So much fuss is being made in the Warhammer Online fan community about a post at a site called Virgin Worlds. I’d never heard of the site but I’m sure the author had never heard of me, either. But the Warhammer bloggers seem riled up by this fellow. Anyway you can read his rant here.
I’m tired of responding to the post in the comments at 101 different Warhammer blogs so I’ll just respond to it here.
I guess it depends a lot on what you enjoy about these games. This Brent dude is clearly sick of MMORPGs as we have come to know them. He wants *something else*. But how is that Warhammer’s fault?
Personally, I don’t want *something else*. Games like The Agency look interesting but I don’t really want an action-MMORPG. I want a stat-based game. I like stat-based games.
Current MMORPGs to me are like the old Avalon Hill or SPI wargames. I didn’t need totally new game mechanics to buy a new wargame. In fact, I didn’t *want* new mechanics that I’d have to learn all over again. What I wanted was a new game covering different subject matter, with a few “Special Rules” to make it slightly different.
Brent even acknowledges that it is “OK” for strategy games to work that way. Also its OK for puzzle games and FPS to maintain the same basic mechanics. But he has deemed that this is not Good Enough for MMORPGs, then he “jumps the shark” and says MMORPGs won’t be good enough “until we have environments nearing or exceeding those described in Snowcrash”. When I read that my eyes rolled so hard I was dizzy.
I’m thinking Brent just likes the attention, and hey, it’s working for him. It got me to his site for the first time. But slagging Warhammer Online for being exactly what it has promised to be is pointless. It’s like saying “I hate football and I hate sports games, and Madden ’09 is NO FUN.” Well of course if you’re playing a game-type that you don’t like, it isn’t going to be any fun. Duh.
If Mythic had been claiming that Warhammer Online was going to be some revolutionary virtual-reality game to rival Snowcrash, then Brent would be justified. I must have missed that press release.
“Current MMORPGs to me are like the old Avalon Hill or SPI wargames.”
BINGO! I think that simile is spot-on. For a lot of us these games are more than a pastime – they’re actually a hobby, but I think for some the industry itself has become their hobby.
Players generally don’t need or want “revolutionary”. They’re more concerned about things like bugs, balance, and boo… er… fun. In fact, they often react quite negatively to “revolutionary”. Witness: Shadowrun, Hellgate: London, SWG:NGE, D&D 3rd Edition, etc.
The commentators, on the other hand DO seem to need “revolutionary”… like they’re watching the industry’s xp bar waiting for it to “ding” or something.
Or maybe they’re just looking for something new to talk about. 😉