Friday 22 May 2009

You dirty rat!

Whilst chatting on guild vent the other night I asked the question “What do you think will be added first, the missing cities or Skaven as a playable race?”

The general consensus was new playable races first. Not what I expected, but perhaps they have a point. Their reasoning for this was roughly as follows… Essentially the campaign works as it is. There’s lots of fighting and Land of the Dead is only going to add to that. Sure oRvR has a load of issues and bringing the cities back could address some of those, but would it entice lots of new players to the game? Perhaps it would, but certainly not as much as the introduction of new playable races.

So I had to ask myself, what would I rather have, the missing cities or whole new zones and sneaky bastard Skaven to log in with?

It’s a no-brainer, Skaven win hands down.

If you don’t know your Warhammer lore, then you maybe wondering what’s so special about them or even asking WTF are Skaven anyway?

Skaven are a race of chaos-warped rats that live hidden from the rest of civilisation, planning the downfall of everything and everyone. They have the appearance of a classic anthropomorphic fantasy creature; imagine a pre-menstrual rage filled Beatrix Potter drawing Ratty and you’re on the right track.



They are conniving, evil, untrustworthy, self-centred and utterly malicious. They have no redeeming features of any form. And there are millions of them. They’re under your character’s pixelated feet right now, scrubbing about, preparing your doom. Seriously folks, it’s not ceiling cat watching your vinegar stokes that you should worry about…

If it weren’t for their constant backstabbing and self-destructive nature, they would have killed or enslaved the entire world long ago. Thankfully it’s unlikely they will ever act in a truly united manner, but if they did then everyone is buggered. By rats… Not a nice thought that.

Not only are they full of horrid character, but they have a wealth of options for playable classes. There’s no need to create any dubious lore stretching class like the Disciple of Khaine. It’s all there just waiting to be used. How soon we’ll actually see playable Skaven I have no idea, but I’m 100% sure at some point we will. For now just watch your backs…

6 comments:

  1. Two things I noticed: First off, I'm not sure if it's used in an ironic sense but shouldn't it be "basement rat" or "floor rat," since Skavens live underground? Secondly, I find it amusing that it is watching us zerg, when in fact Skaven should theoretically be the master of the zerg since they multiply like...well rats.

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  2. Yeah I did consider basement rat, but it wouldn't look right with the edited ceiling cat picture :P
    http://www.ceilingcat.com

    Unless we'd used some trickery and turned it upside down... doh

    Lately we've been seeing zergs to put rats to shame, sometimes I suspect WAR players are actually role playing Skaven. Actually thinking about it, the Karak Norn forums on WHA would support that theory...

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  3. love the new banner! :D
    if destro gets skaven, what does order get? just don't give them gnomes, i couldn't live with myself if some shortie took me out :P

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  4. Glad you like it ;) Mate of whipped it up today, I'm hoping he doesn't want my eternal soul in payment :D

    Ah ha that's the next question for sure. Wood Elves or Bretonnians my money is on. Wood Elves have the perfect 4 classes with Eternal Guard, Waywatcher, Wardancer and Spellsinger

    People talk about Lizardmen, but having them strolling round Altdorf, chatting to merchants and all that is pushing the lore a wee bit too far ;) Could make for some cool classes and there's the whole Lizardmen vs Skaven history of conflict, but still too much of a lore killer for me.

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  5. Skaven are... beautiful, especially some of the Skaven art out there. I'd like to see them as a third faction, maybe with Vampire Lords and the Bandit Kingdoms. Probably won't happen, but just seeing Skaven - could forget about the global financial crisis...heh. Still lots not covered in the Warhammer World - Brettonians, Cathay, Tislea, Vampire Lords, Chaos Dwarves, definitely the Lizard Men, assuredly more.

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  6. Actually I hope maybe they introduce a 3rd faction with Skaven since they want to take over the world...maybe with a paid expansion which would probably help sell alot of boxes.

    So with that comment I would rather they introduce the other cities. It wouldn't cripple a faction so much if their city gets de-ranked to level 1 if they still have other cities to do stuff in.

    Until you actually feel the demoralization from a city being taken down to rank 1 you wouldn't understand how important other cities would be. Luckily I have toons on two different servers and I have experienced both sides of the table. I have been involved with de-ranking a city to 1, and having my city de-ranked to 1. Let me tell you that a city being de-ranked peoples play times drop by like 75%.

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Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.