Why did Warhammer mmo 'W.A.R.' never become big?

[Keava]

Plenty of reasons. Starting with the core game play concept, through the failed promises, lack of content, unpolished content t content simply not working as it should or even not at all. WAR tried to be something between WoW and DAoC, and when something tries to please everyone it's bound to fail.

PvP was in terrible state at the first months of the game, several terrible imbalance issues (White Lions, Bright Wizards), the whole zone capture mechanic was clearly not working, keep sieges were pointless due to lack of incentive to defend them, public quest reward distribution was completely random (people who were at keep from start got nothing, someone who popped just for looting could get highest tier reward), quests were boring, PvE content was lacking, combat was not fluid and responsive.. the list goes on.

I admit, i have no idea how the game is now, but with MMOs if the first 3-6 months are crucial to the game. WAR simply failed to respond to the issues fast enough to satisfy it's initial playerbase, considering WotlK was released just 2 months later pulling back big part of the MMO crowd.

Having a decent IP basis does not make a game good.

 

[Hobonicus]

Your opinion in that regard is irrelevant here. It's a fact that in certain areas WoW is the industry's standard.

Because the popular majority compare other MMOs to it? I won't accept something as a standard simply because other people choose to. I compare every MMO I play to Everquest, simply because that is the first game of its type I played. So do most of my friends for the same reason. So the industry standard to me is Everquest.

Unless you can somehow come up with a way to objectively prove what is pure subjection, I don't think there is anything to gain by our continuing to debate.

You've been seriously missing the point this whole thread. When you hear "industry standard" does it automatically transform into "my standard" in your head? WoW being the obvious industry standard isn't subjective, it's common sense. I get that you like sounding edgy and logical, but it comes out as extremely obtuse because you're clearly avoiding common sense and an understanding of basic knowledge in favor of the "I'm a free thinking individual" bit that you try too hard to push.

 

[solidd]

Yes, because shallow, childish insults and name calling make your argument seem all the more mature and well though out. Obviously if you underline words and assert your opinion intensely and with great fervor while satirically guessing at your opponents IQ it becomes true.

Oh wait...

When someone does not respond to logic and instead makes up garbage or blatantly ignores common sense then you got no choice but to start smacking them with the rolled up news paper.
Gotta do what ya gotta do to educate kids these days.

From pretty much every single post I have ever seen of yours its pretty clear you enjoy deliberately missing the point and making up random garbage comebacks that have nothing to do with the subject at hand.
But it aint my job to coddle you, I aint your mommy. I will drive the lesson home any way I can. And if you are trolling (which I am fairly certain you are) then I will burn down your bridge.

Ahhh you saved me 10 minutes of typing. Cheers bud!

 

[Shadowkire]

Short answer: the game wasn't polished.

Long(ish) answer: Poor graphics, clunky UI, developers didn't deliver on many things they promised, end game wasn't complete, based the game around PvP without putting the appropriate amount of developer focus on PvP, something, something, and a bad IP for an RPG like that.

About that last one, the Warhammer universe(fantasy and 40k) has a heavy emphasis on... lets call it doom. There are at least five different races/factions in both settings poised to conquer and destroy all the "good guys". The story of any character in Warhammer goes like this: "Hey thanks for stopping that one plot the[bad guys] hatched, I know you nearly died fifty six times and lost your best friend. Oh by the way that was only one small group and they will be back in like two years."

The whole setting is depressing, and doesn't lend itself well to role playing games where you intend to sink whole days and weeks of your life into a single character. Because either you stay true to the setting and the character dies and stays dead which pisses just about everybody off, or you let them respawn and take the seriousness out of it all.

 

[rapidoud]

There's a difference between industry leaders and industry standards.

I like to think for myself and not rely on sales figures to decide what is good.

Aion promoted itself as a WoW killer.

Rift promoted itself as a WoW killer, even using the tag line "You're not in Azeroth" anymore, for Chrissakes.

WoW may not be the best MMO around, but if you can't recognize it as the gold standard that everyone, everyone tries to measure up to, you are being incredibly dense, intentionally or otherwise.

You may try to think otherwise, but your stupid, solitary opinion about "what is good" does not change who leads the pack.

Everyone tries to measure up to DAOC and Ultima Online actually. Blizzard get lucky with an addicted fanbase, fat lazy devs who do minimal work to ensure people stay and charging ludicrous amounts for required expansion packs.

 

[winter2]

Because it was a poorer WoW clone.
You do not beat WoW at its own game.

Because WoW was the first MMO with quests, classes, PvP, different races and various crafting skills.

Oh wait... It wasn't.

But it is the biggest and arguably the best so it does not matter if something similar came before it.
People always use "Like God/Gears of War but..." even though they were not the first.
WoW is the MMO industry standard. Deal with it.

I'm sorry, it sounded like everything you said was an opinion, but you stated it like a fact. Am I making a mistake there? Obviously you wouldn't try and put forth your opinion as if it were fact. I mean, that would be silly.

Let me read it again.

Nope. Definitely opinion.

Also: because other people make the same mistake, it's okay for you to? Oh dear...

Dude... You are coming off like a douchebag. I have no idea why you are jumping down his throat like that, but you seem to be very angry. You should probably look into that.

Have a good day!

 

[Sethzard]

It felt like a poor rehash of wow. Some of the classes were ok but it just wasn't that good.

 

[trigger1992]

Self importance

Please just stop. I can no longer tell if youre a troll or just inconceivably stupid.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

I honestly love the game. The strong PvP feature and the world well made. I am wondering why it never became popular.

Here is a link: http://www.warhammeronline.com/

a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKOhzfkCdbY&feature=fvwrel

and gameplay vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-pOAb5pJk

Simple it was too like like WoW, poorly marketed, did not for fill it's initial promises in terms of in game content and EA did not fully back the project so it did not get the required funding to keep the game going properly.

So yeah that's why, shame really I did play it for a while and enjoyed it.

 

[binvjoh]

I played it for the first month. It was really enjoyable playing with friends, but since I'm not much of an MMO guy I quit.

 

[Hagi]

It didn't have enough to set it apart to be a good game.
It didn't stick true enough to the lore to be an immersive game.

There's just not enough setting it apart.

And those wondering about Dulcinea's behaviour might want to read this:
http://www.davidbrin.com/addiction.htm

In most this section:

Spoiler: The Most Common (but Unstudied) Form of Self-Addiction

"So far, we are on ground that is supported by copious (if peripheral) research. If nothing else, at least there should be an effort to step back and notice the forest, for the trees, generalizing a view of this whole field as we've described so far. A general paradigm of self-reinforcement.

Only now, taking this into especially important new territory, please consider something more specific. A phenomenon that both illustrates the general point and demands attention on its own account.

I want to zoom down to a particular emotional and psychological pathology. The phenomenon known as self-righteous indignation.

We all know self-righteous people. (And, if we are honest, many of us will admit having wallowed in this state ourselves, either occasionally or in frequent rhythm.) It is a familiar and rather normal human condition, supported -- even promulgated -- by messages in mass media.

While there are many drawbacks, self-righteousness can also be heady, seductive, and even... well... addictive. Any truly honest person will admit that the state feels good. The pleasure of knowing, with subjective certainty, that you are right and your opponents are deeply, despicably wrong.

Sanctimony, or a sense of righteous outrage, can feel so intense and delicious that many people actively seek to return to it, again and again. Moreover, as Westin et.al. have found, this trait crosses all boundaries of ideology.2

Indeed, one could look at our present-day political landscape and argue that a relentless addiction to indignation may be one of the chief drivers of obstinate dogmatism and an inability to negotiate pragmatic solutions to a myriad modern problems. It may be the ultimate propellant behind the current "culture war."

If there is any underlying truth to such an assertion, then acquiring a deeper understanding of this one issue may help our civilization deal with countless others."

He seems to be in need of his daily dose of righteous indignation.

 

[Denamic]

W.A.R had a major surge of players at launch, it had brilliant ideas implemented which of many WoW later implemented as a blatant goddamned rip-off.

- Guild leveling
- Public quests
- DaoC style pvp play with zones and keep taking
- trophies!
- etc.

Are you serious?
Don't tell me you think WAR came up with guild levelling.
Except for perhaps the public quests, all of those things have already been done in other games.
So why does WoW get called a rip-off when WAR did the same exact thing?

The reason WAR failed is quite simple.
It was a shit game.
Not in the mechanics, but it was a glitchy unfinished mess at launch, and it was barely any better even half a year later.

 

[Mangod]

WAR didn't make money because it was trying to scratch the same addiction WoW was, but without several years of polishing, it couldn't keep up. End of story.

As for a WHFB/40k MMO not working because the IP isn't based around individuals, maybe they would have been better off basing it on one of the GW Gaiden Games*, like Necromunda** or Mordheim***. Then again, those probably lack WHFB/40k's mainstream appeal.

* http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GaidenGame [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GaidenGame]
** http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Necromunda [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Necromunda]
*** http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mordheim [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mordheim]

 

[Turing]

You need to define that difference, so that some here understand the point you're trying to make.

I think the point is that he's a unique snowflake who doesn't like WOW.

Judging from all the other "devils advocate" posts he's been making in his whopping 9 days of membership (Seriously, 800+ posts in 9 days!?!), you're probably right on the money there Distended.

As for the topic itself, I played WAR and it was buggy, ugly and boring. It was a lot like World Of Warcraft, only even less interesting.
The inability to compete with the leading MMOs of the time is what basically killed it.

 

[Thyunda]

Your opinion in that regard is irrelevant here. It's a fact that in certain areas WoW is the industry's standard.

Because the popular majority compare other MMOs to it? I won't accept something as a standard simply because other people choose to. I compare every MMO I play to Everquest, simply because that is the first game of its type I played. So do most of my friends for the same reason. So the industry standard to me is Everquest.

Unless you can somehow come up with a way to objectively prove what is pure subjection, I don't think there is anything to gain by our continuing to debate.

You've been seriously missing the point this whole thread. When you hear "industry standard" does it automatically transform into "my standard" in your head? WoW being the obvious industry standard isn't subjective, it's common sense. I get that you like sounding edgy and logical, but it comes out as extremely obtuse because you're clearly avoiding common sense and an understanding of basic knowledge in favor of the "I'm a free thinking individual" bit that you try too hard to push.

Yes. Anyone who thinks differently to you is purposely trying to do so.

Makes sense.

Well, you're clearly doing it. He states 'Industry Standard', which is objective to us, and you talk about what you think the standard should be. The former is not debatable. The latter is. WoW is the industry standard. End of. If you don't think it should be, that's your opinion...but thinking that the sky would look better if it was a yellowy-green does not stop it from being blue.
If I wanted to make an MMO, I would compare it to WoW. It's the industry standard, and it is how MMO developers will rate and compare themselves. It's the industry leader, and whenever a developer makes a game, they WILL compare it to WoW. Hey everybody, look at my game. It's better than the industry standard! This makes it a good game!
Nobody wants to admit to being worse than industry standard. That's why no developer will ever compliment WoW. It's genericised within the industry to the point where it's synonymous with 'something to emulate'.

Basically. It's industry standard. That is not up for debate. Stop trying to debate it, and drop your damned sarcastic tone. If you want to know why nobody takes you seriously - there's your answer. Every post you've made so far as had this smarmy tone to it that makes me want to hurt you. Also, don't mention this footnote in your reply. You've changed the topic onto insults twice now, and it's hilariously unprofessional.

 

[Turing]

it's hilariously unprofessional.

Because talking in a forum is a profession?

makes me want to hurt you.

Because that is 'professional'? Irony is hilarious.

OT: I don't believe it is the industry standard. You're welcome to your opinion, however.

When all other MMOs created are trying to beat or copy World Of Warcraft, that pretty much makes it the industry standard whatever you believe it or not

 

[samonix]

Gaming is an industry so the most popular game with the highest sales is the standard by which you have to measure your own game if you want to be sucsesfull.

Success is defined by the person seeking it; someone could make an MMO that sells terribly and cal it a success if they enjoyed making their product and feel it is of the quality they set out to reach. If your only measure of success is income, I find that sad. I prefer to judge success by achieving what I set out to do and in creating something I like.

who are you? do you own a games studio? a company of any kind?

you are insignificant. your opinion is irrelevant. your arguments are void.
You don't think money matters, good luck with that. You don't know what industry standard means, sucks for you. You clearly don't understand demographics, too bad.

Twilight is the industry standard for teenage girl movies. Hence Beastly and Red Riding Hood.
WoW is the industry standard for MMOs. Hence Rift, Aion, WAR, AoC...

What are you trying to prove here?