Level 17

(6:00 - 11:00pm) Lot's of pictures, click to enlarge

So I haven't posted in awhile, mainly because I've had too much to post. Firstly, I leveled up to 17 with Nick and had an amazing time exploring the world. Got some decent armor with the words "YE SHALL SUFFER NOT A HERETIC TO LIVE" branded into the leather along my abdomen. It's pretty impressive that the game developers pay so much attention to character/lore detail (Warrior Priests obviously hate heretics).


Tried to complete a public quest but three level 20+ witch elves showed up and slaughtered us. We tried to put up a fight but they caught us unaware, stabbed us and took off on gigantic raptor mounts.


Met a player named "Inferno Dragon" who played City of Heroes on the same server we did in High School and spent a long time reminiscing about our shared MMO experience. He was cool, said he enjoyed Warhammer but that it was too easy at times. Peck accidentally flew to Altdorf, Order's capitol city, and we spent a few hours just exploring, talking to level 40's and commenting on the city's design/narrative. Decided we should hold our next experiment there, which ended up going well.

The High Elf and Dwarf Kings ^^^ Strange enough that we would be allowed to see the Kings in person, their guards sat by idly as we stood on their table and danced. "Age of Conan," another popular MMO, centers around the actions of "King Conan" and yet the monarch is never seen in person by players. I felt that Warhammer lost a bit of it's immersive quality with this one, (especially when Nick went up the Elf King's skirt)


Discussing professional options with a level 40 Ironbreaker.


The city's "library," none of the texts held within are readable.


A perpetual Brawl on the docks.

Patriarch Thyrus Gormann, head of the bright wizards, hovering above my dead body.

We explored for a good three hours, and saw pretty much everything. How pathetic.
I mean YES the game is beautiful and complicated and they insert humor at some choice moments but the overall feeling falls short of my expectations. I started to grow tired of the place, tired of the game. I turned off the Warhammer sound and put on my own music, it helped. Strange.

The war narrative changed a good bit too. I was told to kill human "plague victims" and felt a little strange about it. I played A LOT of rvr and became pretty good with my character (self call:)


But the more I fought the easier it became to see patterns in enemy decision making. While in-game fight/flight decisions are made to optimize scores, intimidation still works like it does in reality. People would run away from us and fear became the most useful tool we had. As the RVR became comfortable, my concern for the server-wide war lessened. I don't think I can explain why exactly. Maybe the more I came to understand destruction the less I wanted them dead? I started recognizing enemy player's names. It's a strange feeling.



A few days later Joe and I invaded "keeps" with a team of 24 people. These invasions were challenging, open to the public and pretty fun all around. You have to deploy battering rams at the main doors and slay an insanely difficult tower boss. I ended up ressurecting players nonstop for a good five minutes toward the end. We took the two fortresses near "troll country. "I wish people from the other side had shown up. As the towers were taken they changed aesthetically, barbed steel and bats replaced with white marble walls and eagles. Cool attention to detail, made you feel like you could change the game world (for once).


... SO: exploring felt pretty shallow. RvR/PvP was engaging and fun. The two experiences combined... feel strange. The gap between an un-fulfilling game world and hugely entertaining combat makes the overall game experience a fragmented, chaotic blur. I guess we should have believed Paul Burnett: imagination is the goal, immersion really isn't. So I have to use my imagination to fill in the gaps of disbelief that form between me and my avatar? No, Paul. The game doesn't facilitate or encourage imagination, it bottles it, makes digital hallucinatin fast and easy. Quick, streamlined player vs. player combat IS the central aim, and they nail it; I appreciate the game for things it has introduced. Yet to have A+ PvP in a world that can't convince me that it matters feels shallow somehow, repetitive. It's just counter-strike from a third person perspective.

Wasteland, our server, suffered a mass exodus and we have been instructed to transfer our characters to Iron Rock. Doesn't matter too much, just another chip at the magic circle.
It's the right game for certain people. But Warhammer isn't heading in the direction I want MMORPG's to go. It's pulling the genre toward a more easily digestible, effortlessly repeatable level of game play. Bring back death penalties. Expand the game world. Give me an identity. Make things more difficult. You'll impress me, but lose a lot of your market. People like easy things. Especially easy killing.

-Khosmos