ps: You really 'like' quoting 'stuff' don't you? It makes you 'seem' sarcastic!
:-D
Best one is 'Bioware' (If that IS your real name...)
MMOs played (In order of how much I've liked them): Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Vanguard, City of Villains / Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, Ryzom, Final Fantasy XI, Matrix Online, RF Online, Rappelz, Hero Online, Roma Victor
I find it funny how some people think Bioware is going to come in and save Warhammer. Mythic is still their own independant studio.. just like Bioware. Their just part of a bigger MMO group of EA now... which Ray Muzyka is going to be GM of. If Bioware wanted or could do something for War.... they have The Old Republic to worry about. And last time i checked the game isn't even out yet... and won't be for some time now.
I still don't get why people think this is a merger. All that happened was they cut out management they didn't think needed to be there, and promoted two individuals to manage a sector. Group Manager
Group Design Leader Then each team under the group, Bioware and Mythic, report to these two. The group Manager still controls Bioware because they are currently working on SWTOR. Until the project is complete they will not find a General Manager for Bioware. It could generate bad press and leave people doubting the development of SWTOR, potentially hurting sales. It's also the reason why Mark Jacobs was let go... making him lead could potentially generate bad press for SWTOR and hurt sales. Ray and Greg will continue to manage Bioware until SWTOR is out and stable, then they will find someone to be general manager of Bioware. It's not that Bioware now manages Mythic... but that Ray and Greg are in the process of leaving Bioware. It's business.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
Bioware is working on their own MMO, they're not going to be investing a lot of time in WAR most likely.
More likely this is to get WAR's experience with MMO coding to work on Bioware's up and coming MMO rather than to give WAR a boost and hope it picks up again.
I still don't get why people think this is a merger. All that happened was they cut out management they didn't think needed to be there, and promoted two individuals to manage a sector. Group Manager
Group Design Leader Then each team under the group, Bioware and Mythic, report to these two. The group Manager still controls Bioware because they are currently working on SWTOR. Until the project is complete they will not find a General Manager for Bioware. It could generate bad press and leave people doubting the development of SWTOR, potentially hurting sales. It's also the reason why Mark Jacobs was let go... making him lead could potentially generate bad press for SWTOR and hurt sales. Ray and Greg will continue to manage Bioware until SWTOR is out and stable, then they will find someone to be general manager of Bioware. It's not that Bioware now manages Mythic... but that Ray and Greg are in the process of leaving Bioware. It's business.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
I have to agree with you and the poster a bit back who stated "Because it's what they want to believe."
People WANT Bioware to take over Mythic for numerous reasons... but I think a larger majority of them want Mythic to "fail". Anything remotely hinting at a merger/absorption will get the monkeys howling.
People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true.
I still don't get why people think this is a merger. All that happened was they cut out management they didn't think needed to be there, and promoted two individuals to manage a sector. Group Manager
Group Design Leader Then each team under the group, Bioware and Mythic, report to these two. The group Manager still controls Bioware because they are currently working on SWTOR. Until the project is complete they will not find a General Manager for Bioware. It could generate bad press and leave people doubting the development of SWTOR, potentially hurting sales. It's also the reason why Mark Jacobs was let go... making him lead could potentially generate bad press for SWTOR and hurt sales. Ray and Greg will continue to manage Bioware until SWTOR is out and stable, then they will find someone to be general manager of Bioware. It's not that Bioware now manages Mythic... but that Ray and Greg are in the process of leaving Bioware. It's business.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
""Outside of that, we're going to be heavily focusing on improving our RvR Endgame in Tier 4 scenarios and the cities," he added.
Client and server "stability and performance" will be a target, as will server "population and balance" and "better distribution" of items and rewards throughout Warhammer Online. Area-of-effect and crowd-control abilities will continue to be scrutinised, as always. "
Irregardless of all the subjective "what is this person does this to the game now" questions, the answer for me is simple.
There is nothing that can be done to WAR to bring me back, ever. The whole game would have to be rebuilt from scratch and most of the systems changed. So in essence the only way I would even consider trying WAR would be if they canceled the current game and released a new vastly different game.
I still don't get why people think this is a merger. All that happened was they cut out management they didn't think needed to be there, and promoted two individuals to manage a sector. Group Manager
Group Design Leader Then each team under the group, Bioware and Mythic, report to these two. The group Manager still controls Bioware because they are currently working on SWTOR. Until the project is complete they will not find a General Manager for Bioware. It could generate bad press and leave people doubting the development of SWTOR, potentially hurting sales. It's also the reason why Mark Jacobs was let go... making him lead could potentially generate bad press for SWTOR and hurt sales. Ray and Greg will continue to manage Bioware until SWTOR is out and stable, then they will find someone to be general manager of Bioware. It's not that Bioware now manages Mythic... but that Ray and Greg are in the process of leaving Bioware. It's business.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
Now that is a statement.
No, Ray and Greg will continue to work with Bioware until SWtOR can be handed off to someone else. At which time Ray and Greg will leave Bioware to manage the RPG/MMO group EA made.
The worst part is... it's all speculation because we trully don't know.
If it is anything like the rest of the corporations, then yes... EA will focus on SWtOR and might even pull resources from Mythic if a crunch time ever came...
But don't get any ideas that Bioware is any higher than Mythic... once SWtOR succeeds or flops, EA will do what it needs to plan for it's next "Big Hit!" Which includes bringing in another company, and using resources from both Mythic and Bioware to create another MMO/game.
I imagine that was the whole point to the "grouping"
If Bioware starts medling with it I doubt it would improve anything.
Bioware makes good RPG's, making a good MMO is a whole other thing.
The biggest problem with WAR to me was how the world felt small and arcade like where your hand is hold every step of the way.
A few simple things could have been done, like not using that stupid world map that looks like a battle plan, but a good looking world map, like WoW. Because even tho WoW is also heavily instanced, it still feels ( or at least felt ) like a world.
Then the handholding : the campaign, victory points, instanced battles for the city, stages, requirements, they all made the game feel like an arcade, not a world in war. This was in contrast to DAoC, where you had the freedom to attack a few keeps, or go straight for the relic keep, or cut off the supply lines ( with incomming people ), the world was also big enough to roam with a few groups that could avoid the zerg, and one of the things that also made a big difference to me, it was persistent, if you took the enemy relic, it was yours for as long as you could defend it.
Now back to Bioware, the way I see them approaching SWTOR, does not seem like an open ended approach, but a story driven, handholding experience where the emphasis is on the individual player, not the massive multiplayer experience I expect from an mmo.
So with that in mind, I can't see anything they could add to WAR that would improve it for me and many of the DAoC vets and RvR minded players that like an open ended mmorpg.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Don't kid yourself, WAR didn't live up to EA's expectations. (they are still looking for a game with WOW like sub numbers) and its being put on the back burner and the best talent will be devoted to the new Bioware title in hopes that it will be the next big thing. Exactly and here is the problem. Everyone is trying to copy wow in one way or another and trying to nab the numbers they have. The problem is thats not going to happen, ever. For one why copy warcraft when the players can get the same experience from warcraft, and better than what anyone else could pull off? It makes no sense. What MMO companies need to start doing is stop copying and start thinking outside the box and make thier mmo unique. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to see that WAR had many themes that were ripped from WOW. WAR had its chance, and while perhaps reasonably successful from an Indie Developer point of view, EA is never going to be satisfied and won't waste any big money on it. Pretty much. I just tried the game out again. For one its too healer dependent. Secondly the game still has class bugs that have been there since release. Thirdly I just doesnt have the numbers it should have. And for that matter the game design just.. eh.. it doesnt take in consideration that once one side has more healers and just a party more, they usually steamroll the other. I could go on but your right. EA is not going to fix this game with some miracle patch. LOTD pretty much solidified it as being a very gear oriented game with its shinie farming. Just not very warish imo. Seems like a WoW wanna be.
Anyway... yeah... played the game.. was fun for a bit. But time to watch Mortal Online. *nods*
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
They would have to rebuild it from the ground up. As it stands right now character development is far too linear and cookie-cutter.
The classes available are too rigid and unbending for my tastes as well. I far prefer DAOC's character development and wish they'd done something similar there.
PVP would have to be completely re-done. The instanced battlefields need to go and be replaced with a more world-level RVR area like in the original DAOC. As it stands right now everything feels far too compartmentalized.
There are other changes that would need to happen as well but those 3 alone mean a MAJOR re-write of the game and, to be frank, with that big of a rework they would be better off just making a new game rather than trying to re-write WAR.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Just want to add that there is fun to be had in WAR, but they missed the ball on various items and that is bringing the game down from great to mediocre.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Being a Warhammer player most of us have cancelled our subs. The executive letter is nice but we are not going to pay another cent. Notice the timing? You got it. Quarterly report time.
The game is borked and the reason we still play is our subs have not ended. I think Bioware is going to reap the skill and devlopers to help with their game. Of couse it will be under Bioware's direction and focus.
MJ getting canned was needed long before they lost most of their playerbase.
The game would have to make some serious changes for high level players. This is the first game where at RR66 I have to go do level 30 content. It boggles my mind that Mythic even put the LOTD patch live. LOTD was what most of us were waiting on and it fails to deliver.
City seiges end game content is buggy, and basically a joke. They change it so now lower level characters add victory points when all they had to do was make it end game content with lvl 40 players. I am not going to get off my main character to go make an alt to push SC in lower level teirs to flip a city. What a stupid Idea.
I think Warhammer will go like Tabula Rasa did. Mythic devs and employess will be Bioware employess and they will dedicate their time to making KOTR. They will note the mistakes made and move on.
If the game was closed and the IP given back to the original company selected to make the game in the dark, true Olde World vision they had, then yeah, I'd give that a go. This incarnation of a Warhammer MMO though is not that interesting and needs more than a reboot. It needs a complete do over.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Bioware wont do that anyway. For the most part Mystic will get better leadership but that is about it, if Mystic can't get WAR going again it is history. For the most part the people at mystic just sitting on their hands will move over to TOR But for now WAR will keep going till there is nothing left to do.
Much like AoC, a change of head could be not 'the end' but a 'reboot' Now 'techically' Bioware own WAR and the Warhammer Fantasy IP - it's no shock that EA chose to do this 'merge' after LoTD - It's opening the door for a chance to 'reboot' the game. With this 'what if?' IF BW came along and listed what they wanted to change in the game to keep it running with the next 'live expanson'/Retail Expanson, would anyone anyactally considering returning/continuing?
BioWare, imo, make great games based around story. One of the reasons I thought that they could have taken over SWG years ago was because the game lacked all story elements and with the platform pre-made I think they would have been abel to formulate a grand epic storyline. WAR is, for all intents and purposes, a complete game. They have the story elements, the core gameplay experience, all complete (just a little rough around the edges) so that if BioWare did become involved it would just feel like added weight tacked onto what is already there. Then, of course, all current content would need vast reworking to coincide with whatever bioware wanted to work in.
So, basically, no. BioWare for all their talent would be a detriment to WAR, unless they built an entire expansion that was, in most ways, insulated against the rest of the game.
I still don't get why people think this is a merger. All that happened was they cut out management they didn't think needed to be there, and promoted two individuals to manage a sector. Group Manager
Group Design Leader Then each team under the group, Bioware and Mythic, report to these two. The group Manager still controls Bioware because they are currently working on SWTOR. Until the project is complete they will not find a General Manager for Bioware. It could generate bad press and leave people doubting the development of SWTOR, potentially hurting sales. It's also the reason why Mark Jacobs was let go... making him lead could potentially generate bad press for SWTOR and hurt sales. Ray and Greg will continue to manage Bioware until SWTOR is out and stable, then they will find someone to be general manager of Bioware. It's not that Bioware now manages Mythic... but that Ray and Greg are in the process of leaving Bioware. It's business.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
Now that is a statement.
No, Ray and Greg will continue to work with Bioware until SWtOR can be handed off to someone else. At which time Ray and Greg will leave Bioware to manage the RPG/MMO group EA made.
The worst part is... it's all speculation because we trully don't know.
If it is anything like the rest of the corporations, then yes... EA will focus on SWtOR and might even pull resources from Mythic if a crunch time ever came...
But don't get any ideas that Bioware is any higher than Mythic... once SWtOR succeeds or flops, EA will do what it needs to plan for it's next "Big Hit!" Which includes bringing in another company, and using resources from both Mythic and Bioware to create another MMO/game.
I imagine that was the whole point to the "grouping"
No,
It's simple corporate proceedings. If EA wanted to put effort into fixing Warhammer and pushing it toward the success level they envisioned for it, they would simply replace Marc Jacos. Just like Funcon did with their Lead Developer for AoC. Note that since Funcom did that, AoC has been making progress. I tried the game and it's pretty good.
But instead EA fired Marc Jacobs and simply has Mythic reporting to the top heads of Bioware. I know people wants to rationalize away but the reality is that what EA is doing is salvaging Mythic for whatever it is worth. I am not saying that WAR will be gutted out, I am just saying that Bioware's priority is their MMO not Warhammer. And since Bioware does technically have command power over Mythic, it is pretty much common sense that Mythic will be helping Bioware with their MMO, not the other way around.
This news is bad, not good. I unsubbed early June because of an unjust 5 day suspension. Since I was planning to go toward Aion anyway, I just unsubbed. I simply did not see enough progress and Im glad I made that choice. If WAR ever changed for the better I would love to come back as I feel that is it a good game with great aspects. But this news makes me think that WAR will simply die a slow death.
The problem is getting them to find an identity, a place for Warhammer. They rattled the cage and tried to tackle WoW, and they lost because everything they try to do for WAR, WoW is doing better. That's a big problem. They need to find a direction to take WAR, so they don't look like they're just following WoW's footsteps. People constantly question why they would want to play WAR when WoW is doing such & such better.
I do believe they want to make the game better, they want to improve RvR and endgame as they say. But the problelm isn't as simple, because they have to rework their plans, rework the gameplay, rework how city siege instances work, rework itemization, etc.. It's like they released a product, and have people throw it back to them saying they don't like it, so they gotta redo everything. This is going to take time, and because of this, they're losing valuable subscribers that probably would otherwise be playing the game.
The time they spend reworking things, is the time other gaming companies spend at releasing new content and improving their own games. I have no doubt they'll improve the game to make even endgame fun eventually. But they've definitely lost a lot of time and lost many players that would've otherwise stayed with the game. Would I come back someday? Perhaps, maybe, it depends. By the time I left WAR I felt pretty burned out. I haven't had the slight urge to play the game again, but I still do follow the development of the game & the changes they're making.
Comments
ps: You really 'like' quoting 'stuff' don't you? It makes you 'seem' sarcastic!
:-D
Best one is 'Bioware' (If that IS your real name...)
MMOs played (In order of how much I've liked them): Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Vanguard, City of Villains / Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, Ryzom, Final Fantasy XI, Matrix Online, RF Online, Rappelz, Hero Online, Roma Victor
Nope. I'd rather they take any spare resources and put it in to DAoC.
The Bioware guys are siting around waiting for their asses to get fired too. EA destroys every thing it touches.
I find it funny how some people think Bioware is going to come in and save Warhammer. Mythic is still their own independant studio.. just like Bioware. Their just part of a bigger MMO group of EA now... which Ray Muzyka is going to be GM of. If Bioware wanted or could do something for War.... they have The Old Republic to worry about. And last time i checked the game isn't even out yet... and won't be for some time now.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
Thats my thinking. There's a lot to learn.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
I have to agree with you and the poster a bit back who stated "Because it's what they want to believe."
People WANT Bioware to take over Mythic for numerous reasons... but I think a larger majority of them want Mythic to "fail". Anything remotely hinting at a merger/absorption will get the monkeys howling.
People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true.
Forget 'what if' seems like Mythic's new 'boss' knows exactally what to do with the game - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mythic-focusing-on-rvr-tier-4-endgame
We'll know by the end of September then
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
""Outside of that, we're going to be heavily focusing on improving our RvR Endgame in Tier 4 scenarios and the cities," he added.
Client and server "stability and performance" will be a target, as will server "population and balance" and "better distribution" of items and rewards throughout Warhammer Online. Area-of-effect and crowd-control abilities will continue to be scrutinised, as always. "
Isn't this what they've been doing all along?
Already a warhammer 40k in the making by Vigil games
Irregardless of all the subjective "what is this person does this to the game now" questions, the answer for me is simple.
There is nothing that can be done to WAR to bring me back, ever. The whole game would have to be rebuilt from scratch and most of the systems changed. So in essence the only way I would even consider trying WAR would be if they canceled the current game and released a new vastly different game.
what does bioware know about RvR.....EA destroyed War...blah not worth talking about really...im not going back.
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
Now that is a statement.
No, Ray and Greg will continue to work with Bioware until SWtOR can be handed off to someone else. At which time Ray and Greg will leave Bioware to manage the RPG/MMO group EA made.
The worst part is... it's all speculation because we trully don't know.
If it is anything like the rest of the corporations, then yes... EA will focus on SWtOR and might even pull resources from Mythic if a crunch time ever came...
But don't get any ideas that Bioware is any higher than Mythic... once SWtOR succeeds or flops, EA will do what it needs to plan for it's next "Big Hit!" Which includes bringing in another company, and using resources from both Mythic and Bioware to create another MMO/game.
I imagine that was the whole point to the "grouping"
If Bioware starts medling with it I doubt it would improve anything.
Bioware makes good RPG's, making a good MMO is a whole other thing.
The biggest problem with WAR to me was how the world felt small and arcade like where your hand is hold every step of the way.
A few simple things could have been done, like not using that stupid world map that looks like a battle plan, but a good looking world map, like WoW. Because even tho WoW is also heavily instanced, it still feels ( or at least felt ) like a world.
Then the handholding : the campaign, victory points, instanced battles for the city, stages, requirements, they all made the game feel like an arcade, not a world in war. This was in contrast to DAoC, where you had the freedom to attack a few keeps, or go straight for the relic keep, or cut off the supply lines ( with incomming people ), the world was also big enough to roam with a few groups that could avoid the zerg, and one of the things that also made a big difference to me, it was persistent, if you took the enemy relic, it was yours for as long as you could defend it.
Now back to Bioware, the way I see them approaching SWTOR, does not seem like an open ended approach, but a story driven, handholding experience where the emphasis is on the individual player, not the massive multiplayer experience I expect from an mmo.
So with that in mind, I can't see anything they could add to WAR that would improve it for me and many of the DAoC vets and RvR minded players that like an open ended mmorpg.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Anyway... yeah... played the game.. was fun for a bit. But time to watch Mortal Online. *nods*
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
No,
They would have to rebuild it from the ground up. As it stands right now character development is far too linear and cookie-cutter.
The classes available are too rigid and unbending for my tastes as well. I far prefer DAOC's character development and wish they'd done something similar there.
PVP would have to be completely re-done. The instanced battlefields need to go and be replaced with a more world-level RVR area like in the original DAOC. As it stands right now everything feels far too compartmentalized.
There are other changes that would need to happen as well but those 3 alone mean a MAJOR re-write of the game and, to be frank, with that big of a rework they would be better off just making a new game rather than trying to re-write WAR.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Just want to add that there is fun to be had in WAR, but they missed the ball on various items and that is bringing the game down from great to mediocre.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Being a Warhammer player most of us have cancelled our subs. The executive letter is nice but we are not going to pay another cent. Notice the timing? You got it. Quarterly report time.
The game is borked and the reason we still play is our subs have not ended. I think Bioware is going to reap the skill and devlopers to help with their game. Of couse it will be under Bioware's direction and focus.
MJ getting canned was needed long before they lost most of their playerbase.
The game would have to make some serious changes for high level players. This is the first game where at RR66 I have to go do level 30 content. It boggles my mind that Mythic even put the LOTD patch live. LOTD was what most of us were waiting on and it fails to deliver.
City seiges end game content is buggy, and basically a joke. They change it so now lower level characters add victory points when all they had to do was make it end game content with lvl 40 players. I am not going to get off my main character to go make an alt to push SC in lower level teirs to flip a city. What a stupid Idea.
I think Warhammer will go like Tabula Rasa did. Mythic devs and employess will be Bioware employess and they will dedicate their time to making KOTR. They will note the mistakes made and move on.
No.
If the game was closed and the IP given back to the original company selected to make the game in the dark, true Olde World vision they had, then yeah, I'd give that a go. This incarnation of a Warhammer MMO though is not that interesting and needs more than a reboot. It needs a complete do over.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
If 'Bioware' took an active interest to 'reboot' WAR would you come back?
That is a big no....
Bioware wont do that anyway. For the most part Mystic will get better leadership but that is about it, if Mystic can't get WAR going again it is history. For the most part the people at mystic just sitting on their hands will move over to TOR But for now WAR will keep going till there is nothing left to do.
BioWare, imo, make great games based around story. One of the reasons I thought that they could have taken over SWG years ago was because the game lacked all story elements and with the platform pre-made I think they would have been abel to formulate a grand epic storyline. WAR is, for all intents and purposes, a complete game. They have the story elements, the core gameplay experience, all complete (just a little rough around the edges) so that if BioWare did become involved it would just feel like added weight tacked onto what is already there. Then, of course, all current content would need vast reworking to coincide with whatever bioware wanted to work in.
So, basically, no. BioWare for all their talent would be a detriment to WAR, unless they built an entire expansion that was, in most ways, insulated against the rest of the game.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
It's simple really, those that don't have a clue to how these things work have a knee jerk reaction and think "OMG Bioware now run Mythic" when in fact as you point out nothing really would have changed in each department other than the culling of some management positions.
It's business as usual, and I even doubt resources will even be shared that much between the two anyway, alot of fuss over nothing.
You obviously have never worked in a corporation before.
Mythic is subordinate to Bioware. It does not get any more complicated than that. All EA is doing is allowing Bioware to access Mythic's resources. In other words, EA is kinda giving up on Warhammer and wants to focus on Bioware's MMO.
Now that is a statement.
No, Ray and Greg will continue to work with Bioware until SWtOR can be handed off to someone else. At which time Ray and Greg will leave Bioware to manage the RPG/MMO group EA made.
The worst part is... it's all speculation because we trully don't know.
If it is anything like the rest of the corporations, then yes... EA will focus on SWtOR and might even pull resources from Mythic if a crunch time ever came...
But don't get any ideas that Bioware is any higher than Mythic... once SWtOR succeeds or flops, EA will do what it needs to plan for it's next "Big Hit!" Which includes bringing in another company, and using resources from both Mythic and Bioware to create another MMO/game.
I imagine that was the whole point to the "grouping"
No,
It's simple corporate proceedings. If EA wanted to put effort into fixing Warhammer and pushing it toward the success level they envisioned for it, they would simply replace Marc Jacos. Just like Funcon did with their Lead Developer for AoC. Note that since Funcom did that, AoC has been making progress. I tried the game and it's pretty good.
But instead EA fired Marc Jacobs and simply has Mythic reporting to the top heads of Bioware. I know people wants to rationalize away but the reality is that what EA is doing is salvaging Mythic for whatever it is worth. I am not saying that WAR will be gutted out, I am just saying that Bioware's priority is their MMO not Warhammer. And since Bioware does technically have command power over Mythic, it is pretty much common sense that Mythic will be helping Bioware with their MMO, not the other way around.
This news is bad, not good. I unsubbed early June because of an unjust 5 day suspension. Since I was planning to go toward Aion anyway, I just unsubbed. I simply did not see enough progress and Im glad I made that choice. If WAR ever changed for the better I would love to come back as I feel that is it a good game with great aspects. But this news makes me think that WAR will simply die a slow death.
The problem is getting them to find an identity, a place for Warhammer. They rattled the cage and tried to tackle WoW, and they lost because everything they try to do for WAR, WoW is doing better. That's a big problem. They need to find a direction to take WAR, so they don't look like they're just following WoW's footsteps. People constantly question why they would want to play WAR when WoW is doing such & such better.
I do believe they want to make the game better, they want to improve RvR and endgame as they say. But the problelm isn't as simple, because they have to rework their plans, rework the gameplay, rework how city siege instances work, rework itemization, etc.. It's like they released a product, and have people throw it back to them saying they don't like it, so they gotta redo everything. This is going to take time, and because of this, they're losing valuable subscribers that probably would otherwise be playing the game.
The time they spend reworking things, is the time other gaming companies spend at releasing new content and improving their own games. I have no doubt they'll improve the game to make even endgame fun eventually. But they've definitely lost a lot of time and lost many players that would've otherwise stayed with the game. Would I come back someday? Perhaps, maybe, it depends. By the time I left WAR I felt pretty burned out. I haven't had the slight urge to play the game again, but I still do follow the development of the game & the changes they're making.
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