Warhammer Online: Part One

Before World of Warcraft, I had never played an MMORPG. To be
more truthful, I felt an unmerited disdain for the idea of
playing an MMO. My logic was, why the hell would I ever play a
game that was not only so open-ended, but more so,
specifically, a game that you couldn't beat? The idea of paying fifteen
dollars a month for the right to never see an end to the
narrative... no, thank you. Oh, let's not forget the stigma of
being an MMO player. Before World of Warcraft, when someone
said the acronym "MMO," my brain conjured images of Everquest
weddings and the morbidly obese. My idea of an online
community was limited to the servers I would hang out in Day
of Defeat or some other first person shooter. Even back then I
prided myself on my knowledge of video games, and I understood
that you can’t bitch about 'em if you never tried one.


A situation much like this is why I tried WOW. Let me explain
further. Me and my then roommates decided to throw a party in
our new apartment. We had a small problem: The downstairs
neighbors. I only saw one of them a handful of times in the
vestibule section of the entryway, right inside the front
door. She always seemed very shy and awkward. See, we were
friends with some local DJ’s, and we expected a decent turnout
at this party. We really didn’t feel like having any police
complications. We did have one thing going for us in this
department. Our first floor neighbors were young. So I
decided that I would venture downstairs and invite them to the
party, that way they wouldn’t want to call the cops. They
didn’t answer, so I left a note on the door.


So, fast forward back to the party. Now understand I may be a total
nerd, but I have had long years of practice hiding this fact
from others, especially in situations involving members of the
opposite sex and with parties. You can imagine my surprise
when a complete stranger comes up to me at about one thirty in
the morning, while I'm getting another beer, and says “sweet
Nurgle army.”

Yes, I play Warhammer 40K. Apparently I looked like I just
found out someone finger fucked my cat, or so I'm told.


Some time later, me, this stranger, who I find out is my
downstairs neighbor, and some like-minded folk, are talking
about nerdy-ass shit in a side room, so as not to disturb the
general debauchery going on downstairs. Our talk of 40k blends
into talk of video games. We do the obligatory jousting match
of which games have more merit, trying to find out the other's
tastes. Then, it happens. I ask what him the question, "What
are you playing right now?" He says, "World of Warcraft": I
shudder. Oh shit... one of "them". This is when the conversation
turns ugly. I started listing the reasons why these games are
bullshit, but he stood his ground. Then, he pulled his trump. I
should have seen it coming, but I was too drunk and felt too
strongly on the subject. He says, “Say what you want about WOW, but you don’t know because you never played it.”


What the hell could I say? He was right. Twenty minutes later,
I was holding two free ten day trials. The plan was only to
play the game for free for the allotted ten days, thus giving
me an informed out in future conversations. Yeah, well, two
70's later, I kinda ate my words.


The real point of this post is to show that I have a really unique perspective on critiquing Warhammer Online. I have only ever played one other western MMO: WOW. During my tenure in the lands of Azeroth, besides leveling two characters to the level cap, I was very active in the two guilds I belonged to, and I experienced almost all of the end game content, both before and after the expansion. Now, before you start thinking that this will limit my view on the genre as a whole, let me pose this question: aren’t most people who grab WAR going to be of the persuasion that they would decide to pick up WAR in the first place? That's agreeable to most journalism outlets, whose first reaction is going to be “Stick the MMO guy on it.” I don't want be that; I play games outside of MMO's, RPGS, and Warhammer. The MMO versions stands on its own however. (It is worth noting, that I play the table-top RPG. Granted, my experience has been mostly in the 40k universe, not Fanstasy, I have always been a big fan of both universes). I, actually, have recently started a Skaven army for table-top Fantasy, and I have always been on top of the fluff for Warhammer Fantasy. So these combined create an interesting lens to view this new title.

Part two: First Impressions Coming Soon!