It’s that time again when a gamers subscription is coming to an end and we have to decided whether or not we want to renew it.  Having been playing Warhammer Online since day one and enjoying most aspects of it, I was a bit torn about what to do.  However having reached the level cap about 6 weeks ago and doing mostly RvR since, I’ve gotten a bit bored.  There are obvious problems with RvR currently and even though Mythic is taking steps to fix it, it’s just not worth it right now, so I have decided to let me subscription expire.

I enjoyed Warhammer Online more then I have any MMO in some time, so I fully plan on coming back in a few months once some of the key issues are worked out.  In the mean time, I’ll be trying to get into some betas and dabble into a few other MMOs out there to see if there’s anything worth playing.

I’ve had the opportunity to beta test BattleForge, a upcoming MMORTS by EA, over the last week and have to say I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.  Although, I’m not sure that you can really call this game a MMORTS, but we’ll get into that a bit later.

For those of you not familiar with BattleForge it is a RTS game that incorporates cards much like the TCG Magic The Gathering.  Instead of having to construct buildings and gather resources, in  BattleForge a player enters a battle with a deck of 20 cards which they can then use to summon units, cast spells or construct towers.  Much like any online RTS, you start off in a lobby and have the option to either start a game that is part of the storyline or challenge other players, up to 12, in a PvP battle.

Once you enter a battle, you start off with a certain amount of Power Points (mana) which you can use to cast some units.  Once you have a small army, you can take over other areas and capture Power Pools which will build up your mana over time so you can cast additional cards and more quickly.  There are 4 different powers you can use to create your deck, Frost, Fire, Nature and Shadow. However each power requires a certain amount of Power Orbs before you can cast something.  For instance, if you want to cast a Fire spell you first need to capture a monument and set it to fire.  Since there are only a certain amount of these on each map it’s best to build your deck only using only 2 or 3 powers so you can cast some of the more high level creatures later on in the battle.

BattleForge is a near perfect blend of TCG and RTS.  Being a TCG player back in the day, my favorite part was creating my deck and coming up with new strategies.  BattleForge takes RTS games to another level by allowing players to create armies using 1000′s of different card combinations, adding a completely new level of strategy that normal RTS with their fixed units cannot provide.

Once you have created a deck and enter a battle it plays out like any other RTS game you’ve played except you’re not building anything, instead it concentrates on fighting so you don’t need to worry about micro managing as much as other RTS games.

BattleForge will be a F2P game, however EA will be making their money buy selling booster card packs for real money.  While you’ll still be able to play the game without spending a dime, players that do shell out the cash for more cards will definitely have an advantage.  Gamers that don’t want to spend the money will still be able to trade cards and win new cards by completing the storyline or beating other players in PvP.

I mentioned earlier that I don’t really consider BattleForge a MMORTS, mainly because I fail to see where the MMO comes in, specifically “massive”.  Since no game can have more than 12 players, I just don’t see how you can claim to be a MMO.  Yes, you are competing against 1000′s of players in a ladder, however you can say that for many online games, including Starcraft, so if you’re going by that definition then you can say Starcraft is actually a MMORTS, which it is not.

Aside from nitpicking about the MMO aspect, this is a great RTS game and I recommend any RTS fan to pick it up and give it a go.  The game is set to release in March 09, however if you can’t wait you can try signing up for the beta.

DAOC Origins: 6 Months of Silence

A long time ago old Dark Age of Camelot fans were rejoicing when Mythic announced that they were going to be releasing their “Origins” server. Many of the game’s original fans had become disenchanted with DAOC after the release of some controversial expansion packs, and fans had been longing to relive that original DAOC experience.

On June 2nd, 2008, Mythic announced on the Camelot Herald the Origins project and revealed their plan:

“This server is designed to return DAOC to the great game experience it was in 2001/2002, while also applying wisdom from the lessons we have learned since then. DAOC is still a great game, but this server has its own appeal that we ‘old school’ players really enjoyed, and our goal is to get back to that while also continuing to support the other rulesets. Origins will not exactly replicate the game as it was is 2001; we are keeping as a part of server the ‘best features’ we have put into the game since launch, such as housing, horses, the market explorer, UI changes (to name only a few) and many of the improved systems introduced over the years.”

The announcement also goes on to lay out their timeframe for the project:

“The most common question continues to be, “Is this really going to happen?”

Origins has been in development for a couple of months now. We have been working with our Team Leads (as part of the Team Lead program) to work through the various gameplay details, ideas, and issues, while also collecting and reading your feedback. Our schedule requires around four to five months of development. This means that since the server has been in development for two months already, we still have another two to three months before it’s ready for primetime. Right now, launch is slated for the August/September timeframe.”

On July 29th, 2008, Mythic amended their stance regarding their plans for origins by releasing another announcement:

“Initially, we had an aggressive timetable we wanted to meet in order to get this into the players hands as soon as possible. Now, looking at all the feedback and re-examining our own internal goals and objectives for this server, we realize that it’s better to take a step back and take our time with Origins. What this means in practical terms is that you won’t be seeing Origins in the original Aug.-Sept. timeframe. When we are happier with the overall design and functionality, we will begin talking about a launch date. Until then, we thank everyone for participating during this phase of the Origins project.”

It has been almost 6 months, and DAOC fans are left scratching their heads wondering, “Is this really going to happen?” Mythic has yet to give their fans any official updates on the status of the project since then, and now it appears that Mythic has been hit by personnel cuts EA has made due to economic concerns. Mythic no doubt has their hands full with Warhammer Online, which has been wrestling with its own issues. Mark Jacobs made this comment on the Warhammer Alliance regarding the layoffs in regards to Warhammer support:

“It isn’t any more complicated than that other than to say that we have a very large studio and pretty much every person there has been and will continue to work on WAR for quite a while (meaning we haven’t started work on another game yet),” he continued. “When we launched, we had over 400 people working on the game in one capacity or another so it’s not like we had a small team at launch or even a small team now.”

There definitely seems to be a demand for Origins, and you would think that given that demand, Mythic would recognize the opportunity to generate some more revenue from their DAOC brand. I find it amazing that there hasn’t been much of an update on the official site in almost 6 months, and one has to wonder if the revenue opportunity is getting smaller the longer they remain silent.

Hopefully the economic turmoil and layoffs have not derailed Mythic’s original plans to give their old fans a taste of DAOC’s original glory.  Perhaps Jacobs is telling the truth about “pretty much everyone” working on Warhammer, but you owe the DAOC customers who made your company successful at least some form of an update on if and when this project will see the light of day, or if it has been canceled.

Paragus

Co-Leader of Inquisition

www.inqguild.com

Darkfall Survey Predicts Playstyles

With the slated release date for Darkfall Online approaching, forums have been buzzing with speculation on various aspects of the game in order to try and forecast what players could expect to see once the game goes live.  Often times in the static of forums post and polls, something interesting gets drowned out in all the noise. Darkfall EU, a fansite for the anticipated MMO, ran a detailed survey that asked future players about their plans and views for when the game goes live. If you have been following Darkfall for a long time like me, you might find the results of this very interesting.  The survey claims to have sampled a pool size of over 1600, and projects a margin of error near 3%. For the purposes of this article I will be using the combined European + North American data tables.

The Race Poll

The Alfar seem to have narrowly won the race poll, but when you consider the margin of error, they are roughly tied with the Humans.  Remember that the premise of Darkfall has the races divided into 3 teams which break down as Humans / Dwarves / Mirdain Vs. Mahirim / Ork Vs. Alfar. If we add up all the percentages based on factional distribution, we see that the Alfar have roughly 25% of the population, the “good” races come in with about 47%, leaving the Mahirim and Orks with roughly 27%.

We can see that the “good” races seem to definitely have the population advantage assuming this data is correct, but we have to take into account that their team also has the most races included in it.  The Orks on the other hand come in last place in terms of popularity by a substantial margin.  On a personal note, I have always been fascinated by the races people pick in MMOs.  I suspect a lot of people may tend to play races that are pleasing to the eye, which could also explain why the Orks might be dead last.

The “Evil” Poll

This is another poll I found to be very interesting. It looks like 2/3 of the players said they would kill someone on their team depending on the situation.  This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the context of that situation, or your viewpoint.  The poll doesn’t allow people to describe that situation, which could probably range from self-defense to capitalizing on a moment of weakness.  We just can’t tell for sure, but what we can see is that about 1/4 of the players are ready to commit murder.

The other table also is very revealing as it asks those who are willing to commit murder what race they plan on playing.  We see that a staggering 38% of them plan to roll Orks, and 36% of them plan to be Alfars, which means the “good” races are the least likely to commit murder.  You have to wonder about the psychology behind this.  Orks are generally perceived to be an evil race in most fantasy settings, so perhaps players who pick Orks are more committed to follow through on being evil? The Alfar on the other hand are on their own team, so many players perceived this as being the hard road, especially with the population against them. Some people speculated that maybe this shared mutual struggle would make the Alfar work together out of necessity, but I am guessing that Alfar players have committed themselves to taking the hard road, so may be more willing to take it all the way.

The “Safe” Poll

Here we can see the people most likely to not be killed.  I find it surprising that the thing people seem to have the most respect for are players engaged in a duel.  Given the number still shows that more than half would kill a person in a duel (if you look at the inverse of the number), there is something to be said about respecting 2 people settling something the old way.  I suppose one could also argue that after a duel the targets will be at their weakest, so I guess I’ll let you decide. Crafters and newbies seems to find a little more love than I expected, but I would argue that a newbie may be harder to identify in Darkfall because you are unable to con players with there being no levels at all. I guess its best to be a good aligned newbie in a duel, if you roleplay or look like a challenge people will be eager to bring you back to reality.

Playstyle Poll

This poll shows us the playstyle the future Darkfall player tends to learn towards, and who the game is appealing towards.  It is no surprise to see that the PvP crowd makes up over half the of target audience, but it also seems that the zoneless and seamless world idea definitely seems to have those explorer types interested in going out into the wilderness to see what secrets the world is hiding. One bit of troubling news is that crafters seem to be in short supply, and according to Darkfall EU he elaborates on this point.

“What may be of some concern is that 67.50% of crafters plan to be in the Human alliance, whereas only 9.90% will be Alfar crafters.  If we assume that 1/4 of players roll an Alfar, it looks like they could be struggling to find a good crafter.”

The “Sausage” Poll

I call this one the sausage poll because it pretty much confirms something I think all we knew deep down.  Darkfall Online will indeed be one of the internet’s biggest sausage fests.

The guys over at Darkfall EU seems to have put a lot of effort into this survey, and hopefully you found this as interesting as I did.  There are a few other tables over there that I didn’t touch on just for the sake of time, but if you are bored you might want to go look over to the Survey Results Page over there, take a look at the entire thing, and read their analysis.   I’m curious to hear your take on the results.

Paragus

Co-Leader of Inquisition

www.inqguild.com