There has been a rash of Warhammer bloggers leaving Warhammer recently.
I didn’t beta WAR. I didn’t even really follow it at all. I was perfectly happy playing EQ2 again, after the debacle that was AoC, when I started getting emails from friends to come along when WAR came out, and I agreed. Basically what this means is that I did not spend months or years thinking about how awesome a game it was going to be.
I only played WoW for about a month, when it launched, so my thinking is more or less unaffected by it. I don’t love or hate WoW. I simply don’t care much about it, or use it as a benchmark.
I had no expectations to be dashed. What I’ve found is that Warhammer is a basically stable game, with notable strengths and flaws. I may write a lot more about the flaws, as I perceive them, than I do about the strengths. That’s natural, as I desire to draw attention to problems, so they can be rectified. Drawing attention to WAR’s many strengths is the job of Mythic’s marketing department.
WAR is a game that, like Pirates of the Burning Sea, relies heavily on having a critical mass of players. and this is not the case on my server, but I hold out hope that this will be sorted out, one way or another. Currently I am enjoying Warhammer Online, mostly due to the RvR, and I will continue to play it. I will also continue to complain loudly when I think things could be done better. Such is my nature, and we’re basically stuck with that.
The sense of betrayal that many bloggers are giving voice to at the moment is understandable. To an extent, Mythic has themselves to blame by talking a lot of hyped up tosh over the last couple of years (and it still continues. I simply don’t believe that 2% claim.), but that seems to be how all MMO promotion works these days. I’ve been there myself, on a number of occasions, but I think at present, emotion is taking too great a role. and the bar is being placed unfairly high.