hey Tobold, I was wondering whether you were planning to play on the EU or US servers for WAR when it launches? It seems like a lot of people are unhappy/concerned with the service that GOA will offer EU subscribers (considering DAoC experiences); in your opinion is it worth EU folks getting the US version of the game and bypassing GOA altogether?
 

I will play on the EU servers, because of time zones. WAR is all about playing with other people, and that pretty much falls apart if you are 6 to 9 timezones away.
 

When you read the horror stories on several forums worries about GOA are almost inevitable...Imho they took the first hurdle with succes and handled the downloading of the beta client well enough. Taking into account that preorders in EU surpassed those in NA by a large margin, this could be very big for them (and Mythic). I cannot believe they will mess up that business opportunity.
 

Any thoughts on DARKFALL, which apparently will enter beta state soon?

http://tagn.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/darkfall-cometh/
 

I'm claiming for years now that Darkfall is vaporware. Up to now they haven't proven me wrong. The game developers sent me a link to their latest video, but it was broken.
 

Is anyone else disapointed in the lack of a true open beta for WAR? Pre-launch stress tests and open betas have become defacto demos for subscription based MMOs and yet after nearly a year sitting on the beta wait list I still haven't experienced the game.

As MMOs are predominantly social experiences, even if they are massively solo games, trying to entice someone away from their existing social community is hard. Why would anyone who has already become accustomed to the mechanics and community in one game, who has invested so much time and energy in it, uproot themselves for another MMO experience without so much as the benefit of a couple weeks trial? Beyond those that are already burned out, I can't see WAR pilfering too many people from existing MMOs based purely on trailers and reviews.
 

Wizard101 launches soon. Can you talk about it yet?
 

Any thoughts on DARKFALL, which apparently will enter beta state soon?
The graphics look disturbingly Vanguardesque. I hope that isn't an omen.
 

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Sean> Well there was the preview weekend, and the open beta, lasting a week, starts in a week. All it costs is a pre-order box from best buy or gamestop or wherever (about $5).
 

Is anyone else disapointed in the lack of a true open beta for WAR?

Not really. They had a very lengthy closed beta. So if by "true" you mean "one where they fix the game" that has existed for quite a while. I think your disappointment is more about you not being involved with that beta and instead get more of the marketing/stress test version. In terms of such a beta being open or closed, why would any company want to have a non-NDA protected beta that was riddled with bugs? That's not very intelligent.
 

By true I meant what has at least in my estimation become the standard procedure for releasing games of this type: closed, nda protected betas followed by a short open beta prerelease, ostensibly for stress testing but in practice ammounting to a free trial for all of those interested in the game who had previously not been able to experience it otherwise. Subscription MMOs do not typically release with "trial periods" so the only oppurtunity to test these games out comes with the sort of open beta that Mythic is extending only to people who preorder the game. What I'm frustrated by is that the five dollar preorder is enough of a barrier for me, and as I suggested earlier others, to trying this game out if they are already satisfied with existing MMOs on the market. I'd love to give WAR a chance but I'm not going to pay five dollars for the privilege and in this kind of competitive marketplace I am disheartened that companies still think that's appropriate.
 

I just saw a thread on Warhammer Alliance about players who will use the headstart period to get to level cap. Now Im not in beta but im wonderingd: is this possible (assuming Mythic will keep the leveling pace as in beta)? And if so should it be prevented (by not offering the headstart/early access/whatever in the first place)?
 

The headstart is very short, and afaik has a level cap of only 20. It's possible to reach that if you play all day, but why would you want that? And why would anyone want to prevent that?
 

You can get the OB key for free at Amazon if you cancel your order, or if you have a Fileplanet subscription You can get it for $1 at Target. Given how many players would probably try a free beta and not leave WoW, WAR would have to overbuy servers to support a free open beta population.

The head start is 4 days for CE, 3 days for SE. You can still get into the 3-day head start by ordering. It's just a way of doing a soft launch, which I can attest worked out incredibly well during LOTRO launch. I don't see what the issue is with giving the CE preorders an extra day.

As to leveling, I'm sure there will be a few psychotics at level 40 within 2 weeks, but they'll just have to sit around without anyone to play with. The renown rank grind that kicks in at 40 is supposed to be incredibly slow.
 

Some people would want to do it just because they (think they) can and brag about it. Gameplay wise it seems a bit silly: with the chicken mechanic operational you cannot farm newbies (if that was the purpose of it all) and you will have (almost) no-one to rvr or pq with.

On the forums there are a lot of semi angry responses (the famous "no lifer" rant) but you are right: in this game there seems no reason to prevent it. In an free for all pvp world (Darkfall...?) it would create a potential problem.
 

I'd love to give WAR a chance but I'm not going to pay five dollars for the privilege and in this kind of competitive marketplace I am disheartened that companies still think that's appropriate.

Your disheartened that a game publisher won't just give away years of development for free?

I mean seriously, if you aren't even willing to pony up $5 for a pre-order, what type of consumer does that make you? Why in the world would any company (game developer or not) be concerned about attracting or pleasing a consumer who doesn't even want to pay for their product?

Trials, demos, betas are not a privilege -- they are a marketing incentive. Clearly, WAR doesn't feel compelled to give such an incentive to anyone not willing to demonstrate their buying power as a consumer.

I'm not trying to rip you here, Sean. I think what your touching on here is an increasingly common perception about some type of consumer entitlement. Your request is seemingly reasonable (try before buy) but it's also indicative of a greater sense of entitlement that has spread to things like bit torrent.
 

WAR sounds fun, I think I will probably get a hemroid from sitting too much due to playing WAR.

Wizard101 is in open beta. It's actually not that bad of a game. It is geared toward the 8-14 crowd, but as a 30'ish peep, I'm having fun with it...nice break from your standard mmo's. It's a CCG game, btw.
 

Tobold, I just saw this on warhammeralliance

Aug 29th:
1) Significantly improved NPC pathing - Okay, in all fairness it wouldn't have taken much to improve on what we showed you folks during the PW. However, the NPC pathing is back to where it needs to be and while it still isn't perfect, well, it's a heck of a lot closer than it was just a short time ago. We identified a whole lot of bugs and squashed them.
 

tobold, are you going to try and get into the LOTRO Mines of Moria beta? I signed up at unlocktheminesofmoria.com but i sense my chances of getting in are quite slim. You however would have a great shot, and i would love to hear your impression of what is to come