I chose to be a Bright Wizard and my husband picked a Warrior Priest of the Order faction. This combination has worked well for us in the past. I will do damage while my husband protects and heals me. Again, this was no surprise and the combination did work well for us. Our starting zone was a safe area that new players could explore without too much trouble. The townsfolk that we spoke to were very long-winded and kind. We grouped with a few people, wandered around town, and killed the vermin to please the innkeeper. Up until this point, it was the same game like all the other games I have played.
After leveling around town, our group moved to the forests. We stepped into a Public Quest. I had no idea what was going on and started to use my area-of-effect magic on the mobs. While this had worked while killing rats for the innkeeper, using it on undead-brain-eating zombies was not the best of ideas. I was swiftly killed, and one by one, my group was dispatched. I could not understand why this did not work like it had before. A kind person in my group explained that Public Quests continue through the day, resetting after the final boss is dead or after a set period of time. What I was AOEing was not the easy, weak zombies. I was attempting to kill the final boss, which would be fought with many groups of people, not just myself. We waited for the quest to restart. After quietly attacking the zombies, we defeated the boss and moved on to train. Most of us had leveled on that fight.
The most amusing part of the game for me has been the many ways you can gain experience. You can gain experience from killing rats, talking to people, walking into a new area, killing people, or adding friends to your friends list. Yes, adding….friends…to….your…friends….list. Warhammer Online really strives to make this a social game. Working together in Public Quests gains you more experience. Clicking on yourself gains you experience. I think that if I could sneeze in the game, I would gain experience. Just because I was gaining experience did not mean I was a better player. I think that the experience gained serves as a small incentive to continue and explore all aspects of the game in every city, forest, or bog. It all seemed very random and you do not always discover these titles until they happen. They are hidden from you. This can be frustrating at times.
Warhammer Online also appeals to the killer side of my personality. There are so many types of player vs. player encounters. It is killing with purpose and the townsfolk want you to succeed. They will reward you with experience, potions, and equipment to make your killing easier. With this type of encouragement, it makes it easier to justify slaughtering the other players. I am killing for a good cause. I am saving the town from the plague. I am a hero! It is nice to not feel like I am just griefing players. I am contributing to the good of our people.
From Warhammer Online, I have gained a new insight in how to engage players in many ways that do not involve killing the same dragon over and over again. Warhammer Online offers players so many ways to engage the game on an individual and group level. It requires players to become involved in many parts of the game, from gaining mastery over their character, understanding the vast amounts of lore, and learning to work as a group to accomplish small and epic level goals. I feel like this game makes players feel like they are important, active participants in the storyline. They become part of the game rather than being just a player. I love the fact that the game is not limiting the player. If anything, the player would limit himself and choose to not be engaged.
Warhammer Online could have possibly been one of the best MMORPGs I have ever played. I started this game with low expectations. The first release of any massively played game online has been lukewarm. Most of the time, developers have been releasing close to beta versions instead of a finished product. Because of this, I did not want to get overly excited. Warhammer Online really surprised me. The game quickly downloaded, patched, and was playable within 1 hour.
The second surprise came to me as I logged into the game. I asked myself, did I press World of Warcraft on accident? The graphics feel the same. It is the same, cartoony feel that will be familiar to World of Warcraft. While the graphics are admittedly darker, it still was a bit too close for me. Because everything looked the same, I figured that I did not need to read the manual. I would drop myself into the world and start questing.
At the same time, there was a lot of confusion on my part. There are not obvious reasons of why I can level the way I do or how certain spells affect each other. It is a difficult game to understand. When I was leveling talisman-making, a skill, there is no rhyme or reason why what I did affected my learning in game. Objects that could be combined together did not state whether I would gain a learning point or if I would fail. This was very frustrating to my husband. We both believe there should be points in the game that are very obvious and allow for learning opportunities. This game did not explain the mechanics well enough. World of Warcraft, while similar in game play, is very different in the sense that you can theory-craft the game. You can sit down, figure out the numbers, and explain why your damage is so high or how many fish you need to level. This information is made available online through gaming sites, like Wowwiki.com. At the same time, if you want to be surprised, you can leave it be. You always know, however, what you need to level, how you need to level that skill, and basic information on how to obtain those items. In Warhammer, there is not distinct path that would help us make those choices. If I could choose to do so, I would make parts of the game more obvious. Overall, it is a beautiful game. It has a nice storyline and allows players to explore. It feeds the achiever aspect through titles, allows you to socialize in game through faction and guild activities. It gives killers the blood that they crave and at the same time, makes it a meaningful experience.
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