MMO Watch

The Geekest Link - In Stock Now!

2009-08-30T01:22:00.000-07:00

The Geekest Link now has all manner of designer vinyl collectibles in stock, such as Haminal, Nahualli, the Simpsons - Minis, as well as a huge range of Gelli Baff, Uglydolls, Skelanimals, Teddy Scares, and more more more!

www.thegeekestlink.com/store

The Geekest Link Store

2009-08-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

It's finally here. The Geekest Link has now gone live.

Check it out, the best place for Uglydolls, Mana Potions, Health Potions, Skelanimals, VooDooz, and all the best designer toys from around the world.

www.thegeekestlink.com/store

EA Culls Warhammer

2009-01-20T02:20:00.000-08:00

War is harsh, and the victors of the never ending battle is... Mythic, for big daddy Electronic Arts has demanded that it make cuts to its workforce.

According to a report, twenty one customer service employees, half of the QA department and all of the playtest group are set to go at the studio.

Clearly, the much expected MMO hasn't done nearly as well as expected, which isn't any kind of surprise as it launched with half the content missing and more problems than you could shake a bright wizard at.

So with half the QA staff gone, don't expect a speedy response to your problems with bugs, gold farming, or character issues.

Will any company get the MMO right?

Revised DarkFall Online Release Date

2009-01-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

Looks like the new release date for the next MMO on the block has been pushed back a few weeks to February 25th (2009).

Community Lead, Tasos, posted a statement on the release of the game today:

We know that the community has been speculating and wondering about the Darkfall release for some time. We haven’t replied until now because there were several complex issues to plan and work out. We also needed to get authorization before we could proceed with this official announcement:

Starting on January 22nd there will be a Darkfall trial with the distribution of the release candidate client allowing thousands of players to sample the game for free, help us stress test our servers and test the final features of the game.

It’s important to understand that there are well over 200 thousand applications by players wanting to get into Darkfall. This number makes it unrealistic to distribute the client and to open up our servers to everyone. We’ll try to accommodate as many players as are possible for us to manage at this stage. Even so, the demand exceeds our current capacity. Interest in Darkfall has surpassed all our expectations to the point that we may need to manage our release differently.

The date of the Darkfall European commercial release has been pushed back to February 25th, 2009. A pre-order will be made available mid-February. The pre-orders will get priority for early access to the game. The pre-orders will also get priority for the game launch if we have to go to a staged release. We’ll go to a staged release only in the case we have more demand than we can handle properly, and until we can upgrade our capacity. The pre-orders are necessary so that we can have some measure of the demand.

The reasons for the new release date follow:

At this stage, everything is connected: Hundreds of elements need to come together. When one thing falls behind, everything else tends to follow.
Demand for Darkfall at launch could be much higher than expected. If this is the case, we need a different process to better handle the demand.
Darkfall’s partners (distribution, billing, account management, support, etc.) entered into the game at a late date and we needed more time than expected to integrate properly.
We fell behind on a couple of weeks of beta testing progress and we need to make this time up. We need more playtesting data on several features we haven’t had much chance to test externally.
We’ll use this extra time to implement updates based on tester feedback and also make some enhancements we were saving for after release.
We want as many players as possible in the game before the launch and we haven’t had the chance to stress test our servers with live players yet.
We underestimated the effect the holidays would have on our preparations. While we worked through them, the world around us seemed to stop.
We don’t want to rush things more than needed. An extra month may not seem like a lot of time, but it’s enough to allow us to take care of any compounded delays.

Our hope for Darkfall is to have a good game with a tight player base that we can nurture and steadily build up. Hype surrounding Darkfall is huge right now, despite our best efforts. We’re not sure how this will translate on launch day but we have to make allowances for the possibility that demand could be more than we anticipate.

Announcements will follow with more information on Darkfall pricing, pre-ordering information, North American player access, and system specifications.

The Darkfall Team

So, there you go, kids, more news on the game that may / may not ever see the light of day. There is a vague buzz about this game (mostly that people are hoping it'll be a throw back to the days of Asheron's Call and Ultima Online), but without advertising or any news on beta, this game is still floundering in the internet dark ages.

Check out the full comment and community replies at: http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=106082

Age of Conan Server Merge

2009-01-13T09:15:00.001-08:00

Funcom announced this week that they would be reducing the number of servers for their ailing release, Age of Conan, from 49 to just 19.

This came as no surprise to anyone and I wonder if starting with 49 servers wasn't a hugely overambitious and somewhat blinkered move on Funcom's part.

The game has been plagued with bugs since beta, with the community screaming that the game was FAR from ready for release. But, like so many developers lusting for a piece of the Warcraft pie, Funcom chose to release an incomplete game. Even now, some months after release, the game still hasn't got proper Direct X 10 support, and has countless bugs and gaps in content.

With flaws like those affecting your release, it's no wonder Age of Conan has been slain. It will always have a niche following, just not the cluster of gamers Funcom wanted...

Instead of a musclebound hulk of a game, Age of Conan was little more than a steroid-injected pensioner.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

Or Saturnalia, or Yule, or whatever non-denominational holiday you want to call it.

This cartoon from the Experience Points website really does sum up the spirit of MMO Gaming and the holiday season.

See you all in 2009.

Come Back to Vanguard - for Free!

2008-12-20T09:00:00.001-08:00

It's hard to come *back* to a game you never played (or heard of), but if you've forgotten, Vanguard was an ailing fantasy MMO that was released just shy of two years ago and which fell miserably at the first hurdle of being, well, not very good at all (look how nice I'm being 'cos it's nearly Christmas).

Vanguard sold initially fairly well, but like so many MMOs that came after (coughs Warhammer Online) subscriptions fell faster than Heather Mills' morals after Sir Paul McCartney mentioned the possibility of a Beatles reunion on Facebook. Vanguard stumbled, then faded into obscurity.

But it IS still going. And, if the rumours are to be expected, it's actually rather good these days.

Anyway, they've got their festive seasonal patch underway at the moment, and it's got reindeer! Check out the press release:

Come back to Vanguard for Free through January 31, 2009 and check out the Festival of Gloriann, Evil Snowmen, Flying Reindeer, and... Fishing!?

Cities across Telon have had their halls decked and Randolph the Flying Reindeer is back just in time to celebrate the winter holiday events, the Festival of Gloriann! Your account has been reactivated beginning December 17, 2008 at 12:01 AM PST through January 31, 2009 at 11:59 PM*. To join the action simply log into your account! Check out all the decorated houses and guild halls or simply take part in collecting the gifts and goodies spread across the land.

Celebrate all that the Festival of Gloriann has to offer:

* The return of Randolph the Flying Reindeer
* A new raid encounter for characters level 20 and up
* Festive holiday themed presents and gifts!
* Festive decorations for your house and guild
* A new costume!

So, there you go. You can try out Vanguard if you're bored / mildly curious / desperate for a fix of a new MMO. It'll at least get you through the interminable visits from relatives you only see once a year at the festive season.

Hellgate London

2008-12-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

OK. Hypothetical question time. You're the CEO of a brand new development company. You've got ten million dollars to spend on a computer game AND you need to impress the investors and get your money back.

Do you:

A) Make the best game you can releasing only when the game is finished, listening to your testers and pulling out all the stops to make your precious title near perfect?
B) Spend most of the cash on secretly concealed holidays, whores and beer?
C) Make a half assed effort and sign your name off at the end no matter what! You worked on Diablo - surely that'll get you some sales, right? Besides, even if it all goes tits up you know you'll walk into another job based on the bit of work you did on Diablo, so what does it matter? Did you mention that you worked on Diablo? Well, you did (kinda).

Well, for Bill Roper, former CEO of Flagship Studios, one (or more) of the above options was firmly ticked, and I find it really sad that development companies willingly release buggy and unfinished titles.

End of the Road: I received yet another email from Namco regarding their beleagured title Hellgate London. It said pretty much the the same as the last three or four:

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., today announced that they will continue to support customers of PC game Hellgate™: London with online server support and play through January 31, 2009 despite the closure of Flagship Studios. In a further gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.

So, guys, you've got a little over thirty days to get the most out of Hellgate London (HGL), which is SUCH a crying shame, as, of all the MMOs in recent years, I felt HGL had the greatest potential, despite it being a complete sack of crap as an online game.

Which is a double shame as the gaming industry seemed to be pretty much on fire for the post apocalyptic sci-fi demon killathon ( at least before the reviews came flooding in).

If you wondered where it all went wrong - here are some answers. Maybe HGL can serve as the bible of how NOT to create a MMO.

Now, this game is from the developers of Diablo, so, with so esteemed a title under their belts, how did it all go so horribly wrong? Bill Roper CEO of the now defunct Flagship (more like Chip Shop) steered the boat in the oh so very wrong direction.

Things started when the developers decided to turn this rather atmospheric and surprisingly playable game from a single person game into a MMO. But it seems they did this with no real kind of plan OR feel for what was required for an online game.

The game was missing so much of the vital MMO content. It was a MMO in name alone. The chat system was so horribly clumsy no one read it. The grouping system was rubbish and every feature seemed tacked on at the last minute.
FIX YOUR BUGS. There were plenty of demonic insects in game to slay, but these bugs were a bit more tenacious. Crashes to desktop, memory leaks, and simple coding errors, HGL was riddled with problems many gamers found unacceptable. The game still needed a few more months of testing and updates to really give it sufficient polish to cope with today's highly competitive market.
Give Us Your Cash. There wasn't nearly enough content to warrant a monthly fee. Flagship offered a few measly extras called 'premium content' but it was a weak and greedy ploy to scrape a few extra dollars from players. A cheap tactic that ultimately killed the game.
Development Schedule. Or lack of. Slagship offered a healthy development schedule of new content and large patches. Despite the (very late) Stonehenge patch, we barely saw any new content after that. Were the developers focussing on other Flagship games instead of trying to fix HGL? It all comes back to money, again.

All the major problems with the game were corrected, but for Flagship, their flagship game was already sinking. The writing was on the wall and it said TITANIC in huge red letters.

If HGL had remained a first person shooter it would have been atmospheric, fun and polished. Instead Flagship released a barely finished title deprived of the basic components of a MMO. With excellent artistic direction and some genuinely meaty moments in game, this is testament that the designers and artists did a wonderful job here, but that the game was beleagured by the senior management, who were hungry for a piece of the Warcraft pie, while seemingly having little to no idea how to steer their company in the right direction for success.

All of these things contributed to the death of a game that had so much potential. Certainly, there are FAR worse games out there that have done so much better (coughs: Horizons still going, I see).

As for Bill Roper: unless he's got an oh so very good explanation for why HGL was such a steaming pile of demon crap - he should never work again in the industry.

Hellgate London - I salute you. You were the game that should - and could - have been so wonderful. You will be missed.

Warhammer Online Patch Notes 1.1c

2008-12-17T06:36:00.000-08:00

I hate stealth in MMOs. I hate it to the point that, well, it makes me vewwy vewwy cwoss indeed.

It just seems like a cheap mechanic to add to a game and it's always to the detriment of the weaker classes. You can walk around in stealth, choose your target with impunity, and bang!, two seconds later and the priest / mage / hapless victim is dead.

I was overjoyed to hear it wasn't in Warhammer Online. But it really is. They lied.

Fibbing aside, patch 1.1c is here, and brings a handful of fixes (one of them to stealth abilities). When the dust settles from 1.1 we'll be able to see how well the game is shaping up.

1.1c Patch Notes

Enemy players will no longer become invisible to players who use a stealth ability. This includes the abilities “Incognito” and “Shadow Prowler.”

On Your Guard!: This ability will now damage a target a maximum of once every two seconds. This applies to instances of multiple Knights casting this aura in the same party.

Made some improvements to server performance during large-scale open RvR battles.

Improvements have been made to reduce the texture blurring that some players have been experiencing. We will continue to work to resolve this issue completely.

Improved the framerate loss that sometimes occurred when deploying a guild standard. We will continue to work to resolve this issue completely.

Fixed an issue that caused buff and debuff icons to persist on a player's screen even after the effect(s) had worn off.

Players who run the game at a graphical resolution of 1600x1200 will now once again be able to create new auctions at the auction house.

Keg End Event

2008-12-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

It's time for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's winter live event: Keg End!

Running from today until January 5th, the armies of WAR are invited to celebrate the Dwarf New Year (the festival of Keg End), a fun-filled extravaganza packed with the things Dwarfs like best - beer, boasting and things that explode (OK, so it's the things dwarves like second best). Whether letting off fireworks as you charge into battle or searching for prized beers during the capital city pub crawls, there's plenty for players of Order and Destruction to do to earn rare drops and elite Influence rewards.

Heroes eager for glory can search the battlefields for the legendary Golden Stein to earn the blessing of Grimnir himself and partake in its frothy goodness. However, players are warned to watch their flank as the Ogres have caught the scent of blood and beer - and they're thirsty for both.

True to the spirit of Realm vs. Realm, the Keg End live event also introduces a new emote - /boast - to taunt your adversaries. You can also grab a free beer and /toast your comrades-in-arms to receive special Tome of Knowledge unlocks.

Keg End is here, so celebrate the holidays and ring in the New Year with mud, blood and beer!

In closing, I will say that Mythic have already had several in-game events in the short time Warhammer has been online. I think this can only be a good thing and bodes well for the future.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - First Movie

2008-12-14T02:47:00.000-08:00

Bioware has released the first trailer / documentary for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The second attempt at a Star Wars MMO, the developers with a rich history of creating the best role playing games are boasting that SW: ToR will have a new and unprecedented level of story, as well as some new and exciting features.

But will it have PvP? And Ewoks?

Decide for yourself, check out the video: http://www.swtor.com/media/vidcasts/viddoc001

While we're on the subject, check out the screenshot gallery.

More news when I have it.

Dark Fall Online Release Date Announced

2008-12-13T02:01:00.000-08:00

Those crazy cats at Audio Visual Enterprises SA and Aventurine SA have consummated their relationship and have decided upon a firm release date for Dark Fall Online.

It's a rather bizarre 22nd January 2009. I say bizarre for if they could only have taken the time to release the game a little over a month earlier and they might have captured the Xmas gaming crowd. Could the writing already be on the wall for the MMO in development since 2003?

Actually, I don't know. The few people in closed beta aren't talking, and the few movies available give precious little away.

Here are some movies, check them out and be absolutely... underwhelmed.

Dark Fall Movie 1

Dark Fall Movie 2

Dark Fall Movie 3

Dark Fall Movie 4

For me, DFO will be great if it manages to capture the atmosphere of Asheron's Call with a really interesting and unusual character generation system. If the questing is fun and the game is bug-free then I'm sold.

... not asking for much, am I?

You can check out the official release on the even more official Dark Fall Online forums: http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=2075657#post2075657

Chronicles of Spellborn Client Review

2008-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

A quick review of Chronicles of Spellborn, and before those ignorant twats go running back to the developers crying I'm breaking the NDA, there isn't one as this is the release version of the game (yes, it was released with barely a whisper). This is the trial version of the game which consists of a few areas in which to play, and the standard restrictions placed on any trial account to stop gold farmers.

Despite being the 'trial' version of the finished release, this version of the game still feels like a beta, but not for the reasons you might think.

But, what you all really want to know, is whether the game is any good.

To answer that, I'll have to say: Probably not.

If I had to summarise the game (so you can stop reading), I'd say this: Chronicles of Spellborn would have done really well if it had been released 5 years ago, but right now, it doesn't really look dated but it 'feels' dated. It just feels slow. And a bit weird.

It seems relatively easy to make a nice looking game these days. Giving a MMO life; that's the hard part. Which is s where CoS falls apart. While it looks very nice (the starting city looks great, and there's plenty of life in the world), cosmetics are pretty much where it all stops.

It's a fairly cutesy game, with its cartoony graphics and cute quest / conversation style (with lots of attitude), but it's all a bit devoid of character. The three class system seems empty with little in the way of customisation, and the 'revolutionary' combat system is bizarre. You find yourself impatiently waiting for your few (at 1st level) abilities to recharge so you can click on them again. And frustration isn't the name of the game...

The newbie area isn't bristling with quests and everything seems a little bit barren.

I'll give it a bit more of a play and see if my opinion changes, but after a few hours of play, I think I've seen enough. There are plenty of far better games out there on which to spend my cash, and the Chronicles of Spellborn seems insufficiently vibrant and devoid of character to capture my interest for very long.

Darkfall Online European Release Date

2008-12-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

If you're one of the three people who cares about this almost unknown game then you'll be pleased to know that the release date has been scheduled for 22nd January 2009.

For everyone else, Darkfall Online is another fantasy MMO that no one's really interested in (mainly because no one's talking about it and we barely know anything about the game). Here's the blurb:

Darkfall Online is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) fantasy role-playing game featuring a fun, fast-paced, real-time combat system, massive battles, clan warfare and empire building. Darkfall combines role-playing, action, and strategic gameplay. Darkfall has been designed to create intensely realistic and highly immersive combat and a challenging, realistic environment for a more immersive experience. With full collision detection battle lines really matter and well-aimed spell blasts will send opponents flying. Darkfall's goal is to provide players with a fun and challenging experience through a seamless and zoneless, non-instanced, "sandbox" game world.

Check it out at: www.darkfallonline.com

With just over six weeks to go the PR team better gain a few levels if they're going to sell this game to the world. Right now, the game needs to be something truly special if it's to beat the likes of Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft.

Chronicles of Spellborn Free2Play Client

2008-12-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Ahh yes, the oh so well known Chronicles of Spellborn. You've probably gone "what?" or, more probably "who cares?" but the free to play server goes live at some point today.

I'll post a direct link when it's available, but you can register now (if you like) to check out this game that's had almost no publicity - online or otherwise.

It probably doesn't bode well that there's precious little information about this game available anywhere, but you can check out the website in anticipation for today's release.

There's also a list of official release dates for the game, but as I can't find it on ANY gaming retailer's website, it's yet another blow to a game in its final death throes - before it's been released.

You can check out the press release for the Free2Play 'demo' at:
http://spellborn.acclaim.com/index.html

Or you can visit the main Spellborn website at:
http://www.tcos.com/en/index.html

Go there at once! You know you're excited about this game...

Amusingly, the CoS's motto is: "What lies hidden must be found". Clearly, they're talking about:

Finding accurate release dates.
Getting any actual information on the game (beyond the crummy spiel on the official website).
Finding a physical game box in any shop across the world.
Applying for beta with a 'Apply for Beta' button that works.

Warhammer Online Patch Notes (Test Server) 1.1.0

2008-12-05T01:18:00.000-08:00

Check out the patch notes that went on the test servers - more steps to making Warhammer Online the game it deserves to be (edited because whoever wrote these notes has no grasp of basic English).

Open RvR Influence System - As part of our ongoing effort to encourage people to take part in oRvR, we are pleased to announce the release of an influence system geared solely to oRvR. Players who participate in this part of WAR will now have additional incentives for fighting for their realm. As part of this patch we have also made quite a number of changes and fixes to oRvR places and NPCs as well.
Easy Public Quests - PQs are great but sometimes it's hard to get enough people together to complete them, especially in the lower tiers. So, we are redesigning one PQ per chapter so that it can be completed by 1-3 people.
Chat Hyperlinking - One of the most requested features by the community has been adding the ability to hyperlink items, abilities and quests in the chat window and now it has been added.
Armor Set Improvements - We have made a number of adjustments to armor sets to ensure that they continue to be some of the most attractive items in the game. In addition we have made adjustments to ensure they are more frequently available to players at all levels.
Main Assist - RvR is exciting, chaotic and always challenging but this feature will make it just a little bit easier to help your group fight the good fight.
Player Statue System - Nothing says "you've made it" more than having a statue with your name on it in the capital city of your realm.
New Content - Whether it is new lairs, new quests and changes to items, this patch is full of lots of fun new content additions to the game.
User Interface - Lots and lots of fixes, changes and new additions to our user interface and API functionality, new additions to the chat system and graphic options incorporating community requested features a channel flashing on activity, the ability to turn the chat bubbles on/off, a gamma slider and so much more.

Introducing Easy Public Quests:

Beginning with update 1.0.6, we are launching a new initiative to expand the scope of our Public Quest experience. Now, solo players and small groups can also participate in these unique and exciting encounters that are one of WAR's most innovative features.
We have reviewed each Chapter in Tier 1, including all three racial pairings, and have altered one Public Quest in each Chapter (with the notable exception of Chapter One) to be suitable for 1-3 players. We have reduced the numbers on monster kill and gather counters, lowered the difficulty of the second- and third-stage enemies and bosses, and scaled down the rewards of these PQs correspondingly.
The Public Quest interface which appears on the right side of the screen when a player enters a Public Quest area will now display which Public Quests are now easier to complete.
We will continue adjusting one Public Quest per Chapter through the remaining three Tiers in the weeks and months to come, so be sure to check the Warhammer Online Herald for updates on our progress!

Chat Hyper Linking:

One of the most requested features from our players finally makes its debut: Chat Hyper Linking! Simply Shift Left-Click on an item, an ability in the ability window, a quest in the quest tracker, or even another player now places a hyperlink into the chat input window. Other players can then click on the link to open a window displaying the item, ability, quest, or player information. Players can have as many unique windows open as they wish. Let the online item stat comparisons begin!
Because of the addition of this new feature, splitting a stack, which used to require a Shift Left-Click action, now uses Shift Right-Click.
Right-Clicking a player name in the chat window now brings up a context menu with options to ignore, add as friend, invite to group, inspect, target, etc: Pretty much every reasonable interaction you've ever wanted to have with a player speaking in a chat channel.

Armor Set Improvements:

This patch represents a pretty significant improvement to Armor Sets in all Tiers. We have made a number of adjustments across many sets to ensure that these items remain both highly competitive and desirable. Changes to these items will automatically take effect on existing items in the game.:
Armor Sets are now represented with their own special item type represented by "Gold" Text
We have looked carefully at all sets to ensure that their bonuses are attractive to the careers they are designed for.
The bonus on many individual set items have been increased in power to make them more competitive with other Rare and Very Rare drops at their level.
Some set items have had their equip level decreased, allowing them to be used at an earlier level.
Crafters will be able to salavage most set items. Only set items that are available for purchase from a merchant will be flagged as "No Salavage."
We have added an additional item to the following armor sets:Redeye, Devastator, and Keeper.
The following set items have been made bind-on-equip: Sentinel Belt, Conqueror Boots, Invader Boots, and Warlord Boots.

Encounter Ward System Adjustments

After continued testing, we have revised the way that the Ward System works. Encounters will now be slightly harder for players without wards; however, players will need less total ward items to become competitive, and will gain an extra benefit if they complete the entire ward set.
Players without warded armor will continue take up to 200% additional damage from certain monsters. Each appropriate ward worn will continue to reduce that damage by 40% per item.
Players without warded armor will now have 40% damage output against certain monsters. For each piece of appropriate ward armor worn, the player's damage output against those monsters will increase by 15%.
Players who wear all five pieces of warded armor will deal an additional 15% bonus damage to certain monsters.

PQ Gold Bag Changes

Part of improving set items was making these items more frequently available to players. As such we have made a number of adjustments to Gold Bags in PQ's to help us deliver these items to the players more frequently without introducing too many new Rare or Very Rare items into the game.
Gold bags will now only drop Set Items, Crafting Materials, or Money.
The drop rate for Gold Bags has been increased in almost every PQ in the game.
Easy difficulty PQs will now drop bags slightly more frequently.
Medium difficulty PQs will now drop bags more frequently.
Hard difficulty PQs will drop gold bags much more frequently and will also have a chance to drop up to two gold bags.

Open RvR Influence:

One of the most recently requested items by our community has been incentives for open RvR. The open RvR system is the first of many new features and improvements we have slated to ensure that WAR is the best RvR experience on the market.
Influence can be earned both by killing players as well as capturing or defending Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. When a player participates in a pairing's open RvR, they will earn Influence with that race in that Tier. The more Influence you earn, the better the rewards you can obtain by speaking with the Rallymaster located in that area's warcamps. For more information on rewards please see the detailed notes below.
Each open RvR influence area offers basic, advanced, and elite rewards for a total of 9 rewards per Tier
New "Rare" items are available as rewards for more casual RvR players.
New "Very Rare" items are available as rewards for hardcore RvR players.
Open RvR influence introduces many new weapons and accessories that players can earn exclusively in RvR!

Main Assist:

In order to help groups feel more cohesive and assist in cooperation among group members, we have added a simple main assist function which can be assigned by the group leader.
The leader of a group may designate a group member as the "main assist" player for that group. This status can only be changed by the group leader, and by the player who has been designated as the main assist player.
By default, the leader of a group is set to be that group's main assist player when the group is first created.
When a group contains a main assist player, a main assist button will be visible on the interface of each player in the group.
When a player clicks on this button, that player's target will immediately change to match the current target of the main assist player.
Assignment of the main assist designation can be done through the party context menu, or with the slash command /mainassist [PlayerName] or /makemainassist [PlayerName].
In scenarios, the main assist status is not given to anyone at party creation, but is instead up for claim to any player in the scenario group. When someone has claimed main assist, only that player can reassign it to someone else in the group.

Player Statue System:

Introducing something the team is really excited to bring into the game: Player statues. These statues are located in the War Quarter in Altdorf and in the Undercroft in Inevitable City, and have been enabled to display the top ten Renown Point earners of the previous week and the weekly top Renown Point earner of each realm for that server. If you are the best of the best for your realm, you will now have a representative statue (based on career and gender) with your name on it, making you an idol to millions (at least until someone dethrones you). More information will be posted in the Dev Diary this Friday on the Herald!

General Changes and Bug Fixes:

Death animations will now play more in sync with the exact moment of a character's death.
Players will now receive the message: "Your Target Can't Reach You" when they are targeting a monster that is attempting to reach them, but can't.
Newly created dual-wielding characters will display weapons in both hands on the character select screen.
Reduced the amount of time that monster corpses will be visible in the world after being killed by another monster.
When players speak to a Kill Collector NPC for the first time, they will now be presented with the proper dialogue
Monsters with names that have partial matches to profanity will no longer have their names filtered. For example, "Assassin" will no longer be displayed as "******in".
Players will now be able to properly use the /follow slash command to follow friendly players through water.
Players who attempt to zone into a dungeon that has an encounter in progress will no longer receive two messages about not being able to enter.
Players will no longer receive kill credit for monsters when half or more of the damage done was from another monster
Players in first-person view will no longer see their shadow.
When exiting the game, the client will now shut down and return the user to desktop more quickly.
Fixed an issue that caused players standing on top of a structure, such as a wall, to appear to be standing on the ground.
Fixed various ghosting issues that caused players to appear to be stuck running in place, or to still be mounted even after dismounting.
Fixed an issue that caused some players and player pets to become invisible when a large number of players and/or monsters were in close proximity to each other.
Fixed an issue that caused monster and player models to become distorted and stretched on the screen.

Capital Cities

New unique rare and very rare drops have been added to all Capital City high-level dungeons, including Bilerot Burrow, Bloodwrought Enclave, Sigmar's Crypts, and Warpblade Tunnels. Additionally, the drop tables for all monsters within these dungeons have been revised.
Mailboxes have been added inside Sigmar's Hammer and the Viper's Pit Guild Taverns.
The merchants found at the Viper's Pit and Sigmar's Hammer will now only be available if the Guild Tavern entrance is open (based on City Rank).
With the introduction of the Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard, additional NPCs from these careers will populate the cities.
There are now Talisman and Salvaging trainers in both the Inevitable City and Altdorf.
A Pale Eye Burglar that has been spotted skulking around the docks in Altdorf has been persuaded to move along.
A number of merchants and other citizens in both Capital Cities have had their titles modified to accurately reflect their utility.
Eckhardt Krause will no longer incorrectly contribute to Altdorf's standing.
Revised the error message given when attempting to enter the Screaming Cat Tavern before City Rank 5 to more clearly explain why the tavern is not open.
Morena von Hoffe is now using tools more appropriate to her position.
The mysterious barrels found in the capital cities will now reward those who are adventurous enough to open them, but be careful! Some of the barrels are potentially dangerous!
A number of monsters in the Altdorf Sewers and Warpblade Tunnels dungeons were adjusted so they properly give contribution toward their respective city's standing when killed.
Banker Lutz near the Mastiff's End in Altdorf has found his courage and will no longer duck and hide behind the bank counter.
The Viper's Pit entrance will give the proper error message when players attempt to enter before the city has reached the sufficient rank.
The Elyr Merchants at the Docks in Altdorf will now wear the proper clothing at all times.
The grate leading to the Bilerot Burrows dungeon will now give the proper message if it is locked based on City Rank, and will open properly when the city reaches the appropriate rank.
The Wretched One's dialogue will no longer contain unintelligible characters.
The Warprot Plague Monk in the Altdorf Sewers will no longer be surrounded by flies as they could be confused with the Scavenging effect on monster death.
Crier Kosch will now remain stationary in Altdorf so that he is easier for players to locate.
Fixed a number of ambient dialogues in the Capital Cities that contained extraneous characters at the end of the dialogue.
Flayerkin in the Inevitable City will now animate properly.
Ambient robber NPCs in Altdorf will no longer drop 'Stolen Karls' outside of the Bank Robbery Public Quest.
A number of citizens in Altdorf and the Inevitable City now boast unique looks.
While exploring Altdorf and the Inevitable City, players might discover new citizens who have some interesting lore to share.
Peasants near the Bright Wizard College in Altdorf have given up trying to keep their clothes free from soot and ash. Their clothes now reflect the atmosphere and danger of living close to the Bright Wizard College.

Combat and Careers

General

Snare effects from the environment, such as those incurred by moving through water or lava, will no longer stack with snares inflicted by player and monster abilities.
Abilities that fire in an arc toward the target will now follow their respective arc more correctly.

Engineer

Redeploy: When this ability is used, the Engineer's turret will now properly appear in its new location.

Ironbreaker

Punishing Knock: This ability will now properly knock players down to the ground.

White Lion

Pounce: This ability will now deal damage correctly with each hit.

Content

Two new lairs have been added to the Warhammer world! Players can search in Saphery and Talabecland to locate them.
Siphoner Tahalys will now behave more like a Bright Wizard.
Tomb Guards no longer use Bright Wizard spells.
Additional feedback has been added for players attempting to gain access to Fleshrender's Lair.
Tainted Oogs no longer sinks under the terrain when engaged in combat.
Suntear will no longer be hostile toward Order-aligned characters.
Brugash in Dammaz Skar has regained the use of his special abilities.
Ahzranok in the Lost Vale dungeon now has an increased chance to drop all unique items that are also dropped by Lurquasss. The chance for unique items to drop from Lurquasss has been reduced.

Items

We have implemented a temporary inventory overflow system. There are gameplay situations, such as crafting, where a player may have a full inventory and yet still receive more items. In these and similar situations, a temporary overflow window will appear, giving players the opportunity to make room for the excess items in their main inventory. Please note that this is not an expansion of the player inventory. Players will not be able to use the overflow window as a permanent storage alternative, as any items remaining in the inventory overflow will be lost when the player logs out of the game. Players will also not be able to move items into this overflow window.
Items that have a proc effect, such as high-level armor sets, will now display this information in their tooltips.
Fixed several graphical and animation issues relating to swords and staves.
Improved and diversified the appearance of many cloaks throughout the game.
The cost to repair broken items has been brought in line with the value of items throughout the game.
Some wristguard items were improperly named as waistgirds. These item names have been corrected.
The 'Dye All' button has been re-enabled on Dye Merchants throughout the world.
Gold loot bags, such as those awarded for the completion of Public Quests and Keep captures, will now contain armor set pieces exclusively. These loot bags will no longer contain other loot items, as the other colored loot bags do.
The Black Mire Tower encounter will now provide adventurers with better rewards for their troubles.
Lair Bosses throughout the world will once again drop treasure.
Monsters throughout the world will drop treasure items more often.
Monsters in high-level Chapters will now consistently drop treasures of an appropriate level.
New Public Quest rewards and unique rare and very rare world drops have been added to the Bastion Stair, and the drop tables of all monsters have been updated.
The Gale-Runner's Chaos-Axe had incorrect stats and name for a one-handed axe. It is now named the Gale-Runner's Dreadaxe, and has had its DPS raised slightly and its Strength reduced.
The Gale-Runner's Crusher had incorrect DPS and speed for a one-handed hammer. Its DPS has been reduced and it has been made faster.
Due to player feedback, we have taken a look at the HP Regeneration bonus on all armor sets and items. As a result of this review, we have greatly improved the values of HP Regeneration bonuses on items and item sets throughout the game.

Quests & Public Quests

Several new quests have been added to the Chapter 15 hubs for all races.
Fun new "chicken run" quests have been added to the Tier 3 Greenskin and High Elf warcamps. These quests send players back to Tier 1 open RvR areas for an update on the progress of the war.
Two new bounty hunter quests have been added, one each to target enemy players of the Knights of the Blazing Sun and Black Guard careers. Interested players should visit the High Elf Chapter 8 hub or the Chaos Chapter 13 hub, depending on their realm.
Players who leave a Public Quest area will retain their contribution to that Public Quest for five minutes.
Tier 1 Dark Elf and Empire Public Quest bosses have been retuned to account for the introduction of the Knight of the Blazing Sun and Black Guard.
The skeleton of Christopher Kuhn no longer pulses with the interactable glow to those who are not on the appropriate quest.
Trample Tantrum: The Chapter 19 Greenskin Kill Collector NPC now recognizes all Mudhide boar kills instead of just Mudhide Tuskers.
Cleansing an Empire: The pyre associated with this quest now pulses with the interactable glow.
Tunnels and Trinkets: The gore-spattered crate associated with this quest now properly despawns after interaction.
Thorns: The number of black powder barrels associated with this quest has been reduced.
Breaking Stone: The cooking fire associated with this quest is now much more noticeable.
Falling Stars: The quest condition has been changed to "Griffon Forces", which encompasses all previous targets.
Plans Within Plans: The monster population associated with this quest has been reduced.
Mark of Grimnir: The monster population associated with this quest has had its rate of respawn reduced.
Ruinous Powers: The Raven Sorcerers associated with this Public Quest now properly appear to be channeling dark magic.
Heart of Strength: The waypoint to find Sigmarite Henchmen and Zealots for this quest has been increased to cover all applicable areas.
Unmasking the Enemy: The waypoint associated with part one of this quest has been reduced to encompass only the tower.
Faith is Madness: Multiple fixes and improvements have been made to this quest line.
Increased the density and respawn rate of the monster population associated with parts four and five of this quest.
Part five of this quest now has an additional waypoint to encompass another group of Manticores.
The waypoint associated with part seven of this quest has been extended to encompass all instances of food and drink.
An additional waypoint has been added to part 15 of the quest that covers all fallen Empire NPCs.
The Shards of Lucidity, Sagacity, Purity, and Clarity associated with part 16 of this quest are now properly placed within a character's quest inventory once obtained.
Each of the Shards of Lucidity, Sagacity, Purity, and Clarity associated with part 16 of this quest now has a unique icon.
Bond of Fellowship: This quest's waypoint now covers the correct location.
Knights Errant: This quest's waypoint now covers the correct location.
Oathbearer's Way: This quest's waypoint now covers the correct location.
Broken Core: The journal entry associated with part three of this quest now explains the quest's objective more clearly.
The Vessel of Azorgaron: This quest is now properly flagged as an epic quest. Additionally, the quest target, Szurinna, no longer a Champion.
Overwhelming Power: Orthor Firebrand will no longer despawn when a player accepts this quest.
Wyrmbreaker: Fixed an issue that would sometimes complete the quest condition without giving the player the scroll item.
Reign of Destruction: The pikes associated with this quest now only accept one skull placement every so often.
Painstaking: The item "Implement of Anguish" associated with this quest no longer gives an error message when used on the proper target.
Bait & Switch: The kill requirement for this quest has been reduced from 8 to 4.
Timeless Wisdom: The kill requirement for this quest has been reduced from 12 to 6.
* Buying Time: The targets associated with part one of this quest now always remain within their appropriate waypoint.
Show 'Em Who's Boss: A waypoint over the Flightmaster NPC has been added to parts eight and nine of this quest.
Hungry Work: A waypoint has been added to indicate the location of the food pile.
Champion of the Lost Forge: This quest has been re-enabled in Dwarf Chapter 19.
Tome of Ages: The quest item "Tome of Ages" has been relocated to a more solo-friendly location.
Annihilation: The monster population density and respawn rate associated with part five of this quest has been increased.
Disenchanting the Stone: It is now possible to continue this quest line if the book was destroyed by killing Lore Master Tadrillian again.
An Innocent Man: Innkeeper Ossia's name will now be visible at all times so that she is easier to find.
Spotting Trouble: This capital city quest has been reduced to level 15. Additionally, the waypoint for this quest has been adjusted so that it points to the proper sewer entrance.
Ogre Bodyguards: Interacting with Georg Rothstein will now properly continue this quest series.
Tasty Morsels: This quest has been re-enabled and adjusted to be a level 15 quest available in the Capital Cities.
The Devil Inside: The tooltip information for this Altdorf quest has been updated to remove some erroneous text. Additionally, the journal text for this Altdorf quest has been updated to give a more clear description of where to search for the quest goal.
The Devil Inside: The Ever Ancient: This Inevitable City quest has been disabled.
An Innocent Man: Completing this Altdorf quest will no longer cause strings of numbers to appear in the player's chat window.
Mushroom Hunta: Fixed the quest icon for the mushrooms gathered during this quest in the Inevitable City.
The Temple of the Damned: Captured Souls are now only attackable during the proper stage of this Public Quest in the Inevitable City.
Sharpthorn Rock Mine: The final stage monsters for this Public Quest now arrive via gyrocopters.
The Tower of Neborhest: The objectives associated with this Public Quest now state more clearly which pillar needs to be attacked at the appropriate stage.
Reichert's Raiders: Broadcast text has been added to the Public Quest when a tent is razed.
The Defiled Anvil: The Corrupting Stones associated with this Public Quest will now properly despawn once they have been destroyed.

Realm vs. Realm

All Fortress Lords have been adjusted to ensure that they provide the intended level of challenge. This includes updates to their abilities, damage, and defenses.
Lycithas the Harridan Seer now has voiceovers enabled for her portion of the Monolith encounter during the invasion of the Inevitable City.
A number of neutral NPCs were removed from the contested version of the Inevitable City as they did not contribute to the city defense and might have confused the invaders.
While inside a contested city, the proper instance number will now be displayed on the player's interface.
Reinforcement Guards for Keeps from captured Battlefield Objectives will now have a title that reflects where they have come from.
The Order patrols near Festenplatz will now patrol further away to allow room for players to move without potentially drawing the patrol into the Battlefield Objective battle.
Keep Lords based on pet-using careers will now summon pets in a manner similar to their player counterparts.
Battlefield Objectives in every tier and pairing have been fortified with newer, more realm-specific palisades and other types of barricades.
A number of warcamps have been fortified to strengthen their position.
Siege Oil Pads on High Elf and Dark Elf keeps have been moved slightly so the splash hits better and the oil is attackable properly from below.
Fixed an issue where Keep and Postern Doors would not respond properly if another player had used that door immediately before.
In Scenarios, the confirmation pop-up window on zone out will now disappear if you move out of range of the zone point.
We have instituted additional fail-safes to prevent rare cases where Tier 4 zones would lock down incorrectly.
Placing the bomb in the Talabec Dam Scenario will now take less time.
Fixed an issue in the contested version of Altdorf to ensure that fires started by Destruction players can be extinguished by Order players.
The guards in the Phoenix Gate Scenario have been adjusted slightly to prevent them from improperly being dragged into the Scenario battle proper.
The patrolling guards for Wilhem's Fist have had their path slightly adjusted to ensure they do not attempt to overrun Siege Pads or other objects in area.
The patrolling Order guards for Fangbreaker Keep will now path properly around the Keep.
A number of extraneous objects in the contested version of the Inevitable City were removed to improve framerate during a city invasion.
A number of Dread Sentries spawned inside of the contested version of Altdorf have been fixed so they are wearing the proper armor for their race.
A few misplaced Siege Pads in the middle of Talabecland have been removed.
The Postern Doors on the outer walls of the Fortresses in Reikwald and Butcher's Pass were never meant to be usable. As such, they have been fixed so that the doors will give the proper 'barred' message to players that attempt to use them.
Additional guards have been called in to reinforce the Greenskin warcamp in Thunder Mountain.
Leaving and entering the cave area near Badmoon Hole Keep will no longer strip bolster.
Keeps and Battlefield Objectives will now broadcast a message to all players in the entire Tier when they change realm control. This messaging can be turned off or on from the User Settings.
Players successfully defending a Keep/Fortress will now receive a considerable renown reward.
Keep/Fortress Contribution: After lengthy evaluation and feedback from the players we have made several changes to the contribution system in place for the Public Quests associated with Keep/Fortress sieges. These changes will encourage more participation and reward players participating in Keep/Fortress sieges.
All enemy kills, both Player Character and Non-Player Character, will now contribute towards the Public Quest for taking a Keep/Fortress.
Other actions that lead to taking a Keep/Fortress will now result in contribution toward the Public Quest for taking a Keep/Fortress.

User Interface

New animations have been added for hotbar ability cooldowns. After an ability is used, a radial wipe animation will play that counts down the time until the ability can be used again.
Quest waypoints for caves have been changed so that they are consistent across all zones. Cave waypoints now appear as a red dot located at the cave's entrance.
The Public Quest scoreboard has been updated to properly display more than eight loot bag rewards where applicable.
Mousing over an alternate currency icon will tell you its name.
Added the ability to sort mail in your inbox.
Guild heraldry settings and choosing to hide your helm or cloak will now save upon zoning or re-logging.
Master looters may now assign loot if they are in a warband slot other than the first one.
When using auto loot via the option or by holding Shift, you will now be warned when picking up a bind-on-pickup item.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Need on Use" option to incorrectly be grayed out.

Guilds

Guild notes have been re-added to the Guild Roster Window.
Guild Leaders, Officers, and anyone with appropriate permissions can once again use the guild window context menu to promote and demote members.
Guild permission tooltips have been updated to accurately reflect their function and intended behavior.
Guild ranks other than Guild Leaders may no longer be given permission to form alliances.
Guild administration options for those who do not have permission to edit them will now accurately be grayed out.
Fixed an issue where the guild window would sometimes close when clicking on a name.
Guild members will no longer be able to read guild chat if they do not have the permissions to do so.
Fixed tooltip display for the first custom guild rank slot.
Kicking a player from a guild now properly deactivates the guild and alliance tabs.
Guild members may now be promoted to the first customize guild rank slot
Fixed an issue where guild/alliance roster sub-tabs appeared on the screen if the player joined a new guild after having left a guild with the Guild Roster tab as the last Guild Window viewed.
Players with permission no longer have to relog to see Member and Officer Notes.
Guild titles now sort by rank instead of alphabetically.
Players who do not have permission to kick members from their guild will no longer be presented with the option to do so.
Fixed an issue where the Guild Roster was not updating properly when Hide Offline was checked.
Guilds will no longer receive a message that they have gained a rank before actually doing so.
"Hide Offline" in the guild window now saves correctly between sessions and updates when toggled.
The guild is now notified via the chat buffer when a guild leader has changed.

Settings and Performance

There is a new option in the Customize UI window for action bar settings that allows players to hide the cooldown text and show only the radial animation. Additionally, cooldown text is now always suppressed for the global cooldown timer; only the radial animation is played to show the global cooldown.
There is now a Gamma slider available in the user settings.
Players will receive a warning if they try to change their client's performance setting to "High" without sufficient resources on their computer to run the game at this setting.
The memory GPU slider will now only be available if the player's computer has more than 512MB of RAM.
The shadows cast by other players' mounts will now be visible when the shadow quality is set to "High."
We have made significant improvements to client performance when handling buff updates.

Chat Windows, Bubbles, and Messaging

You will now see an outgoing message when sending a warband invite.
Fixed an issue where NPC chatter was not relaying which NPCs were speaking.
NPC chat bubbles are once again visible.
The "Show Timestamp" chat option will now save upon exit.You will no longer see, "You are no longer logging out," when you attempt to exit the game.
Fixed an issue where the profanity filter was filtering out letters in the middle of certain words.
Parties will now receive a message when a party member has left or disconnected.
Fixed a specific Talisman-making error message that referred to the skill as Apothecary.
Attempting to invite a player to a party who is already in a party will refer you to that player's party leader.
Using the /lol or /thank emotes will now return the proper text.
Added the functionality for chat tabs to blink when they receive new messages. This feature is turned off by default; to enable it, right-click on the chat window tab, mouse over "Tab Options," and check "Flash on Activity."
Chat bubbles can now be toggled on and off.
The chat tab menu has been re-organized in an effort to make it easier to use.
We have made several improvements to chat filtering. To view the new filters, right click on the desired chat tab and select filters.
Players will now receive an error message when attempting to look for a warband while already in one.
Tells are no longer saved as a "sticky" channel.
Alliance and Alliance Officer Channels are now saved as "sticky" channels.
The command /warband (/warbandallianceonly) has been changed to provide accurate feedback messages.
Dead players will now be able to see death announcements.
Sending a tell to an AFK player will return a message stating that the recipient is AFK.
You will no longer see an error message when a player from an enemy realm attempts to send you a tell.
/Shout once again has a longer range than /say.
Fixed an issue where the colored text of City Rating messages was overflowing into subsequent lines of text.
Damage messages printed in the chat window now show the amount of Critical Damage mitigated.
Attempting to purchase a guild reward scroll without meeting the requirements now results in an error message.
Locking your chat window will now persist after you log out.

Warhammer Online Test Server Update

2008-12-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

Warhammer Online lead developer, Mark Jacobs, has also posted a teaser for patch 1.1 which is set to go live on the Public Test Servers today. These are just some of the highlights (I'll post patch notes when I have them).

Open RvR Influence System: WAR will now have additional incentives for world RvR. Now you've got three influence systems. Worry not. Options are good!

Easy Public Quests: Sometimes it’s hard to get enough people together to complete a PQ (especially in the lower tiers), so Mythic has redesigned one PQ per chapter so that it can be completed by 1-3 people. If only it could revisit some of the interminably dull PQs in the mid tiers...

Chat Hyperlinking: Why wasn't this in release?

Armor Set Rebalance: The high tier armor sets were next to useless; this will make them a bit less useless (hopefully).

Main Assist: Making it just a little bit easier to help your group in battle.

Player Statue System: Nothing says “you’ve made it” more than having a statue with your name on it in the capital city of your realm. A great way to reward those gamers who play for 18 hours a day...

New Content: Whether it is new lairs, new quests, new loot drops, new PQ rewards and changes to items (such as cloaks), this patch is full of lots of new content additions to the game.

User Interface: Fixes, changes, and new additions to the user interface and API functionality. New additions to the chat system and graphic options incorporating features such as a chat channel flashing on activity, the ability to turn chat bubbles on/off, a gamma slider, and more.

Bug Fixes: Obligatory and much needed.

There, does that not seem like a good step in the right direction? Sadly, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and right now we've got a half cooked rhubarb pie on the table. Mythic developers had three years and a lengthy beta to get most of this stuff balanced, so who's betting it still won't be right after this patch?

Warhammer Online Patches to 1.06

2008-12-04T03:49:00.000-08:00

Warhammer Online takes baby steps to resolving the game's many issues with today's patch 1.06.

Highlights of this patch are:

Two new careers: the Empire’s Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Dark Elf’s Black Guard (you must have completed the Heavy Metal Event to be eligible to play these careers).
Many career changes.
A veritable plethora of bug fixes.
Morale abilities will now be much more responsive.

Get the full patch notes at: http://img.war-europe.com/syndic_img/news/patches/Patch106_EN.html

I have to say, offering all this stuff as 'look what we've done - more free content!' does bug me somewhat, as these are careers which should have been in the game on release. Sadly, I don't think this patch has done much to redress the gaping imbalance evident in the various careers - that will take a lot more to satisfy the dissenters who are snapping at the game's jugular.

I think Mythic should be rewarded for dressing up their shortcomings in a pretty cool event, though.

Whether this is all enough to bring back the player base that left in a mass exodus last month remains to be seen. It certainly does look like a step in the right direction.

Beta Leaks Better Than Ever?

2008-12-03T22:25:00.001-08:00

After much speculation about the fate of the NDA-breaking preview site, Beta Leaks, the site has returned from limbo with a brand new format. Gamers can now obtain information on their favourite upcoming MMOs more easily, which is a good thing, as it means developers cannot hide behind their NDAs to release a substandard game (which seems to be happening far too often).

I believe this kind of visibility is a great thing. Let's be honest, we've all spent cash (probably too much) on substandard games (Hellgate London, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online to name but three in recent memory). I could have avoided wasting my cash on subscription-based games had I known more about them in the first place - something the developers are keen to avoid.

I think we're into shady territory ethically when you can't try before you buy. It's OK to say 'wait for the invariable free trial' but if you want to get on board the early release hype. It's almost unheard of to release a standard console game without a demo (Dead Space was the only game I can think of in recent memory that didn't have a demo out before release).

Maybe MMOs should offer 48 hour trials for users to test out their titles. It would be a cheap and easy way for gamers to decide if a game was for them. Sadly, I can't see this happening with so many games being released unfinished and developers eager to recover their costs.

It's nice to get a feel for a game, and sometimes beta just doesn't cover it (as we don't all get in every beta we'd like to). I don't know why so many developers hide endlessly behind their NDAs. They claim it's to protect their new ideas, but has there been a new idea in a MMO in the past three years? I think not.

As we all know, people will flock to a great game, and sites like Beta Leaks ensure developers do all they can to make something worth playing.

Whatever Happened to Beta Leaks?

2008-12-03T01:32:00.000-08:00

Beta Leaks, a website dedicated to sneakily issuing information on MMOs currently in beta, has mysteriously closed down this week. Visitors to the website, which has been the bane of all developers for years, now receive this message when trying to access goodies about their favourite upcoming games:

"This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.
WRZhost offshore Hosting."

The internet is rife with speculation. Did a developer finally manage to take legal action against the brains behind the website, or did someone simply forget to pay their domain hosting bill?

Whatever the reason, the developers of soon-to-be-released games DarkFall Online and Chronicles of Spellborn can breathe a sigh of relief. Their secrets are safe - at least for now.

The Chronicles of Spellborn

2008-11-30T04:47:00.001-08:00

If you're not an ardent MMO follower, you won't have known that the newest MMO was released this week (in North America. The rest of the world has to wait until 9th January 09).

Completely sneaking under our radar, The Chronicles of Spellborn is a new MMO aimed at the more hardcore player - a vast turnaround from the silver platter questing of 2008's more well known releases.

There's a free 20 hours worth of content trial coming on 5th December, but in the meantime, check out the website: http://www.tcos.com/en/index.html

Age of Conan Layoffs

2008-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

Troubled MMO developer Funcom of has recently laid off an unspecified number of staff from its North American offices. Under the banner of 'restructuring', the Age of Conan developer has taken a broad sword to the number of staff working on the bloody action adventure game based on Robert E Howard's fantasy novels.

It's more like knots in cotton than heaving well toned muscles for the fantasy slash-a-thon and it's not hard to see why Age of Conan didn't do as well as it could (or should) have. The writing was scrawled on the wall (in blood), when like Warhammer Online, the developers decided to cut content and classes at the eleventh hour. The game was released in a less than finished state (I couldn't even get the beta to run, which never bodes well) and the game was released with huge gaps in the content and some of the key instances broken.

While this has all been resolved with a recently released content patch that sorts out most of the game's ills, we all know how difficult it is for a game to recover fans once they've abandoned it (most gamers went from Conan to Warhammer, and then, unsatisfied, back to Warcraft). Courting those disenfranchised gamers back is a touch more arduous.

I've no idea what makes companies (that have spent millions on their games) give a green light for release on an unfinished product, but it's clear that releasing too early means a far lower player base than you could expect if you deliver a polished and working title.

Players have so much more choice than they did five years ago. If a MMO just isn't up to scratch they can pick and choose the game that does suit their needs. Pre WOW and EQ2 days a player would stick fast with a MMO in the (often vain) hope that the developers would resolve the issues that plagued so many games on release, but it seems these days that the retention rate is much lower.

Let's just hope the MMOs released in 2009 have a lot more polish.

Warhammer Fiction

2008-11-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

A Bright Missive - By Emory Felner

If you look up the robes of a Bright Wizard you will not see our fireballs! I'd like to set that record straight right here and now.

It's the image the common populace have of Bright Wizards that I want to talk about today. People think we're all fire-wielding crazy maniacs.

Well, I'm here to tell you that it's just NOT true. Just because I enjoy setting my enemies on fire doesn't mean that I’m totally obsessed with it. It’s not an unhealthy fixation that occupies my every waking thought, or anything. I mean, I don't think about fire every minute of the -

Ooh look, they're having a bonfire in that field over there... How pretty!

Ahem. Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes. Who doesn’t like the odd barbecue now and then? I mean. It's completely normal, isn’t it?

A lot of you want to know how to become a Bright Wizard. Well, you have to have many, many, MANY years of oh-so-boring-your-brains-could-leak-out-of-your-ears lessons before you can even conjure your first candle flame. I would sit in class and dream of the days when I could conjure fire from the skies and see my enemies charbroiled alive*.

Hmm. You might think that comment was perhaps a tad morbid for a sixteen year old apprentice wizard. But that is the world in which we live nowadays. There's just no getting away from it! The chosen few who make it to the College of Wizardry have their thirst for war encouraged from a very early age. We live for battle and we bring fiery destruction in our wake. It’s Government-sanctioned slaughter (my favourite kind) that’s one part defense of the nation and another part akin to the "pie bakes" we used to have when I was a child.

Only it isn’t pies we’re baking

My friends DO comment (mostly behind my back) that I am overly violent. I disagree. I call it a healthy appetite for conflict. To my kind, fire and death are our food and drink (although I am partial to a nice bottle of Reikland red, as well).

People say I’ve got an unhealthy fixation with murder - but it’s not really murder when you’re killing monsters. I mean, let’s be honest, the minions of Chaos have never really been alive. Have they?

Perhaps it’s best not to think about that too much.

And while we’re on the subject, what - exactly - is ‘too violent’, anyway? The folk quick to hurl the first accusation aren’t exactly complaining when we’re out defending the lands against the endless hordes of Chaos. It’s all ‘thank Sigmar you’re here’ and much hugging and kissing (and other - more 'specialist' favours).

Here’s a hint for you, though. It’s ALL ME! Sigmar didn’t lift so much as a garden mallet - never mind a bloody whopping great hammer - to protect your lands from evil. It was all me. That’s right, ME! Your friendly pyromaniac** Bright Wizard. Think about that next time you’re begging for compensation from the Emperor because I accidentally burned down your house

Or your barn.

Or your cattle.

Or your daughter***.

Nowadays when I use my favourite spell, Pyroclastic Surge, I often find a smile forming on my lips, even in the heat of battle, and I remember back to those first days when the rudimentary flickers of fire - the Winds of Aqshy swirled before my vision, and I knew the Path of Fire was for me. I hungered even then to take to the fields of battle and to incinerate and burn and cinder and sear the flesh of my enemies in great rivulets of blood-slicked and over-cooked meat

Nope. That’s not too violent at all. Quite healthy, in fact.

In summary, I think you can see from this essay that I’m quite sane and that my affectation with fire is quite normal.

And I think you’ll agree that after everything I’ve said - I will need my Pyroclastic Surge - and even more potent magics - before this year is done.

I know one thing: that war is hell.

OK, actually I know two things: one, that war is hell - which is less important than - two, that there’s nothing better than seeing the faces of your enemies melting away under an incandescent assault of your fire magic.

And laughing about it afterwards.

That might sound grim, but when you’re a Bright Wizard, it’s all part of a day’s work.

In summary, I'm completely normal - I like kittens just as much as the next guy****.

Yours aflame.

Emory

* In those days, matchboxes were your friends.
** Allegedly, until proven.
*** I only made that mistake once … or twice … but never more than five times!
**** Set aflame, kittens make brilliant missile weapons for scattering beastmen.

Tabula Rasa Bites the Dust (finally)

2008-11-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

Was it something I said?

Ranked (a generous) sixth in my 10 Worst MMOs, I think someone at NCSoft must have heard the news, because the Tabula Rasa developers are pulling the plug on the blighted game on 28th February 2009.

That seems exceptionally generous for the crappy sci-fi yawnathon that should never have seen the light of day.

It died because it was rubbish. And I want to take a few moments to talk about why. People will no longer tolerate a substandard MMO. If you have combat at the heart of your game (as it usually is) then you'd better make the combat as appealing, engaging, and fun as you possibly can. Otherwise, your game is destined to fail.

Oh and the only obvious bugs in your game should be the icky ones with compound eyes and claws. Any other sort should be left for the anal gamers to find and exploit (remember kids, exploit early and often to get the most out of your bugs before the developers roll back the game) within the first few days of beta.

Tabula Rasa (the only interesting thing about the game) means "blank slate" in latin. I think a blank slate pretty much summarises the list of good ideas the game had at release.

The writing was on the wall long before the game's troubled release. Chief Developer, Richard 'General British' Garriott had more than enough experience in releasing overly unfinished and hopelessly ambitious games. Anyone remember the almost unplayable Ultima IX? And of course, his first proper foray into the MMO with the swiftly cancelled Ultima Worlds (Ultima Online 2). Note that I'm ignoring Ultima Online for which he had little, if any actual involvement (probably why it's still going today - bitchy, but oh so true!).

So, there you go. Another MMO bites the dust, joining the ranks of so many others (Hellgate London being the last big game to be sent to the recycle bin), and so long as developers keep churning out unfinished dross, it definitely won't be the last.

Why Warhammer Online is Failing

2008-11-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

Warhammer Online was seen as the first major contender for World of Warcraft's crown. Getting great reviews across the board, the game was set to take the world by storm. Designed from the ground up as a Player vs Player game (PvP), this was the real deal, the gritty MMO people had been clamouring for.

Only the game was released with classes missing, huge problems with just about every aspect of the game, and a massive reliance on instanced 'scenarios' which took much needed players away the main 'real world' aspect of the game. People preferred to play scenarios than take part in the 'epic' world PvP. Keeps were left untaken for days, if not weeks on end, and no one seemed to care about the war, which raged silently, if at all.

So, where did it all go wrong?

Development: It was the wrong time to release a new game. It was certainly the wrong time to release a new game that wasn't up to scratch. Filled with numerous bugs and major design flaws, Warhammer Online simply wasn't the game people expected it to be. They expected PvP from the moment they logged on, but instead they found a game which is primarily scenario driven (at least for the moment). Scenarios are great fun but when your guild is more interested in doing the Nordenwatch scenario than they are in taking back the Keep so you can buy new powers (available only at a Keep you control) you know you've got a problem.

People simply have no reason to take part in PvP, not when they get so many more rewards from scenarios (and they don't have to do more than click a button to get straight into the action). The scenarios shattered the already diminishing server populations, thus exacerbating the problem. You can't do world PvP if there's no one to fight...

The problems lie directly on Mythic's doorstep. No one could have foreseen these issues in beta. We only ever saw a small portion of the game and never the whole package. Was this intentional on Mythic's part? Who can say? All we know for certain is that the glaring issues with scenarios were impossible to spot until the game went live.

And now, some two months into the game's release, there are far too many servers with low populations (even at peak times). It's clear Mythic's developers have a major job ahead of them.

Mythic continually boasted than Warhammer Online had the shortest development time of any MMO in existence, and it shows. It needed another six months of development and the same amount of time in full beta testing. Right now, it's still littered with problems and it's not the game it 'could' be - one day. Like poor Everquest 2, whether there will be any players around to see its rebirth still remains to be seen.

Release Date: With the World of Warcraft flying so high, perhaps there isn't a good time to release a new MMO. If you are going to release a new online game, you need to choose your moment of release very carefully. You certainly DON'T want to release your game just two months before the behemoth that is Warcraft releases its second expansion. That's just asking for trouble.

Polish: As we've learned from so many other (failed) games in the past, you need to make your game as polished and 'ready for release' as you possibly can. That means game stability and a nicely balanced set of classes. Seeing all these far-reaching changes to the class system, huge revamps to the RVR system, it's clear Mythic still has a very long way to go if it wants to steal back some of WOW's player base.

Scenarios: Personally, scenarios were the worst idea ever. They're fine for games like Half Life 2, but WHO decided instanced scenarios in a MMO would be a good idea? They remove the player base from the rest of the game and when you're struggling to find players, that's never a good thing. They are fantastic fun, but they simply don't work. There should have been scenarios that worked like Public Quests slotted into the world, instead we've got an idea cloned from World of Warcraft.

To fix the game, Mythic needs to:

Remove scenarios (sadly, never going to happen).
Enhance the PvE questing. Right now the quests are boring and soloing isn't nearly as much fun as it could be.
Consolidate the servers so the remaining players aren't walking through ghost towns.
Make it easier to get from place to place (it's so arduous travelling from zone to zone).
Boost World PVP beyond all recognition (give people a reason to fight / take back Keeps).
Make the game as was promised (PvP right from the start of the game and influencing every aspect of the game).
Get all the classes in game (releasing with classes missing is a huge no no in my book).

Warhammer Online is a great game that really does deserve to have a larger player base than it currently has. With Warcraft stealing every player in the galaxy, it's clear Mythic has been given some breathing room - they've got a couple of months before those Warcraft players who cancelled before the expansion grow bored of the new content. Then they'll be looking for something else to play, and whether Warhammer can get its act together in time to be that game still remains to be seen. If the developers make the right decisions, get all the content fixed and resolve the huge issues with PvP, then the game will have a very healthy player base in 2009.

The Unstoppable Lich King

2008-11-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise that Wrath of the Lich King broke all UK game sales records with 2.8 million (worldwide) units in the first 24 hours, that's up 400,000 since Burning Crusade.

And it's no secret that Blizzard has opened a bunch of new servers to cope with the surge of returning players (that's twelvety billion they now have for their 11+ million players).

And it's really no surprise that every other MMO currently in existence has little more than a skeleton force of players scattered across their, what, twenty severs (at most).

And lastly, it's no wonder that the developers of every other MMO out there are currently sobbing into their bedtime drinks of hot chocolate and methylated spirits!

It really is a shame that World of Warcraft has become this all encompassing MMO behemoth, because while it exists, it'll take nothing short of a real miracle to dent those kind of sales/player figures. Pundits reckoned that top rival, Warhammer Online, was set to pilfer a whole heap of jaded WOW players, but the WOW clone provided little more than a brief amusement before Azeroth was once again teeming with life.

With boxes flying off shelves, it's clear that the sky isn't falling for Blizzard Entertainment and that their regular claims of having in excess of 11 million concurrent subscriptions must be true.

I'll be talking about my feelings on Warcraft soon, but for now I'll leave you with this conundrum: - can any game come close to stealing WOW's crown?

Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria Patch Notes

2008-11-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

The extensive patch notes have been released for the Mines of Moria patch tomorrow 18th November 2008. Be warned, it's a hefty read, more so than for most expansions I've ever seen.

There's something for everyone here, new classes, new powers, and they've upped the level limit to 60. Plus there's the huge Moria to explore.

Check out the Notes here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=173737

I personally feel a bit sorry for LOTRO. It's a great game, but like Everquest 2, it's been overshadowed by that other behemoth of a game.

If you get the chance, check them both out. They've both got hugely different things to offer (than Warcraft), but I'll be talking about my top 10 MMOs later in the week.

Now, it's back to Moria where I fully intend to Speak Friend and Enter. If Moria is a huge dungeon-like complex akin to Ultima Underworld, them I'll be one very happy hobbit!

Going to War over Subscriptions

2008-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

European host to Warhammer Online, GOA, has hit another milestone in dodgy dealing this week. Not only have they been criticized since the days of Dark Age of Camelot for poor server performance, abysmal customer service, and endless billing problems, but they hit the news again with reports that they've made an unwelcome 'adjustment' to their user billing information.

Users may find their account for the newest online game on the block switched from 'cancelled' or 'manual' to 'automatic' renewal. This means you could get charged for a game you thought you'd already cancelled.

While there's been no official comment from GOA as yet, I'd advise everyone to check their account details and ensure your settings are as as you want them to be.

Oversight or not, well done GOA for yet more great promotion for the game that's firmly sitting in the gloom of Warcraft's behemoth-like shadow.

The MMO Drinking Game

2008-11-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

The rules of this game are simple: take your favourite alcoholic beverage, fill your glass, and take turns of 10 to 15 minutes to play any MMO you like. Note: it's far more fun playing games in the 10 Worst MMOs list (although your liver might complain in the morning).

Take A Drink Every Time:

Someone sends you a tell.
Your character lags.
You get killed in PvE.
You see a graphical anomaly (on screen). Note: If you see a graphical anomaly in the real world, you should probably stop playing this drinking game immediately!

Finish Your Drink Every Time:

You level up.
You crash to desktop.
Your character rubberbands.
You get killed in PvP (or RvR if you’re playing Warhammer).
You’re playing any of the Asian MMOs (you’ll probably need it).

Finish the Bottle If:

You get some kind of error message onscreen.
You receive a mail from a gold seller.

Again, please remember that this game is NOT advised for children!

ROOM 101 - The 10 Worst MMOs

2008-11-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

You released too early.
It’s full of bugs (and not the good kind you can squish with your hammer).
You didn’t listen to the player base.
It’s (whatever the opposite of the dog’s bollocks is)…

These are just some of the gripes that tarnish the forums of the ten worst MMOs in circulation today. Some are unplayable, others simply have no players. I’ve decided to send them all to Room 101 because they are horribly bugged, filled with abysmal design flaws, or had outrageously lofty goals that no developer could ever hope to realise.

Oh and because they're all shit. I knew there was another reason...

10 - Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach – it's not like there's a lack of source material! Yet with over thirty years and a wealth of settings in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, developers Turbine chose the cruddy Eberron setting for their game which rolled a natural 20 on its Mediocrity Check. The game failed on almost every level with few, if any, of the features expected in a current generation MMO. The players came... and went back to their parent's basements with barely a whisper, leaving the tiny online world empty.

9 - Shadowbane — an exceptionally ambitious PvP based game that had some great features (that didn’t work at release). By the time Shadowbane was any good, the playerbase had already moved on to other games and didn’t look back. Shame, because the PvP was actually really good.

8 - Vanguard: Saga of Heroes – inferior fantasy MMO that couldn’t compete with existing games. Vanguard can still be found today at the back of seedy night clubs, drinking meths and lamenting the fact how it had twelve players at its height.

7 - Horizons: Empire of Istaria — the most horrifically bugged MMO ever to see release (I say release, meaning hastily flung together alpha code). It started badly and was a slow bleed to its inevitable doom. The game promised (before release) vast lands you could explore to find great adventure. It was true, the game did have vast lands – with absolutely nothing in them. You could walk for miles to find a single lone bush upon the ‘action packed’ landscape. Adventurers rejoice!

6 - Tabula Rasa — Richard Garriot’s lofty opus that actually turned out to be a steaming pile of shite. With a cruddy combat system and a background that changed from week to week in development, there wasn’t anything good about this game. All I have to say is: thank god for betas! It’s a shame, though, because the early design commentaries on this game were encouraging – until they realised putting in all their ideas would cost billions. So instead they settled for a shite game. Sounds like a reasonable compromise to me.

5 - Second Life – it’s more like a porn generator, OK if you want to pull one off to a pixellated whore (that could easily be Dave from Barnsley) offering simulated sexual services for e-currency. Personally, I prefer my porn in 1024 x 768 (or, more preferably, HD).

4 - Star Wars Galaxies — you knew this game was going to be shite when they announced there’d be no Jedi at launch. The most anticipated game in MMO history (and the quickest to go down the toilet) - the Force wasn’t anywhere near this game. It was a poorly realised Star Wars title, lite on the action, heavy on the bugs and glitches and piled high with liberal doses of mediocrity. Even hardcore MMO / Star Wars fans stayed clear of this steaming pile of bantha dung.

3 - The Saga of Ryzom — a bizarre French game that seemed to be released, while it was still in development! I know the more cynical of you would say “well, that’s every MMO ever released” but Ryzom really did seem to be released half finished (actually, half would be a huge exaggeration – the game lacked entire lands, classes, and monsters). Ultimately, boggling, baffling and utterly pointless. Unsatisfied with life, Ryzom has since had a sex change and now goes by the name of Daphne where it runs the 118 118 interchange. It's still shit.

2 - The Matrix Online - just like the Matrix Reloaded, this game was utterly devoid of redeeming features. It makes me wonder who signs these games off, as the game was released with few working features, a truly dire graphical engine, and a dismal random quest generation system. Bless ‘em, though. At least they tried. But like the two Matrix sequels, they really shouldn’t have bothered…

1 - All the Asian MMOs - . Yes, that’s right, I’m grouping them together as they’re so utterly derivative. They may look great (although telling one from the next can be tricky), but they’re little more than a huge grind with no story and little in the way of things to do other than endless scrapping. They're like sex with a gorgeous but very stupid woman. Something you'd do once (to say you'd been there and bought the t-shirt), and while you might go back from time to time, it's not something you'd want a long-term relationship (subscription) with.

OK, OK. Here are just some of the culprits. There’s probably ten more I could add to the list in the ten minutes since I last looked… like scabies, they’re unpleasant and almost impossible to get rid of: 2Moons, 9Dragons, Aion: The Tower of Eternity, ArchLord, Dungeon Runners, Lineage / Lineage II, Ragnarok Online.

Level 80

2008-11-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, had only been out a single day when a European group reached the level cap. It took around 13 hours for the team of gamers to hit the newly expanded level 80 limit.

Check it out for yourself at: http://www.worldofathene.com/records.php

Now, why am I even mentioning this? Well, while this always happens - especially in Warcraft - but it seems the people who hit the level cap first are always the first to gripe that there's nothing to do. Or that they're bored. Or that there's never anyone around their level to play with...

It's exactly the same in Warhammer Online. The game has been out six weeks and already people are complaining that the 'end game' isn't up to scratch (my character is only rank 19 out of 40 so I'm miles off the end game).

With MMOs being so popular these days, I can't see an end to the e-penis waving mentality that exists in online gaming, but if you're going to race to the level cap, you sure as hell better not come griping about the lack of content in game afterwards.

A Golden Age

2008-11-14T10:54:00.000-08:00

We're living a golden age of gaming right now, and it's never been more so than for the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Game.

Gamers have never had more choice in their games, from the classic grand daddy of the industry - Ultima Online, to the behemoth that is World of Warcraft.

This blog will discuss all aspects of MMO gaming, from new releases and patches to my thoughts on the games of the future.

Happy gaming.