Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

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Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Developer(s)	Mythic Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Mark Jacobs Paul Barnett Jeff Hickman
Engine	Gamebryo engine
Version	1.4.2
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	September 18, 2008 (Windows)[1] July 30, 2009 (Mac beta)[2]
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T
Media/distribution	DVD, direct download
System requirements Windows XP 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 1 Gigabyte RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 15 GB of hard drive space Windows Vista 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 2 Gigabyte RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 15 GB of hard drive space[3] Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.5.7 Intel Core Duo Processor 2 Gigabyte RAM ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB VRAM At least 15 GB of hard drive space

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (officially abbreviated as WAR^[4]) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting. It was developed by Mythic Entertainment and simultaneously released in North and South Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand on September 18, 2008.^[1] The game revolves around the continual worldwide conflict that the Warhammer Fantasy setting is known for, and the game is geared toward ongoing, constant war laced with dark humour.

Another Warhammer Online game, titled Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, was a free-to-play release.^[5]

Gameplay

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features Mythic's Realm versus Realm (RvR) combat system, originally developed in Dark Age of Camelot.^[6] This takes place within three different racial pairings: Dwarfs vs. Greenskins, Empire vs. Chaos, and High Elves vs. Dark Elves. Although there are only two races per pairing, players may travel to either of the other two pairings to help fight with their friends and allies. There are four types of RvR combat: Skirmishes (random world encounters), Battlefields (objective-driven battles in RvR-specific areas), Scenarios (instanced, point-based battles against the opposing faction), and Campaigns (invading enemy lands and capital cities). RvR contribution includes both Player vs. Player (PvP) combat and (to a lesser extent) Player vs. Environment (PvE) quests so that you can assist your realm in their victory, regardless of preferred play-style.

All activities in WAR contribute to the campaign, as it is the primary focus of the game. Each of the aforementioned activities generate Victory Points (VP) which measure a realm's progress in capturing a zone. When one realm reaches a designated amount of Victory Points in a particular zone, that zone falls under their control and the war pushes deeper into enemy territory. This back and forth struggle for zone control continues until one side holds two racial pairings, and the attacking side may sack, loot, and pillage the enemy's capital city. The capture of a capital city is the pinnacle objective of the campaign. Once a capital city is taken, the attackers are given a period time to loot the city. When this period expires, the defeated players receive increasing support from NPC guards until they are able to force the attackers out of their city and close the gates. At this point the campaign then begins anew, restarting the cycle.

Mythic also prevents the ganking of new players by more experienced players. For example, in Scenarios, low-level players may be boosted to an average level of play to ensure a more level playing field. Also, if a higher-ranked player enters an RvR zone specifically designated for lower level characters, they will be penalized by being temporarily transformed into a chicken. The lower-level players within those areas can then ignore the higher level player, or dispatch the chicken with one blow.

WAR features a "Tome of Knowledge" (ToK) that is an extension upon similar mechanisms in many other MMOs. The ToK is a multi-purpose reference tool that is designed to provide the player with a great deal of information about the game world. It is also meant to serve as a reduction in the need for players to feel like they have to rely upon third-party sources of information pertaining to the game.^[7]

Armies

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is a Realm versus Realm (RvR) game with two factions: Order and Destruction. Each faction contains three separate armies, each of which is further broken down into four career choices.^[4]

Armies of Order

Dwarfs – The army of the Dwarfs in WAR is known as the Oathbearers, named because of their oath of allegiance to the High King. Their duty was to find necessary materials in the most dangerous places in the world, requiring exceptional Dwarves to undertake such a task.^[8]

Empire – The Order of the Griffon is the Empire army involved in WAR, formed by Emperor Karl Franz with the blessing of the Church of Sigmar, the Colleges of Magic and the Reiksguard. The Order is primarily made up of knights, warrior priests of Sigmar and wizards charged with defending the realm, and are answerable only to the Emperor himself.^[9]

High Elves – In WAR, high elf characters are part of an army known as the Shining Guard, under the command of the legendary warrior Prince Tyrion. They were tasked with defending Ulthuan while the Phoenix King and his army fights alongside the Empire.^[10]

Armies of Destruction

Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins) – The Greenskins are part of the Bloody Sun Boyz, led by the Black Orc Grumlok and his Goblin Shaman Gazbag. Their war with their old enemies, the Dwarfs, was manipulated by the Witch King Malekith. His intention was to start a war between the Greenskins and Dwarfs so that the Dwarfs could not come to the aid of the Empire, who would be forced to call upon the armies of the Phoenix King for aid – thus leaving Ulthuan ripe for the taking.^[11]

Chaos – All Chaos players are affiliated to Tzeentch, as that is the patron deity of the Chaos force in WAR – the Raven Host. These are Tzeentch's most devoted servants, and its leader Tchar'zanek is one of the Lord of Magic's Chosen. Mainly these humans come from Norsca.^[12]

Dark Elves – All Dark Elf players in WAR are members of House Uthorin, one of the noble families of Naggaroth. Their leader, Lord Uthorin, is a master of intrigue and has his sights set on Malekith's throne. But the Witch King has plans of his own.^[13]

Skaven

A new "expansion" type feature released in 2010 lets you play in a skaven skin during tier 4 oRvR.

Careers

Each of the careers (classes) in Warhammer Online conform to an archetype role. For example, the Warrior Priest is an archetypal support or healer career, though he also has many melee DPS elements. In this way, the careers are given variety and avoid being simple reiterations of common archetypes.

There are specialization within careers, based on career mastery lines. This allows for more variation between characters of the same career.

Most careers have the option to play as either a male or female character. However, some careers such as the Witch Elf are only able to be played as one gender (female, in this case). By contrast, the Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins) are genderless, though masculine in appearance.

Character customization

In Warhammer Online character customization is available in many forms. The initial character creation process allows players to select the race, career and basic look of their character, including facial features and accessories. In addition to the original name that the player chooses for their character at creation, the player has the option to add a surname to their character for a small fee at rank 20. Dye is available at NPC vendors for recoloring armor and accessories. Players are able to decorate themselves with trophies, such as the heads of fallen enemies, which are equipped and displayed at various points on the character model.^[14] Other forms of customization include Tactics (customizable sets of bonuses that players can adjust while out of combat), as well as Morale Abilities (increasingly powerful abilities that become available as morale is generated during the course of battle). Customizable armor and visual guild heraldry also aid in allowing a player to make their character visually unique.

In addition to visual character customization, Warhammer features an achievement system, similar to that of Steam. As achievements are unlocked, players may apply custom titles that appear beneath their names.

Collision detection

Warhammer Online features collision detection, a feature that is designed to prevent players from moving through other player characters. This feature works on enemy units as well as friendly units that are flagged for RvR combat. Collision detection enhances the role played by heavily armored characters known as "tanks", as it helps them become far more efficient at holding choke points and protecting weaker players in their group such as healers and casters.^[15]

Servers

Mythic offered four different server types at launch: Core, Open RvR, Role-Play, and Open RvR/RP.^[16] On Core servers, enemy factions can only attack each other if both players are flagged for RvR. Players are automatically flagged for RvR upon entering RvR-specific areas or enemy PvE areas, and can choose to turn their flag on at any time. Open RvR servers are flagged for RvR at all times, with few exceptions. Role-Play servers have the same rules as the Core servers, and players are encouraged to role-play their characters. Finally, Open RvR/RP servers follow the same rules as the Open RvR servers, and players are encouraged to role-play their characters.

Now there are three servers available to American and European players : one North-American Core and two European Core servers. The other servers have been shut down or merged into the currently existing servers due to underpopulation and merged with remaining servers.

Development

The second online game development began under the company Climax Online. The project was officially canceled in June 2004 when Games Workshop determined that the roll-out costs would be too high.^[17] However, work on the game never actually stopped as Climax Online continued the project using their own funds until the company reported in late 2004 that the Warhammer Online project was shut down due to difficulty in securing a publishing agreement.

With the license available again, Games Workshop was approached by Mythic Entertainment, who were interested in acquiring the license and starting a new project from scratch. A long-standing relationship between several Games Workshop managers and the CEO of Mythic Mark Jacobs ensured that a deal was quickly reached. The Warhammer Online license was acquired by Mythic on May 18, 2005. Mythic would soon cancel its original follow-up project Imperator Online after gaining the Warhammer License.^[18]

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is not purely derived from either Warhammer Fantasy Battles or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or any other source alone, but rather from the Warhammer Fantasy universe as a whole.

Though Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is being developed by Mythic Entertainment, Games Workshop is also involved with the ongoing development of the project. Their role is not only to ensure that the project remains true to the Warhammer Fantasy IP, but also to work with Mythic to allow for the appropriate development and extension of the IP as necessitated for the MMO. Mythic has previously created MMOs, including Dark Age of Camelot.^[19]

On July 30, 2009, Mythic Entertainment announced that Warhammer Online was being ported to the Mac OS X platform in the fall of 2009, with a beta version becoming available immediately. Like other Electronic Arts Mac games, Warhammer Online for Mac utilizes Cider technology by TransGaming Technologies.^[2]

Community

Mythic has an official subscriber newsletter detailing the ongoing development of the game.^[20]

The official website features a list of dedicated fansites which allow them to interact with the community in addition to their own official forums. The unofficial online community includes blogs, webcomics, forum/message boards, chat channels, wikis, and information databases.

During the development of Warhammer Online, Mythic featured a video blog of Creative Director Paul Barnett.^[21] These videos gave the viewer an insight into the work that went on behind the scenes of WAR, often showcasing development screens and concept art for the game. Mythic also released "Development Diaries" from time to time, meant to give readers a deeper look into the ongoing development of WAR.^[22]

Critical reception

Warhammer Online initially received favorable reviews. GameSpy gave it 5 out of 5 stars and claimed, "[it] has hit the ground running with one of the best MMO experiences we've had in a long time."^[28] GameSpot gave it a 8.5 out of 10 and said, "Questers and explorers may not find what they're looking for, and certain gameplay systems don't mesh as well as they should. Nevertheless, there's more than enough exciting PvP content here to keep newcomers and veterans alike immersed in the perpetually violent tug of war between the forces of Order and Destruction."^[27] Warhammer Online has an aggregate score of 86% on metacritic.com^[24] and 87% GameRankings.com.^[23]

As of September 30, 2008, WAR had sold 1.2 million copies and had 800,000 registered users.^[31]

As of October 10, 2008, Mythic Entertainment announced that 750,000 people were playing Warhammer Online.^[32]

As of December 31, 2008, the number of active WAR subscribers had decreased to "over 300,000 paying subscribers in North America and Europe."^[33]

As of May 5, 2009, Electronic Arts executives confirmed in an investor conference that they have 300,000 subscribers as of the end of March 2009,^[34] shortly after the company reported a loss of $1.08 billion in the financial year for 2009.^[35] Consequently, the number of servers was drastically reduced^[36] in order to consolidate the remaining population. The total number of servers was reduced to 13 and the number of role-playing servers was reduced to 1.^[37]

Since this date, several servers were stopped, particularly in Europe, and there remained only 9 servers : 4 in the USA and 5 in Europe (including 2 in German & 1 in French).

As of February 9, 2011, 2 other U.S. Servers and 1 German server have been removed, leaving a total of 6 servers worldwide (2 in the US, 4 in Europe).^[38]

Since December 14, 2011, the game is now down to 3 servers, one for the US, one for Germany and one for the rest of Europe not including Germany.

Awards

Warhammer Online has received the following awards:^[39]

2008

• IGN PC: Best of E3 2008-Best MMO
• IGN PC: 2008 Best Persistent World Game
• IGN PC: 2008 Reader's Choice
• Game Focus – Best MMO Game/ Expansion
• GameSpy: Best of E3 2008
• GameSpy: Best Use of License
• GameSpy: Top 10 PC Games – Ranked #2
• GameStooge – Best Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Game
• G4TV: Best of E3 – PC
• Massively – Favorite New MMO of 2008
• MMORPG.com – Reader's Choice Awards – Best New Game of 2008
• MMORPG.com – Reader's Choice Awards – Most Innovative Feature
• MSNBC – Best PC games of 2008
• Voodoo Extreme: E3 2008 – Best MMO
• Warcry's Editor's Choice: Most Anticipated of 2008
• X-Play: Best MMO

2007

• Ten Ton Hammer: Best Fantasy MMOG
• Ten Ton Hammer: Best of Show
• Beckett Massive Online Game Reader's Choice Award: Most Anticipated MMO
• Warcry's Editor's Choice: 2007's Most Anticipated
• MMORPG.com Readers Choice: Most Anticipated

E3 2006

• MMORPG.com: Best Use Of A License
• Game Amp: Best of Show
• Game Amp: Best Loot
• Game Daily Nod Award
• Voodoo Extreme: Best Massively Multiplayer Game
• GameSpot Editor's Choice: Best Stage Demo
• Ten Ton Hammer Editor's Choice Award

References