Warhammer Online

Sep 15, 2008

When it comes to launching a massively multiplayer online game, there are "good problems" to have and there are "bad problems." Poor server stability is a bad problem. If there's lots of bugged content, holes in the gameplay experience or gameplay systems that don't work, that's also a bad problem. Players arguing about class balance and server populations, screaming about different rule sets, and declaring endless vendettas against rival guilds... those are good problems. When the oft-delayed and highly anticipated MMO based on Games Workshop's beloved table-top strategy game, Warhammer, began its "Head Start" program for Collector's Edition players on September 15, this marked the end of the beta program and the first moments of "real gameplay." GameSpy, of course, jumped into Warhammer Online feet-first, swinging a sword and yelling with bloodlust. What we've found so far has been pretty extraordinary -- a game replete with "good problems."

Stability in an Unstable World

The first question of any MMO launch is "How's the server stability?" This, naturally, is impossible to judge until the "real" opening day on Thursday when servers get hit with thousands of level 1 characters all going after the same unfortunate piece of local fauna for 75 XP. That said, Warhammer Online feels remarkably stable considering how prone to crashes the game was just a few weeks ago. In a day or so of testing, we've experienced only one soft crash to desktop and a minimum of in-game glitches and bugs. They're there, of course; we've seen at least a couple of mobs that seem frozen in time and can't be targeted or killed, and we hit an animation bug where our character got stuck in a "looting motion" that necessitated a restart. Considering the state that some MMOs have launched in, though, Warhammer Online's very completeness bodes well.

There's more than our basic testing to offer hope, however: there's the reaction of the player base. In-game chatter seems to be more concerned with perceived shortcomings in things like class balance, server populations, the need to make adjustments to Scenarios and RvR because the landscape is biased toward one side or another (as evidenced by the last 10 matches the player participated in and lost). For Mythic Entertainment, such complaints must be music to their ears -- if players are yelling about "overpowered classes," it means they're at least playing the game and not being bothered by technical glitches.

Nerf Warrior Priests!

The more we play the launch version of Warhammer Online, the more impressed we become with some of the brilliant decisions the developers at Mythic made. One of the key problems that beset World of Warcraft at launch was a massive server population imbalance between Alliance and Horde, one that the game is still dealing with. In a game as dependent upon universal PvP and RvR conflict as Warhammer Online, such a problem could be deadly. Despite this, the server populations seem to be pretty balanced between Order and Destruction.

The reason for that suddenly became clear as we were recreating our characters for the Warhammer Online head start. Looking at the choices a player is presented when they first log in to the game, we realized that aesthetically speaking, a player has the same basic choices no matter which side he or she chooses. Both sides have Elves as their "pretty" race. Players can choose between noble, upright elegance and a smoldering dark sexiness. Chaos and the Empire are both made up of humans. This gives new players a nice point of "at least I'm a person" familiarity to choose from.

It's the Dwarf race where Mythic's artists really earned their paycheck. Put simply, Dwarves in Warhammer Online are ugly -- in a good way. They're as aesthetically unappealing (at least initially) as their Orc counterparts. This isn't really an issue for Warhammer fans, of course, who have developed a great affection for both races and would no doubt bristle at them being called "ugly." For those new to the franchise or those coming over from another MMO, paying attention to little details like keeping an aesthetic balance between the sides that most players never think about will ultimately have a huge impact on the ultimate health of the game.

We've also been impressed by the breadth of the game's class structure. Although several classes were cut from the game prior to release, the twenty that remain offer an impressive level of variety and strategic opportunities for players of all types. Throughout the beta, we've tried out all twenty and debated the pros and cons of each -- why we were picking what we would eventually pick and while all of them have things to recommend them, there was one common denominator so universal we had never even remarked on it before: They were all fun to play.

That's not to say that there aren't issues, of course. Even at this early stage days before anyone has hit max level and really begun testing classes in heated Tier 4 combat, there are already impressions out there that some classes are overpowered and some need help. Magus players, for example, are seething that their Order counterpart, the Dwarf Engineer, seems to put out a ton more damage and have a lot more utility than they do. Sorceresses and Bright Wizards are more than living up their "nuker" designations to the point where tank classes are complaining because they can't get near them and everyone -- even Order players -- seems to agree that Warrior Priests are nigh-on-unkillable. Such discussions are par for the course for any MMO but while classes will no doubt be buffed or nerfed, there doesn't seem to be much perception that any of them aren't enjoyable to play.

Level 6 and Counting

There's much more to explore in Warhammer Online, of course. The true "Day One" crush is yet to come and that will be the game's first true test. The high-level game has yet to undergo the kind of hardcore abuse it's about to suffer and no one has yet finished any of the endgame content in anything approaching real-world conditions. Despite this, our hopes remain high for the eventual success of the game. As the Game's beta eases into the first day of real play, it looks like the Mythic team and Warhammer Online are as ready as they're ever going to be.

Waaaaaggggghhhh! is about to begin.