Reviving the dead.
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Tag: Warhammer Online
Ex-Warhammer Dev Asks For Singleplayer Client
Warhammer Online may be offline forever, but its world may not be lost to us forever. Andrew Meggs, tech guy at City State Entertainment and ex-engineer at Mythic Entertainment, took to his blog to explain that while players may not be able to enjoy Warhammer Online as it was, it is within Mythic’s capabilities to at least let them roam around the world. As it turns out, most MMOs have the capability of running in singleplayer mode. There are no quests, no NPCs, no other players, but the point is that players could see the world that Mythic put so much effort into creating.
This won’t compete with any current or future game, because it’s not a game anymore. But it’s a place for the die-hard fans to visit by themselves, to reminisce and remember the times they had there with others. It’s something the hundreds of developers who worked on it will still be able to run for their kids someday. It’s a piece of history for Professors of Game Studies in 2113 to better understand what MMORPGs looked like before the neural implants.
Would you like to see a Warhammer Online virtual museum?
(Source: Shinytoys)
MMOrning Shots: To Waaagh! And Back
Warhammer Online comes to a close today, after five years of operation. As much as we joke here at MMO Fallout about the MMO and just about everything else surrounding the game and its developer, we’re always sad to see a game shut down. There might not have been a lot of people playing Warhammer, but you can’t deny that they were a dedicated bunch. Warhammer Online still sits in quite a few eyes as having the best player vs player combat on the market, and the only true successor to Dark Age of Camelot.
While we are on the subject, has anyone seen Mark Jacobs’ upcoming MMO, Camelot Unchained?
Warhammer Online Details Refunds
In case you’ve forgotten, Warhammer Online shuts down tomorrow. In a post on the Warhammer website, Mythic has detailed exactly how players will be compensated for their purchases. If you have made a purchase after November 1st, or had any game time remaining on your account on the same day, you will be refunded in full. If you purchased with a credit card, you’re all set as it will be refunded automatically. Anyone who paid with a game card will have to contact Mythic’s billing support. The same goes for unused game time codes.
According to the news post, refunds will start going out December 18th with the entire process possibly taking up to 90 days to complete due to the amount of work required. Check out the entire notice at the link below.
(Source: Warhammer Online)
Warhammer Opens All Accounts For Last Push
Warhammer Online shuts down December 18th, and to send off the game with style Mythic has decided to open up all accounts for a last month and a half of bashing in skulls. There will even be some people playing Warhammer. A post on the official website notes that all accounts in good standing as of October 31st are welcome back, alongside NPCs that will offer level boosts.
To give Warhammer Online a proper sendoff we are opening the game to anyone free of charge that has or had an account in good standing starting October 31st, 2013. We will be adding new NPC’s to the game in order to power up your characters as well as other unique experiences for everyone to enjoy as we say goodbye to Warhammer Online over the next few weeks. So please join us and help say goodbye to Warhammer Online in one last big WAAAGH!
See you in-game.
(Source: Warhammer Online)
Warhammer Online Shutting Down
Mythic Entertainment has announced that Warhammer Online will shut down this December. According to an update on the official website, it appears that Games Workshop has not renewed Mythic’s license, and as a result the game will no longer be able to operate.
We here at Mythic have built an amazing relationship working with Games Workshop creating and running Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning over the last 8 years. Unfortunately, as with all licensing deals they do eventually come to end and on December 18th, 2013 we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online.
Warhammer Online launched in 2008 and while the game shattered pre-purchase records, it very quickly lost a majority of its subscribers and almost all of its over one hundred servers. The next couple of years were filled with more layoffs and more server closures as development on the game dwindled down to maintenance mode with a bare bones team. Eventually Mythic revealed that there was no chance for Warhammer to become free to play, as EA believed the product to be incapable of making back the money it would cost to make the transition.
For many of Warhammer Online’s past and current players, this announcement has been a long time coming.
(Source: Warhammer Online)
Warhammer Online Adds Items Doubling/Nullifying Exp
Believe it or not, Warhammer Online is still running and still has one or two people manning the ship, even if the steering wheel is rotting from neglect, the hatches have not been battened in a long time, and the poop deck could use a good swabbing, and there’s the little matter of that ice berg that the ship hit in 2008, and the crew going AWOL to work on the S.S. Wrath of Legends. Still, you can rest assured that somewhere, someone at Mythic occasionally looks into Warhammer Online long enough to ask the question “how can we continue improving the experience?” Put your hands down, a Vanguard-style revamp is still not the answer.
Warhammer Online’s upcoming 1.4.8 patch aims to unify the various Realm Vs Realm currencies under one roof: War Crests. But the new feature that sets itself apart from the rest of the update is the new vendor that will be available in the capital city. The vendor sells items in exchange for War Crests that alter the way in which players gain experience and renown. There are books that, when equipped, double either experience gained, double renown gained, or double influence gained. A fourth book completely stops any experience gain from monsters or players.
So if you want to stay in Tier 1 forever, and who wouldn’t, now you have the option to. Patch 1.4.8 goes live on December 3rd.
(Source: Warhammer Online)
Warhammer Online/Wrath of Heroes Cross-Promotion
Warhammer Online, despite server closure upon server closure, is still running and allegedly there are still players subscribed and playing. If you are a current or former subscriber to Warhammer Online, odds are you’ve tried Mythic’s MOBA styled around the MMO’s scenarios, Wrath of Heroes. Regardless, Mythic has implemented a cross-promotion system offering benefits in Wrath of Heroes for subscribers to Warhammer Online.
Starting today, Warhammer Online subscribers will receive a 50% increase in gold and experience in Wrath of Heroes. In order to receive the bonus, you will need to have both games on the same EA account. It may take up to 24 hours for the bonus to come into effect.
(Source: Warhammer Online)
Warhammer Loses Another Server: Drakenwald Closing
As part of our ongoing efforts to maintain an active, competitive, and engaging experience in WAR we have decided to open free transfers for players to specific servers. WAR, more than many games, only gets better with more people. These transfers will enable players to experience more action during all hours whether fighting in scenarios or Open RvR.
Absolutely true, and if there is one thing that Warhammer Online could use, it is more people. By now, Warhammer players should be well tuned with the process. Starting tomorrow, Drakenwald will be marked as a “legacy server,” disabling the creation of new characters. Existing characters are free to transfer to Badlands or Karak Norn for three weeks until the server is deactivated and you will be forced to transfer anyway.
On the other hand, Warhammer has almost run out of servers to close down.
(Source: Warhammer Herald)
Warhammer Online: Too Far Gone For Free To Play?
Back in October, VP of Bioware Mythic Eugene Evans told us that Warhammer Online is alive and kicking and, much like the Christmas cookies in the closet in July, remains an undiscovered treat. In fact, Evans was confident enough in Warhammer’s future to announce that subscription numbers had risen since the announcement of WAR’s free to play half-brother Wrath of Heroes, and that Mythic has absolutely no plans to take the game free.
In a move to increase server population, Mythic announced that players on the Gorfang and Karak Azgal servers will need to transfer to Badlands and Karak Norn respectively. Starting December 14th, the transition will be optional for three weeks before the aforementioned servers (Gorfant/Azgal) are marked as legacy servers and shut down.
The game play experience of our customers is something we highly value. We don’t make changes like this lightly. A lot of metrics and analysis accompanies this type of decision. We feel that these changes will help to ensure that server options continue to facilitate that best RvR experience out there. Thanks for playing and see you on the battlefield!
This move leaves North America and UK players with one server to choose from each, and at least this writer wondering: Is Warhammer too far gone to go free to play? Playing devil’s advocate, an easy comparison can be made to Lineage II, of which I personally anticipated the game to shut down around the time NCWest had shuttered all but a single remaining server in North America.
We know from past interviews with Derek Smart and Stephen Calender that the process of moving an MMO to a free to play model is immensely time consuming and expensive for the developer, and occasionally a better business option to just shut down rather than invest the money without a clear indication of what revenue can be brought in.
One thing I can say for certain is that Electronic Arts is going to drag Warhammer Online until the product is no longer financially viable, and then probably continue running the game after that. The early bankruptcy of Realtime Worlds and the performance of Warhammer Online has dealt a great deal of damage to Electronic Arts’ relations with their investors, so much so that Gamasutra ran an article that investors were turning down The Old Republic out of fears of similar performance and support.
As for shutting down, Warhammer Online will not be shut down until The Old Republic is in the clear and bringing in so much money that the investors don’t even notice WAR die in the corner as its once loving parents now spend their time fawning over their new baby that looks a bit like the old one, but with cuter dimples.
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