Gen Con - Friday + WAR!
Posted by Jay | Filed under Blog, Game Industry
I thought I would let War’s NDA lifting rule the day yesterday! So without further ado..
Gen Con Impressions for Friday!
Morning Talks
I rushed out the door Friday to catch the 4th Edition preview over in the Marriott. We were assured that the many many classes and races that are missing from the PHB will be added. They just happen to be in hiding… likely story!
I had the great opportunity to talk shop with Richard, one of the designers on the project. Overall, as I mentioned in my review of Thursday, the periodicals business is in trouble. RPG companys are having to aggressively sell or change their business model to stay afloat. I inquired as to the recruiting methods inherent within the system and the book, since we’re all aware that releasing a new version/patch/edition of any product is mainly a retention practice. The answer was pretty standard. “We’re adding online tools. We have starting adventures in almost any book.”
Time will tell whether a new generation of pen and paper geeks will emerge given the rise of video games as an expressive medium.
Games Played - Warhammer Online
I just couldn’t get enough of Warhammer Online! I spent a good 2 hours standing at those uncomfortable kiosks, testing out different classes. I focused mainly on questing this time through. I can say the grind in Warhammer will be much more enjoyable than the grind to max level in WoW.
As an example, the public quests are amazing! I believe there’s a public quest in every major area. I only got to experience the Dark Elf version, and lemme say, Epic with a capital E! I haven’t experienced fighting Nagafen style dragon since well… Everquest. After two small quest chains, a dragon spawns. Big Red Dragon! I happen to know that Wow doesn’t introduce a boss style encounter, a real boss style encounter until after DM/WC. Eat it!
There’s one aspect to Warhammer that distresses me. Throughout my entire experience, I realized I was never being trained in the basics of the game. Whether this is true or not for release remains to be seen. I think Mythic may be expecting that players of Warhammer already know how to play MMOs. This won’t work in the short run for 2 reasons:
- Just like LotRO, new players will actually be fans of the IP and not of MMOs in general. They may not have any familiarity with how to play an MMO and may or may not be turned off.
- Many respected bloggers out there aren’t giving War a better review than WoW. There is a paradigm shift in the focus between the two games, besides those focused they’re largely carbon copies.
These are my initial impressions of the game. I hope that War is very successful! I want to see it garner 2 million subscribers in one year. At least then we’ll know that the market can support two giants!
Gen Con - Thursday
Posted by Jay | Filed under Blog, Game Industry
Gen Con. Land of pen and paper, imagination and creative non video game products. Imagine my surprise that I spent most of Thursday playing Warhammer Online at the Mythic Booth. Fancy that! I’ll not bother writing a review.
Video Games
World of Warcraft Fans will transition quickly to the game. I suggest for the Wow folks to either (1) learn the new interface, ie the character sheet is “p” for player instead of “c” for character and other changes. or (2) go into the key bindings option and set the keys to your liking. Play is fluid. The atmosphere immersing. The PvE experience is exactly the same as WoW. Tanks, Healers, Melee and Ranged DPS. Standard formula, different presentation.
I got to experience a BG which is called a scenario in War. Action is just as fluid and polished as WoW, the big difference I found is the lack of big one hit kills. I played both a Zealot and Warpriest. My initial impression were that Warpriest were very close to the standard paladin healing except I actually packed a punch! Think holy paladin heals + Ret melee if you used 1H and Shield. Zealot were more clothie. A mix between all the cloth classes of WoW plus some healing. My review of the zealot is crappy because in all honesty the Warpriest was more fun!
In general War is truely balanced around party PvP. This results in a steady pvp experience where coordination and team play are the primary focus. I find WoW’s casual PvP to be more spiky and full of short bursts. Both system work, I’ll leave it to you to experience both before deciding which is more fun.
If you know anything about War you know about the Tome of Knowledge. Its possibly the second iteration of a player tracking system. You’ll gain achievements every couple of hours of play. Its a fantastic system! First iteration in my experience was LotRO, although I imagine more MUDs had a similar version of this system.
General Conning and a cool costume!
I strolled around the exhibition area for the remainder of the afternoon. Not much to report, as I didn’t participate in many demos. I did however meet a Blood Elf Paladin. Great costume! I also managed to convince her to perform the BE healing casting animation, I’ll be posting that later!
Writers and Game Creators
I had dinner with Kevin S and the staffers from Palladium Books. We had great conversations about our first character and the business in general. We ended dinner with a discussion about the gaming habits of todays youth. Without considerable iteration, the pen and paper periodicals business will slowly wither away. I commend all the businesses that are working hard to progress their business to become more attractive to tomorrows money spenders. That was a mouthful, so in short:
Bravo if you’re implementing internet tools and resources alongside your traditional product. Boo if you still think only books will keep you afloat and successful.
Gen Con - Arrival Day
Posted by Jay | Filed under Blog, Game Industry
I arrived Wednesday night, well after dusk to the city of Indianapolis. The flights were uneventful. The landing exciting!
I’ve participated in a smaller scale gaming convention at the Palladium Open House in 06 and 07. I’m very excited to see what the non electronic industry as a whole has to offer and show over the coming 4 days.
For now, I’ve put my feet up, ordered Rambo: First Blood from the hotel and will slowly drift to sleep, awaiting tomorrows excitement!
