I should make a habit out of posting about stuff I’m thinking more often, so that I could have said “I told you so.”
Poor WAR. Fanbois, go ahead and defend the game here like I know you predictably will…but I’ll say “I told you so” about *you* too in a month or two.
WAR: a better than decent game. North American AAA MMO Market: quicksand. I sure wouldn’t want to be working for a company spending 30+ million and taking 5+ years to develop a game right now.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I enjoy playing WAR, it is just a game. *gasp* that was hard. I also play WoW, crazy, I know.
Keen also says, in the comments: “Also, I have no intentions of quitting WAR right now.”
Yep, sure he doesn’t.
*Raises Hand*
I quit. I am not ashamed to admit it. Even the WoW podcasts are better. And thank god Blue PLZ is back on WoW Radio.
I think it’s a bit forward of you think that someone can’t be genuinely interested in an mmorpg that is being spoken highly of after they haven’t played in two years. I haven’t been in the know with WoW for a long time and seeking clarification, or the reality of the situation, before I drop any money on it isn’t a profession of love and even an endorsement.
Furthermore, WAR has its problems. Surely you’ll be willing to link to my posts where I admit this and then constructively state what can be done to make the game better. I am still playing WAR and have been logging in to play several hours every day. I’m on a monthly subscription so it’s not as though I am playing out a 6 monther or anything.
I’m able to play two mmorpgs at once. I’m able to see games and acknowledge their flaws while still enjoying them. I’m able to go back to a game that I have hated and say “hey, that looks neat” and enjoy it while still being a “fanboy” of a game I’m currently playing.
There is more than enough room in the AAA Market for mmorpgs that have what it takes. Tabula Rasa didn’t have what it takes from the beginning. WAR has what it takes but it’s currently buried beneath a huge layer of problems that can still be worked out to reveal a game with a long life to live.
I think you know this though. You’ve taken a certain direction here lately it seems… Controversy for the sake of controversy; it’s always an ugly thing.
Nah, Keen. If you know me, you’ll know I’ve always been very outspoken about what I feel. Sometimes everyone agrees with it, sometimes they don’t.
I commend you for admitting you are considering “going back/trying” WotLK again. I expected it weeks ago
I wasn’t criticizing you, doubting your ability to play multiple games, nor accusing you of being a ‘fanboy’ or saying you’re going to quit. Regardless though, out of the 25+ blogs I had on my RSS feed from writers who were 100% devoted and into WAR pre-release have now either moved on or back to WoW.
Am I snarky about it? Sure, just a bit, I’m a snarky gal IRL. Moreso, I enjoy learning from this. I think the “giant on top” position that Blizzard is enjoying is quite the learning experience. I’m completely fascinated by their market position and really into the research of what that means for the industry I work in and am so passionate about. I’m one of the most objective views there is – I’ll try any game and give my straight up views on it.
It’s just so interesting to me that a game like WAR, a game from a large publisher, a game with a large pre-release following, a game that successfully has done SO MANY THINGS WELL with WAR, a game with a killer dev team of great insightful people and one of the best community teams in the industry….still will struggle because of WoW’s success. Did I say fail? Nope. Do I think it’s going anywhere? Nope. Am I sure it will get better and gain more subscribers? Sure. But I’d be a damn fool to not recognize the patterns and learn from them. That’s what I do.
Oh, and Keen – “I think you know this though. You’ve taken a certain direction here lately it seems… Controversy for the sake of controversy; it’s always an ugly thing.”
If you’re referring to my Prop 8 posts, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a passionate person, and this is my place to chat about what’s on my mind. You think it’s bad here, you should see my personal blog.
The MMO market in general is absolute hell. There is some chance that it is impossible to compete (directly, at some level) with WoW at this point.
WAR right now reminds me a lot of EQ2 in the early days – lots of potential, lots of promise, but its going to take longer than most gamer’s attention spans for new games. WoW is continuing to be a stable stand-by of goodness, and if you cant launch a game, immediately make money and keep players, you’re in a lot of trouble.
I will happily go where the Fun is. WAR still has some left, but as player numbers go down, that goes with it because of how the game is set up. The Fun may be moving back to WoW, and I think this next time I’ll be playing it with a different mindset if I have a big group who don’t outlevel me in a matter of days (thats what happened last couple times I played WoW).
Could WAR come back? Sure. It may need something of a Re-Launch after 1.1 to turn heads again. EQII has sort of done this in short spurts. Vanguard may have been able to salvage itself with that attitude. In this quicksand market (lovely term), the ones that can’t swim to the top with big, bold strides in improvement are going to quickly get swallowed up.
I’m not quite ready to outright quit WAR yet – there’s still stuff for me to do. But I can sort of see the end for me, nevertheless. Its a bummer.
Odd position considering you work for a potential Blizzard competitor (it is quite different though I know, but still in the same sphere). Or is SOE the real competitor?
I took keen’s controversy comment to be about your “Fanboi’s” comment.
Snarky and objective generally don’t mix, as this post reads.
Sorry if you didn’t get the sweet gentle blog post you guys were looking for. That’s not what I do here
It reads as though you are pretty happy about the prospect of WAR not doing well and the fact that people may be disappointed. Is that the case?
Absolutely not. I have tons of friends at Mythic and I never like seeing any titles in my industry not doing well. That would be foolish.
I just have a lot of bets with friends, is all.
All I get from this post is a mental picture of the kid from Simpsons who points and says “ha-ha!”. Kind of disappointing really. But then again I was that simpsons kid when I learned prop 8 was shot down.
Hey cheap shots are fun!
Why does the game need to be defended? It’s a good game. It’s a fun game. Having recently launched it’s not a perfect, which isn’t an unusual situation with MMOs.
Beyond normal bugs, the biggest flaw is the game design/mechanic assumes amounts of players that don’t currently exist. That was either a huge miscalculation, noob mistake or arrogance on their part. Mythic needs to quickly address this problem to stop the bleeding. The content in and of itself is great. I’m not a fanboi and still playing.
WOW’s success has put this industry in a very strange situation. I solo but people who play a very social game or simply want to be where the action is, will more easily and quickly return to WOW. My friends are and it’s bit’s sad.
The thing that was most fun in Beta was the open RvR, which since launch has been non existent. They need to funnel people in to areas to bring that back. Right now everybody is spread all over the place.
“The thing that was most fun in Beta was the open RvR, which since launch has been non existent. They need to funnel people in to areas to bring that back. Right now everybody is spread all over the place.”
That’s pretty much it. Sure there are other problems in WAR, but from a personal standpoint this is the most relevant.
Even I’m toying with the idea of resubbing to WoW to play with CoW’s Alliance progression guild alongside my normal WAR time. But being as I have so little game-time as it is… I’m not sure about that just yet.
That said, Cuppy. I didn’t take offense to this post. We’re bloggers… we’re allowed to finger point and tout those tiny moments when we feel validated all we want.
Me? I won’t be “leaving” WAR anytime soon, and most people who have put it on the shelf right now seem to agree that changes are all it needs and will readily come back one day. Compared to AoC, which most people seem to have forgotten about.
As far as post-launch turmoil goes, WAR’s got a better chance than most to regain it’s glory. Like you say, it’s a better than decent game (I maintain that it’s a great game when all cylinders are churning), it just needs a little tweaking here and there, and it certainly wasn’t what a lot of people expected.
Time is on their side though. Out of all AAA MMOGs, I’m betting it’s still #2 in the roost.
WAR’s pvp is fun, and lately more rvr too. WoW is WoW and Lich will provide fun in more of the same way. Personally I still love EQ2 and wish it had better pvp options/character slots as it’s a superior game as far as breathed and depth to the others. And I do play them all! Adding LoTRO back too.
Me personally I won’t go back to WAR until they fix melee DPS. I played a WH all the way up to level 29 RR 24 and it just got to the point where that class all by itself was making me hate the game. I rolled a SW even though I despise elves (think this is a holdover from my days as a Dwarf in D&D
)and had quite a bit of fun. Pobblem is I liked the concept of the WH better and is what I want to play.
The problem is not just WH though all the melee DPS has the issue of no survivability, played a Marauder in Beta and was having the same issues. Can’t kill tanks because tanks have too much Health/armor, can’t output enough DPS to burn down a pure (Zealot/RP)healer before that healer gets help or can’t do enough damage to burn down a DPS/healer hybrid before you die from them or they get help. 1vs1 it’s not as bad but if I want to do 1v1 I can stay in WoW and do duel’s all day.
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