by Linda "Brasse" Carlson

Mythic Entertainment has a hell of a franchise with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. They also have a major hurdle. In many people's minds, Warcraft is the same as Warhammer, (or vice-versa), and why do we need another WoW anyway?

It ain't WoW.

I hope Decarian does not mind my using her name to answer points I've seen brought up several times. She speek gud English, so I lyk tu uze dat. In our Forums, Decarian wrote:

"I've never played any kind of Warhammer game and I'm not familiar with the setting at all, so there is nothing that is drawing me to it any more than other MMO's in development."

Warhammer is a tabletop game based on miniatures (created by Citadel), used to build armies that then do battle with each other according to a fascinating and complex ruleset. A well assembled, fully painted set can be truly breathtaking to behold. They have a fantasy and a futuristic setting, as well as the brilliant offshoot called Bloodbowl (think of Rugby with weapons and you get the idea). The games take a very long time to play, just like any tabletop army game, but the ruleset is fantastic and gameplay extremely dynamic.
I have some models that I am pretty proud of, but no decent pictures - must give the task to Wren on her next visit with her ubery camera. To give you some idea of the glory that is the Warhammer miniature, I blatantly stole the image shown here from an ebay listing.

I am certainly curious how the army setting I am used to in Warhammer translates to an MMO where people usually play one character at a time... certainly Gods and Heroes has made great innovations in the concept of squad-based MMO implementation, but I've not heard of anything similar in Warhammer.

Here is a sample Chaos army, with a decent paint job. Yeah, also lifted from ebay - I figure that as long as I link their auction, I am actually advertising for them, not really stealing.



Decarian also noted:

"Hmmm after waking up and rereading this I realized I tied Warcraft and Warhammer together in my head last night."

Warhammer is the venerable tabletop game developed by Games Workshop. They do lots of other stuff too.
Warcraft is the computer gaming franchise developed by Blizzard. They also do lots of other stuff.

It is very, very easy to confuse Warhammer with Warcraft, and with good reason. Warcraft "borrowed" heavily from Warhammer models, lore and feel; even the names are similar enough to cause confusion. Now of course, all fantasy genres borrow from one another, but the similarities between these two realms is marked. The stylized, over the top figures, armor and equipment are very distinctive. Orcs in particular appear eerily similar to most who see them, particularly given how variable this race normally is in games. An EQ Orc looks nothing like a LOTRO orc, for instance. It was always a wonder to me that Games Workshop did not sue Blizzard (they are normally extremely protective of their property), and I often wonder if the matter was not settled very quietly in a back room somewhere. Perhaps they just decided it was too hard to prove the derivation - I am not at all well versed in the laws governing copyright and intellectual property.

As Warhammer has been around for a quarter of a century, it amuses me no end when people claim that it is stealing from Warcraft, heh. Penny Arcade did an excellent, and perhaps the defining, comic on the subject, so I've been loathe to do my own unless I come up with a new angle... but it's tempting as hell, because I run into this misapprehension so often.

Warhammer lore (usually referred to as "canon") is very detailed and exact. Anyone who has ever suffered the misfortune of gaming with a rules-nazi will know how incredibly complex and deep the canon runs. Having never played Warhammer Dwarves in the past, I was taken aback by the news from friends that female dwarves in Warhammer Online were beardless. I wrote to Richard Duffek, Community Manager of WAR to ask about this, and he replied:

"What exactly is there to discuss? According to the Warhammer Lore and IP, female Dwarfs don't have beards... It isn't like we're making up this stuff as we go along, Warhammer is a 25 year old IP..."

As Rudorf posted when I put this on our forum, "powned". Yep. In my defense, I am pretty sure I've never SEEN a female dwarf portrayed in the Dwarven Codex which I have somewhere or other, in one of my still-packed moving boxes, so perhaps I can be forgiven this sacreligious lack of knowledge, heheh. Oh hell, I am going to have to call us "Dwarfs" as opposed to "Dwarves" in Warhammer context too! >makes note to self<
Wren just gave me a great little Dwarven Army, so I have to read up on them now!

I have no plans to shave, by the way... I will probably play Chaos as there are no Skaven to be had. No firm decision till I get a chance to try out the different races and classes though.

In summary, Games Workshop and Warhammer have a long history in the game world. They have built up an enormous amount of lore and backstory, as well as a solid gameplay model that should be possible to convert into an MMO. They've had everything they need for decades, and now have Mythic to do the programming necessary to bring this robust world to the MMO stage.

Mythic does good, solid work, so I am confident that they will build on their experience with Dark Age of Camelot and will do justice to the Warhammer universe. Besides, they have the guys at Games Workshop hanging over their shoulders every step of the way, and they simply do not accept "good enough".

Now, if we can just convince them to include BloodBowl as a mini-game, I will subscribe for life. Ok, wait... I'll subscribe for life after they also wedge Skaven in! Ohhhhh how I love my little Skaven!

The term "killer" has long been used to describe an online game that takes over the marketplace, to the detriment of others in the genre. EQ was the UO killer. WoW was the EQ killer. Will Warhammer Online be the WoW killer?

Given Blizzard's demonstrated sloth in the new content department, I'd say Warhammer stands a very good chance. Let the battle begin!

;-)#
Brasse

You can talk more about Warhammer, on or offline, in our forums. Start a new thread, or join one in progress.

ps. Any discussion of Warhammer leads to slavering miniature disease in me. I must, must, must finish my armor for FanFaire, NOT start painting the Dwarf army Wren got me. >locks the box in a cupboard<