My WAR SE just arrived in the mail from Amazon.com, and it’s installing as I write. I’m undecided if I will actually play today or wait for morning; it will mostly depend on how my evening plans go.
I approach each game with a mindset toward that particular game, rather than the genre. I think that’s a large part of why I’m able to enjoy underdog games like Guild Wars and DDO, even Vanguard, the way I do when everyone else seems to say “every MMO should be XYZ” which I just don’t get. If every single MMO actually were XYZ then every MMO would, in fact, be outright clones of each other. LOTRO is no more a “clone” of WoW than EVE is a “clone” of Elite. However, WoW and LOTRO are both first-generation Diku-MMO’s so by their very nature they will share similar mechanics, along with every other first-gen Diku-MMO.
However, I am going to WAR with a few pre-conceived notions and/or expectations, not all of them positive.
I haven’t been reading any in-depth articles on the game, but have obviously scanned through the majority of WAR-related posts from my favorite bloggers this past week, so I have a very vague idea of what they’ve been describing. Prior to that, and to an extent even now, here are some of my expectations prior to launching the game for the first time:
- A first-generation Diku-MMO. I won’t call it a WoW clone, when WoW cloned everything before it (most notably EQ and AC2), but I can’t very well call it an “MMO clone.” So, Yet Another Fantasy MMORPG. With “shiny new Feature X” which would be Public Quests in this case.
- An emphasis on PvP. I’m no fan of first-gen Diku-MMO PvP and I’ve made no secret of that. I find it to be mostly an exercise in boredom, frustration and futility, and the RPG conventions make me feel a step removed from truly being “player vs. player.” To make things worse, I’ve committed myself to being a tank. Of all first-gen Diku-MMO PvP roles, I’m the worst at melee. Ranged or healing, no problem. If I find the game, and guild, entertaining enough to continue with but I utterly fail at the melee I may have to resign myself to being a back-line healer, if such a beast exists in the game.
- A lack of emphasis on individual characters. Most RPG’s will put you into the role of some type of “hero” in one form or another. My notion of WAR with its Realm vs. Realm factions is that we are less important as individuals and are cogs in the wheels of war (see what I did there?) making the realm as a whole greater than the sum of the individual characters (and players) who compose it.
- Lackluster PvE. I have yet to read a single description of WAR’s PvE content that would actually make me look forward to it at all. “Generic” and “run-of-the-mill” seem to be the most-used descriptions, with a few even saying there’s not enough PvE content in the whole game to keep strict PvE players interested. Since PvP bores me pretty quickly once I start to recognize the same patterns every day (just like raiding the same dungeon every night is boring) this may be another strike against me sticking with it.
- Median graphics. Unlike many who have been whining about WAR’s graphics, I will make my point by echoing Brent’s sentiment (identical to my own) of “you can’t have a massive game if it has massive system requirements.” Age of Conan proves this. We’re just not to a point in processing, graphics and networking tech yet to handle photorealistic MMO’s. Funcom had to build Hyborea as population-controlled public zone instances in order to get the graphics quality as high as they wanted. Even then, get a lot of those high-poly-count and high-res textured character models in the same high-poly-count and high-res textured environment for massive-ish PvP and watch your frame rate take a nosedive. WAR is focused on PvP (RvR, whatever) and to have it playable, it needs lower overall graphics quality. Besides, art direction is far more important than “graphics” alone.
With those bullet points, it sounds like I’m going in with a poor outlook and to a degree I suppose I am, namely with the PvP focus. I don’t mind that it’s YAFMMORPG. Mythic never claimed it was going to be anything but that. I’m not expecting next-generation with WAR at all. First-generation is perfectly fine for some things, and while I’m extremely excited that the real next-generation is finally upon us with APB, Agency and DC Universe, that doesn’t mean I will be dropping all the first-gen titles and never looking back. I’m an equal opportunity gamer. 
I do have some hopes for myself in WAR, however:
- That RvR will foster a good community. Assuming (dangerous thing to do, that) that I am correct in the emphasis on the realm over individuals, and assuming people get that through their thick skulls and actually cooperate as a team both in PvE and PvP instead of being the usual PvP asshat crowd. If asshats rule the day, I’m out no matter if the Casualties guild is cool or not. If the guild itself degenerates into the asshat PvP attitude in-game, I’ll likely cancel and unsubscribe immediately, though I haven’t gotten the impression that I’ll need to worry about that happening. WoW always said “For the Horde!” but it really wasn’t. It was sometimes “for the guild!” or “for the group!” but mostly it was “for ME!” So I am really hoping that the game design and content will cause the players to play for the team, for the realm and have more of a sense of realm loyalty over selfish gain for a change.
- I will enjoy and immerse myself in the character. I’ve said a few times I’m looking at the Chosen because its description mirrors Vanguard’s Dread Knight, which I love. Problem is, that’s a PvE character and I am very aware of my Suck Factor at melee PvP, as I said earlier. I’m hoping the Chosen is cool enough that I can get into it from an immersion or role-playing aspect enough to tolerate the PvP.
- I will enjoy the PvP. I’m really, really hoping that WAR will be the game that finally brings PvE and PvP together and that I will finally have enough fun that I will take the time and increase my skills at melee PvP (since I have none, they have nowhere to go but up after all…) and that I will enjoy it, provided it’s not just the same ol’ PvP day in and day out.
- I will enjoy the game on its own. I actually intend to play awhile on my own and checking out my impressions of the game play and the community before I ever contact anyone from the guild to invite me in. I’ve been on the guild IRC channel a few times, even on Ventrilo once, and I’m sure I’ll get along with everyone perfectly fine on a guild chat level. But I want to get a really good idea if I will enjoy the game for the game, and the community for the community, first. A great guild can make or break a game, that is always the case. But I want to make sure I’m not allowing my enjoyment of a (hopefully) great guild to keep me in a game that I would not enjoy and would not play without that guild.
With those final hopes, the installer has notified me that it’s finished. So, off to make sure my Mythic account is activated and to get the game patched up and ready to go…
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Your PvP suck-factor cannot *possibly* exceed mine – trust me.
And yet, I’m having an utter blast in WAR-RvR. To me at least it’s not PvP, which means I’ve been able to shed all the PvP-related terrors : the asshat peeing on your corpse, the group of asshats camping your corpse, the endless ganking, the insane amounts of pathetic ego-onanism that appears to go with it, etc etc.
Sure, I’ve been killed by the same person several times, but only in the confines of a scenario and when that’s over, it’s over. (Though I do have *cough* 2 names on my Sh*t List for hot-lead revenge, someday.) I know I’ve picked on the same target more than once if it became obvious I could kill em and they weren’t staying away from me.
But it’s … framed, I guess. I can do a few scenarios then stop, and I won’t hit that frustration wall. I’m no RvR goddess but I’m learning, and most of all the learning is actually fun. The hardest was learning not to be so bothered when I died (ah, corpse run flashbacks) – now I usually laugh about it.
C’mon, try it out. You know you want to. Moooo.
You just summed up all the reasons why I’m fairly “meh” about the game. I’ll buy it. I’ll play it. I’ll probably drop it after a month or two.
We’ll see what happens.
PvE is a really big deal for me.
I think the choice of tank is excellent, it will put you right in the middle of all the action. They are hard to kill and provide great damage. I played a Chosen in the Preview Weekend and it is still one of my favorite careers, just because they are freakin beasts in battle.`
The scenarios can and do tend to be a lot about which side has the larger number of high levels playing, but every now and then a bunch of 5′s can beat the crap out of a level 11, so the game isn’t too over powered in that respect. Especially if the level 5′s have a ton of healers behind them. But even that is fun, I don’t mind losing because you still get Xp for every kill in the scenario and you get XP for doing the Scenario and you can even get a quest to kill 10 enemies in a Scenario. Your earning XP and Renown the whole time your in their, so you don’t come away empty handed.
Asshats are in every game I have ever played, so I wouldn’t let that discourage you. I’ve seen people, healers, walk right by me while I’m getting the crap kicked out of me and do nothing but run past to click on the quest item I was going after. That is just how some people are, but in the RvR part, most people know that they accomplish more if they help each other, so its been very positive so far. Sure there are tards who run scenarios, but that is why you go into them with a preformed guild group, to cut down on the problems. Casualties is always running scenarios as groups. We have even instituted a policy to help people who are still in T1 so there will always be people to group with.
PvE isn’t that bad. I find the quest very fun and everything is part of a story for the area you are in. If you run out of quests in the Chosen area, you can fly to the Dark Elf area and the those, or if you find you’ve run out there, you can hit the Greenskin area. Each chapter has an influence meter that is needed to be filled by doing the PQ’s, so you’ll be earning items. Also, each race zone has its own chapter, so if you fill up the influence on the Chosen Chapter 2, then you can fly to Dark Elf Chapter 2 and fill up influence there and get more stuff.
Again, all if it is chained together by a story, so if your into reading about the games history, you can have fun with that. The tome is full of background stuff everytime you unlock something.
The only thing lacking might be the crafting. I, as do others, wish it was a bit deeper and it had more options, but right now it doesn’t bog you down too much trying to level it up, especially if you have guild members helping you out.
I think you will like the game. I wasn’t a true believer till I started playing the Open beta and it has me hook line and sinker.
I will be interested in your opinions as you progress.
The main things I see from various blogs is…
The game is not about the PvE. If you love PvE, then WAR may not be for you..
If you love to group with a set player roster (meaning friends only or a specific guild), you will love WAR…
If you hate queues and love to play evil, WAR is not for you.
If you love to play GOOD and want your ass stomped…WAR is for you…
Waiting to find out your thoughts as you play.
I was planning on starting this morning but felt more like leveling my new minstrel alt in LOTRO instead. What does that say about my enthusiasm for WAR?
I’m hoping the new Destruction server doesn’t have a queue…
As for crafting, Oak, personally I don’t see it being necessary in WAR at all. Like some games add PvP as an afterthought, that seems to be what crafting is in WAR. This isn’t a game for “ooooh, can someone make me a ballroom gown with pink flowers and some teal wallpaper for my bedroom in my house?” If I’m up to speed on WAR’s crafting concept, it’s that you only craft consumable items that will actually be useful in battle. Why craft armor and weapons if drops or quest rewards are better anyway? Eliminate the crap grind and get to the point of it all.
That’s how I look at it anyway, and it fits with my concept of the realm being more important than the individual non-hero.
But then I haven’t even loaded the game once, either… kinda hard to when I can login to my Mythic account to give them my credit card info but the account won’t actually login to the game…
@Openedge The PvE side of the game isn’t anymore mundane than any other MMO on the market. Get quest, run kill mob or get them to drop quest item, run back turn in, repeat. There is a story line that goes with all the questing in the game, and the Tome of Knowledge contains all the story so far as you progress thru the game, which is kind of a nice read if your into Lore and history.
I think people are focusing on the PvP aspect more because it is so much fun, different and to some extent evolutionary. You can really spend lots of time in Scenarios. It makes the game less linear than most MMO’s that rely on Questing as the only form of leveling. There is less travel, just as much experience and you can level up your renown while you do Scenarios or World RvR, but I wouldn’t say that the PvE is none existent. Everyone seems to forget that the PQ’s are part of the PvE system. There are lots of quests to do in each chapter in all the race zones.
Your hearing more about the PvP because it’s better than all the other forms of PvP out in MMO’s today, which causes the PvE to get only a small cursory look, but its there and there is tons to do. I’d say out of the 14 levels I have earned with my engineer about 4 might be due to PVP questing, the rest are from PvE questing, which includes PQ’s.
Games in my book have been a lot like The Matrix movie. I can tell you all about it, but you really have to see it for yourself.