Warhammer Online is now offering an endless trial ( http://www.warhammeronline.com/faq/index.php?section=11#ans11_0 to see what that means)
Not looking good for this game at all.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Sep 18, 2008
An MMORPG based on the Games Workshop franchise developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Some of the features were brutal RvR battles (Realm vs Realm) and siege warfare. Warhammer Online was shut down December 18th, 2013.
Endless Trial
I never played more than a trial. At the time of release, I was playing WoW very rarely because I was busy with school and work. By the time I had time, a new dungeon had released in WoW so I got sucked into that. I enjoyed the trial a great deal even though it was very empty (player wise) everywhere I went. Maybe I picked a bad server or something..no idea. I might check it out after finals now that I can login whenever.
Not that it will help the game stay alive..but at least I can speak about the game itself more intelligently.
Well, The Matrix Online had been active since early 2005. There was time for people to get really, really into it as an MMO, which was the original point of Not Like This, looking in on how the hardcore fans who still remained felt about the game being shut down. Warhammer Online, on the other hand, came out last year. In all likelihood if they announce they're going to pull the plug, people will just give up, and the place will be even deader than MxO was.
" @JoshS:Oh I know. I remember when Matrix Online was first announced, I was extremely excited. Then it came out and I forgot about it until the free trials happened. Played for less than 6 hours before I decided I didn't like it but I knew it would have a hardcore niche audience.
Well, The Matrix Online had been active since early 2005. There was time for people to get really, really into it as an MMO, which was the original point of Not Like This, looking in on how the hardcore fans who still remained felt about the game being shut down. Warhammer Online, on the other hand, came out last year. In all likelihood if they announce they're going to pull the plug, people will just give up, and the place will be even deader than MxO was. "
With all the recent MMO releases, the various server mergers, and then extreme decline in playerbase to a point where the company is better off shutting the server down, it just gives me more and more reason to believe that the only successful MMO in the same vein as WoW will be released after WoW is down to being populated by a similarly hardcore niche audience.
No matter how long that is from now, I find the shutdowns to be more evidence of it being true. Blizzard pretty much has that market locked down and they won't be letting go any time soon.
I just got WAR, I wanted to play an MMO with a friend and hes really into Warhammer, and while I cant tell you how many people there will be later on I know from the starting area (Order side at least since thats what im playing) arent super full but im seeing players quite a lot and I got into some Faction PVP (just in the world, outwith scenario based combat) and in an area of about 100m square there was about 20 people on either side getting involved the combat and more going through. The world easily feels like it has enough people in it for me and according to the chat I was playing at a quiet time (1am GMT and im on the european version) so I have to assume that playing at like 8pm at night there will probably be even more people.
WAR is alright, but EA and Mythic thought they were going to draw a lot of WoW's userbase. It's just not true. WAR is lame for PvE, PvP got too repetitive, and they should have given more bonuses to those who joined from Day 1. Too bad; it had potnetial.
WAR is sitting on something like 300,000 people right now. Given that Vanguard is still operating with less than that, I think it's safe to say that Warhammer doesn't have to go under anytime soon. The game was really well built, and we've got a few guys that still play it up here at the store. Unfortunately, it's not as accessible as WoW. If they took a page from the book of Dungeons & Dragons Online and went free-to-player with some microtransaction setups, though, I think WAR would be one of the best packages for "free" available!
Nonetheless, I think I need to try this endless trial out and get back into the game.
Technically the endless trial is limited to 1-11. Not that that makes a real difference. And the other big restriction is you can't choose most of the servers. If you want to avoid the server restriction, you can get a Refer A Friend account. It's otherwise the same but you can pick any server. I'm sure any trip to a message board of fan site would get you one. When I tried the Endless Trial this weekend there were a lot of players in the starting zones, more than I see in WoW on my ~2000 Horde player server. Which might mean a couple things
- The free trial is popular.
- It's just the concentrating effect of having every free trial go to 3 servers (PVE, PVP, RP).
- Paying players are rolling a lot of alts
- (the very devious paranoid answer) They are fake. Either AI or shills, created to lure players into thinking it's more popular. I have no evidence that this is true, I'm just thinking of what I'd do if I was desperate and evil.
I really wish this game would have been better. They should have delayed it a few more months before launching it, it just lacked way to much polish and content. That and it had a lot of balance issues, having unique classes really bit them in the ass.
But this trial doesn't give you a whole lot. Sure you could just hit level 10 and twink yourself out for teir 1, but that would just get old.
Please Log In to post.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment