I was reading an article talking about the game celebrating its 2 year anniversary and my first reaction was “is that game still going?”. When I started playing I could see it had a huge amount of potential, but the dispersal of the population amongst servers meant that the game just often didn’t have the critical mass of players you needed in each area to realise the bloody and frantatic fighting experience you were promised (I remember playing in the Dark Elf tier 2 region and being one of 3 players there at the time!).
Mythic recognised a lot of these issues and consolidated a lot of the servers together so the population is pretty much in one place. They’re also running a re-enlistment offer for people who had either gone inactive or had closed their accounts giving you 14 days free playtime to check it out. I decided to take them up on that and see what it was like.
I have to say after just a day playing I’m already encouraged by the changes. The game itself has been tweaked and updated to be better, but more importantly there are people around! I stared a new character and the number of people in the starting zone was much higher (although I think that has a lot to do with the fact that by default all races in a faction now start in the same zone to keep populations high, although you’re given a scroll to transfer to the other starting points if you want). A friend and I were playing together yesterday and it is good fun, I can see myself getting into it more when I move past tier 1 and into the next zone. Not sure what it’s like in other tiers and if the keep raids and city sacks are actually happening regularly or not - that was supposed to be the whole point of the end game after all.
Is anyone else playing still, or has gone back to it/is considering it?
Did WAR mean to be DAOC? I thought the whole point was to take the RvR mechanic and improve it, not simply replicate it at implemented in DAOC (I speak as someone who played DAOC and thought it was awful - WAR is tons more fun to play.
My post intended to say that WAR should have tried to be DAoC (or at least emulate its RvR mechanic). Given DAoC’s success (albeit small due to lack of advertising and other foolishness), I don’t know why they tried to be like WoW. I’m not a WoW hater, either.
The reason you hated/hate DAoC is because I doubt you ever gave it a chance. It has a high learning curve, and it might not be for “noobs,” but it is by FAR the best PvP experience in an MMORPG to date (genre included for clarity). If you actually bothered to learn the mechanics/skills required to compete, you would quickly find out that it’s also one of the most challenging games to play effectively (especially for 8v8 fights).
Just a note that presuming to know another poster’s attributes (“noobishnes” in this case) very rarely ends well and the tone of your post is insulting. Tone it down.
I loved, loved, loved Tier 1 in WAR. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. I didn’t even make it to max level – I got one toon to Tier 3 and two toons to Tier 2, but when I found myself constantly rolling new toons just to keep playing in Tier 1, I decided it just wasn’t the game for me.
I was referring to the fact that the game has a high learning curve and would easily deter new players from venturing past the first few levels.
I did not mean to insult the OP. I was just informing him that his opinion of the game is common from those that don’t really play it for any length of time.
I played DAOC from inception and it suffers for much the same reason WAR does; Games that emphasis PvP over PvE are doomed to a PvP population.
Despite what most PvPers want to believe in the mmo market they are the much, much smaller player base.
If a game is to survive, and prosper, like WoW, they have to find a mean between the two. DAoC and War have not done this thus development of the games, dependent on market share, comes to a halt and becomes just a tired rehash of the launch of the game.
This said WAR continues to attempt to make improvements in RvR. The lower tiers are active and on the few servers that are left the highest tier is active. I would suggest the server badlands. With the mergers it has become “The” server to go to.
I still play Warhammer Online. I think the pvp (realm vs realm, actually) is a blast. You can jump in and fight from the very beginning, as you build your character. I’ve played a lot of mmorpg’s going all the way back to Meridian 59, and even though WAR has its issues, I find it to be a lot of fun for casual pvp.
I played it when it first came out and had a lot of fun until Tier 3. Then I took a short break and when I returned all Tier 1 was empty.
I came back 6 months later, Tier 1 was still empty.
I came back after they merged a lot of servers and Tier 1 was still empty.
Now there are only 2 English-language European servers, all new characters start in the same area (AFAIK). I’m tempted to re-activate my account one last time to see if the lower tiers actually have people playing them now…
Does anyone here play on the European servers? I had a brief look at the forums but all I could see was people complaining about low level twinks.
I loved the public quests and I was getting it to the PvP but I also like making new characters.
(For my money, the best PvP in any MMORPG was Ultima Online, Siege Perilous shard, before all the damn blessed items took over).
Playing DAoC since inception does not necessarily mean that you played it for very long or took the efforts to become competitive. If you did, I will consider your viewpoint reputable.
It does, however, have some truth to it. It has (and always will) cater to those willing to go the extra mile to be competitive in PvP. The PvE was ALWAYS lack-luster, but people knew that going into the game. The point is the endgame. RvR. Big, widespread battles for land, relics, and bragging rights. There was a little something for everyone. Small skirmishes. 1v1 fights (though you’d better make sure you’re somewhat hidden!), group fights, large zerg vs. zerg fights, etc. It truly is one of the greatest PvP experiences in an MMO to date. I can only thinkg of Ultimate Online coming close, only because it was true PvP and none of that carebear stuff. DAoC blends both very well.
That said, I never wrote off WAR. I gave it a chance. It always felt so hollow and WoW-ish. Instanced PvP is just not for me. It may be for you and that’s great.
But WAR doesn’t consist of just instanced PvP, there are the open regions where there is mass PvP that also counts towards RvR too. Did you try that? Plus you’re still coming across as seriously condescending here - “If you did, I will consider your viewpoint reputable.”? :rolleyes:
Mjinks - I was playing on the European servers and tier 1 is teeming with people now due to the start area merging and server consolidation. If you want to give it a go again they have an endless trial running which lets you play for as long as you want, but you can’t progress past tier 1.
Yes, I tried it. It just wasn’t for me. Too much like WoW.
There is a distinction between an educated opinion and making assertions based on 2-3 weeks of play. “Playing since inception” could mean a great number of things. Playing for 2 weeks after the game launches and dismissing it as a failure is hardly grounds for a reputable opinion. It could be said that I did this with WAR, but I have returned once or twice after allowing the game to mature and the gameplay was still dull to me. Feel free to disagree. I’m not forcing anyone to agree with that statement. Just seems fairly common sense to me.
If he actually HAS played since launch and for a large length of time, then sure, I think he’d be more qualified to speak negatively about the game. It is not without its flaws.
I don’t find WAR to be much like WoW, and I played WoW for many years. I’ve played WAR for the two years it’s been live. WAR has a lot of ups and downs. It’s had truly horrible phases. It has changed a great deal over time. Some changes were crap, and some improved the game.
The push has been to make people stay out in the open RvR areas, and these days there’s a lot of skirmish much like what you find in tier one, along with great battles over keeps. I don’t bother with the pve, if I can help it. Other games do that better, and I find it dull compared to the wackiness of fighting unpredictable humans.
I do find tier 4 very grindy. I’ve mainly played on the American servers, but lately, to escape tier 4, I’ve been playing on Karak Norn, which is one of the English/Euro servers. So far, so good, during their prime time.
I noticed they were offering me 14 days free if I reactivated my account, so I did.
I created a new character on Karak Norn and it certainly seems more populated than last time. I took part in a couple of public quests and noticed there is a lot of activity in the Tier 1 PvP areas. I hope to join in the RvR action soon (hopefully it’s not all twinks v’ twinks).
It probably wasn’t a good idea to take advantage of the free 14 days 2 days before Fallout NV comes out though…