Warhammer Online shuts down December 18th

[Falconeer]

For good.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/18/warhammer-online-to-close-december-18th/

Today is Warhammer Online's fifth anniversary, but instead of getting a celebration, the players are getting a pink slip from Mythic. The studio announced that it will be shutting WAR down as of December 18th because its licensing deal with Games Workshop has come to an end.

[Xuri]

And this is why the making of MMO server emulators is a good thing.

[ghost]

Yeah, that's what the holdup was. 

Unfortunately, as with all licensing deals they do eventually come to end and on December 18th, 2013 we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online.

There had been some speculation as to why they were still keeping this thing afloat.

[Ingmar]

I was always surprised they never transitioned this to F2P, but I guess what is hinted at here is that they must have known GW wouldn't renew the license after the game tanked, so why bother.

[Mithas]

This game and the drama that ensued is the reason I started reading this forum heavily.

 

It will always be first in my heart.

[Hawkbit]

The reason WAR failed was because t

[Kail]

Kinda sad about this, even though I haven't played in years.  There were a lot of things I liked about WAR, and it spawned a lot of good ideas that other companies have since copied.  It's just the snags they hit with their core gameplay kind of trumped everything good or interesting they did with the other aspects of it.  I was still holding out hope for a F2P savior or something that would fix that somehow, sigh.   

[Ard]

I honest to god though this had been shut down a few years ago 

[Fordel]

Same, I didn't realize it was still up.

[IainC]

This game and the drama that ensued is the reason I started reading this forum heavily.

 

It will always be first in my heart.

Same. My very first post on this forum was a reply to Arthur_Parker, assuring him that we wouldn't fuck up the launch.

[Nebu]

It's a little sad.  I really enjoyed playing this at release.  Grinding my squig herder and shaman from 1-20 almost entirely by pvp was incredibly fun.

[HaemishM]

So many good aspects of this game were utterly fucked by Mark Jacob's insistence that XP gain was perfectly fine and that there was no content gap. Also felled by completely fucking clueless PVP arena design. Fuck you, Mourkain Temple and Tor Anroc. Joy-killing LCD shit shows of horror and despair.

[UnSub]

I honest to god though this had been shut down a few years ago 

I believe it has been down to only one server for at least 12 months.

[Nebu]

Joy-killing LCD shit shows of horror and despair.

This may be my new favorite recent quote. 

You're such a giver.

[Soln]

[Soln]

Guess I'm gonna have to change my sig!

Implicit ownership of wrecks      Taiwan   Closed

[Sjofn]

That was seriously the best server name ever.

This game made me sad. There was potential everywhere, but it was just so ... well, most of you were there. You already know! My ironbreaker was fucking adorable, though.

[Mithas]

Those stupid white sunglasses. Though I don't think I've gotten as much entertainment out of a game fiasco before or since. The youtube videos were great. Barnett is still at Mythic isn't he?

[Fordel]

/shrug


Does Mythic even exist anymore?

[HaemishM]

Mythic is a carbunkle on the ass of EA's failed online MMOG division attempts. It is the branding for a corporate blemish.

[Ashamanchill]

WAR brought me to these forums as well, via Wayfarer if I remember correctly.

Best First 20 levels I've ever had in a game, even beating out Tortage in AoC. I usually don't even like PvP, but the game made it fun........right up until Tor Annroc

But yeah, count me in with those who just assumed it had been closed.

[Malakili]

Of all the MMO disappointments over the years, this is probably the one I was most excited for.  I had visions of epic night long castle sieges and private channel planned and coordinated city attacks in my head.  Instead what I got was a handful of scenarios that got stale after the 3rd time, and an RvR system characterized by the factions effectively coming to a gentleman's agreement to trade objectives in order to get the maximized reward for completing the associated quests.

The beta was great because everyone knew their character would be wiped.  The result was that everyone just played the castle siege stuff, even as early as Tier 2 when they started showing up, just because it was fun.  

Such a shame.

[Tannhauser]

WAR was great from 1-20 and crap after that.  Such wasted opportunities.

[Fordel]

The most fun I had with WAR was trolling that one giant fan forum that was the unofficial forums for the game.


The game was doomed from the start because Mythic had learned absolutely nothing from DaoC. Not only did they repeat all their mistakes, they managed to repeat them even FASTER then DaoC originally did. Efficiency!

[Draegan]

This thread made me look up my first post. Was like 6 years ago. G'damn.

[UnSub]

/shrug


Does Mythic even exist anymore?

They still run Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Forever, the iOS version of UO. AFAIK, they have no new projects in the pipeline.

So I'm guessing they'll last until EA feels the need to do some more cost cutting.

[Shatter]

They put this game on life support around a year ago, 1 server and no patches or updates since.  I was going to play around with it before FFXIV came out and found out it still had a sub and well yeah...f*ck that.   I had some fun with the game but let it die.

[5150]

I thought something was afoot when this vanished off Steam a while back.

I barely played, I personally lost interest in Warhammer Online when the original Climax version died and it then became DAoC with a Warhammer skin.

[croaker69]

I thought something was afoot when this vanished off Steam a while back.

I barely played, I personally lost interest in Warhammer Online when the original Climax version died and it then became DAoC with a Warhammer skin.

If only. Mark Jacobs and his hard-on for bad EQ-lite PvE. He had no idea what was good about DAoC.

[Njal]

If only. Mark Jacobs and his hard-on for bad EQ-lite PvE. He had no idea what was good about DAoC.
[/quote]

This

[Modern Angel]

Echoing others, the best intro experience to an MMO I've ever had. Those first 20 levels. So good. I still think about them.

And that's why this makes me angrier than any other MMO. It did NOT have to be this way. Jacobs should never be allowed near a game again.

Paul Barnett is going to be employed for longer and better than anyone posting on these boards. That should enrage each and every one of you about what an easy lay gamers are.

[luckton]

Everyone, it's going to be ok!  Surely DAoC 2 will save us all!

[Setanta]

Got my Ironbreaker to 30 and remember it being a hell of a lot of fun. Post 30 killed the game for me.

I loved TA in PvP, but I was a punting class and lava was my friend. The game had so much potential it makes me sad to think of how badly it was stuffed up/ignored.

[Ginaz]

This had some of the most fun classes I've played in an MMO.  I loved my squiq herder and shaman.  The rest of the game wasn't so fun, esp. after level 20 or so.

[Sophismata]

Paul Barnett is going to be employed for longer and better than anyone posting on these boards.