Warhammer ends quarter with 300,000 paying subscibers

[Arthur_Parker]

From the possibly the worst source ever.

This is pretty vague, but we can bet it's staff from Warhammer.

EA/BioWare/Mythic is producing a new game.

Warhammer is, and has been tanking for some time.

DAoC is actually gaining subscribers.

From Facebook:
Dark Age of Camelot has regained Lori as an official part of its team and additional developers will be joining her in the near future.

The Facebook quote is true.

[WindupAtheist]

Betcha the DAOC bump is all ex-players who tried WAR, hated it, and found themselves left with the itch to play a somewhat similar game that at least sorta worked. Same way UO got a bump from the NGE.

[EWSpider]

A lot of people are resubbing to DAoC in preparation for the Ywain server.  For those that aren't familiar, Mythic is going to archive the current clusters (Bossiney, Devon, and Killibury) and open a new server (the afore mentioned Ywain).  A new transfer process is about to enter testing that will allow characters from all the clusters to transfer to the new server.  This will include guilds and some type of process to accomodate housing.  The Classic server ruleset will be put to rest and some special accomodations will be made for toons transfering from that cluster to help soften the blow of having to now deal with ToA content.  Mythic is going with a transfer process and not a server merge because it will free up lots of character names, guild names, and guild emblems as those that do not transfer will have their characters/guilds left archived on the old clusters.

[Ingmar]

And you actually see lots of people running around on LotRO servers.

[Modern Angel]

Who the fuck is Lori?

And I'd be a fucking liar if I said I wasn't left with an itch to try DAoC again. I never really did much with it so it would be fresh for me... but the quality of the gameplay and engine put me off.

[EWSpider]

Who the fuck is Lori?

And I'd be a fucking liar if I said I wasn't left with an itch to try DAoC again. I never really did much with it so it would be fresh for me... but the quality of the gameplay and engine put me off.

Lori is about the best thing to happen to DAoC in a long time.  She came off Warhammer several months back and stepped in as the Producer of DAoC and quickly turned things around.  She had been on DAoC in many different capacities before WAR and has been with Mythic since the beginning. We had had almost no communication at all from Mythic for quite a long time.  Lori came in and was very frank with the Team Leads about what had happened, what was going on, and what the future had in store for DAoC.  She rebooted the TL program and set a course for the future.  Then about 2 months back she got moved again to another undisclosed project and Chris Rabbideau was reintroduced as Producer (he was the Producer before Lori stepped in).  Lori is now once again back on DAoC (I'm not sure in what capacity yet) and is about to be followed by a few developers.  I'm happy to see development is ramping back up a bit on DAoC.  I can't talk about any of the new development yet, but as I mentioned previously Ywain is shaping up to be some fun times.

[ghost]

It probably doesn't matter who Lori is, since both games are circling the bowl.....

[EWSpider]

It probably doesn't matter who Lori is, since both games are circling the bowl.....

I've said since the beginning that DAoC would outlast WAR and I still stand by that.  It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

[UnSub]

It probably doesn't matter who Lori is, since both games are circling the bowl.....

DAOC is paid for and provided it makes a satisfying enough profit, it can continue indefinitely.

WAR still has its development costs to cover, appears to have a worldwide player base of less than 300k and will soon run out of new markets to expand into. Looking at the population figures, I'm even starting to doubt if it will continue operation into 2010.

EA could try selling it off to someone else, I guess, to make some money back, but I don't know who would want to pick it up at anything less than bargain basement prices.

[ghost]

It probably doesn't matter who Lori is, since both games are circling the bowl.....

DAOC is paid for and provided it makes a satisfying enough profit, it can continue indefinitely.

WAR still has its development costs to cover, appears to have a worldwide player base of less than 300k and will soon run out of new markets to expand into. Looking at the population figures, I'm even starting to doubt if it will continue operation into 2010.

EA could try selling it off to someone else, I guess, to make some money back, but I don't know who would want to pick it up at anything less than bargain basement prices.

I could see EA closing Mythic completely and shutting off both games within 6 months.  May not happen that way, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me with the economy being down.

[pants]

EA could try selling it off to someone else, I guess, to make some money back, but I don't know who would want to pick it up at anything less than bargain basement prices.

SOE!  Now that Matrix Online is dead, they gotta have some spare servers not doing anything 

[tazelbain]

DAoC is not going to shut down.  There is no write-off in it for them.

[Nevermore]

Another 5 dead US servers, leaves 10 US now.  Anyone know how many US LOTRO has?

11, according to the LOTRO forums.

Even City of Heroes still has 11 US servers.

[amiable]

Another 5 dead US servers, leaves 10 US now.  Anyone know how many US LOTRO has?

11, according to the LOTRO forums.

Even City of Heroes still has 11 US servers.

I still play LOTRO with my wife, we are on the least populated server (Firefoot) and everytime we log on their are tons of folks starting PUG's, PvPing, even PUGing some raids (none of the hard ones).  Not just in Moria either I have friends who just started who are PUGing their way through the low level zones and they seem to not be having much of a problem either.  So at least they are doing well enough to maintain their current population.   

As far as craftsmanship I think LOTRO really is in a league of its own, if only it had a more responsive combat system I think it would have done far better.

[Nevermore]

Another 5 dead US servers, leaves 10 US now.  Anyone know how many US LOTRO has?

11, according to the LOTRO forums.

Even City of Heroes still has 11 US servers.

I still play LOTRO with my wife, we are on the least populated server (Firefoot) and everytime we log on their are tons of folks starting PUG's, PvPing, even PUGing some raids (none of the hard ones).  Not just in Moria either I have friends who just started who are PUGing their way through the low level zones and they seem to not be having much of a problem either.  So at least they are doing well enough to maintain their current population.   

As far as craftsmanship I think LOTRO really is in a league of its own, if only it had a more responsive combat system I think it would have done far better.

That wasn't a shot at LotRO, which I hear is a fine game.  I was pointing and laughing at WAR.

[Mrbloodworth]

Another 5 dead US servers, leaves 10 US now.  Anyone know how many US LOTRO has?

11, according to the LOTRO forums.

But they recently increased capacity.

[Lum]

From the possibly the worst source ever.

All of those quotes sound plausible. It'd be more surprising if Mythic did *not* have a game in the early design/prototype stage given the length of time required to produce an MMO. Getting funding for it would also help stave off more layoffs.

[Arthur_Parker]

source

Mythic Entertainment and Gigamedia have announced that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will launch in Taiwan on June 25th. The game will be available on GigaMedia's game platform, FunTown, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

http://www.warhammeronline.com.tw/official/news/info_content.html

From the above link click the news item entitled 伺服器合併計畫公告


Anyone think WAR reducing their server numbers from 9 total in Taiwan, to 4 total, two weeks after release is a new record?

[Lantyssa]

To me it just implies they can read English and know how to use that newfangled internet to do some reading.

[Hayduke]

I don't even understand how that's possible.  Did they just pull numbers out of a hat when they were deciding how many servers to open?

[Modern Angel]

I almost resubbed to DAoC just now. Then I saw they had a grand total of 2200 players online in North America.

[skrigg]

2200 isn't bad if you are on that 1 cluster. The population of the highest servers in their prime was 2k-3k.

[Modern Angel]

That was 2200 for ALL clusters. Now, one of them was something like 1600.

[Khaldun]

I see a lot of folks trying to figure out how to reconcile DAOC (and the learning that should have happened) with the design mistakes of WAR.

Before you get into any of the specifics, here's the big thing that I see:

DAOC was expressly a response to the first-gen MMOs, particularly EQ. It was designed to have small but crucial convenient features that EQ didn't have, to have a different kind of relationship between developers and players than EQ did, to offer major game systems that EQ didn't have. It took a long time before that initial design clarity about the market at the time of launch faded and allowed the niche-destroying stupidity of ToA to take hold. Whatever you end up remembering as what you liked about DAOC, you have to also really remember the moment of its launch, which is how most of us who liked DAOC were motivated to try it and stick with it: because we were not just bored with UO, AC, EQ, but because those products (especially EQ) were actively antagonizing us in some fashion.  This is the same force that fueled WoW's initial success: Blizzard saw where the flaws and defects in the market were and launched with most of those flaws squarely in their target sights.

WAR wasn't in any similar way a response to its contemporary market, a shrewd assessment of what the major product of the moment has and doesn't have, or a canny judgement about the gaps or flaws in the way that the developers of the major product approached their customers. You can maybe see somewhere buried deep down inside of it a potential product that would be a nimble attempt to offer what WoW doesn't offer, but that potential got buried early in WAR's development.

If you're someone holding a bag of cash now for a MMO project, the first question you should have is to a designer, "What are you going to do that WoW doesn't do and likely cannot do, given its design?" If the answer is any variation on, "We're going to be better than WoW at what WoW does", that should result in a swift boot to the ass and a slammed door. Period.

[Modern Angel]

I think that's a fairly apt analysis. DAoC being the not-EQ for EQ players where WAR was WoW PLUS LOOK AT THIS LOUD FAT FUCKER SCREAMING AT YOU.

Really, my flirtation with doing DAoC for a month springs from a desire to play a PvP game that's at least reasonably functional and because I didn't actually play DAoC past level 15 or so. It'd be new to me! :D But then I realize that nobody would play with me and I fuck off to do something else.

[Trippy]

I don't even understand how that's possible.  Did they just pull numbers out of a hat when they were deciding how many servers to open?

I haven't paid attention to WAR since before it launched so I don't know the details of the beta testing they did in Taiwan but the Chinese MMORPG players are notoriously fickle. Or more accurately they like to try out the new games en masse but won't stick around if it's not good (according to their standards, natch) since there are so many other games competing for their attention (they have a ton more MMORPGs over there than we have here).

[Ingmar]

I'm guessing the female avatars weren't NEARLY hot enough for the Asian market.

[Sjofn]

As far as craftsmanship I think LOTRO really is in a league of its own, if only it had a more responsive combat system I think it would have done far better.

ding ding ding ding ding ding

I do like being thoughtful in my choices, the warden being the biggest example of such, but even that class feels like I'm at least fighting in hip-deep water, if not completely under it like the other classes. 

WAR wasn't as responsive as it could've been either, but that was the least of its problems as you got higher level. 

[Threash]

WAR designed a scenario based game then freaked out when they realized no-fucking-body wanted that and added rvr their server or design couldn't support.  Take something like melee healers, in scenarios they work great as they were designed.  Not enough people to make them completely worthless in the front lines so they can actually get in there and mix it up.  Now tell me what the fuck is a melee healer supposed to do in a keep/fort besides sit in the back and heal?  Their end game was designed around tanks/back line healers/AOE damage dealers but their classes are based around doing scenarios.  If my marauder didn't have a decent AE spec he would be completely worthless in all the endgame, the backstabber spec is utterly worthless outside pve/scenarios.

[Hayduke]

I haven't paid attention to WAR since before it launched so I don't know the details of the beta testing they did in Taiwan but the Chinese MMORPG players are notoriously fickle. Or more accurately they like to try out the new games en masse but won't stick around if it's not good (according to their standards, natch) since there are so many other games competing for their attention (they have a ton more MMORPGs over there than we have here).

Ah thanks, that makes a good deal of sense.

[raydeen]

"Warhammer has been operating since the team from the formal charges are the subject of the work of the most fear."

Couldn't have said it better myself. 

[Shatter]

Up on test center today.  Couple highlights

* Immovable: Root immunity and knockback immunity have been combinedinto a new single immunity effect, and its duration has been increasedover the previous effects. When affected by either a root, knockback,or pull effect, you will become immune to them for 30 seconds. Thisimmunity will also persist through death.
*Resolute Defense: This new ability is now available for purchase fromRenown trainers. When activated, your character will become brieflyimmune to all Crowd Control effects. Please note that this ability willnot remove any pre-existing effects; it is a tool to help you preventyourself from becoming afflicted in the first place! This one reminds me of those trinkets in WOW
*Unstoppable: The duration of this stun, knockdown, disarm and silenceimmunity buff has been increased from six times the duration of thedisabling effect to 10 times the effect duration, and will now persistthrough death
*The Field of Glory buff currently grants a 100% Experience bonus in RvRLakes when killing players. Players will now receive an additional 50%bonus to Experience and a 150% bonus to Renown when killing playersnear Battlefield Objectives or Keeps.


Patch also includes the big AE nerf which hits pretty much every class. 
Evidentally the next patch includes an additional ramp in keeps(not sure about Forts)

[Ashamanchill]

Up on test center today.  Couple highlights

* Immovable: Root immunity and knockback immunity have been combinedinto a new single immunity effect, and its duration has been increasedover the previous effects. When affected by either a root, knockback,or pull effect, you will become immune to them for 30 seconds. Thisimmunity will also persist through death.
*Resolute Defense: This new ability is now available for purchase fromRenown trainers. When activated, your character will become brieflyimmune to all Crowd Control effects. Please note that this ability willnot remove any pre-existing effects; it is a tool to help you preventyourself from becoming afflicted in the first place! This one reminds me of those trinkets in WOW
*Unstoppable: The duration of this stun, knockdown, disarm and silenceimmunity buff has been increased from six times the duration of thedisabling effect to 10 times the effect duration, and will now persistthrough death
*The Field of Glory buff currently grants a 100% Experience bonus in RvRLakes when killing players. Players will now receive an additional 50%bonus to Experience and a 150% bonus to Renown when killing playersnear Battlefield Objectives or Keeps.


Patch also includes the big AE nerf which hits pretty much every class. 
Evidentally the next patch includes an additional ramp in keeps(not sure about Forts)

Too bad for them it's not six months ago, when they still had a sub base to enjoy this.

[Modern Angel]

I know, right?

Though there's something delicious about the guy on the job for all of a week fixing something in what seems to be great fashion but has lingered for a year. Fucking idiots.

[Shatter]

Well ya know they had to crank out LOTD before they fix stuff, priorities and all :P  Good thing too cause that place is just hopping :P