Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
|
|
Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:47 pm :: silex
Posts: 873 • Guild: Pirate Ghost Cows • Class: Zealot • Joined: 17 Feb 2006
|
 |
|
|
|
http://www.mmo-gamer.com/?p=333
You only get one chance to make a first impression…
It was August of last year when I got my first good look at Warhammer Online, after being dispatched to cover it during Games Day LA… which was actually not in LA at all, but in Ontario, a city about as far away from LA as you can get before you start running into the guys from Deliverance.
In the interest of full disclosure, I had perhaps not been following the game’s development as closely as I should have, considering the fact that I was about to conduct a twenty minute interview on the subject.
Aside from a brief stopover at the official site to sign up for beta, I had, in fact, purposefully tried to not look at any screenshots, watch any videos, or read so much as a single article regarding the game, anywhere.
This was not for any lack of interest in my part. WAR was, and continues to be, one of my most eagerly anticipated games. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, launch day will undoubtedly find me logging in the moment the live servers come up for the first time.
Rather, it was due to a policy I’d been forced to adopt after a number of… incidents… in which my high hopes for certain games—which shall remain nameless—were subsequently dashed by the cold truths of harsh reality.
As a result, I now make it a point to not believe a single shred of hype surrounding a game until I’ve logged in to see it in action for myself.
This policy has served me well as a gamer; I can never be disappointed if I have no preconceived expectations to be broken. But, I now found it was not serving me particularly well as I walked into an interview blind, with only a list of generalist questions in my head and the hope that more specifics would come to me once I’d gotten some game time under my belt.
Still, I decided that I could turn this situation to my advantage. How many opportunities does one have to offer up a truly genuine, unsullied first impression on a title of Warhammer’s caliber?
So, after making acquaintances with the staff manning the booth, and positioning myself in front of a vacant demo unit, I found myself logging in to WAR for the very first time, on an Empire Bright Wizard by the name of Glowir.
And, as a result of my willful ignorance regarding the game, the following represents the very first impression that came into my mind, from the moment the loading screen had passed, as near as I can recall it:
This looks a hell of a lot like WoW.
And it did. There was no denying it. From the low-poly engine, to the cartoony models, even the UI layout—everything had an immediate sense of… familiarity. It was nearly déjà vu… as if suddenly it were 2004, all over again.
Well, I told myself, appearances can be deceiving. Don’t judge a book by its cover, and all of that. Let’s see how it plays.
Unfortunately, this thought was very shortly thereafter followed by another: This plays a hell of a lot like WoW, too.
Once again, there was the immediate sense of familiarity. Similar skills, similar casting times, similar mana requirements… tab to target, press 1 for Blaze, repeat until dead… Replace “Blaze” with “Frostbolt” and I was already having horrid flashbacks of nearly wearing out the 1 on my keyboard through two years of heavy raiding.
Even the universal cooldown seemed to be on nearly the exact same timer.
But, of course, first impressions are very often misleading.
The more I played, the more I saw that while there were many similarities to WoW, there were just as many differences. The graphics, while admittedly drawn from the same vein, are darker, the textures having a certain grit to them, lending the game a more somber atmosphere. I didn’t see one purple tree or pink striped tiger the entire time.
And, as everyone from Mythic I spoke to was very quick to point out, it was Warcraft that ripped off Warhammer, not the other way around.
Alright… so maybe the game wasn’t exactly trying to reinvent the wheel. That’s fine. As long as it’s fun and entertaining to the point of justifying $14.95 a month, it doesn’t need to.
Unfortunately, what I saw that day of the early game was not particularly fun, or entertaining.
I made it a point to log in to each available newbie area in turn, and note the very first quest the NPC standing nearest the character’s starting position offered. I’ve always been of the opinion that the first quest is the most important of the entire game. This is where you get your hook into a potential player. Nothing less than your absolute best will do.
With this in mind, the quests I received were, in no particular order:
Kill three bandits.
Kill five squibs.
Open some barrels.
Kill zombies and loot their body parts.
The second and third quests didn’t get much better.
At this point I would like to issue a retraction of my prior statement. This wasn’t 2004 all over again. This was 1998 all over again.
I decided that I’d seen enough to get the ball rolling with some starter questions, and, after concluding my interview with Adam Gershowitz—in which I had to forcibly restrain myself several times from bringing up comparisons to WoW—I was eager to find out if RvR would smooth over my jadedness in a way that PvE had not.
I am pleased to say that it was some of the best PvP I’d played in years. Which shouldn’t be at all surprising, based on the lessons they’ve undoubtedly drawn upon in the time since DAoC was released.
In particular, the factoid that I was most pleased with was that it’s entirely possible to go from level one to cap doing nothing but killing people. I, for one, am very likely to put that claim to the test.
As my last round of RvR drew to a close I lingered around the booth, discussing aspects of the game with anyone I could get to listen. I brought up my concerns over the starter quests, and asked what they thought was really going to set the game apart from its competition. After mentioning the game’s focus on RvR, and its abundant instanced scenarios in which to practice it, one of the staffers suggested:
“You might want to talk to Carrie about the Tome of Knowledge.”
This was how I came to meet Carrie Gouskos.
If you ever ask someone involved in the process of hiring people to work in the gaming industry what they’re looking for in an applicant, nine times out of ten the answer will be, “Passion!” It takes a whole lot of passion to work fourteen hours a day for thirty thousand dollars a year on salary.
The next time Carrie Gouskos is up for a promotion, “lack of passion” will most decidedly not be an issue at her review.
She bounded up to us, grinning from ear to ear, seemingly giddy with excitement at the prospect of being able to discuss what I quickly discerned to be her pride and joy. “Did someone say Tome of Knowledge?”
She immediately began laying out for me some of the finer points, but I stopped her long enough to retrieve my voice recorder, and subsequently went on to conduct what would turn out to be my shortest published interview to date (though, the record for the site overall is likely held by our interview with John Romero).
We had already been introduced, but I asked her to offer up her name and position again for the record:
Carrie Gouskos: My name is Carrie Gouskos, I’m the designer on the Tome of Knowledge.
The MMO Gamer: Tell us about this Tome of Knowledge of yours.
Carrie Gouskos: The Tome of Knowledge is one of the things that we think is pretty defining of the game. It’s a great big resource that touches every part of the game, and it has all kinds of different aspects to it. One aspect is it has a sort of an encyclopedia where it tells you all the things that are in the game, so that if you don’t know what a squig is, the first time you encounter one you’re going to get a little bit of information, some lore…
The MMO Gamer: So it’s a bit like Wikipedia from within the game?
Carrie Gouskos: Exactly. And I like to say it’s Wikipedia meets Xbox 360’s achievement points system. What we do is we then incorporate all that information into the game, and then mix it up by having it unlock things, hidden things to find, you get XP, you get rewards, items, titles, things like that.
All of that kind of plays into the idea that we want you to want the things the Tome of Knowledge has, and desperately collect them. We want to reward people who do crazy things. If you’re the person that climbs the top of the mountain, just because you want to know what’s on top of the mountain our intention is to try to reward those people in fun ways that other people who play the game in different ways might not be able to experience.
The MMO Gamer: Aside from being a lore system, what sort of specific rewards could a player expect to receive from it?
Carrie Gouskos: There’s XP bonuses, there’s all kinds of rewards. Most of them we like to call rewards that you want to covet. They’re not so much necessary. We’re not going to force anyone to use the Tome of Knowledge to get something they have to have later on—it’s more like you do something and you get this really cool looking trophy that only you have, or this really funny title that only you have, and then you’re playing the game and someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, how did you get that?” and you’re like, “Well, I killed a hundred million squigs, what are you gonna do?!”
I would have liked to have continued this line of discussion, perhaps getting into the relative merits of such a system versus other possible methods of advancement and lore dissemination… but, you try coming up with intelligent questions when a hundred nerds are shouting “WAAAAAAGH!” at the top of their lungs from the opposite end of the convention hall and see if you fare any better.
Still, I was glad that I’d spoken with her. The Tome of Knowledge, so far, was to me one of WAR’s most interesting features, and the most dreaded. I’m the type of person who goes to Wikipedia with the intention of doing a quick look up on something, and suddenly I glance at the clock, it’s six hours later, and I’m reading the entry for Alpaca domestication in Peru with no memory of how I’d got there.
Following our brief interview I found myself hearing the call of the open road, and got my things together to leave.
I remembered all of the years I went to E3 with an Exhibits Only badge (which, for those of you who have never been, marked me as the lowest form of human life on Earth, below even child molesters and used car salesmen, unworthy of so much as eye contact from the ubermensch who roamed the halls), cursing “those media bastards” who cut in front of me in line and proceeded to be showered with swag and personalized demos for hours on end.
I didn’t want to be that guy.
So, although this was my first opportunity to get hands-on with the game, and being an MMO connoisseur I could have played like the day is long, I exercised restraint, and limited myself to four fifteen minute play sessions before saying goodbye and being on my merry way.
…Until you get a second one
As someone who often worries myself that I give other people the wrong first impression, I was in no mood for any rush to judgment after playing what was, admittedly, a very short amount of time in a relatively early build.
So, I held off on writing anything, one way or the other, until I had the opportunity to experience more of the game had to offer, in order to craft a somewhat more well-rounded opinion of it.
As they have yet to let me into beta, that opportunity would come some two months after Games Day, at E for All.
I’ve already gone into what a horrible, horrible convention E for All was in a prior article, so I’ll spare you the sordid details here. Suffice it to say, I estimate that I spent somewhere between nine and ten hours over the course of three days playing WAR, just to try and distract myself from the fact that I was there.
In that respect, the game succeeded. And, more importantly, I now feel better equipped to answer my earlier question: Is the game worth paying $14.95 a month for?
Since there are, as we are frequently reminded, two halves to the game, both of equal import, I will answer that question twice.
First off, is RvR worth it?
From what I saw, absolutely. There are few things in this world more entertaining than getting together with a group of people, working in harmony like a well-oiled killing machine, and dishing out complete and utter annihilation to all comers.
WAR accomplishes that very well.
And let me tell you something: Bright Wizard is a very satisfying class to play. Your basic objective on the character is to light your opponent on fire as much as you possibly can, and then make them explode. I think I’ve got which class I’m going to be playing come release all nailed down.
I would have liked to have experienced some world PvP, but, as beta was shut down at the time, that would have been a bit difficult to pull off. I did try to do a bit of exploring into contested areas, looking to see if they’d added places you could take and hold, chokepoints, things like that… but, mostly just wound up being turned into a chicken for my troubles due to their anti-griefing mechanism.
Assuming they can get some semblance of balance going between the factions (no easy task, considering the amount of classes they have to work with), I could easily see RvR being able to hold even the most hardcore of player’s attentions for months on end.
But, you know how that old saying goes about assumptions. Take the Witch Hunter, for instance…
I made the mistake of selecting it for a round of RvR, which was admittedly based solely off appearances. Its stylish hat and large blunderbuss drew me in.
I must not have run into too many witches on the character, because I was soundly defeated by just about everyone I faced. From seven foot tall orks choppa’ing me to bits, to miniscule goblins melting my skin off, I was on the ground eating dirt for the better part of the entire round.
Finally, at what was then the lowest point of my gaming life, I was meleed to death… by a mage.
Surely, I thought, should I live for another thousand years nothing could ever possibly top that one.
How very wrong I was.
A few hours later, when I had once again wandered back to the EA booth to try and get the taste of E for All out of my mouth, I decided that, perhaps, the Witch Hunter just wasn’t balanced for PvP yet. I’d give PvE a try, and attempt to reclaim my honor. Moments later, I found my character assuming the familiar position of face down in the dirt, soundly defeated once more… by a rat.
I just sat there in stunned silence for a moment, not quite believing my eyes. Then, the magnitude of what had just occurred washed over me, and I rushed to grab my camera.
It was such an auspicious occasion, I took several photos for posterity, and then turned to a Mythic staffer who was sitting at the next demo unit, thrust my hand out for a shake, and declared, “Congratulations! You have managed to create the first MMO in history in which I have ever been killed by a rat!”
She seemed to think I was genuinely upset about this, and rushed to offer to guide me to a nearby trainer because, surely, the character just hadn’t gotten all of its skills yet.
Having established that the character did, indeed, have all of its skills trained, she offered a noncommittal shrug that seemed to say, “I guess you just suck,” before returning to her duties.
So, being killed by a rat notwithstanding, was the PvE side worth paying $14.95 a month?
I can only speak for the very early game (levels 1-10) and there… not so much.
I’ll just come out and say this as plainly as I can: If you’ve played an MMO in the past ten years, you’ve probably already seen everything the early PvE game in WAR has to offer.
And beyond that, I couldn’t get a straight answer on any plans for PvE content in the end-game aside from, “Yes, we are planning on having some.”
Of course, a week is a lifetime in politics, and the same could be said of a couple months in MMO development.
The game’s beta stoppage (which I commend them for implementing, as it shows a willingness to correct any mistakes or shortcomings, rather than just plowing ahead with an attitude of “We know what’s best for you”), was in progress the last time I played, and, for all I know the early game in WAR is now the mythical Shangri-la of old, with not a rat killing quest in sight.
I doubt it. But, anything is possible.
All of that’s not to say that there weren’t some interesting additions to the usual MMO formula of “changing just enough from the last game so as to not get sued.”
For instance, taking the “I have a quest for you” icon from over NPC’s head (ala WoW) and the minimap (ala LOTRO) to the logical next step, by putting the “I have a quest for you icon” on the world map itself.
Though purists from the olden days who fondly hearken back to running from NPC to NPC hitting the Hail button until one talks back will undoubtedly decry this as “the further dumbing down of MMOs,” I found it very agreeable.
When I’m leveling up in a game, the first thing I generally do upon reaching a new town is run to all four corners of it collecting every quest I can find along the way, so this saves a lot of legwork.
As a writer, though, I do take umbrage at marking not only the quest NPC, but also the location of the objective they give you on the map. Players generally never read quest descriptions these days anyway, because they have a tendency to be boilerplate “The rats are attacking the town, go forth and slay them!” drivel, but now, players don’t even have to bother to skim the quest text until they get to the part about where they’re supposed to be going.
And that’s a shame, because from what I saw, the writers are doing a commendable job of bringing the Warhammer universe to life. When you talk to an ork, you can almost hear the Cockney accent in your head, along with them calling you a git and telling you to sod off.
Another place the writing really shines was in some of the item and skill names… Honestly, I think I’d be safe in saying that “Right In Da Jibblies” (with an accompanying icon to the same effect) is the greatest skill I’ve ever come across in MMO gaming history.
And about that interview…
I also had the chance to conduct another interview at E for All, this one with Josh Drescher, one of the game’s producers and senior designers. A very nice guy, much like everyone else I’d met from the WAR team.
They must leave all the jerks back at home in Fairfax when convention time rolls around.
In the interview I asked him two questions that I already knew the answers to, but wanted to hear the rationale behind them being the way they were. And, just so no one thinks I was being thick as a post by asking them in the first place, I’d like to add in a bit of context.
First, was my question about whether or not WAR would be better served by an M rating. Josh later went on to make a post on his blog regarding that very question. It would seem he gets asked it a lot. And, as he’s probably going to get a trackback on said blog from that link: Hi, Josh, been awhile.
In his denunciation of the M he brings up some entirely valid points (particularly with regards to the marketability angle), but, I think he also misses a larger issue here while attempting to dismiss the first one: Why does he keep getting asked this question in the first place? Is it that gaming journalists are so utterly bereft of ideas they just can’t think of anything better to ask?
Or, is there something else? Something inherent in the Warhammer DNA that lends itself to the sort of over-the-top violence which necessitates an M, to the point that we find ourselves asking incredulously, “Come on, a T? You guys are joking, right?”
Every Warhammer-based PC game released this decade (that I could find) has had an M rating. Were the designers of those games just not clever enough to do an end-run around the ESRB using the sort of Simpsons-esque innuendo Josh describes?
But, all of this is just beating a dead horse. The decision was made long before this article was written, and nothing anyone says, least of all me, is going to get someone back at Mythic HQ to stand up and shout, “By God, that man is right! Call a meeting of the art leads, I want to see GEYSERS of blood the next time a mob gets so much as a paper cut by this time tomorrow!”
So, let’s move on…
The second question I asked while already knowing the answer was the one regarding any plans to port rules from the tabletop version of Warhammer, and applying them to the MMO.
I could have told you the answer to that one was no after playing the game for two seconds. Still…
Back at Games Day, I caught Adam Gershowitz returning to the Mythic booth from the show floor, cradling bags which seemed to be full of model kits, and overheard Carrie Gouskos discussing the game nights they held at the office, confiding that she, too, had been hooked into them and now enjoyed wargaming herself.
Clearly, there was no shortage of awareness of the material here, and, being at Games Day, they (and I) got to meet the most rabid fans that Warhammer had to offer face to face.
Take the most diehard Star Wars nerd you know, add in a heavy dose of Star Trek and Lord of the Rings fetishism, then stain his clothes with paint, cover his fingers with glue and fill his pockets with D6 dice, and you start to get a sense for the fanaticism of the average Warhammer tabletop player.
These were not people to be trifled with. They may not be able to cause much of a ruckus in real life from the spare bedroom in their mother’s house, but believe you me, they can write you one hell of a flame on every message board they can find.
So, I wanted to hear the reasons why (aside from the obvious one that tabletop gaming and MMOs are two different kettles of fish entirely) they were essentially throwing out twenty-five years of Games Workshop’s rules, and starting over from scratch.
If Turbine were to announce a sequel to DDO by saying “We really like Forgotten Realms, but, we’re just using the setting this time. We’ve decided that AD&D really isn’t appropriate in an MMO, and if you read some of Ed Greenwood’s books…” there would be a riot in the streets in front of their office.
But, again, I’m beating a dead horse.
Summarizing a 4,000 word writeup…
When all is said and done, what was my overall impression of Warhammer Online?
That it’s going to be a solid horserace for a new number two MMORPG this year between it and Conan.
Taking into consideration Funcom’s checkered history in the genre, and what I would assume to be the greater popularity of the Warhammer universe over Conan, I’d put my money on WAR.
Why settle for number two? Well, let’s not kid ourselves here; nothing is going to touch WoW until World of Starcraft is released. And, if EA, Funcom, or anyone else has even the slightest notion of trying to release within the same 90 day period as Wrath of the Lich King, may God have mercy on them, because Blizzard will have none. |
| |
Last edited by silex on Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:27 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
