Tag: Warhammer MMO

Warhammer 40k: No Time For Your Stale-Ass Quests


That's your starter tank.

When I’m not fielding calls from the president of MMO Land asking me how to save the world from the evils of free to play scams, I’m generally fielding calls from frantic fanboys foaming at the mouth over the latest MMO to come out based on their favorite IP, and how it will revolutionize the genre (in the sliver of time that remains, I’m fielding calls from my pharmacist over my many medications). Warhammer 40k may not be coming out for somewhere around three years, but the developers want you to know that this won’t be your mama’s MMO.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Creative Director Mike Maza wants to remove your fears that you’ll be spending much of your time hunting down adorably savage wolves for still-standing NPCs who need their pelts, or something along those lines. You’re a fighter, damnit, and you should be crushing the heads of those who dare lower your status by giving you such a petty quest. On that note, Warhammer 40k Online should without a doubt have a beginner quest where you crush the head of an NPC for offering you such a quest. If anyone from Vigil is listening, you might want to write that down.

“We just couldn’t wrap our heads around a Space Marine killing ten wolves for their pelts. It’s just not 40K. We don’t want to give those kinds of quests to the players, we think it takes you out of the fiction. The objectives of our quests are far more epic than that.”

In the interview, Maza also notes that, although they could have made the game like World of Warcraft, they decided being chainsawed to death by angry fans was not worth any income such a decision might have brought in.

“We’re designing a cinematic, action-oriented MMO, balanced in terms of player-on-player and player-versus-environment battles. There’s a lot of ranged combat, but also a healthy dose of melee. You’re not gonna have a bunch of static spawns, you’re not gonna have a bunch of random patrols.”

So Warhammer will rely a bit more on mouse movement, but your success will still be held somewhat to your gear. One piece Maza talked about, and I know this will entertain 40k fans, that the game is serious. This means no funny vanity hats for your tech priest.

You can read the whole interview at the above link. More on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.

Why Hello There: Warhammer 40k MMO Trailer


Heretics, aliens, and Orcs, oh my! The trailer for Warhammer 40k Online looks very promising.

THQ: We Don't Need No Stinkin Million Subscribers!


Don't trifle in no stale subscribers.

“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”

Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.

So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?

Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.

Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!

We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.

THQ: We Don’t Need No Stinkin Million Subscribers!


Don't trifle in no stale subscribers.

“We don’t need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we’ll be making a lot of money.”

Why thank you, THQ CEO Brian Farrel. MMO success is, as I have said before, relative. Technically any MMO that can make a profit and sustain both its viability in the market and the love of its developers over a period of several years is a successful MMO. Back in March, EA’s announcement that The Old Republic would require one million subscribers to satiate the title’s massive budget, and that they were hoping for two million, I wasn’t the only one to become worried. As far as Western MMOs go (discounting free to play eastern titles), one million is a lot if your name is not World of Warcraft, and very few titles have hit that one million mark.

So, those looking forward to the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO may be worried, as a number of forum threads have indicated: Will Warhammer 40k be placed on the same pedestal of Warhammer Online, where the developers expected the MMO community to jump on the title as if it were the second coming of Jesus, resulting in substandard results and the great majority of servers shutting down?

Nope! THQ wants you perfectly aware that they are not expecting one million subscribers, like some other studios. Warhammer 40k is aiming small. Not too small, mind you, but small enough that were the title to get even five hundred thousand subscribers, Farrel wants us to know that they’ll be making plenty of money. The aim is to develop the title with a small group of experienced programmers and developers, who will put out gold almost immediately, rather than beginning with flaky bronze and moving up from there.

Until then, get back into your formation soldier! What are you, some kind of free thinker? You will burn for that!

We will have more news on Warhammer 40k as E3 comes closer, so next month.

Warhammer 40k MMO: Little Information, High Hopes


Warhammer 40k Online is one of those titles you don’t read too much about, except for plenty of speculation on the part of the public. Announced three years ago, we know now that the MMO will be slated for release in 2012 (Competing year with the Fallout MMO Beta). I’ve wanted to do an article on the Warhammer MMO because, as far as titles go, I feel Warhammer 40k’s hype may end up killing it before it comes out of the womb.

As it stands, Warhammer has a following of what I refer to as the disgruntled Ex. Players who left Warhammer Online, who are now looking towards the 40k MMO for everything they expected from Warhammer Online. Such conditions can only lead to even higher disappointment than what the players may have experienced had Warhammer Online never entered the picture. The 40k MMO will also have to pass the hurdle of being the “spiritual successor,” despite absolutely no links to the original game aside from lore, where the two face a level of comparison down to the microscopic level.

In the absence of information, people will fill in the void with their own speculation, and the end result is never good. THQ hopes to fill this void this summer at the Electronics Entertainment Expo where Warhammer 40k Online will be fully revealed in all of its splendor and glory. Until then, more on Warhammer 40k Online as it appears.