Dartmouth as a magic circle

So apparently a few people in our group have gotten the idea that Dartmouth in and of itself is a magic circle, which is why we couldn't get involved with the game.  I think that's all bs - there are plenty of people on campus that are actively involved with MMORPG's.  I was one of those people for a while at the end of last year.  The problem (no one in our group has become addicted to WAR) is not with our environment, its with the game.  There are so many problems with this game its amazing that its still running with any servers open!

PROBLEM #1

Imbalance.  Just head to the Warhammer forums and you can see which characters are overpowered.  Bright Wizards and sorcerers generate enormous amounts of damage, Witch Elves can stealth and kill enemies in mere seconds, and heals over time are more powerful than the other players damaging them.  Currently there are 3 times as many Bright Wizards as White Lions (www.waralytics.com/warclasses/index) because of the White Lions poor design and multiple bugs.  Now, there is a patch coming to (hopefully) fix these glitches, but this patch will not affect our play, this term.

PROBLEM #2

Lack of an end game.  I mentioned this in my previous post. There is no end game!  Warhammer is just an endless grind, until you get too bored with the game to play anymore.  In successful MMO's there are clear, defined objectives at the end of the game that are difficult to attain and can provide goals for players.  In Warhammer, all you have to look forward to at rank 40 is more pvp and more keep assaults (renamed fortress assaults, and requires more people).  This is exactly the same thing you did for 200 hours getting to 40!

PROBLEM #3

Servers!  Even when you do get to 40, and you do the proposed end game (gather hundreds of your friends and attempt to take a keep or a city), the servers crash!  Obviously this will be fixed eventually, but future fixes do not help us, people who were trying to play right now and enjoy ourselves.

PROBLEM #4

Poor storyline.  Now, clearly  Warhammer has a well written plot, since it was successful as a fantasy based table top game.  Many books have been written based on Warhammer lore.  I've read most of the original story that was involved with the table top game and it seems very compelling and deep.  For some inexplicable reason Mythic decided to cut out 95% of the story, and instead just give bare outlines of what is happening.  I cannot even begin to describe how much this takes away from the game for me.  When I play Warhammer I feel no emotional connection to anything related to the game.  I don't feel like I'm playing out an epic story worthy of legend and fame, I feel like I'm playing an arcade game - RvR, put in a quarter, repeat.

I'm sure there are some other problems that I haven't gotten around to in terms of game play, maybe Brendan would be able to outline them.