Warhammer Online Content Slashed Before Launch

[BlackKnight]

In the latest of an ongoing series of interviews with MMORPG.com, Mythic Entertainment VP and General Manager Mark Jacobs has dropped big news on the Warhammer Online fanbase: major features are being culled from the game in order to make their Fall launch deadline. In short, the capital cities for the Dark Elf, High Elf, Orc, and Dwarf factions will not be in the game at launch. The Human city of Altdorf and the Chaos Inevitable City will be the only Capital cities in the game. This is an enormous change, seemingly changing much of what we know about the game's core of RvR gameplay.

 

Additionally, four classes are being removed, deemed to be in a condition unsuitable for launch. They are:

 

* The Choppa (Greenskin)

* The Hammerer (Dwarf)

* The Blackguard (Dark Elf)

* The Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire)

 

As the website notes, all of these are melee classes and two of these were intended to be the primary tanking classes for their race. This leaves the Empire and Dark Elf races without a dedicated tanking career, possibly limiting their contributions to end-game PvE content. Jacobs moved immediately to try to curtail the obvious rumor-mongering: "This has nothing to do with EA ... they had zero input in this ... They don't even know about it. It's not a discussion we would have with them."

4 out of 6 capital cities and 4 major classes cut just before launch? This could be a crippling blow to the so-far impressive looking MMO.

 

Source: Massively.

[Wizard]

Impressive looking yes, but thus far, until they get all their crap together, it is literally a WoW clone from fellow testers. Funny that Warcraft got most of it's inspiration from Warhammer and WH mmo ends up being a WoW-like clone (thus far anyways, until all the content they want is in).

[Lucandrake]

All the game-play movies I've seen have appeared to look like WoW mimics. Heck, my friend who plays WoW thought I was watching a Raid video once when it was gameplay from WHO.

[BlackKnight]

I dunno... I don't think you can really accuse anything with Elves and Orcs of ripping off something else... they are just spitting out fantasy tropes that have been around for a 100 years.

 

But yes, it seems odd to market something so stylistically similar in the same arena as WoW, the current ultrapopular genre-defining phenomenon.

[Wizard]

I believe this to be an urban legend, but Blizzard was sued by Games Workshop about Warcraft 1 (Orcs & Humans) for taking some liberties from GW's Warhammer Fantasy Battle. There's pretty much this other urban legend that Starcraft was originally suppose to be a Warhammer 40k RTS but never got the rights from GW. As Warcarft O&C was supposedly be a Warhammer Fantasy Battle game but never got the rights to it.

 

Of course this was practically 10 years ago, and at the time, the Warhammer circle was much bigger then it is today. There might be some truth to this as Game Workshop did Fantasy Battle and 40k nearly 10 years before the releases of Warcraft and Starcraft.

[BlackKnight]

The part about Warcraft is true. They weren't sued, but WC1 was developed with Warhammer in mind although the rights were later denied.

 

The Starcraft idea was just Warcraft in space though- I don't think it was as direct a ripoff of 40k as it might seem.

[Sybarite Paladin AxL]

The part about Warcraft is true. They weren't sued, but WC1 was developed with Warhammer in mind although the rights were later denied.

 

The Starcraft idea was just Warcraft in space though- I don't think it was as direct a ripoff of 40k as it might seem.

 

Well we've got Terrans (Space Marines + Imperial Guard sans the fanaticism), Zerg (Tyranids) and Protoss (Eldar). Although they've evolved in different ways, especially Protoss from Eldar, you can't help but draw parallels.

[OverlordMondo]

You've got generic humans, generic insect aliens, and generic super human psychic religious race. The last one is less generic than the other two, but definitely done in several places before.

 

As per the content slashing. I think it's a pretty serious blow to the game. I think enough people will send them angry letters that they'll put at least the classes back in, even if the classes aren't really amazing.

 

Also, yes, it's a lot like WoW. A lot of good features were taken from WoW, and a lot of bad features were avoided. This is the same thing WoW did when it came out, taking the basic MMO game and altering some of the frustration out of it.

[Gryph]

It's sad when the inclusion of PunkBuster is your positive news.

[Wizard]

The part about Warcraft is true. They weren't sued, but WC1 was developed with Warhammer in mind although the rights were later denied.

 

The Starcraft idea was just Warcraft in space though- I don't think it was as direct a ripoff of 40k as it might seem.

 

Well we've got Terrans (Space Marines + Imperial Guard sans the fanaticism), Zerg (Tyranids) and Protoss (Eldar). Although they've evolved in different ways, especially Protoss from Eldar, you can't help but draw parallels.

Remember, at the time of Starcraft's release it's lore wasn't really fleshed out as it is today. After it ran it's course, now one could say that it's parallels with Warhammer 40k have slid a bit since it's initial release in 1997.

 

Same with Warcraft, if it wasn't for it's (really expanded) lore, it would probably still hold it's place as that RTS game that happens to rip off WHFB.

 

(WH Fantasy Battle came first before 40k, so yeah, that's just saying)

[BlackKnight]

Starcraft's lore was all in the manual to begin with.

 

Warcraft's lore received a hugely expanded kick in the gay direction with Warcraft III.

[Wizard]

Starcraft's lore was all in the manual to begin with.

Which was subsequently expanded upon in the following years since the release of the game. It wasn't like they DUMPED all the lore right into your lap when the game first came out. Which was the point I was trying to get across.

[BlackKnight]

Yeh I get your point but the amount of text in the manual pretty much was a lore dump at the time, considering how narrow the scope of the first game was and how many things were mentioned in the manual only as opposed to in game.

[garyoak99]

Starcraft's lore was all in the manual to begin with.

 

Warcraft's lore received a hugely expanded kick in the gay direction with Warcraft III.

 

Really? I hadn't noticed it when I was playing it. How did it suddenly change when Warcraft III was released?

[BlackKnight]

Really? I hadn't noticed it when I was playing it. How did it suddenly change when Warcraft III was released?

They introduced a 'grand scheme of things' to Warcraft with WC3. Suddenly there were 5 other continents in the world, a million other cheap fantasy races, gods and history that had nothing to with Orcs and Humans fighting, but paved the way for a big MMO.

 

I'll rant more about it later but play the Warcraft II campaign and then play the Warcraft III campaign straight after and you'll get a jolt from how much more there is to the world and how the style has become a lot brighter than it used to be.