f13.net

Tl;Dr: The introduction of the two new classes, and one (Temporary) Scenario.

LINK (http://herald.warhammeronline.com/liveevents/2008HeavyMetal.php)

Outstanding.  More classes will certainly save the game!

/facepalm

This is....really weird.

I think it is a good idea - make it easy in-game to find out about the live event.

The limited time scenario is a good idea as well, but... if it doesn't work obvious deficiencies are apparent, players will quickly avoid it.

Also, who's been testing the cut classes since WAR launched to ensure they are up to launch, given they got cut for not being ready?

That could actually be really cool.

Check this out- a series of Live Events that funnel players into one or more zones to fight over the PQ and rewards.  I like the idea that I see somewhere in the nucleus of this Heavy Metal event.

heh but who knows if Mythic sees it too.

Seriously, who the fuck cares?  How about you fix my guild cloak instead of adding more broken shit.

well all the people that planned to play Black guard or Kotbs at release most certainly care..

I'd like to see some stuff fixed in game though, I Could care less about cloak herladry need to fix other more important stuff first? are you serious  :uhrr:

The expression is "I couldn't care less".

Yes, I don't want them to fix the important stuff any more.  I've moved on, I just want them to fix trivial things now, so at least I'll know they can fix something.

Edit to add.

Also the two missing classes, you know what the majority of those players are doing now?  They are either heavily invested in other classes or they have already quit the game.

Looks good to me and sounds entertaining.  I would prefer an open rvr event though.  I'm thinking if the witch thingamabob is good for open rvr they should do it more often.

Another... fucking... scenario.

God-fucking-damnit.  :uhrr:

There are a lot of things disappointing about this Live event. But the one I just don't understand is, why do this? Why add these classes when there are glaring issues about the game as a whole that are never fixed or addressed? How about instead of some live event to add classes, you make some live event that brings in new EXP leveling changes, fixes open rvr, balances classes, and make the end-game armor sets a lot easier to get?

I have no problem with them introducing the new classes, as I think Empire really needs a tank from the get-go instead of relying on Ironbreakers to fly to Empire areas. But to add another scenario when scenarios are currently killing ORVR? Epic fail. I'd rather see them add a darkness falls type dungeon/RVR area that opens up for the faction with zone control. Oh, and then fix zone control to scale with population.

I mean its kind of brilliant. What better way to get people talking and pumped about the game than to add these little gimmick live events. Its much easier than fixing any core issues with class/population/rvr.

I'd like to check them out, but I just can't justify spending 15 dollars for a month for them. They reek of a gimmick and I know after a week the core issues are still going to be there.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that are interested in this, would like to check it out, and are trying to justify spending 15 bucks to do it.

edit: oohh nice, a 24 hours ban on VN because I'm voicing my dislike for the two live events. Awesome.

I know at least two (IRL female) alliance guild members who are looking forward to finally having a female tank on Destruction side.

First off, Order desperately needs a human tank.  This is a much needed change and will help balance population (what little is left).  Why this is even an event?  I don't know, but it won't interfere with making the other changes we all know WAR needs.  I think those of us still clinging on in hope that WAR will have an RvR revamp miracle patch always going to be disappointed because Mythic just doesn't see it our way.  They are just going to keep dumping these tiny adjustment because, frankly, they have no idea what they did wrong so they don't know how to fix it.  So they are in "making chili" mode where they slowly add different ingredients hoping to stumble on what tastes great.

There's just way too much broken with the game to be worrying about adding 2 new classes which aren't all that important - all it will mean is 10 vs 10 KotBS vs BG Nordenwatch (and beyond) for a few weeks, and all of the problems with the endgame will still be there.

Do we really need more tanks?  KotBS is the mirror of Chosen, Chosen are pretty gimp, so while the appearance might attract people unless they are a more powerful mirror (sorta like BO is to SM) then having 6 crappy tank classes in every scenario isn't going to do us a whole lot of good.

I say stick to working on the real problems.

Not having one from the outset soured me on Destruction in a big way.

I realize the scenario will only be available for a few weeks. That just means instead of Tor Anroc and Serpent's Passage grinding, it'll be this factory being ground at all levels, unless it sucks, then it's just one more scenario that won't pop.

They're introducing more Scenarios because they realize how unrewarding oRvR is, both with Renown and Loot; so they're catering to the largest portion of their player base left in hopes of retaining people with shiny things.  ORvR is deeply flawed in this game, ranging from the futility of defense to the complete lack of reward for offense, beyond that there is no lockout on a keep take, so it ends up being flipped the moment your warband moves on to the next objective.

Hopefully the factory doesn't have a bullshit camp with insta-gib PvE guards that one side can cower behind.

 hey everyone my first post here
got a email form Blizzard for 10 free days on my old account haven't played in 2 years
made me think tho would it be a good idea for Mythic to give their canceled subs 10 free days starting the 16th to see the improvements in the game
man i wanted this game to be good

It's their way of helping prop up their server pop numbers this quarter so when the analysts ask at the next earnings call they can say "look how busy our servers were!...please don't tank our stock..."

Bloodworth posting game news in graveyard subforum, where rest of thread then talks about how much it either sucks or that they don't care?



Game officially dead.

This could be a really neat idea, in my opinion.  A lot of the problems with scenarios crop up because they're connected to the zone capture mechanic.  Can't have cross server scenarios (like in WoW), can't have, say, a tier 3 version of Gates of Ekrund, can't just keep cycling players through maps (the way, say, TF2 does) without requeueing (I have no idea how to spell that).  Disconnecting scenarios from the victory point system seems like it could be a good move.

Although the quote "players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event" sets off a number of warning bells for me...

Is is possible that this new scenario will be more keep attack / defense style and less murderball style?

I hope so, but if it's only temporary, then it's probably going to bite the big one.

Personally I can handle 50 cents a day to hang in there and see.  I had so much fun when I started playing that I'll be around for a few more months regardless of how badly they cock it up.  That and I don't really have an alternative game that I'm interested at the moment....

It's nordenwatch v2.

Nice to see that they didn't give a fuck to the "oh hay, make a scenario that, y'know, sorta simulates oRvR" suggestions.

The temporary thing is just a trick; if it's even moderately successful and there aren't too many glaring bugs, they'll say that "due to overwhelming demand, we'll make it permanent".

I'm just grabbing this post as representative of a theme...

This release has been planned from no doubt before launch when it was announced the cuts would take place. While I'm sure people are scrambling around trying to get things fixed, the bulk of the work on this would already be done. The classes were promised as free content, so it looks good for Mythic to put them out as free content.

I actually like the idea of temporary scenarios - they can break up the tedium of the existing scenarios for while and the maps could be cycled to keep things fresh(er) and replace scenarios that have gone into the shop for some work.

Mythic has made some stupid decisions in the past month, but I do not think this qualifies as one of them.  New content is rarely a bad thing.

Absolutely. But if you think about it, this just further reinforces how monumentally stupid it was to release the game when they did.  If these classes were so close to live implementation, why not give the game another two months of polish and release a product that could steal away a chunk of folks already bored with Lich King.

Instead, the content patch reintroducing two cut classes is coming just about the time that the vast majority of current and former WoW players will be picking up their copies of LK and traipsing around Northrend.

January release with Blackguard, KoTBS, Slayer and Choppa combined with two more months of focused open beta testing would've done this game a lot of good.

I suspect the release date (no matter what MJ says) was not their decision.  EA most likely told them to release before WOTLK for marketing reasons.  It doesn't excuse it, but I think it is becoming clear that is what happened.

Actually I think Mythic delayed their title too many times to delay it again and had done a lot of promotion about the new launch date. Perhaps post-AoC they should have stopped to re-evaluate it again, but I'm sure the feeling was that there would be a bunch of players looking to make the jump to WAR - there is a reason I thought 800k players would be subbing to WAR and that's because I expected WAR would have a similar launch to AoC - and that the game would attract enough attention and be stable enough to launch. And that players would be impressed enough to hang around until the elder end game had been fixed.

At this point, I don't doubt that WAR did well on box sales. However, player retention is going to be a big issue. Remember when this guy (http://www.massively.com/2008/09/24/analyst--war-subscriptions-will-eventually-settle-around-250000/) said WAR might settle at 250k - 300k subscribers? He seems pretty prescient at this point.

Sorry me being Swiss and all sometimes I don't speak well. come back when you know french as well as I know english kkthx

Don't be such a smart ass, I bet you never worked in the gaming industry its easy to say Mythic sucks etc... It is not an easy job, fix will happen I'm sure..
Hmm well considering you base your sayings on nothing but feelings I can't really comment that. Who the fuck are you to say that no one is going forward to play the new tank class...

Not being able to do a certain job does not disqualify you from criticizing those who do.

If people claim that they could do better, then by all means criticize their game development prowess.

You don't know how to do it, but you can tell them how to do it better? WTF

He doesn't say he can do better he just says they do a shit job.. that is really a constructive argument

When I start posting in french, feel free to correct me.  Game design is hard?  I didn't say that no one was looking forward to playing the new tank classes, I said "who the fuck cares" with regard to grinding up an unlock to play one of the new classes a week earlier. 

I then went on to say that most people who would have played one at release will now have to make the decision if they want start one and go through the level up grind again, or have already quit the game.

I could expand on that and point out how fun it's going to be trying to do a scenario with 10 tanks or how two weeks after the new classes are in the game the starter areas are going to go back to normal.  Also expect a lot of the new tanks to give up and go back to their old character.

As a consumer of their end product, I have every right to criticize them for what I perceive as flaws in their product.

Success and individual enjoyment are obviously not things that can be measured qualitatively or objectively, but to say that I cannot criticize the creator of a product I've paid for is quite bizarre.

"Yeah, the food I've paid for at this restaurant tastes terrible and rubbery but I can't criticize them because I don't know how to cook these dishes."

I still much prefer Destruction, but I am the same as Sjofn.  I do hope they eventually allow female Chosen (and Marauders, though I'm not looking to play one).

Add another woman looking forward to the new tanks.

I've always found this to be the stupidest argument in the fanboy arsenal

"I bet you couldn't make a game any better , so until you can STFU"

The mere idea some actually consider that a valid point is amazing

Because the game had already been pushed back 3 times and people were really starting to bitch. The game had a huge following prior to launch, and they wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Is that so hard to believe?

Why does the game need female chosen?

Does that even fit in with the lore at all?

Personally I think chicks in full plate armor is stupid, I actually like the way you can't have any gender in any class in WAR. 

yes, there are female Chosen in the lore

Chaos is an equal opportunity employer.    :why_so_serious:

I, for one, am very excited about these classes coming back. A human tank has been desperately needed because right now Order is lacking in the tank department for purely cosmetic reasons (very few want to play midgets or people in dresses and we all know it.)

This is obviously Mythic's attempt at countering the release of WotLK. If I was prone to conspiracy theories I might even suggest these classes could have been included at launch but were held back specifically so they would have SOMETHING to try and stave off the butt rape Blizzard is going to impose on them.

Without this event what could they possibly have done to try and counteract November 14th?

Food is a stupid analogy, it's something thats being created just for you. Of course you can send it back if it comes out shitty. A better analogy would be paying to get into a club called "Nothing but Techno" then bitching because you don't like the music they're playing.

You can have female chosen, I think the reason they avoided it was because it would be a very butch, heavy built female and would probably attract a lot of complaints.  After tier 1 they would start looking exactly the same as male chosen anyway.  I find a lot of people dislike most of the female models in this game.  Outside of the Dark Elves, very few are feminine.  Something is off with the elves and the male elves seem more feminine than the female elves.

What if Mythic knows these classes will be heavily played.  Launch 2, the rest of the game?  Goes with the marathon theme.

Having a new live event sounds ok, adding in two additional classes sounds great!

I wish they didn't add another scenario though, even temporarily. Are they listening to their player base?? Argghhh.

I also wish they'd stop working on fun things like Live Events until they have a more concrete design on how the future of the game will look. You don't have to create live events to make more orvr if your game already features a lot of orvr in the first place! They need to work on important things, so the game doesn't completely implode.

Adding two new classes is important and it's exciting for many people and it's a reason to come back to the game. Adding another scenario (to slowly kill open rvr even more) is not.

You know, I keep hearing about how WotLK is going to kill WAR but I honestly don't know a single person excited about it. Even my friends who dropped their other games when BC came out seem very meh about Lich King. I wonder if WOW is finally starting to age?

I try not to say any game is going to "kill" another, but I can attest that several (4-5) folks from work are dropping WAR for WotLK when it comes out (and I know that's a lame unverifiable statement, I apologize ahead of time). They are in T4 currently and they say it's a lagfest. They aren't canceling, just taking a break on WoW while WAR works itself out (good or bad).

And they are not adding any 'new' classes, they are merely putting the classes back in that they were supposed to go live with, which is a common misconception. Order really needed that Knight and DE really needed that Blackguard on release, would have made things a lot easier for both sides.

My guess it was strategically timed for near WotLK. Marketing wise, the Knight might not have been your most popular class on Order but the Blackguard certainly was for DE. Now, if you were Mythic what would you do in December? Release the Choppa and Slayer (assuming they are taking out the Hammerer per RUMINT).

Good marketing strategy if you ask me. While your players are trying to peek around the curtain to see the little man on the controls, direct their attention to new shiny objects across the room.

I should probably clarify. Witch King will hurt. But I don't think it will be as bad as people think. Not on the level that Burning Crusade was to several games I played.

I would agree with that clarification, but unfortunately for Mythic it means more transfers/mergers. Folks are going to either stick with their guilds and hope for the best doing smallish skirmishes (per your description of the fight that you had) or think that Mythic is losing even more folks at a drastic rate and bail to possibly pick it up later. When I think of RvR I think of the 100+ per side Relic Raids that we used to have in DAOC. The RvR 'hub' of the Frontier Keeps meant you could form up and roll out to find a fight. Here with the lakes and the "War is everywhere" attitude, that means that war could be anywhere, and good luck finding it.

Look at DAOC, 10 servers are merged under the Devon cluster now? WAR will be around for a long time, it's a niche based game, but I think you will find the same model that you have now in DAOC for WAR except ohhhh 4 years earlier? (within 6 month of release I bet we see these 'clusters')

Yes, because chicks in dental floss makes much more sense...

I like heavily armored, possibly butch, women who look as if they could crush you.  (Other types, too, but that's not the point of this.)  If you don't like them, don't play one.  I, however, do, and currently have no female tank options with Destruction.  Greenskins are out due to lore.  For female characters as a whole that leaves Dark Elves and two caster options with Chaos for me.

I suppose if one wants to keep the number of people willing to play the game down, it's okay to limit options.