Warhammer ends quarter with 300,000 paying subscibers

[waylander]

A lot of people are taking a break until Patch 1.3. With Mythic not addressing class balance, then the issues people are upset about now will simply continue with the new content.  Mythic devs don't play their game competitively, and due to that they have no friggin clue what to balance or why to balance.

CC is out of control, the lowest damage skills have the highest DPS multipliers, few LOS checks on ranged abilities, etc. Some classes can roll their face across the keyboard and kill entire warbands, and some classes can't kill a dam thing. Its just all fucked up, and then throw in the horrible T4 PVE...err PVP/E game and people are just getting sick of it.

As far as I know, there are nothing but medium and low pop servers now with pervasive population imbalance issues that make everything worse. Niche game? Yeah if Patch 1.3 bombs out, Warhammer will be competing in the sub 150k subscriber market within 6 months.

[Nebu]

Niche game? Yeah if Patch 1.3 bombs out, Warhammer will be competing in the sub 150k subscriber market within 6 months.

My guess is that if it isn't already below 150k in North America alerady, that it's pretty close.  WAR had a great opportunity when you consider the box sales at release.  They just had no clue how to keep the excitement going. 

1.3 will not save WAR.  Neither will the expansion.  The classes are broken.  The engine is horse shit.  The endgame sucks (soo much cc, ae, etc).

Game over. 

[Bungee]

Thank god I was fanboi enough to get me into the beta. Otherwise I could've made the mistake of actually buying Failhammer.

[rattran]

I just got their "May" newsletter, and have a few points for Mythic.

• It's June 8th. May is over.
• Lots of stuff is the newsletter is outdated and/or incorrect. All that stuff about important class balance etc.
• I unsubscribed to your fucking newsletter 3 times now. Spamming me isn't going to encourage me to resub to your shitty and broken game.
• Fuck you.

In conclusion, go fuck yourselves with a handful of broken Warhammer Online cds.

[waffel]

In conclusion, go fuck yourselves with a handful of broken Warhammer Online cds.

Use these:

[Delmania]

To be honest, the whole breaking of the CDs thing is a rather empty threat, mainly because you can simply download the client..

Anyways, I caved in and am playing the 10 day thing because some of my friends are still enjoying it.  However, not much has changed, and now I have this weird delay between when I do an action and when it shows on the screen.   Also performance on this machine is not better than when I left.   I wouldn't mind playing it only because I have some RL friends playing it and its the best way to stay in touch with them, but my god, I'd be embarassed to admit I was on the Warhammer development team.

[Nebu]

No matter what your friends say, don't pay for a sub.  I went back for a few days to play with some old friends and got cheated out of another $15.  I felt used.  The game was fun for about 7 days until I came to the clear realization that rvr was broken, the game was broken, and no amount of laughter on ventrilo was worth enduring the damn game. 

This coming from a 5+ year DAoC fanboi.

[Hawkbit]

I hope you recycled that garbage.

[Chockonuts]

Just wait until whatever colossal faction on each server sets up camp in LOTD.

The game will come to a screeching halt after 3 weeks of that kind of action. 

[Arthur_Parker]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSBNG49025020090609

BANGALORE, June 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan-based online gaming software firm GigaMedia Ltd (GIGM.O) reported a fall in quarterly profit, missing estimates by a cent, due to a fall in revenue citing weakness of the euro against the U.S. dollar.

The company said it expects continued revenue pressure through the summer months due to normal seasonality and the effects of the global economic downturn.

The second quarter would remain flat to down sequentially in Asia and down in Europe, Think Equity analyst Atul Bagga said.

The company, however, seems to be confident about its Asian online gaming business in the second half of the year, driven by a strong pipeline.

GigaMedia is launching a slew of titles this year, including Electronic Arts Inc's (ERTS.O) Warhammer Online and NBA Street Online, and a Korean game Luna Online, it said in conference call with analysts.

"Electronic Arts was very positive about Warhammer's response in Taiwan. They said it was well exceeding their expectations," analyst Bagga said.

I suspect "expectations" aren't what they used to be.

[Segoris]

I suspect "expectations" aren't what they used to be.

Couldn't help but think of this when it comes to EA and "expectations"

[Cyrrex]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSBNG49025020090609

BANGALORE, June 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan-based online gaming software firm GigaMedia Ltd (GIGM.O) reported a fall in quarterly profit, missing estimates by a cent, due to a fall in revenue citing weakness of the euro against the U.S. dollar.

The company said it expects continued revenue pressure through the summer months due to normal seasonality and the effects of the global economic downturn.

The second quarter would remain flat to down sequentially in Asia and down in Europe, Think Equity analyst Atul Bagga said.

The company, however, seems to be confident about its Asian online gaming business in the second half of the year, driven by a strong pipeline.

GigaMedia is launching a slew of titles this year, including Electronic Arts Inc's (ERTS.O) Warhammer Online and NBA Street Online, and a Korean game Luna Online, it said in conference call with analysts.

"Electronic Arts was very positive about Warhammer's response in Taiwan. They said it was well exceeding their expectations," analyst Bagga said.

I suspect "expectations" aren't what they used to be.

If you read the first sentence carefully, they missed their profit estimates "by a cent".  Clearly, they are operating on a very, very small scale here.

[01101010]

GigaMedia is launching a slew of titles this year, including Electronic Arts Inc's (ERTS.O) Warhammer Online and NBA Street Online, and a Korean game Luna Online, it said in conference call with analysts.

Would not surprise me in the least if NBA Street does better overall.

[Montague]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSBNG49025020090609

BANGALORE, June 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan-based online gaming software firm GigaMedia Ltd (GIGM.O) reported a fall in quarterly profit, missing estimates by a cent, due to a fall in revenue citing weakness of the euro against the U.S. dollar.

The company said it expects continued revenue pressure through the summer months due to normal seasonality and the effects of the global economic downturn.

The second quarter would remain flat to down sequentially in Asia and down in Europe, Think Equity analyst Atul Bagga said.

The company, however, seems to be confident about its Asian online gaming business in the second half of the year, driven by a strong pipeline.

GigaMedia is launching a slew of titles this year, including Electronic Arts Inc's (ERTS.O) Warhammer Online and NBA Street Online, and a Korean game Luna Online, it said in conference call with analysts.

"Electronic Arts was very positive about Warhammer's response in Taiwan. They said it was well exceeding their expectations," analyst Bagga said.

I suspect "expectations" aren't what they used to be.

If you read the first sentence carefully, they missed their profit estimates "by a cent".  Clearly, they are operating on a very, very small scale here.

Not sure if that was supposed to be green or not, but that's profit per share, not total profit.

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, I actually was being a smartass.  But really, coming out with statements about how you missed your profit-per-share by one tiny little cent is silly, and makes me think small scale.  For most companies, that'd be called being bang on target.

[Soln]

Doorhammer Online: Age of Carpentry

On low-population servers, the War in Warhammer is removed, and replaced by doors. Stalwart fighters on Order side combat boredom along with Destruction during infrequent keep sieges.

via WHA.

Nerf saw

-Sincerly, Hammer.

Edit:  PvD combat!

[Nebu]

Doorhammer Online: Age of Carpentry

That really does encapsulate the essence of the game.  One side attacks, the other side turtles up.  Lather, rinse, and repeat. 

[March]

Heh, pretty funny.

Another door feature that I really liked was when the outer door would respawn while the inner door was being worked on... thereby preventing singles or groups from joining the fight... unless they took down the outer door (again).

Not sure if that behavior has been changed, but I sure thought it was neat.

[HaemishM]

To be completely fair, that was the traditional method of medieval warfare as well. Armies did all they could to avoid open field battles where the outcome wasn't already determined by overwhelming numbers.

However, that makes for a really shitty shit game. Not to mention that in said medieval warfare, sieges weren't just about breaking down a door. Walls were undermined or bombarded, opening holes in the walls. Some people infiltrated the keeps either by tunneling under or somehow climbing over. And that's without magic. The reason people turtle is because it funnels every single person through one area of attack.

Game = fucked.

[EWSpider]

To be completely fair, that was the traditional method of medieval warfare as well. Armies did all they could to avoid open field battles where the outcome wasn't already determined by overwhelming numbers.

However, that makes for a really shitty shit game. Not to mention that in said medieval warfare, sieges weren't just about breaking down a door. Walls were undermined or bombarded, opening holes in the walls. Some people infiltrated the keeps either by tunneling under or somehow climbing over. And that's without magic. The reason people turtle is because it funnels every single person through one area of attack.

Game = fucked.

Which brings us back once again to the whole why is WAR < DAoC mindfuck that no one can get their head around.  DAoC HAD FULLY DESTRUCTIBLE WALLS YEARS AGO.

[01101010]

Well at least it seems the Mythic crew are consistent with the gimmicks... Oh look, a puzzle! And I have to agree, the game might be crap, but watching the erosion of it is magically delicious.. or horrifying, i can't decide.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?game=239&feature=3128&bhcp=1

[HaemishM]

Seriously, what the fuck? How is that a good use of anyone's fucking time on a game this fucked?

[raydeen]

PUZZLE IS EVERYWHERE!

[Montague]

I believe it says: "PAUL IS DEAD"

[Modern Angel]

I believe it says: "PAUL IS DEAD"

He's absolutely not dead. I haven't resubbed.

[Redgiant]

I believe it says: "PAUL IS DEAD"

He's absolutely not dead. I haven't resubbed.

Part of me says you didn't quite get it, whiel another part of me thinks you got it better.

[Modern Angel]

I got it better.

[Fordel]

To be completely fair, that was the traditional method of medieval warfare as well. Armies did all they could to avoid open field battles where the outcome wasn't already determined by overwhelming numbers.

However, that makes for a really shitty shit game. Not to mention that in said medieval warfare, sieges weren't just about breaking down a door. Walls were undermined or bombarded, opening holes in the walls. Some people infiltrated the keeps either by tunneling under or somehow climbing over. And that's without magic. The reason people turtle is because it funnels every single person through one area of attack.

Game = fucked.

Yea, I was going to say the issue isn't really the door, but the fact the best way to 'defend' the door is to hide behind a corner waiting for the enemy to stream through a 2x2 hallway and explode them in laggy AE death.

[Tarami]

A substitution cipher that doesn't spell real words? How original.

[Ingmar]

I hope you recycled that garbage.

Don't worry, even if he didn't, Mythic is sure to in their next MMO.

[Tarami]

[Arthur_Parker]

Executive Producer's Letter - Part 2

Based heavily on that feedback, our current “Top 5” areas that we are giving significant attention to are:

1. Addressing concerns related to Crowd Control and Area of Effect abilities.
2. Continuing to improve client and server stability and performance.
3. Strengthening and improving the Tier 4 experience.
4. Improving server population distribution – both in terms of overall population and realm balance.
5. Improving itemization and the overall distribution of “carrots” (rewards) throughout the game.

While this is not anywhere near a complete list of what we’re working on, I wanted to make it clear that these are major priorities for the team and that we’re applying significant effort, attention and resources to addressing them at the moment and will be the topics of discussion for the final part of my letter.

I like the quoted section above.  Combat, stability, end game, population and loot, all apparently suck.  Part three is going to be fun.

Edit, ok I'm actually starting to feel sorry for them.  Here's the discussion thread on part 2.

Executive Producer's Letter - Part 2 Discussion

What I want to knowm, is where is Mark Jacobs and why hasn't he come out to comment on any of this? Is he even still employed there? Without MJ, there is no Mythic other than in company name.

Post Removed - Inappropriate Language

Please sort Executive Producer's letters in reverse order next time.
 
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Post Removed - Inflammatory
 
If you have nothing civil and constructive to contribute to the topic at hand, please do not post.
 
Thank you.

Honestly, the only thing I want right now, is Server Merges.
 
Please please please! Please give us server merges, I dont care how.  We need population.  I would rather have a person I can attack and get an error saying to far away, then not having a person to attack at all.
 
<3 daoc days

[Montague]

Folks, while I understand the interest in Mr. Jacobs, let's keep the discussion on topic about EPL: Part 2, alrighty?

Let the countdown begin till MBJ declares victory and rides off into the sunset.

[Tale]

Thank god I was fanboi enough to get me into the beta. Otherwise I could've made the mistake of actually buying Failhammer.

My default attitude towards all upcoming MMORPGs is to ignore them, avoid the beta, and presume they're all going to suck. Unless some kind of positive community buzz that "something's really going on here" reaches me, no time or money changes hands. Warhammer never got onto my radar.

[fuser]

Continuing to improve client and server stability and performance.

WTF? The game has been out for almost a year, missed all subscription targets and they are still trying to fix these issues(and every letter it seems)?