With all the hussle and bussle of MMO Fallout, it’s easy for announcements of announcements to be buried under the tussle and forgotten forever. Luckily for me, I couldn’t forget about the Warhammer Online announcement announced by a blogger very early this month, offering no details other than, “it isn’t what you think,” leading myself to assume that the announcement is probably not free to play, nor is it Warhammer shutting down, and certainly not the reintroduction of Taco Tuesday at the Mythic offices.
It is substantial news. However, it is probably not what you’re thinking it is. I was quite surprised when they told us about it. Is that cryptic enough? Don’t worry about it too much though, as we may see an official announcement in a few weeks.
Take it how you will, the War On The Road article was released last week, and contains one cryptic clue:
The end of August will also see an announcement about our future plans for Warhammer Online.
I don’t make myself out to be an expert in the business side of MMOs, although I do try my best when writing articles here at MMO Fallout, even I recognize that the prospect of Warhammer Online going free to play is a tough one. On one side you have monetization, the need to populated the cash shop with items people would want to buy without feeling they need to buy. On the other side, Warhammer is primarily a player vs player title, so placing armor, weapons, or buff potions on the cash shop is a minefield Mythic would have to tiptoe quite carefully over. With a cash shop, Warhammer takes the risk of bringing in new (albeit less loyal) players at the risk of alienating their current base.
But this article doesn’t have much to do with free to play, at least not presumably. Earlier this week, Mythic took in a few WAR bloggers to see some interesting material regarding some upcoming patches. Thanks to the j0y of a magical document we call a non-disclosure agreement, we won’t hear about what that information is until some point in the near future.
From what we do know so far, it appears there will be a focus on fortresses, incentives to defend, and new zones. Other than that, as blogger Werit posted:
It is substantial news. However, it is probably not what you’re thinking it is. I was quite surprised when they told us about it. Is that cryptic enough? Don’t worry about it too much though, as we may see an official announcement in a few weeks.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is not a sandbox title. Let me say that again for emphasis: The Old Republic, developed by EA/Mythic/Bioware, is not. a. sandbox title. That is a very simple recipe of “this is not Star Wars Galaxies 2.” I don’t know why Bioware needs to reiterate this on a constant basis, but once again the usual troop of Galaxies vets have come in to make demands that the developers never promised and only they were expecting to begin with.
Although granted, we had this same conversation with Clone Wars Adventures, where I had to point out that the game is for children. Over on the Old Republic forums, Georg Zoeller posted in a thread asking for sandbox elements, to clarify once again that TOR is not a sandbox game.
There will certainly be out-of-combat player activities and activities that promote social interaction in the game, but you will not be able to take a job as a moisture farmer on Tatooine and simulate the life of such an individual in our game.
Zoeller states that concepts like player built housing are not completely off the table, just low priority. As far as MMO terms go, you can pick up your tickets at the booth, because TOR is about as theme-park as it gets.
In short: Uncle Owen and his life is not the kind of heroic journey we’re going for with this game. (The jawa’s with their rocket launchers wouldn’t make that a very fun activity anyway).
The amount of misinformation around The Old Republic is less surprising when you recognize that it’s looking to be one of 2011’s big players.
Back in March, I mentioned a Warhammer Online campaign on Facebook with simple terms: Once the WAR Facebook profile hit five thousand likes, the price of the RvR Booster Double Pack would be dropped (permanently) to $9.99. At the time, if my memory servers correctly, Warhammer carried around fourteen hundred (1,400) likes. I also compared the move to Jagex having a poll to bring back the wilderness, but then starting work on development before the poll had even finished, because they knew what the outcome would be, and simply wanted some free press.
Well, as of Monday, the Warhammer Facebook page has hit five thousand likes, and the price for the RvR Booster pack has dropped to $9.99. All in all, slightly over a month.
On another Warhammer Online note, I have a big stick to raise with the team at Mythic. Perhaps you should consider making the Herald the home page for Warhammeronline.com. When I go to your website, the first thing I see is a news section, with the latest news being “Return to War” and “Patch 1.3.1,” from September 1st and August 31st of last year, respectively.
That’s just my morning two cents on the matter. It’s a small aesthetic change, but in a world where Warhammer’s active status is constantly in question, every little bit helps.
The folks at Warhammer Online have a simple task for their fans. Get five thousand “likes” on Facebook, and the company will reduce the RvR Booster Double Pack down to $9.99 from its original $14.99 price. To my knowledge, there is no time limit on this promotion, although I have to express my doubts that Mythic will just sit around waiting for the Facebook page to someday hit five thousand likes.
As it stands, the push behind this advertising jingle goes to question how many people are still playing Warhammer Online, and whether or not Mythic is running this promotion because they know the votes are going to be there, or because five thousand people hitting “like” on Facebook would be considered a challenge compared to how many play the game.
Still, five thousand likes seems a little low. By comparison, Crimecraft has 6,000 likes.
Does anyone else remember the excitement you felt when you learned that Richard Garriot was back and making MMOs? I believe it was 2005/2006 that Tabula Rasa was fully announced and confirmed to be in development, and many of us just couldn’t wait to see what Garriot’s twisted mind would come up with. Another Ultima Online, perhaps?
SecondStar Interactive is a new studio formed out of names we know well.
Darrin Hyrup: Founder of Mythic Entertainment.
Lory Hyrup: Lead Designer of Dark Age Of Camelot.
Cooper Buckingham: From Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, The Sims, and Gods & Heroes.
Tim Cotten: Ultima Online.
Eric Piccione: Art Director responsible for the look of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
What type of MMO is SecondStar working on? I have absolutely no clue. All we know is that the game is running off the HeroEngine, the same engine you’ll find in Star Wars: The Old Republic and a few other upcoming titles.
I know what some of you are thinking (Ultima Online pre-Trammel PvP with three factions and an extensive crafting system and RvR) and I must ask to contain your drool! That being said, the wait for information shouldn’t be long, SecondStar has rounded out their announcement by claiming a late 2011 release date.
Less than a week ago, I told players to expect more Warhammer servers to be merged and shut down this year, and although I was right on the mark, I honestly expected Mythic to spend more time “discussing” what to do about the server population issue than this. In the latest Herald news article, Mythic’s own James Nichols announced that next week will begin the free transfer off of select servers.
On the North American side, Iron Rock and Volkmar will allow players to transfer to Gorfang for free. On the European side, players on Carroburg will have the opportunity to transfer to Drakenwald. These transfers will begin on the 9th, when the affected servers (Iron Rock, Volkmar, and Drakenwald) will become “legacy” servers, disabling new characters from being created on them. After a period of three weeks, the servers will be retired, forcing characters to transfer to the chosen destination server for free, or to a server of their choice for a fee.
Each server will feature a multi-realm ability, meaning players will be able to have both factions on one server. This will leave Warhammer with two North American servers (Gorfang and Badlands) and three European servers.
Warhammer Online is a game that thrives on PvP, and therefore requires decent server population in order to keep those that are in the game, still with the game. There has been numerous signs of impending server mergers in the past, with player testimony to MMO Fallout such as Xianthe who posted on last year’s article about the Auction House:
To put it frankly, WAR’s AH is so unused at this point having too many features actually hinders use and makes selling things a pain. I know it seems unintuitive to take away features, but let’s face it — WAR is trucking along but with an unhealthy population in many respects. Making search work well, and a simple buy sell feature is really all that is needed here.
Last month Mythic Entertainment’s own Carrie Gouskos made it quite clear that Warhammer Online is not going free to play…for now. In the interview with Ten Ton Hammer, she talked about the danger of monetizing power in a title that focuses so heavily on player vs player. There was that part at the end of the interview, now what was it…
We do have some vanity stuff that we’ve looked at and said if players want to buy it, that might be something we’ll make available. But power is really, really scary. And that’s the only thing that would be worth anything.
That’s it! Vanity items. When in doubt, don’t give it stats. Mythic announced today via the Herald that a few new items have hit the EA Store. They are as follows:
Server Transfer – $19.99 USD, this will grant you a code that can be redeemed for one server transfer for a single character.
Starter Mount Pack – $8.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain a mount usable at level 2 giving players a 25% speed boost and have a 100% chance to dismount upon damage.
Trusty Mount Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain your choice of a new mount usable at level 20 giving players mounts of up to 60% speed boost and have a 55% chance to dismount upon damage
Trinkets of the World Pack – $4.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive two tokens to spend at the new Trophy Vendor in the capital cities. Each token can be used to purchase one of 14 different trophies.
Specialized Training Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will recieve one War Tract that will allow them to immediately advance one full level when used
Herald Pet Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will be granted adoption papers to the Snotling Herald vanity pet. This pet will follow you around and give you a boost!
Initially I was posting that the Training Pack would allow someone with enough cash to fully level all of their characters, but the Herald was later updated to note that the items are one time deals (you can’t buy two training packs and get two levels).
If Mythic is considering moving toward a free to play model, this is certainly the way to do it. Remove the subscription and sell vanity items/mounts. A well-trained eye will note that Champions Online was setting itself up for just a similar model through the carefully named Adventure Packs that Cryptic released, and the RvR packs that Mythic are currently releasing may be gearing up for a similar switch, where the company doesn’t go full Turbine, but rather a halfway approach where classes/races/features are locked off and for sale either on a VIP basis or through individual cash shop purchases.
Join any internet discussion on Warhammer Online, outside of the realm of Warhammer Online’s forums, and odds are someone will eventually ask “when is Warhammer Online going free to play?” or something of the like. Despite Mythic’s claims that Warhammer Online is still profitable, there has been a vocal push to the game expanding the endless demo (tier 1) to the entirety of the game, supported by expansion packs.
Well, in a Ten Ton Hammer interview, Mythic producer Carrie Gouskos wants to be clear that WAR is not going free to play, at least not in the short term.
Ten Ton Hammer: Looking at the RvR pack and how it is being offered, the big question is why you’re sticking with subscription when everybody and their brother is going free-to-play right now? What’s the thought process behind that?
Carrie’s answer conveyed what a lot of players fear on such a change:
One of the big things that came up with free-to-play was that in order for it to work in a RvR game, you have to consider monetizing the power, such as the weapons, armor, and things like that. This is really scary because that is something that I don’t think players embrace. If you look at MMOGs that are free-to-play, a lot of people approach it as if you spend a lot of time or spend some money, you can get it. I think that works for a lot of things, but when it’s power, then it gets into fuzzy territory. With the focus that we have on RvR, it seems that it might not work.
We’ve definitely made some changes to the game’s economy this year. If we ever go into free-to-play, that would help us do that. But, it’s not where our focus was.
Thank you. Don’t get me wrong. We do have some vanity stuff that we’ve looked at and said if players want to buy it, that might be something we’ll make available. But power is really, really scary. And that’s the only thing that would be worth anything.
For a few minutes, I couldn’t understand why this sounded so familiar. I mean, it’s not like it’s possible to have a free to play option, without breaking your promise on changing the player’s subscriptions, right?
“As I said in that interview, we will not be changing your subscription model. We’ve heard you folks loud and clear that you do not want items with stats introduced, you don’t want players buying their way to power, etc. Your world will stay the way it has been and we will continue to support it with new content, items, etc.”
File this one under “how is this in improvement?” I don’t normally talk about game’s individual updates, but the upcoming patch to Warhammer Online, 1.3.6, is revamping the UI of the auction house to better fit the searching needs of the game’s players. As a result of this upgrade, all auctions are standardized to 48 hours, and Mythic has decided to remove the option of bidding on items, opting for a buyout only approach.
According to the WAR Herald, the options being removed are due to lack of popularity, so I won’t question that aspect. I do have to question how removing the aspects altogether, rather than allowing the few who do utilize them, can be an improvement. It is possible, of course, that the new infrastructure of the auction house required some of the options to be removed, but aside from a technical limitation point of view, I don’t believe there is much Mythic can say to convince me “no, this is for your own good.” I feel like I’m talking to the Apple of MMOs.
Personally in the grand majority of MMOs that I have played where an auction house exists, I’ve found myself setting up a tried and true method of selling my wares: start low, set a high buyout amount, and start gathering data on how well the items sell for. On World of Warcraft, this method has become a godsend in selling stacks of cloth and has allowed me to make a substantial amount of gold doing what is essentially a side-job.
Runescape is one of the few MMOs I can think of that only features a buyout option, although the Grand Exchange isn’t billed as an Auction House, and the system of buying and selling is 100% anonymous.
I have a feeling Mythic might offer their players some clarification, and hopefully if enough people ask for it bidding might be returned to the game.
MMO Fallout 