It’s time for WAAAGH!
Most people would spend their evenings at the pub, watching TV, or have a quiet soiree sitting by a campfire singing row, row, row your boat. But alas, I spend my time slaughtering dwarves and elves on a whim, laughing maniacally at the carnage that is left behind. This is the world of Warhammer Online.
For the most part, it’s all run of the mill stuff like all other MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game, thank god for acronyms). Most MMORPGs follow these simple rules for game play:
- Resource gathering
- Amassing huge amounts of wealth
- Completing quests
- Levelling your character
- Levelling skills
- Acquiring better weapons and armour
- Killing players on the opposite faction
However, the one thing I love about WAR is the PVP (player vs player)/RVR (realm vs realm) aspect. It is very open and dynamic, the adrenaline rushes through your veins as you charge to seize an enemy keep. Or the thought of victory is snatched away as the opposition mass a counterattack, and all this requires a good amount of teamwork and strategy. There are several tier levels for this, depending on the level of your character. Therefore, you will not be fighting level 40s if you are a lowly level 12. Nevertheless, the main action is in Tier 4 where you can actually seize the enemy city, the beating heart of the opposite faction. For me, I play Destruction/Chaos because I am evil like that, and when I first approached the gates of the Empire kingdom, Altdorf, it was wickedly cool. I loved every minute of it, we were killing the enemy left right and centre and the healers were superb. Unfortunately, this is where I have to mention the downside. You see, in open RVR there are hundreds of people and when all these people gather in one place, the server buckles under the pressure and dies. When the crash happens, you get the loading screen and normally you are thrown back to the nearest war camp. Or in my case, you get ditched in Tier 1 newbie country. Lovely.
The maximum level cap is 40 and the amount of quests available can be overwhelming at times. But I never feel boredom creep in or that ominous sign of grinding each level. There is a grinding element however, kill X number of sheep to complete Y quest. You will always get that, but there are dungeons to explore and RvR to dabble in for a change of pace. I recently joined a guild called The Older Gamers (TOG), they specialise in players that are over 25. This is quite beneficial if you want to play with more mature people and generally in this setting, the organisation and preparation for guild events are better. Their membership numbers are massive, the community has guilds and groups for all manner of different games, not just WAR. The staff are friendly and enthusiastic, even if you are new to a game you can find assistance within the community very easily.
Is Warhammer Online better than World of Warcraft?
Being a veteran of World of Warcraft in the past, there are plus and minuses to both. No one can deny the overwhelming popularity of WoW, the GDP for World of Warcraft as an economy is higher than some real world countries. The problem with WoW, for me, is that I have played it to death. Every nuance has been revealed, every surprise and discovery has been discovered. Although the new expansion The Wrath of the Lich King offers more exploration, this will only be a fleeting moment and I rate the PvP implementation in WAR more highly than in WoW. My old guild disbanded in WoW so there is no emphasis on returning to that world again. There are problems with WAR though, the ridiculous stats allocation to high-level armour. Why would you need weapon skill if you are a magic caster?! Game stability is another issue, but this and other niggling problems can be ironed out over time. Either way, the stresses in my life can be lifted by killing the odd stunty or two.
If you want to find me, my character is Zasalamel on the EU server Karak Azgal. See you on the killing fields.
Here are some screenshots, pardon the scattering of dead bodies on one of them.
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email Tags: MMORPG, The Older Gamers, TOG, Warhammer Online