Looking on the bright side - 5 quality things

It’s very easy to post negative things about an MMO, there’s always so many things that either genuinely need further work or that us gamer types think could be done better (which is no doubt easy for us to say!).

Today I feel moved to combat the rampant negativity and post 5 quality things that make WAR a cool game. Once I started writing this I realised I had a load more than 5, but if they're so inclined I'll leave that perhaps for my fellow bloggers to pick up on.

1 - The Warhammer Lore
It’s Warhammer! Gamesworkshop have spent 25 years of constant development and refinement to create the Warhammer world that we know today. Mythic have available a monstrous amount of high quality background story, imagery and characterisation, there’s no need to create some half arsed nonsense about magic gnomes or other such rubbish.

This is of course subjective and some people have no idea about Warhammer (how many times have we seen people ask for male Witch Elves or female Orcs…), so it may not be to some folk’s taste, but for me it’s the ultimate setting for an MMO. There’s plenty humour, but the overall feel is dark and gritty. This is a game that drops you right into war and doesn’t flinch.

2 - Evil
The Destruction playable races are actually proper, full on EVIL! There are no poor misunderstood Orcs, uncouth barbarians or sad persecuted Trolls, oh no, this is without mercy, murdering bastard, torturous evil. We have quests to burn villages down, to wipe out populations and defile the graves of their ancestors. This true evil also helps define the Order faction, giving them purpose within the game world. Defined powers of light and darkness.

As my mouse cursor hovers over my Chosen on the character select screen, I know to click that button means logging in with a character that is as far from Mr Nice Guy as possible. If I was a tad more demented in real life I’d be cackling as I did so… MUHAHAHAHA! Etc :P Sometimes I’m sorely tempted to play Destruction on a roleplay server :D

Or maybe playing Destruction just gives us an excuse to be arseholes, either way it's all good, I mean bad :P

3 - Real enemies
So many MMOs that feature different and opposing playable factions fail to deliver those factions as proper enemies. There's either little point fighting them, the game's PvP is pony, or the presentation of their differences is so poor that it just doesn't inspire any feeling to the player. Games should make us despise our enemy factions and want to crush them utterly. WAR totally delivers on this. Thanks to the distinct look, feel and charisma of the different races combined with the overall RvR centered style of the game, from the very start it begins building that loathing of enemy players. Sure there are enemy players I have a respect for of course, but I still want them all slaughtered ;)

4 - Class choices
All the classes are cool. Sure I have favourites, but I could honestly see myself playing any of them. In fact it's proving to be a problem for me, as I now have every character slot filled and I can't decide which to take to 40 after my Choppa. Sure some classes have the odd issue to be resolved (like every MMO ever), but they're still all interesting. Across the wide range of MMOs littering my dubious past, there's always been a load of classes I simply had no interest in. Not so with WAR :) I suspect this will be the game that I have more top level alts than ny other previously, and I am known as an alt whore.

5 - Options
WAR gives you a lot of options on how you level up. I can get XP from old school PvE grinding, Player Quests, Dungeons, PvP Scenarios and OpenRvR. There are obviously ways that are faster than others if you want to rush, but all of them are viable ways of getting to 40.


So there you have just 5 things (from many that I could have picked), that for me make WAR not only a great game, but the MMO I want to stick with long term.

Update 1
Forgot to link this: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280922
Warhammer Alliance have an interview with Mark Davis, Live Events Lead for Mythic, about Lands of the Dead.

Update 2
Gonna add a 6th quality thing about WAR purely for my own amusment.
Spotting an Order player in an Altdorf siege that you recognise as someone who comments on your blog and then the pair of you trying to fight each other ;)
Kolapz, I think it was 2-1 to you on killing blows mate :D Damn you sneaky shadow warriors lurking at range :P