The fine folks at Kohnke Communications set up a teleconference to pass on some information about Warhammer Online. It was … an experience. On the Kohnke end, things were run by the ever-friendly Eddiemae Jukes. EA-Mythic offered up Senior Producer Jeff Hickman and Design Manager Paul Barnett to answer the questions submitted in advance by the press folks.

They’ve worked together before, and it was very obvious. Jeff referred to himself as the ‘fun’, while Paul is the ‘fact’. That was … pretty much the way of things, though I wouldn’t call Jeff’s presentation boring. Between the two of them, they talked extensively about the Realm vs. Realm combat, and got into a little bit of what makes Warhammer very much *not* World of Warcraft.

I’m not sure that the differences between the two games are a slam dunk at this point, but I walked away from the call with a distinct increase in respect for the title. Which, of course, is exactly what the purpose of the call was. I’m going to admit to ignorance on my part with some of the game’s nuances, prior to the call. Halfway through I hopped online and found that some of the details they were handing out were easly accessible on their website. So. Shame on me.

They began by talking about their ‘Public quest’ system. Instead of going to NPCs for quests, you are given quests automatically by entering an area of the world. ‘As you come into the public quest area, you are given the quest, everyone gets the quest, everyone participates at the same time’. I like this idea, insomuch as it removes some of the book-keeping involved in what is (supposed to be) an entertaining experience.

Their stress when talking about quests was on the violent, epic nature of the world. Paul Barnett put it like so: “What am I going to do in most games? ‘Get killed by an eight-year old finger ninja.’” Instead, you go and do ongoing quests that captures the spirit of the game right from the starter village. They were very high-level here, and despite their example of ‘a giant coming to smash up the town’ (which sounds entertaining) I’m not sure I buy ‘epic from the get-go’. I’ve yet to play a fantasy MMOG that didn’t have me killing rats at the start of things. Here’s hoping though, right?

“What did you learn from DAoC that you’re bringing to WAR?” Their off-the-cuff funny answer was ‘everything’. Specifically, and obviously, realm vs. realm combat in DAoC is the basis for that functionality in Warhammer. Jeff refers to DAoC in the past tense. It ‘was’ very successful. Mr. Hickmans sounds like he’s moved past Camelot. RvR in Warhammer, meanwhile, will have ‘four levels of RvR’, with many places and ways to participate. They touch on this more later, and this really does seem like it will be a defining feature for the game.

They briefly discuss Guild management. Most games they (rightly) claim, have pretty crappy guild support. Again, they’re basing everything on what they’ve learned from Dark Age. DAoC really does get this right, so I can’t see that they’re blowing smoke here.

They touch on the game’s diversity of character classes. They have ‘about 44 classes in DAoC’. This, they say, was very hard to maintain, but very rewarding. They’re bringing that to WAR, with 24 classes. Each class has a defining mechanic, and each race has its own unique classes. Mmmm… That’s a lot of classes. I never understood DAoC’s obsession with lots of classes, actually, but if they say it’s rewarding I guess that’s their bailiwick. To my mind, it seems likely to introduce confusion amongst the playerbase.

“How are you addressing the MMOG Grind?” Paul took this one, and went off on a (very British) rant about how ‘naf’ is the usual newbie experience a MMOG offers. Their goal: Make it fun from the beginning. If you have to get ten pelts, just kill ten wolves. More impressively, they claim that the war (RvR) is everywhere, even in the starting village. Players who are interested in PvP won’t have to wait to get to it; the war will come to them. Paul claims that players can experience Warhammer on many levels, and goes on to cite all four Bartle types (thought not by name) as having things to do in the game. It was a very entertaining rant, but avoiding the grind is very hard to get right.

“What’s compelling for a casual player?” The game is meant to be accessible for both PVE and RvR. Playing only once a week will still be fun, as you’ve got ‘fast action’. While I could see this being true about RvR stuff (especially after later comments), how is this game’s PvE going to be fundamentally different enough to offer the super-casual player a rewarding 2 hour experience?

Paul takes a moment to talk about the tone of the world, which he describes as very very dark. “Not spitting babies on sticks and rolling them in salt, or blowing out the torch dark.” This is a dark, grim world, with dark humor, in a perilous time. He apparently bangs his hands on the table and shouts ‘Darker Darker Darker’ to inspire the troops. It’s interesting to hear him talk like this. As far as I know, there’s no word of what rating they’re aiming for, but unless they’re going to be joining Conan in the ‘Rated M’ category I can’t imagine they’ll be able to fully follow through with some of the ‘darkness’ they describe here.

“How deep is the character system?” 6 races. Most of the races have two sexes. (Greenskins are orcs and gobbos.) As characters get more powerful, they start to look distinctly different (dwarven beards get longer). Even if a player has no equipment on, you’ll be able to tell the difference between a 1st and a max-level character. You can further customize your character during gameplay, by acquiring trophies. They’ll be discrete items you can actually place on your character somewhere. Trophies will be acquired from quests, from events, etc. There’s a screenshot on the website that seems to show a dead cat hanging from a player’s belt. This is one area I simply can’t find anything to complain about. Extra character customization is something you can never put ‘too much’ into, I think. Paul broke in and said “The goal is to be able to line up 10 different orcs, all of the same level and of the same class, and to have each and every one of them look different.”

“Character Class + Race = Different?” Every race has different classes associated with it, and even though some classes might seem similar, their hope is that they’ll be different ‘enough’. IE: Once you’ve played through the game with the Orcish tank, you can turn around and play the Dark Elf equivalent without saying ‘gaah this is exactly the same.’ Another admirable goal … but really, how many different ‘ways’ are there of soaking up damage?

At this point they went into the different ‘levels’ of RvR combat. I have to admit, I find their ideas compelling.

Skirmish RvR = Each zone has an RvR area, as well as PvE areas. You’re flagged just by entering the area. Your goal is to kill the other guys. Real basic, nothing fancy.

Battlefields = Objectives within Skirmish areas that are focal points for combat. A tower on a hill, can be claimed for the realm.

Scenarios = Story points within skirmish areas. Instanced. “Evenly matched point-based combat.” Enter the lobby, get matched up with others from your realm to fight the other side. This sounds exactly like what WoW calls battlegrounds, but they were quick to stress there is no CTF or other gameplay types: you’re killing the other side and taking their territory.

All three of these plays into the overall campaign (the ‘fourth level’ of RvR). The different nations and races face off against each other over their commonly held borders. While everyone can fight the opponents of both sides, some fights will have an extra ’something’ to them. They’re working on making racial conflicts somewhat like football rivalries. Minnesota vs. Wisconsin == Dwarves vs. Orcs, for example. By participating in Battlefields and Scenarios, you can ‘own’ zones, and ‘push the enemy back’ from their territorial lands. If your side works hard enough, you can capture the capitol city. You can even ransack the city, kill the citizens, and capture the king. The king can be taken back to your capital city, where players can buy rotten tomatoes to throw at him.

They went on to say that, if one side is good enough, this state could be kept up for quite a while. Just the same, the capitols themselves will be very hard to keep for a long time. The goal is to make the losing side suffer, but not to make their gameplay experience miserable. There are lots of ways in which capitols fight back (guerilla missions?), and holding one for an extended period of time will be quite a feat.

I never had the chance to fully get into the RvR offered by Dark Age of Camelot, but all of this sounds quite exciting. Even if half of the things they’re promising make it into the final game, it would be very different than most of the other massive titles I’ve played. I’m showing my lack of experience here; DAoC was just not that big a deal for me. I’m skeptical and all (of course), but still … sacking capital cities? It makes me want to drink the kool-aid.

“What rewards will RvR offer?” – According to Jeff, it’s not possible to split out RvR rewards from their compatriots on the PvE side. Everything you can get from fighting mobs is obtainable by killing other players. You can earn XP, level up, and even get loot. The items are looted off of dead players, but aren’t ‘from’ the dead players. Players will apparently have their own loot tables. This is completely awesome, and is something I’m eager to test out. I’ve had more than my fill of whomping rats, thanks. If I could have played Arathi Basin for quest xp, I would have been in that queue from logon to logoff.

The idea of griefing comes up, and their response is succinct: “As long as there is still skill involved in taking on another player, you can fight. If there is no challenge in killing a player, or too much, you can’t do it.” A level 40 character in a level 10 zone just wouldn’t be flagged; he doesn’t belong there.

They talk a bit about the size of the game, and state at launch they’ll have 33 zones, 6 capitol cities, 3 PvE dungeons, one big RvR dungeon (what’s that going to be like?), and ‘bazillions of scenarios’. They’ve obviously put a lot of effort into the scenario part of the game. They certainly seem popular in WoW, so no reason to think they won’t work in WAR.

Things are kind of wrapping up and Paul goes off on a tangent about “Playing the game how you want to play it.” IE: Killing members of a guild take their banners, putting the banners on your walls as trophies. Kill people, take their heads, putting them on your guild banner and wave it around. He was a big fan of the “I’m better than you” moments in gaming.

My overall impression: Impressed. I really wish I’d had the chance to play around with the game at GenCon this year. My summer was ‘naf’ to borrow a term, and I never had the chance to set up a PR appointment before hand. My bad, and now it looks like I really missed out on the chance of seeing something different. I still agree with the folks who say that WAR *looks* like WoW, but it definitely seems to have sufficiently different elements so as to set it apart from it is popular predecessor.

If nothing else, the idea of leveling up through the game via PvP (but having the option of not doing so) is the best thing since … Shadowbane. :) Good game or not, here’s hoping the conflicts between the greenskins and the dwarves have a bit more staying power.

Thanks to Jeff, Paul, and Eddiemae for the interesting hour. I definitely learned a thing or two, and I’ve finally got a fantasy MMOG to add to my list of games I’m looking forward to. Good show.