Mythic: Blizzard is in for a "lengthy battle"

GI.Biz writes: "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has only just begun to compete with World of Warcraft, says Mark Jacobs, Mythic's CEO, who commented "It's a marathon, not a sprint."

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Jacobs took issue with comments made by Paul Sams, Blizzard's COO, that over half of the subscribers who left World of Warcraft for Warhammer Online had returned, which Mythic's CEO interpreted to as an accusation Warhammer users were leaving the MMO.

"One thing about MMOs is that people play multiple games," asserted Jacobs. 'That's one of the reasons I was very surprised by Paul's comments. He knows that people may play WoW and they'll play WAR and maybe even a third game at the same time.'"

[Montrealien]

He is kinda annoying. The real battle will be when Warhammer has 8 million paying subscribers and wow has 8 million paying subscribers and they push eachother to better themselves. I really doupt that will happen with WoTLK coming out. Warhamer will have a great community and should be there for years to come, no need to sh*t talk WoW just to get some attention.

[Bolts]

Mark Jacobs need to STFU. Its not like WAR is not losing players because it is. If it weren't for BGs this game would be barren right now...in fact it is barren for the most part. RvR zones are empty, PQs are deserted and the PvE content that doesn't even exist. Hell I can't even name three dungeons in WAR thats how pathetic the PvE content is in this game.

[Lets-Game]

yea i seen some vids and stuff, it seems warhammer stuff is talking to much shet, I'm playing warhammer my self as ex wow player and liking it much more almost in every way but bragging to get attention is lame.

[AliC]

Sounds like this guy got overly defensive over comments made by Paul Sams.

Warhammer will have its niche market but I can't really see it going far unless they make some big changes.

[JohnnyMann420]

I think people (specifically WoW players) have to realize that WAR is a great MMO.

I think most WoW players would really like WAR a lot. The game is great, fun and 1ups WoW on many levels.

There are also things WoW does better than WAR.

Either way there is enough room for both games and neither Blizzard or Mythic needs to be on the defense.

Anyways, I urge any MMO player to check out WAR. All of my WoW buddies are playing it right now and are addicted.

Also, I kind of agree with Mythic on this. The article I read did sound like he was giving the impression that droves of people were leaving WAR to go back to WoW, which the numbers show isn't the case.

I can see true MMOers paying for both.

[Jinxstar]

I would like to make a special comment.

Firstly I have played many many MMORPG’s, EVE, AOC, COH/COV, EQ, EQ2, DAOC and many others. I don’t go as far back as UO or Shadowbane but I have studied them and talked to a lot of people who have played them. In WOW I had a 70 lock fully geared from Serpentshrine and pre BC I had cleared BWL and ventured into Naxx and done most of AQ 40. I have experience in that game since it seems many of you only know that.

Now, What I would like to say about WAR. The original dev’s of Warcraft and WOW were big Warhammer fans. The table top games. They wanted to pay Homage to Warhammer in creating a game around the lore but not to copyright infringe. So no more of this “WAR copied WoW” for a few reasons. Mythic has been making MMORPG’s a lot longer then Blizzard as well as the above stated facts.

Now for my 2 cents. 750,000 players is huge for an MMO starting up. Will it “Beat” wow. Depends on how you look at it. When wow was in it’s start it was nowhere near as comprehensive or detailed or fleshed out or basically good as WAR it also had nowhere near as many players at the same stage in it’s life. 750,000 is a huge potential lose to WoW. 750,000 x 15$ a month. Do the math.

Warhammer constantly updates and patches bugs and fixes things to balance and the PVP is an amazing system. As opposed to a copy and paste thing that WoW does. i.e. Pre BC horde had shamans and alliance had paladins. This created a great balance in PVP. What did they do. Copy/paste and give alliance an ugly toon and horde a pretty one. Instead of create something new and not “Gimmicky” like the deeath knights look to be. In WoW it takes years to get an update players have been asking for. In War they just put out a patch it said at one point “Due to user feedback and popular demand we have allowed zone discussion” They always update and give credit where it is due. Their interface is fully customizable from the get go. You can move anything anywhere without much issues. There are many advantages from a aestetic stand point.

From a gameplay standpoint that’s up to the player. The biggest truth’s being “Don’t knock it til you try it” “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” and “The only person your hurting in not trying is yourself” What have you got to lose besides 50$. If 50$ is a big deal then by all means save your money. If it isn’t then go for it. Why do I say this well let me tell you a little story about a friend of mine. His players name is Zonker. His main is a pally he has a 70 of every class except Warlock on his account. He works with my roommate who is a former WoWer like me. We enjoyed it but as soon as it got old we moved on. The community is good and some of the players are well educated but the vast majority are tools.

So Zonker is still playing and we keep telling him to try WAR. He wont but then cries non stop about how “this patch broke wow” or “Damn X class is OP” or whatever. Me and my roommate watch him and it is almost like he’s banging his head agains’t a wall and saying ”I don’t know why I keep doing this” Yet continues on his head smashing journey while me and my Roomy enjoy all the wonders of a new and fresh MMO that has variety and fun unlike anything I have yet to see in WoW. From the very first level you can Duel wield if it is what your class does. From lvl 1 you can que up for BG’s. From lvl 1 your not killing some dumb dogs. Your actually killing players and bosses in Public quest groups. If anything it’s “Fun” and to you it may not be but the variety in PVE and the diversity in PVP is astounding and fun be it open world or scenario’d.

So basically in conclusion WAR is doing great and even better then WoW was in infancy and has few bug’s or glitches compared to it’s counterpart. I can link you many articles on WoW and WAR and otherwise discussing good and bad points and I have done my research on many a things but I think Sirlin summed a lot of the game up the best. Let me link you a post of his. Dave Sirlin is a great game Designer and many of his articles on pacing, balance and everything else have taught me a lot. So here you go and game on guys. Hope to see you in WAR. If not then enjoy whatever it is you like. If that’s WoW then great but don’t be afraid to try out another game when it arrives be it DC universe or otherwise cause you have nothing to lose but a few bucks.

I will be saving this article to post later if needed.

http://www.gamasutra.com/fe...

Sirlins main site if anyone wants to see it is here

http://www.sirlin.net/

[Montrealien]

I have a War account, and will keep it, it's a great game. I have been a huge geek on paladins sine my first D&D adventure in the 80's and I really enjoy the Warrior priest class in War. However, I love WoW, I have 3 raid worthy lvl 70 Paladins on WoW along with a raid worthy lvl 70 mage and a lvl 70 tier 5 lock and a lvl 65 shammy and a fair ammount of alts ranging from 10 to 50, I got hooked on wow during closed beta along with my girlfriend and will be for some time to come. With that said, I really like what warhammer is doing, I enjoyed Daoc back in the day and I see this as a much more accessible version of it, and I am a sucker for PvP. Seeing as I'm a tool and all, it being accessible is a huge factor for me, it's clear they took notes from world of wacraft, and hopefull blizzard will get inspired to take notes from Warhammer *couhg* public quests *cough*.

I was never hating on Warhammer, I was hating Jacobs, Mythics CEO, who was clearly being a little defensive against WoW. Any person with a little common sense knows that war is doing great. It can only grow from here on end imho, but attacking WoW, for basically being at the right place, and the right time, and being accessible enough to explode like it did in the long run for an MMO is childish, especially for a CEO of a company. Warhammer will go on for years to come, but attacking wow publicaly like he did is for marketing purposes only, to think otherwise is crazy.

As for your dear friend Zonker, if he does not want to change, that's his choice, he should'nt downplay Warhammer though but the reality is that any MMO with a high population count will have people crying about X patch broke the game, or Y class is OP, that's the nature of the beast, Jacobs was the same guys that said that when they game would launch, the classes wont be tweaked, they will be as they are, yet patches are playing around with classes less then 2 months in.

I'm just a little annoyed of this WoW hate when 70% of the people that play wow would of never even bothered with a game like warhammer, or EvE, or Vanguard or Lineage in the first place. It got a big piece of the pie, and 5 years down the road I think it will still have a lot of people playing it, like people still play UO or EQ. It's all about choice.

I am never one to say that Warhammer copied Warcraft's lore, that would be stupid as it's has been clear to me since I installed Warcraft : Human and orcs, many moons ago, that blizzard where huge fans of Warhammer, they even have their own 40k with starcraft. But last time I checked, Blizzard did a lot of things right with thei MMO and it's pretty easy to see that when most people say warhammer copied wow, it's in that respect, not the lore.

and as for that gamasutra article, a lot has changed in wow since feburay 2006. It was a great read though, made me realize just how much has changed.

[Jinxstar]

I agree fully bro. I never meant to attack you. I just feel for the most part there are a lot... A LOT of wow lemmings out there. I really appreciate a good game and decent gamers who diversify. If you like WAR I have a great guild so long as you play order we have an extensive history and great leadership. i would love to run around with you and anyone else who is interested. Truth is I have 2 jobs and school atm so i have trouble playing as often as I'd like especially because I enjoy console and regular PC gaming as well(Dead space FTW).

That being said hit me up and lets kill some peeps or let me know if you roll a newbie Destruction toon on some server and I'll roll with you.

I believe I have talked to you before about something console related but for the life of me I can not recall.

yeah most CEO's are tools(gabe newel*Spelling) but for popularities sake they have to knock down the other people. It's also the nature of the beast. Mythic have been around a lot longer and have a strong place in the community I feel and can knock on the casual giant if they like. Doesn't change my opinion none.

In all seriousness though. All I want to do is help people experience something outside of WoW. Darkfall looks amazing for example. Public beta starting up soon and all(Supposedly). The fact that wow never caters to it's fans too me is the biggest load of cr@p. WAR is doing an amazing job and just looking at what they do or try is astounding and I wish people would see it for what it is and not just say "WoW Clone" when in reality it's quite the opposite.

Anyway game on bro and hit me up or whatever. /salute

[jmecase]

Other than both being MMO's, they are two totally different games. Mythic does one thing in MMO's better than just about anyone, and that is PvP. If you like PvP in many many forms, then WAR is probably the game you want to play. If PvE is your thing, then play WoW.

Just remember, if you do play WAR, dont expect everything to be the same as WoW. Yea, there are quests of go kill xx number of whatever and come back just like every other MMO, but there are very few, "hey, lets get 5 people together and run xxx dungeon". The dungeons are there but there are very few of them. What WAR does offer is, "hey lets get 6 people together and run some PvP scenarios". Of which there are a ton. You level much much faster in WAR running PvP scenarios than you do questing. As for the battlegrounds, it depends on your server as to how many people are out there. Get on a high population server and people are there. Not to mention that in a couple of months when most "casual" gamers start getting up to max level, keep sieges and such will start being really fun in the main battleground.

It's all in what you like.

[Zhit]

WAR does have it strengths, PVE and jumping on late night for a little chill play are kind of non-existent. Bottom line for me is although I like Mythic, I don't trust EA and figure at some point (probably this time next year) EA will step in with an executive plan to make the game better, which will in essence destroy the game for those that have the last year invested. The ol' SWG effect if you will...

[Jinxstar]

If you followed the Dev Diaries for WAR you'd know EA are just the money. it was in the contract with the Dev's that EA get profit and none of the decision making in the matter... How true that is who knows but I belive Paul Barnett. i met him and BS'd with him a lot about it and he's not full of it. EA are just the money.

[Pain]

Nothing can beat baby's first MMO... No way its not true....

[QQcrybaby]

I really wanted war to be better than wow. I really did. I loved the idea of a pvp focused game. I even cancelled my wow account and went over to war. At the end of the day though, wow is just a better game than war. The action is smoother, the pvp is more fun and there is actually a pve game too. Unfortunate it worked out this way, but wow is the best there is and I am back to wow.

[Avery]

Jacobs got owned by that MTV blog article. He has an unhealthy fascination with WoW which made him direct a game to be as close to it as possible. People are leaving in their thousands and coming to the realization that content just is not there and its boring as hell later up. X-fire stats show the drop in war nicely.

[JeepGamer]

For a game with "So Many" people, you sure don't seem to run in to them too terribly often. You're going to see the most people you will ever see in Chapter 1 of whatever area you are in and after that you will find the game largely devoid of life. I say all of this having played on a "high" population server... So high in fact that you can't even muster up enough people to take a non-keep RvR objective most of the time. The population is so high that you can't complete public quests past stage two because there's simply not enough people around.

I keep hearing people talk about how WoW was when it was first released compared to the state Warhammer is in right now and I laugh each and every time I hear this. So you're saying that Warhammer is only slightly better than a game that was released four years ago? I would also beg to differ with all of the people talking about "content" because Warhammer is devoid of content. All you do are fetch quests and bug hunts intermixed with very tedious grind sessions at Public Quests.

I also hear that they're finally adding two of the four classes they cut in order to meet their release deadline back to the game. I guess all that crap they talked about how they weren't needed was just that... Crap. Maybe they'll get around to adding the other two classes back by the end of the year and then we can look forward to seeing ALL of the classes run around in a game with half of its end game content cut out as opposed to SOME of the classes run around in a game with half its end game content cut out.