Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning 
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Warhammer Online veteran muses saving dead MMO as offline 'double-clickable museum'Dec 24, 2013 - ShacknewsWhat happens when an MMORPG shuts down? Well, it probably lives on through pirate servers. But what happens officially? It vanishes. After EA pulled the plug on Warhammer Online last Thursday, former lead client engineer Andrew Meggs has idly proposed an alternative: turning on a debug feature which lets the game run offline so the world lives on forever, albeit without anyone else in it.Warhammer Online invites past members back free for final monthNov 4, 2013 - ShacknewsWarhammer Online: Age of Reckoning may be shutting down in December, but developer Mythic plans to go out with a bang. Everyone who's ever had an account for the MMORPG (well, an account in good standing) is invited to return for the final month without paying a penny.Warhammer Online shutting down in DecemberSep 18, 2013 - ShacknewsIt feels rarer for MMORPGs to shut down nowadays, not without trying free-to-play first at least, but Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is for the chop. This December, after five-and-a-bit years online, the MMORPG based upon Games Workshop's tabletop wargame will shut down.Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes Preview: MOBA Beta BluesMar 20, 2012 - EurogamerAt a time when every MMO that ever struggled or lost the spotlight is embracing free-to-play, you'd think that Warhammer Online would simply throw up its hands and join the party. It may well do so at some point. For now though, it's taking a different approach to the rest, opting to take its existing engine and assets and rework them into this: a free, fast-paced competitive multiplayer game, following in the wake of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) hits like League of Legends and Bloodline Champions. As with those games, the basics are simply described. You pick from a selection of unlockable heroes, each with their own abilities and specialities, and team up with another five players on a randomly selected map with its own objectives. The beta currently offers three: a team deathmatch arena with collectible power-ups, a capture-and-hold map, and one about recovering runestones. All are quick to play, sharing the main gimmick that there are three teams fighting it out instead of two. That makes things much more chaotic, helping to break stalemates and keep you on your toes, though the added random element of simply not having a chance if you your team gets ganged up on won't be for everyone. Forget your Warhammer characters - you're stuck with prebuilt ones for Wrath of Heroes. Between rounds, you get to spend the money you win on new heroes and new skins to make them look slightly different, while bitching about how overpowered your least favourite hero currently is. Finally, there's a general levelling system behind the scenes for improving your performance in future games, giving you points to spend on talent trees that slightly customise your favourite heroes' performance in the field. For a MOBA, it's incredibly easy to get into. Heroes are well categorised in the store, labelled in plain English, and Wrath of Heroes offers the extra-handy in-game touch of pointing you to good countering characters if you keep falling prey to one in-game. Objectives are simple, with an excellent colour-coded mini-map and a streamlined approach to capturing points. Run to the thing, ideally in a group. Stand next to the thing until a bar fills. That's as tough as it gets. It's a much less intimidating experience than most, too. Players tend to be quiet, with a distinct lack of DOTA-type douchebags trying to wash your ears out with scorn and hate. Admittedly, that's largely because there's not a lot you can do painfully wrong. Victory gives you bonus spins on a slot machine between rounds where you win bonus gold and XP. You can easily get the measure of a map and what you have to do in a single round, and if you get shouted at for anything, it'll be not sticking with the group. Wrath of Heroes offers some scope for lone wolf play, but not much. The current maps are both too fast and too small for things like scouting to be relevant, and you have little to no chance against even a handful of enemies - never mind wandering into the crossfire of both ene...Why subs-based MMOs have a futureOct 4, 2011 - EurogamerAn F2P-only future for the MMO genre is anything but a foregone conclusion, reckons Mythic founder and former CEO Mark Jacobs. Jacobs, who was lead designer on Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online before he left Mythic in 2009, admitted to Eurogamer that the traditional subs-based MMO industry "is in the worst shape ever" with free-to-play clearly in the ascendancy. However, he speculated that some players are slowly starting to turn against the system, due to the low quality of many of the titles on offer. "I think we're starting to see a shift," he said. "I think that shift is not going to happen over night but you can start to hear it in forums and among the players, that part of the problem with free-to-play is that a lot of time the games are crap. Just like free mobile games are. "Publishers are just throwing something out and want to make some money off RMT, but in order to do that they've had to keep the production costs way down. "I think some players are starting to get tired of it. They're willing to pay a little bit more. Are they willing to pay $5 a month? $10 a month? $20 a month? I don't know yet but I think we will see a shift from free-to-play back to a model where it isn't one size fits all." Another reason why we might see a swing back to a more traditional payment model, Jacobs argued, is that more dedicated gamers don't want to have to put up with the mischief inflicted by interlopers checking out a game by virtue of the non-existent barrier for entry. "I think there is a good percentage of people who are willing to pay for quality and are willing pay for a good experience," he explained. "You go into these games and you see a lot of the same crap you've seen for decades. There has always been ways of enticing people to play - hey, it's free until level 20, you get 20 days free, and so on - and you're seeing people running around cursing and being silly, because there's no penalty. "There are a lot of people who don't enjoy that and are willing to pay to have good servers and not to have to deal with some of the nonsense you have to deal with." That said, Jacobs added that any MMO that does launch with a subscription model will have to step out of World of Warcraft's shadow and try something different if it's going to have any chance of success. "If you look at the MMOs that have come out since WOW, how many have tried to be different? How many have just been clones?" he asked. "If you have a game that is just a WOW 1.5, it's going to be a really tough sell on a subscription basis. People are going to say 'why should I pay you $20 a month to play the same game I played in WOW but I have to start all over again and I don't have my friends?' "People would like something different. That's one of the things we tried to do with Warhammer. Obviously there were some things in it that were very much like WOW, but we tried with some things to be different. "And it's hard. Innovation is difficult and sometimes innovation doesn't wo...Former Mythic boss explains EA splitOct 3, 2011 - EurogamerMythic co-founder and former CEO Mark Jacobs has shed some light on why he left the famed MMO developer following owner EA's decision to merge the studio with BioWare in 2009. Jacobs, who was lead designer on Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot among many others, told Eurogamer today that he felt there was no place for him in EA's plans for the studio. "Let me be very clear about this," he explained. "John Riccitiello is the CEO and it's his company. They bought Mythic. JR has the right to do whatever he wants. I will never look at him or say publicly 'why would you do that, bla bla bla?' That's not my job. "They made a decision on a direction they wanted to go and obviously, as we put out in our joint statement, that wasn't a direction that had a role for me, or at least the role that I wanted. It really is as simple as that. Or at least publicly. Whatever went on behind the scenes, whatever we talked about, I have no intention of sharing that." While it's clear the two parties didn't see eye to eye, Jacobs insisted that the split was civilised. "One thing I'll say publicly about EA, they have been very good in what they've said post-departure regarding me. Similarly I've been good about what I've said about them post departure. "Did I agree 100 per cent with them? Of course not. Did they agree with me 100 per cent? Of course not. If they did I'd still be there." Jacobs announced his new start-up last week, City State Entertainment, which plans to focus on mobile and social games. According to Jacobs, it's a side of the industry he planned to explore while still at Mythic. "In my last conversation at EA with my former partner, I told him that I had been racking my brain for weeks on how we could get into a space that I thought was going to explode. I'd seen what Zynga was trying to do, and I could see where the industry was going. I'd spent that last weekend trying to figure out where we could go as EA with Mythic properties. "Y'know, it's funny. I came up with a really good plan, and then there was my departure. It's ironic that two years later I'm able to do what I wanted to do then - which was to get into this space." He admitted that he's aware City State isn't the only new start-up looking to get in on the social gaming boom. "It's a great space for guys who either want to self-fund like I am or who are not as willing to go against all the big boys and compete in the console or MMO space. For us, whether it's iOS or Android, tablet, PC or browser-based - we're looking at all the things that a small team can do, turn around relatively quickly, and if we do our job right, be successful." They key to making City State's titles stand out in such a crowded field, he argued, will be hard work, patience and perseverance. "You have to be willing to put something out and - I hate cliches - let it grow organically. You have to be willing to keep up the work even though maybe you're not seeing the return right away. "Two of the best examples are ...Free Warhammer Online PVP game shownAug 16, 2011 - EurogamerBioWare has announced a free-to-play PVP MMO called Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. BioWare Mythic, creator of Warhammer Online, is making the game. Wrath of Heroes launches this autumn. Wrath of Heroes beta sign-ups are live now. The style is heavily cel-shaded or cartoony, depending on how you look at it. It's undeniably Warhammer Online underneath the make-up, though. Battles see three teams of six people fight each other. That's 18 people slugging it out at once. You'll be able to swap between your stable of heroes on the fly. Battles are tailored to shorter gameplay sessions such as lunch breaks. Levelling up is mentioned. BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka described the game as "accessible, fast-paced and highly competitive". "It's a hell of a lot of fun," he said. PVP was one of the cornerstones of Warhammer Online's offering. Has Mythic ripped this area out and rebadged it for a wider audience? Only a closer look will tell. Video: BioWare leak row gathers paceOct 14, 2010 - EurogamerAnother industry insider has joined David Jaffe in lambasting the soon to be laid-off EA art worker who yesterday tore into their employer in an anonymous blog. The blogger, going under the pseudonym of EA Louse, criticised how BioWare Mythic's Warhammer Online MMO was handled and claimed that EA's forthcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic was "a joke". Jeff Preston, an art and design specialist who has worked with BioWare Mythic employees in the past, has struck back in his own 1600 word blog, obliquely titled, 'Anonymity is for cowards'. It's quite the read. "It kills me to see white-collar crybabies bitching about layoffs when people who work far harder, without donut days and comfy chairs get cut every day with no warning and no severance," he explains. "Bottom line is that working for Activision, Electronic Arts or any other big company is like eating a giant sh*t sandwich at times. It sucks. We eat it or we walk. "The passive-aggressive sniping from a wall of anonymity is for pussies. Bitches who have this sense of entitlement. The world owes them! Writing posts like that just stirs up a sh*tstorm and enrages the mob. The Mob who really knows f*ck all about it means to work in a studio like this and what goes in to game development, especially on a licensed product." Preston joins God of War creator David Jaffe in shouting down EA Louse. Jaffe wrote on his own blog yesterday, "What the f*ck is it about making games where it brings out the worst, most immature, most obnoxious sides of certain types of people on a team?" It's like being back in the playground, no? Laid-off EA dev: Old Republic "is a joke"Oct 13, 2010 - EurogamerA disgruntled EA employee about to fall victim to lay-offs has published a vicious diatribe against their employer, claiming, among other things, that forthcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a disaster. In an anonymous blog post, the art worker at EA's BioWare Mythic studio, wrote, "Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too." The blogger goes on to claim that BioWare has, "spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $300 million! Can you believe that? "And you know what they're most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That's the best they have. "The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas, they're panicking, and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalised to work in Austin on it because they can't keep pushing back launch." BioWare Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO also comes under fire. "The project leaders did not know what they were doing. Jeff Hickman was the saddest excuse for a producer I've seen. All he did was drink the Koolaid and suck up to the right people." The post has clearly got a number of figures in the industry riled up, including Eat Sleep Play's David Jaffe. The God of War creator posted a response on his own blog: "What the f*ck is it about making games where it brings out the worst, most immature, most obnoxious sides of certain types of people on a team? Everyone thinks they always know better than the people in charge. "On God of War 1 I still remember a small group of hard core gamers on the team that felt we were making the game 'wrong' because there was not all this deep, deep, Street Fighter 2/Tekken style depth to the combat system. 'Jaffe's out of touch!' 'Jaffe doesn't get it!'... never did it occur to them that we were going for something else... even tho I explained this to them over and over! "But still, every few weeks I could count on this little contingency being up in the studio head's office pitching 'their' version of the game, with the goal being to have the head step in - which he never did - and shove their ideas into the title. F*ck it annoys me!" A spokesperson for EA told Eurogamer, "We don't respond to rumors or anonymous blogs." Star Wars: The Old Republic is due for release on PC in early 2011. BioWare Mythic Assumes Control of Warhammer Online in EuropeJul 8, 2010 - ShacknewsBioWare Mythic, formerly EA Mythic, has taken over "publishing, operating and subscription service rights" to its MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) in Europe, which was previously handled by GOA, a division of France Telecom. BioWare Mythic had previously taken control of Dark Age of Camelot from GOA back in February. As WAR transitions between the two companies, European players can expect 48 to 72 hours of downtime. Once the game returns, all current and former players will receive 14 days of free play time to celebrate the takeover. New players can also create restricted "Endless Trial" accounts, which do not limit play time, but limit accessible game content. Electronic Arts combined Mythic and BioWare back in June 2009, putting both companies in control of BioWare co-founder and general manager Ray Muzyka. It was at that point that the Mythic co-founder and WAR lead designer Marc Jacobs left the company. Read More Warhammer Online Billing Issues Hit Users With Massive OverchargesApr 9, 2010 - ShacknewsSome Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning subscribers are reporting that they have been billed over and over again during a single month in what appears to be a massive failure of the game's billing system. Users are reporting being charged between $300 and upwards of $1000 in some cases. Additionally, users are reporting overdraft charges with their banks due to balances being zeroed out on debit accounts. As of today, developer EA Mythic clai... Read More
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