, when another developer at Mythic made a snide remark about EQ, said guy was taken to task for it and never said it again. My only comments about SWG have been that it failed to be as big of a financial success as people thought it would be. Over the years I have praised former SOE guys publicly like Raph, Scott Hartsman, Rich Vogel and Gordon Walton. And as some of them might tell you, they have used me as a reference when needed.
2) Cryptic – I’ve said CoH was an important game as it established the superhero MMO and it was quite successful. I’ve certainly never said anything bad about their former CEO and the closest thing to negative I’ve ever said about them was in a panel where the CS guy (Jack E) kept changing the subject to “How great CoH was” and I made a remark about “This commercial brought to you by CS”
3) Turbine – I don’t think I’ve ever said anything about Turbine or its games publicly though their former CEO and I got along rather badly (though I don’t think I ever said anything about him publicly other than he and I didn’t get along). I did comment on the concept of a lifetime subscription program being a bad thing for an MMO.
4) Vanguard – Never said a word about it other than it didn’t do as well as it expected and my only comment about Brad was that sometimes a developer, any developer, can get too caught up in the vision.
5) CCP – I constantly praise the CCP guys for how they have turned EVE Online around from a failed NA launch to one of the best success stories in MMO history.
6) Blizzard – Until JK’s comments, the only negative thing I’ve said about them was when asked if Warhammer was based on WoW or ripped off from WoW. My response is usually something along the lines of “You know Warhammer came out before Blizzard was even born right” or to point the reporter at a book called “World of Warhammer” that came out in 1997. I’ve also called WoW the most important MMO of our generation and one of the most important of all time more times that I can remember, even today during 2 interviews about WAR.
7) Funcom – I said that AoC had a troubled launch and their subscription numbers weren’t, according to their own reports, what they thought they would be. I’ve also made references to publishers who put features on their box that are not in the game. My comments about AO have always been about the launch of the game (which was horrible) and just to compare the similarities between 2001 and 2008 (AO/AoC and DAoC/WAR).
Flying Lab – Yeap, I made that statement about servers but I’ve said that same thing, time and again. It’s not like that is a new statement for me.
I can keep going if you guys like. Look, I don’t really care if people think I can be a bit holier-than-thou at times (I know I can be at times) but to say I pick fights with MMO devs (outside of panels of course but that’s why I’m asked to be there, as guys like Raph know, to stir up trouble and keep things lively *on purpose*) but I do not go around making fun of other people’s games or the developers themselves. If you bother to search for my statements over the years you will probably also find that I have said more good things about other MMO developers in the press (as opposed to panels or blogs) than all, if not most, other MMO developers.
So, if you are going to criticize me for my faults, that’s fine, I’m not perfect and I don’t pretend to be but at least know what you are talking about when you are criticizing me. I’ve apologized a number of times for ToA and have unhappily admitted our mistakes over the years so I know that I and Mythic are not perfect. As Scott J. can tell you, I don’t like anybody at Mythic talking smack about other developers, right Scott? When any of my guys have done that, we have had a talk about such things and they usually don’t do that again.
So, like I said, you don’t like me? No problem. But to say I pick fights with every other MMO developer or that I constantly trash other peoples’ games is just wrong.
Mark
#37 by Mark Jacobs on October 17th, 2008
@Scott, the reporter slightly misquoted in the “billions of dollars” thing. I said that WoW made billions of dollars, which it has not that they spent billions of dollars. Considering how long the interview was (it was edited heavily), I’m not surprised at a minor transcription error.
@Nassum, wow, an anonymous Internet poster calling me a thin-skinned dolt, telling me to shut up on someone else’s blog. Now that’s the definition of bravery. I’m sure you’re very proud of how tough and clever you are.
#38 by Mark Jacobs on October 17th, 2008
Oh, last comment for the night, when I said “all, if not most”, I did of course mean, “most, if not all” other MMO developers.
Mark
#39 by Mark Jacobs on October 17th, 2008
Sorry, one more comment. Richard Garriott and I obviously don’t get along but my comments about him at AGDC were because he was taking credit for being “The Father of Online Games” and I thought that was unfair to the people like Richard Bartle, the guys at Kesmai (and all the other guys who created online games even before I did), who truly birthed the online game industry. I also talked to Richard before those comments to hear his side of the story and when he said he agreed with that statement and walked off in the middle of the conversation, I said what I said at the end of my panel.
Mark
Mark
#40 by JRDobbs on October 17th, 2008
BrokenToys – “Oh Kalgan baby, that article is done. I bashed those Warhammer guys real good. Will you put it in my mouth now?”
#41 by Scott Jennings on October 18th, 2008
You know, I gotta think I’m doing good when both sides of a nerd slap fight think I’m on the other guys’ side.
#42 by simon on October 18th, 2008
I think that it’s great that WAR is doing well – although I’ve not played it (I have a G5 PowerPC iMac – sniff) WoW is in desperate need of another mass-market competitor to make it try harder than it has been doing so.
It’s really refreshing to see a game where PvP and actual warfare seems to be built from leve 1 upwards into it – WOW is very bad in this regard i.e. meaningful PvP is in sandboxes away from the rest of the game (battlegrounds, arenas)
Also WAR’s approach to class design, particularly healing seems to be really refreshing.
And WoW’s approach to class design – even after 4 years of the game – is still very patchy. On one hand you have a really interesting new class in the DK as well as sophisticated classes like the warrior, you have abysmal pieces of class design like the pala (hit the same 4 buttons again and again no matter the situation) and mages (mostly a one button class whatever the spec.
Having been so negative, I do think that WoW is an awesome game (I wouldn’t waste my time typing this otherwise!) but it’s had a lot of glaring faults for too long and having a healthy MMO eco system is good re. getting everyone – including Blizzard – to sharpen up their act.
#43 by yunk on October 19th, 2008
” Then because RVR gear sets suck so bad, they have to grind PVE quests or Public Quests for PVE gear that is superior to the PVP gear”
what game are you playing?
every blue reward for maxing inf gets replaced in a few hours when i gain a level and can buy the next rvr gear piece. now PQ loot reward bags are usually pretty good, but it’s too random to grind for.
#44 by Joshua Meadows on October 20th, 2008
Wow, I am just… wow.
I had a preorder out for Warhammer and started playing it right around launch day. I enjoyed the game a lot, but I was plagued by a really terrible stuttering issue that seemed to affect me, every person I asked in the game, every forum I posted on (like this epic 87 page one with no resolution trying to figure out what was wrong, but to the tech support was seemingly a very minor, very isolated occurrence and was not a superhuge deal. I liked the game enough to really soldier through anyway and deal with getting 3 FPS regardless of my system being well beyond the minimum requirements (and regardless of whether I set the settings to min or max), but eventually I had enough. I canceled my account about a week before the free month went up, fully intending though to come back in a couple months when presumably the post-launch bugginess that all MMOGs have gets fixed and I can actually play the game at the full detail my computer can handle.
But I read the game sites and I follow up on this stuff cos I find it interesting, and I’ve played WoW and LOTRO and Ultima Online and so on and so forth, yet WoW is really the only one I’ve enjoyed to continue paying for after the free month. Nevertheless I really liked Warhammer and looked forward to coming back to it.
UNTIL, well, I read one of the Massively articles (I think) about your Blizzard spat, and kindof thought it was a little juvenile, and then I saw you knee-deep in a thread on the IGN boards where other posters were spitting the most insane vitriol towards WoW and WoW-players on a level that went beyond healthy (I mean really, personally attacking people in epic ways because of their video game preference is so weird it’s not even funny), and I thought that was really not appropriate for you to be involved in even by association, much less your essential “Yeah that” of it all.
And then I got here from Syp’s blog and read this, and read your comments here which are babyish and antagonistic and really, really stupid, and it becomes apparent that you must google your name or something to rush and complain and contradict everything that criticizes you. Hey, I can appreciate that on one level, it’s great you’re passionate about your product. But really there’s a difference between respectfully disagreeing and what you’re doing, which is this ridiculous OMFG LET’S THROW DOWN every time someone says something negative about you and your game.
So wall of text aside, I intended to come back to Warhammer after the bugs that made the game impossible to me were fixed. Now, after seeing your behavior, I won’t (and I know this weighs in absolutely zilch on your considerations surely, nor would I expect otherwise), because I can’t in good conscience let my fifteen bucks a month pad the pockets of such a big baby.
#45 by chabuhi on October 20th, 2008
I just want the “/reportgoldseller” command in WAR to actually work.
#46 by Taldeer on October 20th, 2008
You sound like a blizzard fanboy.
#47 by Mark on October 22nd, 2008
Of course, Blizzard’s queue times (which were often far greater than 45 minutes) were the result of half the known world trying to access the game servers, and Mythic’s queue times are the result of, well, half the known world choosing Destruction. Note to Mythic: not buying enough servers is something your Ops team can fix. Making one side have heavy metal Vikings who can turn their arms into battering rams and the other side having poncy elves? Um, that’s not something Ops can fix.
This is totally inaccurate. Queue times in early WoW battlegrounds were a direct result of population imbalance; on the average server, Alliance outnumbered Horde 2-1; on some servers it was reputed to be as bad as 10-1. As a result Alliance queue times for battlegrounds were extremely long, particularly for large battlegrounds like Alterac Valley.
Certainly REALM SERVER queue times were long because so many people were trying to play, but it’s a totally fair comparison to WoW 1.10 to point out long queue times based on faction imbalance.
#48 by lmaokaplan on October 24th, 2008
“I’m at the point where I’m thinking about quitting because it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds,”
He’s quiting because too much RvR…. Funny I quit his game cause too much pve.
The game was fun even during the first PW. Since then over two months ago the game has improved by a weekly basis. There is still a lot of polish that needs to be done but it seems that people are finally getting into the open world RvR which is the best part of the game. Also it is good to note that the pve, although not my focus, is actually fun and challenging. As far as server pops go heres a big surprise. In one week they completely fixed it! I was shocked but not only did buffing the exp gained by 20% on certain servers that needed more people on a faction balance the order/destro ratio, but it also distributed the people from the full servers better. As far as queues go currently there is only one active scenario per tier. This one usually pops in less then 10 min on a med pop server. The others take a long time. This isn’t completely mythics fault its just that people gravitate to the easiest one. I’m sure they will buff exp gains on the others to promote their use. Both WoW and WAR have their upsides and downsides but they shouldn’t really be compared because it is a different game(one is near completely team-based, one is i’m superman for one example why they are different). Kaplans’s comments just shows blizzards insecurity with dealing with competition. WotLK is adding achievement system(meh), adding an open world bg(Billions of dollars and this is all you offer??? One new bg, you must really hate your pvp players), 10 more levels of pve(uhhhggggg!!!), raids(double uhhhgg!), More grinding of the same 4 bgs to get welfare gear which you can’t play endgame without(triple uhhhhg).