Once bitten, twice shy.
These are apparently just words on a page to me.
Having run afoul of some members of the so-called “warhammer faithful” previously, you might think that I would shy away from a guest spot with that rabble-rouser Adam.
Instead, here I am playing the fool once again on a podcast titled “WAR: What’s All the Ruckus?”
Fortunately, Brent, Darren, and Michael were also along for the ride so, in general, other people made controversial statements and argued.
The Warhammer Online topics covered were:
- Advancing the MMORPG genre – Just how much does WAR accomplish?
- PVP in WAR and in general. We stray away from WAR quite bit during this segment. MMORPG PVP is treated harshly, tears are shed.
- Why are some people so emotionally invested in WAR?
- What impact will WAR have on the MMORPG space?
We were also slated to talk about classes and races in WAR, which is where I planned to actually, you know, talk, but we ran long and ended up skipping that topic.
There are also some out takes at the end of the show which do not include Brent’s critique of the work of Thomas Harris nor a long discussion around episodes I-III of the Star Wars movies. As fun as they were, those added up to another show’s worth of material.
The show runs just under one hour and four minutes.
Witty Ranter is part of the ever growing VirginWorlds Podcast Collective.
You can find Witty Ranter episode #12 here or on iTunes.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
Loved it, listened to it for the first time today, have signed up to the entire collective of podcasts, previously only listened to a couple.
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#3 Why are some people so emotionally invested in WAR?
Replace WAR with “X” .. X = sports, golf, church, etc. I guess we are humans so if we don’t investment in the game .. it just becomes an activity. Ahh just a though.
Great podcast
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I’m glad Zenke was on that show, otherwise it might have been an hour of:
“We want a FPS/console fighting game/single-player but online/PVP based game, with mature only players, but not AoC mature, with swords but not fantasy, no classes but with class-like gameplay, awesome graphics that run on a calculator, and a business plan that involves making zero money but spending billions”
Entertaining listen to say the least, although funny to hear people with so much MMO experience talk about them like it was their first time with the genre. News flash, fantasy formula = money, and companies like money.
No ones business plan is “Lets try to be EVE, and hopefully get 250k after 5 years of working our asses off, because ‘advancing the genre’ is better than making money”
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The “fantasy formula = (safe) money” can only be true for a certain number of titles with the cash machine $15 a month business model, so those who deviate the least from the current market leader and spend the most time on polish and marketing will succeed. Since WoW is the current market leader it becomes “copy WoW, add a small twist, ship it.” That makes sense in the CEO’s office, but I am not sure that makes me really happy as a gamer.
As for everybody’s business plan being all about making money and not about advancing the genre, you are overplaying Michael’s statement. I’ll call BS on that right now.
If it were all about making money, people wouldn’t go into making games in the first place. For every Blizzard or EA out there making bank there are a couple dozen smaller studios struggling to make payroll. But they don’t give up and join the big companies because they do want to advance their favorite genre, they do want to make games that they want to play.
And you may not want to hear people talk about alternatives to the current MMORPG PvP model. You may be content with the “turn on auto-attack and hit a couple of buttons while keeping the guy with the red name within a given range” model that grew out of the latency and timing issues which faced MMOs early on. Michael prodded us about saying “MMORPG PvP suxors” because a lot of people are happy with it. On the flip side, a lot of people seem to be unhappy with it, so pissing on people exploring alternative ideas seems an equally ignorant position to take.
Just reading your comments above, one might conclude you are extremely happy with the status quo in MMORPGs today. I wouldn’t guess that from reading your blog however.
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@Wilhelm2451
I had posted on the MMORPG forums about how WAR just kinda really made me think twice about the MMO genre as a rule.
I had one guy say this, which fits perfectly to what you stated about the “Status Quo”
I’m sorry, but if you’re complaining about “slow combat” in the MMORPG genre, you should quit while you still can.
Thank god WAR is going back to the roots of the industry.
HAHA…
Wait….he said “the roots”?
But, IT IS THE SAME OLD thing…it is not “roots”, unless he is discussing the “more group based” mechanics.
Really, then genre has grown stale, and needs a major shake up.
FPS’s though almost exactly the same, at least try to take measures to change the genre somehow. Not all succeed, but at times you get good stuff like “Condemned” or “Fallout” which has RPG elements and FPS elements all in one.
FPS’s CAN be different.
But, sorry, WAR just is the same ole thing with a slightly different skin…
As to myself, maybe I need to go back to action games. The fact I reupped my sub to Age of Conan after playing WAR, and having more fun, tells me something in the “Roots” of MMOs is considerably wrong.
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I’m glad you came on the show Wilhelm… as I said, I’ll have everyone back for round 2… there was just SO much more we could’ve talked about… next time we bring up PVP, someone gets whapped over the head 50 times with an Ork…
I had a lot of fun, as I always do when I make my shows… so long as I either get a “hell yeah!” from someone or an “OMFG are you kidding me?!?! You’re so wrong!!!!?!?!?!?!!?”…. I know I’ve done my role.
Witty Ranter – Raising blood pressures everywhere, one point at a time per show.
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