We’re raising the bar around here. We’ve noticed that a lot of alleged MMO news sources and Warhammer info sites have been spawning lots of generic, non-informative and highly “graphical” previews and sneak peaks at some of the features of Warhammer Online. That’s all good for some, but what about our readers, many who are still using AOL or Compuserve dial-up on a 56k line? Trust me, they are out there. Hell, I even got an email from a reader who still uses Prodigy.
We’ve had enough of these flashy “Character Generation Previews” – yeah, thanks for the 10 minute video watching you stumble around trying to make your Dark Elf’s tits look bigger. Also, quite frankly, all of these videos of PVE battles are pretty damn boring. Rather than add to this problem, we’ve decided to bring you a real, original and informative look at RVR in Warhammer Online.
So, I logged on my Bright Wizard last night and headed for the frontiers for some good ol’ PVP action. I missed an important piece of information as I logged in; either due to consumption of alcohol or my one handed navigation thanks to my new duel monitor setup.
The piece of information I missed was this:
Order population: 372 Destruction population: 561
Knowledge of this might have made me enter the RvR lands a bit more carefully. I entered the frontier land, past the “small group” of Order I saw (why are they standing near our RvR entrance, I thought to myself) and then promptly got knocked 30 feet the wrong way by some level 40 guy and then chewed in half by 7 Squigs.
Using the Warhammer in game editor, lovingly called “WARPaint”, I drew this up as a summary of my night of RvR:
All kidding aside, I think that Warhammer Online does have a bit of a population balance problem. I’ve done a strict scientific analysis on this, involving me logging into each EU server at least once, and I’ve decided that Destruction has roughly 20-30% more players at any given time. Keep in mind that this strict scientific study was, in fact, done in one night. Word from the US has roughly the same estimate.
So, what’s the reason behind this? Are Destruction classes just more interesting? Do the girls look better? Is there free beer? Is the inner emo of many players finally being reached, and you find that playing a Destruction character is a way to tell the world you are a beautiful and unique snowflake in a tasty goth flavor?
What do I think? I think that it’s a combination of a couple things: Destruction classes are more interesting, Orcs and Goblins are cool, and the chicks definately do look better on the evvvulll side. Truth is, they’re just showing more skin. Order Elves, in my opinion, are pretty “meh” in regards to aesthetics and class fun factor. Dwarves and Humans have the most interesting class choices of Order, yet both only have 3 to choose from, sadly.
So, how will Mythic handle this? Will Destruction be the new Albion/Alliance zergfest of Warhammer Online? Lastly, how will this effect your decision on what faction to play? I know after a couple nights on both sides of the fence, there is no way in hell I’m going to play Destruction on release.
The numbers will shift after release, as they always do. Even if the Destruction classes are more interesting, familiarity with dwarves and elves will drive a lot of people that way. And a lot of people choose to play for the weaker side, if it feels roughly fair. In the U.S., we’re bred to root for underdogs, afterall.
And I don’t think Destruction is that more interesting. I’ve played a Bright Wizard and a Sorcerer. They’re basically the same, but the BW’s probably a bit cooler just because he plays with fire and those AoE explosions are impressive.
Destruction hasn’t dominated most of the time during my time in beta, but the battles feel increasingly even as numbers increase. On the Chaos beach yesterday, each side had about twenty fighters throughout most of the day, and Order pushed us back to capture our town more than once. By the time I logged off, the RvR status bar showed Order strongly in the lead. They tend to come out in force in late hours.
I’m not saying there is no problem. I’m just saying it’s not severe now and I expect it will become even less severe during open beta and release. More importantly, complete balance isn’t necessary for fun. We were all having a blast in those 20-on-20 battles.
I’ll be playing Destruction, by the way: Marauder and Sorcerer (I love both).
August 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pmQuote
Underdog 4 life!
I’m gonna roll with order into destruction like a freaking death train to Auschwitz.
In the long run, this will lead to an hyper-elitist mentality. We are Mossad and you destruction bastards are on our death list! Get ready to get hit hard by cyanide laced breakfast cereal!
You won’t see us coming. We are Israel and we got atomic subs with tactical first strike capacity and you are going to hell in a giant ball of fire! My word is your death sentence!
Take this warning with a grain of salt. Beware of high blood pressure. Salt tends to do that to people. Bowman out!
August 25th, 2008 at 2:08 pmQuote
I have played destruction for the preview weekend and will play destruction for the open beta. When time comes for release i and the crew ill be playing with will be rolling order. One of the reasons is the rumors that destruction on avrg has 20% more.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pmQuote
Your picture reminds me of many nights playing LOTRO’s PvMP system. I think that in order to fully conceive WAR in entirety, instead of visualizing WoW and adding more world PVP, we should be remembering Planetside (RIP) and hoping that the gameplay will switch into that direction. If you haven’t played Planetside, then your time is short: that game will soon be dead. I envision for WAR a game with no EXP bar measuring time left until you’ve leveled. I hope for a game based on reknown (pvp) points, where you advance is directly related to: 1) PC’s killed 2) bases capped.
Whether or not WAR fulfills this hope is yet to be seen.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:29 pmQuote