I personally feel the game would more than likely still be running, and making money right now if it had been managed a bit better.GhostofMarchmain wrote:WAR did last 5 years didn't it? I can't speak with any authority on why it was not a big success but I know my feelings on it.
The things I loved were the emphasis on PvP. I loved that you could create a new character and immediately at level 1 queue for a scenario and because you were bolstered up you actually felt like you could contribute. I loved the feel of the pvp with the body blocking. I always hated people being able to run through you in other games. I very much loved the Warhammer lore and flavor. Goblin Shamans, Black Orcs, and Bright Wizards to this day are some of my favorite things in any fantasy setting ever.
What finally got me to leave (I think at about 2 and a half years in) was the horrible balance at end game. For my Black Orc to feel so strong and fun through 3 tiers and then to get one shot in T4 because of gear disparity was nonsense. And the level grind to 40 and the RR grind to 80 (at the time) was too slow to endure that sort of pain. Actually I think I left right around when RR 100 was announced. I was like "F this. It is going to be even worse".
I remember while playing live I remember one of the number one complaints was no third realm and some favorites like Skaven had been left out. I don't know if that would have helped but I think they were probably over ambitious in some areas and that may have contributed to them coming up short in others. I mean what did the game come release with? Something like 12 different scenarios? Some great and some mediocre. Maybe just have 3 great ones to start with and slowly release more content. Maybe release all 6 capitals but only have 2 conquerable to start with.
So much wasted time, so much wasted work. They created a lot of their own problems, and some of the decisions made hurt the game more than they helped. How much content did they work on and never release? How many months did they spend redesigning the city fights for them to be more "pvp" focused to only have all city fights become empty instance hunts. I don't think it was intentional, and I love the dev's for making warhammer, but as a fan, and a player, it was pretty easy to see where a lot of the changes were going before they launched, and no feed back seemed to make it through.
At times it really felt like they had no idea what was going on. BW / Sorc damage was crazy, so they added in more + crit and crit damage. Armor mitigation was a problem, so they added in new sets with ridiculous stats, and to then balance those out, they had to add new renown skills to reduce incoming crit damage.
It wasn't until the very end where they actually started to work on the day to day stuff. Doing minor tweaks and fixes. Adding in the event de-bolster, looking at the broken lotd tali's. Having open reasonable discussions about career balance.
The final live event was fantastic, and I regret not being able to see it all the way through. If only they had done it 2-3 years earlier the game might have had a chance.
