Warhammer Online – May Require 2nd and 3rd Look

I let my nephews come over to play some of the WAR Preview Event.  Our plan has always been to move from WOW to WAR together.  I don’t play with them anymore per say and my son’s not here either but they still have an interest in changing games when WAR releases.

The deal was that I’d be playing during the daytime and early evening.  When I logged to do the usual weekend chores, they could take turns playing.  The oldest is 16 and his first impressions were, and I quote, “It sucks.”  He went on to explain that it looked just like WOW but the classes weren’t as good – animations, graphics, spells and abilities.  The younger one who is 12 thought it was, "Okay".  I tried explaining why WAR looked like WOW.  The oldest wasn’t hearing it and the youngest didn’t really care about why it looked like WOW, he just thought it was a rip-off.

The oldest reminded me that the first time he sat down to play WOW he picked a class, thought it was great and played for hours.  He went on to say that the same thing happened with AOC – he played non-stop the first time because it was so cool.  After an hour of playing, he didn’t get that same feeling from WAR.  I told him that I understood what he meant.  The game didn’t have that instant “gotcha hooked feeling”.  We were all heavily into PVP so I talked about the whole RVR thing and that the PVE was more like dressing on the side.  The last thing I suggested was that for whatever reason, I felt as though in order to enjoy WAR, you had to find the right class and racial zone. He rejected that idea and said that he knew what classes he liked, that he had researched the classes online but he didn’t like the way they played in WAR.

I gave up at that point.  WAR isn’t going to be for everyone.  I told him that the same thing had happened to me and I was starting to be doubtful  even though I'd found class that was alright but that all changed when I found the Bright Wizard.  The zone and combat style suited me perfectly and my excitment was pumped back to the top again.  That piqued his interest a little and he came to watch me play.  After a few minutes he asked if he could try her.  He tried some local mobs to get a feel for the spells.  I happened to be near the PQ area.  He tried that twice and one round of RVR before admitting, “Okay, that class is cool.” 

Later on in the day he saw me rock some RVR on the Warrior Priest.  He took over for a while and played.  At first he was trashing talking about playing Order, expecting to lose like Alliance in WOW. He ended up winning 2 out of 3 rounds.  I’m not sure he’s completely sold but he is a more open about it again.

I’m committed to playing WAR.  I’ve already found two great classes and two runners up.  I’ve never been a fond of Dwarves but I tried the Rune Priest to avoid playing anymore Empire content, and low and behold, I like it lots.  I had fun doing PQs and the RVR was a rush. 

WAR definitely has enough going for it to be my main squeeze for a while.  If you’ve tried the BETA, watched some video, read about it or whatever else people do to decide about a new MMO, consider that WAR is a game that might require a second and third look before reeling you in.  All zones and classes are not equal – some may work for you while others simply will not. If by chance you happen upon the ones that don’t work for you first, you may get the wrong impression.  Try other classes and zones.  Or it may be that this isn’t your game.  Not everyone likes WOW, EQ2, COH/COV, GW, AOC, etc.  This game is no different – some will like it, while others will not.

Comments

[JoBildo]

I was just saying this over at my site. It's not immediately apparent to someone who's only played WoW why you should care about WAR... but then I find that once that same person gets in on some RvR, or a PQ, and starts to see the little nuances that they realize what sets the two apart: purpose.

There's no purpose in WoW other than a selfish need for advancement and gear. In WAR, once it clicks that the game's actually about two warring sides with rewards as a motive for helping out, it's easy to get lost in it for hours.

[Treb]

I felt the same way your kids did Friday night. I woke up Saturday and played more and it felt better then for some reason. It still feels sluggish and the UI is horrid - can't read that font! I lost every single scenario as Order except for one. We're talking 10-15 of them! Feels just like WoW only better graphics. I do love the PQ's and how you aim the siege weapons.

I played WoW on Sunday tho, and didn't log into War. I may play it, maybe not.

[Shamutanti]

I think what's going to be the most interesting is that will we see alot of comments, like you mentioned, similar to your sons, from the majority of the players?

There's going to be a good percentage who don't have care why WAR looks like WoW (or visa versa), and there's going to be a good percentage who want things either spoonfed to them and/or explained quickly and simply, because they expect WoW+1.

WAR is going to suprise alot of people I think, and prehaps not for the best of reasons. They're 'expecting' one thing and most probably going to get something else.

[Heartless_]

It definitely takes a good few hours to lose the WoW mentality, a lot longer for close-minded players. It took me probably ten levels to adjust, which is better than AoC, where I never truly felt I had adjusted to the combat.

I think we all realize there is issues with WAR's combat currently. It is not fluid and that is one thing that WoW absolutely nailed.

I believe it is mainly perception. The UI isn't on the same page as the actual timers and the slower auto-attack, lack of good visual feedback, and the fact that things have more hit points really warps players perceptions.

[Openedge1]

I have not played WoW in over a year now. I wonder if WAR may be fun because I do not have the "WoW" mentality to ruin it.
But, I am still stuck with the Global Cooldown combat which keeps looking slow to me. The visuals are muddy which from my understanding will look better on release. Guess I need to see that also.
I always just think of Vanguard or LOTRO in respects to how I will feel about the visual quality of a game that no matter how fun it may be, if I think it looks ugly, I will not WANT to play it long.
I thought the UI though was totally configurable, but I see comments about fonts...wonder what gives there?

Hopefully they have stuff waiting in the wings to improve on some issues.

Cheers

[Saylah]

@JoBildo - WOW nailed that out of the gate experience. The games overall style is over the top and larger than life in all aspects. It's going to be hard for any game to replicate that in the first 30 minutes of play like Blizzard did. I think AOC replicated it only because their combat was so unique and added real-time strategy into it regardless of how button mashing it is as the sequences progress. I tried several classes across the same exact content and each time it felt measurably different because of the combat.

@Sham - I suspect that WOW players who are still very engaged in WOW might not find WAR to their liking only because they have no incentive to push thru to finding what makes WAR stand out. Some will say that you shouldn't have to push thru. However, from where I sit, I've had to do that in every single MMO except WOW. There's nothing initially about EQ2 that screamed to me I must play this game, or all the others I've tried except Blizzard's baby.

I almost walked from AOC the first evening because I disliked the casters and that's what I always play. But having already purchased the darn thing, I tried melee and found a class that I really enjoyed. I still say the AOC Bear Shaman is one of the best executed melee healing classes I've ever seen. Unfortunately for AOC, I needed more than that to stay subscribed. I think the game will be much better this time next year and can see myself re-subbing in the future.

@Heartless - As much as we talk about how remarkably well Blizzard executed WOW as a game and how much it dominates the market, I still think we under estimate the broad reaching influence it's had on player perceptions. Expectations for millions of players have been forever shifted. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I just don't people should be expecting a WOW-like or Blizzard-like experience on every damn MMO that releases from now until they fade into the background.

I do agree with your specific about the combat. That simply must be improved if they want to grab people that are on the fence, and particularly those coming from WOW. Auto-attack is so slow as to be pointless unless your AFK. And yes, there is something off in the timing. Sometimes I'm not sure if the ability was activated, if I didn't have essence, action pts, etc to execute it or it's just plain old lag.

Then last night I hit the crashing to the desktop with no error bug. Oh my gosh that was annoying. That must be fixed. I started crashing every 15 mins or so and finally gave up. Until that point I'd had a pretty bug free experience.

[Saylah]

@Open - I had combat issues as I've mentioned. With it being beta, I couldn't tell what might have been preview weekend lag, a bug, my own misunderstanding or it was just the way it worked. They will have to fix this or lose customers.

[Khan]

I think the same is true of most games. I need to let go of any preconceived notions I may have about it and just try to play it on its own terms. It was the same when I went from CoH to WoW: I didn't care for the graphics difference, the combat style or the animations, but it later grew on me and became the only thing I'd play for a number of years.

Oddly enough, I think the hype engine surrounding some games may work to their detriment. If people come to WAR thinking it will be WoW, only better, they'll probably be disappointed. WAR isn't WoW, it's WAR. They'll be similar in many ways and different in many other ways.

[Sham wow]

The reasons from the boys are why video game companies are in biz :D

-John