Warhammer Online is probably amongst the top when it comes to my “games I really wish I had time to play” list. Before I get goin’, I’ll point out that I’ve had about seven years of Everquest and two years of WoW injected into my MMO veins. With that said, WAR is the MMO that I’ve ever had the most fun with. I really enjoy everything about it, but does anyone else think that it came out at an awkward time? It hit stores just a tiny bit before November, giving enough time for everyone to get interested enough in it to buy it. Before you knew it, WAR was the fastest growing MMO ever. Looking at its current state of population, that’s kind of hard to realize. Suddenly, November hit like the train of games that it always is, and if you’re like me, you’re investing a bunch of time into those games, yet barely scratching the surface.

Everyday I come home I want to log in and get my Squig Herder a level or two, but the icon rots away on my desktop -- I hate it. I dig the game, I’m enjoy to see how passionate Mythic is about their game, but I see the “Invite a friend!” advertisements trying to help their once 750,000 boat of people fill up again. I’m personally sad for Mythic, because I feel like this game deserves much more attention, but what could have they done to not run into this? Nothing that I can think of. They couldn’t have released much earlier without jepordizing quality of the game, yet if they released later, they’d still be caught up in the November mess and be directly in comparison with Lich King.

Does anyone else have different or the same thoughts? I do wish they’d combine servers and try to rebuild population from there. (Edit: Yay, it happened) Insight?

Unfortunately, no single game will unseat WOW as long as they attempt the same fantasy setting. Well, unless WOW massively fucks up, a la SW: Galaxies.

Mourn the death of many a fantasy MMO to come and pray that Star Wars: The Old Republic gets it right.

Other than genre, I believe Warhammer got more than enough right. I'm not going to blab and chart a list of what it got right and wrong -- that would be pointless. It's not a matter of unseating any other game from its throne, but a sense of establishment that keeps its own population consistent. While there is no direct point to this thread, it does make interesting discussion. Can games fail on sales or consistency primarily on the time of release, no matter how good it is? I know many feel the same way with the more recent title, Dead Space. Supposedly an amazing game, and one that's on my list of many from the game's of November. It got somewhat lost amongst the rest in terms of business, and I feel as if Warhammer Online is facing or has faced the same fate.

Maybe it's that we're simply not used to being in such a thriving industry to the point where you can witness an amazing game slide down a bumpy hill into a fiery pit.

I think Warhammer is a fantastic game - I've had so much fun playing it - but like you, I disappointingly, never get the chance any more.

WoW has created a new way of thinking about MMO subscription numbers. 300,000 is a perfectly sustainable, and sometimes profitable, level for a subscription game to maintain. I'm sure EA had hopes of WoW millions of dollars a month but it didn't happen. Hopefully the WAR subscription numbers will level out and quit their steady decline.

I understand many people think that way, and it sucks. Mostly because I believe that if people look at a relatively high number such as 300,000 and compare it to a number much, much higher (WoW), they immediately think negatively about Warhammer. I'm glad to see they've merged servers now -- it's one of my wishes come true. I decided to log on and see who was in the area, and there were plenty of people running around and completing public quests n' such. It makes my drive to play even higher, but an MMO in my life is impossible at the moment; unless I alienated every other game I enjoy playing.

300,000 is great. Now if EA can be patient and not fire everybody for a studio they just picked up, that number will most likely stay consistant.

"Unfortunately, no single game will unseat WOW as long as they attempt the same fantasy setting. Well, unless WOW massively fucks up, a la SW: Galaxies.Mourn the death of many a fantasy MMO to come and pray that Star Wars: The Old Republic gets it right."

At its heart, WAR (which I played for months, since beta) does a lot of things similarly to WoW. Its questing system is much the same, but it's main strength is in the RvR and the variety of battlefields it offers.  What caused WAR's drop in population was the release of WOTLK just a few months afterward, which pulled the WoW-to-WAR dabblers back to their MMO of choice (or is it addiction?).

WAR is completely worthwhile, and I'd be playing it now if money allowed (hopefully, that'll change!). And to be completely honest here, I'd rather have 300,000 dedicated, hardcore, mature players vs the plethora of asshats I've came across during my 4 year WoW tenure. Thankfully, jerks tend to migrate toward a larger audience to cause the most disruption!  WAR added some much-needed innovation to the MMO genre, something that WoW has yet to do- and its not like Blizzard doesn't have the talent or te R&D money.

"I'd rather have 300,000 dedicated, hardcore, mature players vs the plethora of asshats I've came across during my 4 year WoW tenure. Thankfully, jerks tend to migrate toward a larger audience to cause the most disruption!  WAR added some much-needed innovation to the MMO genre, something that WoW has yet to do- and its not like Blizzard doesn't have the talent or the R&D money."