WAR’s Dark Times?
Well, I got the news from Firstto over at Insert Clever WAR Name. Seems that WARP will be holding off on making new episodes until the team sees the need to pick it back up. In case you don’t use the link (but you should!), the next podcast should hit around Tuesday, but Firstto was watching the live recording while they spoke of the podcast’s sabbatical. I really like WARP, and have even recently started listening to the group’s Team Fortress 2 podcast, Control Point.
In other depressing WAR new, Greg Moran is shuttering the Tome of Knowledge blog. I was even more shocked when I heard this. Although not as vocal (as in posting regularly), Greg has never been negative about WAR. He was one of the figures, along with WARP (maybe minus Spencer) that I though would be with the game for quite a while. His artwork will surely be missed by the WAR community. I can only hope he moves on to Star Wars: TOR as many of us are. I’d love to see his rendition of a Twi’lek.
WAR ran into a community speedbump like this not too long ago. Syp left the WAAAGH! blog to start a general gaming/MMO focused blog, Bio Break. The Greenskin closed up shop and now runs Snaffy’s Space. Rivs stopped production on The Way of the Chosen and moved over to High Latency Life. Regis quit out on Wizards & Wenches and now works with Quilldragon. Nick is done at Reroller. There’s just so many left, so I wont depress you further.
I kinda see this as a mixed sign for WAR. On one hand I think its pretty bad when you lose community members. People that you send gifts/marketing tools to because they are still on the WAR mailing list, even though they are no longer running a WAR-centric blog. People that have stated that they are done with the game until changes can be made to fix huge pieces of the system. Statements like those, to me, seem to say, “I know there’s no way this is getting fixed, but ill state that I can come back if and when it does,….just in case” in order to prevent the burning of bridges. Not that I disagree with it, because I’m in the same boat. If the performance issues get resolved, and the crowd control mostly goes away, I may really be tempted to play again. But I don’t see it happening.
On the flip side of the coin, I think these bumps in the road should be when Mythic flips the caps inside out and sounds the rally cry. They are under new management, so maybe we’ll see some new direction. Maybe Mythic will pull the needed resources and get some huge complaints resolved. Time will tell.
What do you, the reader, think about the losses? Do you think that it’s no big deal and people will step up to blog and podcast in their places? Do you think these situations hurt or help Mythic in the long run? Do you think the game can reclaim any subscribers, or will it continue to trickle down to whatever niche audience it was meant to keep in the first place?
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Well, the people who create websites and forums and podcasts are generally hardcore fanboys and girls, especially those who start before a game comes out. I think many have dreams of becoming THE site that everyone goes to, like Alakazam etc. back in the day, though they do it because they love what the game Could Be. These kinds of players probably have pretty high hopes for the game, and nothing would live up to their expectations. Then the game comes out and it turns out to not be what they want, so they move on.
All games have spikes in population at the beginning, then when things settle down, some stay and love it, some move on. I think the people who create blogs/podcasts/etc. are more likely to move on than to stay.
Probably the more you think and talk about a game’s potential, the harder it is to accept and come to enjoy the reality.
But that said, if your biggest cheerleaders are quitting, you should take a hard look.
Good points Win, I guess in the end these champions for the game are just like most people playing the game, but maybe even more easily dissapointed. Maybe its not directly a problem that they are quitting, but a problem since it sends a bad message to people on the fence with the game.
This now leaves Lagwar and the Warhammer Alliance Podcast as the only two left reporting on WAR.
Winin is right about games being high on pop and then settling, but the exodus highlights WAR’s main issue – retention. The way to 40 is great fun and very engaging, but endgame leaves a lot to be desired. Land of the Dead has provided a lot of interesting new things, but City Siege needs work in a major way, as does the Renown system.
I notice you don’t have us listed Slurm! I’m hurt.
Oh crap! I got Overly Positive on there and forgot the Alliance. That will be corrected when I get home tonight! (cant get on WA at work)
EDIT: The problem has been rectified
I agree with both points. People excited enough about a game to build fan sites and create podcasts do have more room to be disappointed. However, I also think that in some cases, it takes more to disillusion many of these people.
I think that such popular blogs and podcasts calling it quits does generate more negative publicity though. You now how negativity tends to spread like some smarmy little bug.
Hopefully, they will look at fixing that end game and make it as much fun as the ride to end game was. I think people would come back if they fixed a few things.
Hey, thanks for the mention man. Interesting topic of discussion too.
6 comments
Well, the people who create websites and forums and podcasts are generally hardcore fanboys and girls, especially those who start before a game comes out. I think many have dreams of becoming THE site that everyone goes to, like Alakazam etc. back in the day, though they do it because they love what the game Could Be. These kinds of players probably have pretty high hopes for the game, and nothing would live up to their expectations. Then the game comes out and it turns out to not be what they want, so they move on.
All games have spikes in population at the beginning, then when things settle down, some stay and love it, some move on. I think the people who create blogs/podcasts/etc. are more likely to move on than to stay.
Probably the more you think and talk about a game’s potential, the harder it is to accept and come to enjoy the reality.
But that said, if your biggest cheerleaders are quitting, you should take a hard look.
Good points Win, I guess in the end these champions for the game are just like most people playing the game, but maybe even more easily dissapointed. Maybe its not directly a problem that they are quitting, but a problem since it sends a bad message to people on the fence with the game.
This now leaves Lagwar and the Warhammer Alliance Podcast as the only two left reporting on WAR.
Winin is right about games being high on pop and then settling, but the exodus highlights WAR’s main issue – retention. The way to 40 is great fun and very engaging, but endgame leaves a lot to be desired. Land of the Dead has provided a lot of interesting new things, but City Siege needs work in a major way, as does the Renown system.
I notice you don’t have us listed Slurm! I’m hurt.
Oh crap! I got Overly Positive on there and forgot the Alliance. That will be corrected when I get home tonight! (cant get on WA at work)
EDIT: The problem has been rectified
I agree with both points. People excited enough about a game to build fan sites and create podcasts do have more room to be disappointed. However, I also think that in some cases, it takes more to disillusion many of these people.
I think that such popular blogs and podcasts calling it quits does generate more negative publicity though. You now how negativity tends to spread like some smarmy little bug.
Hopefully, they will look at fixing that end game and make it as much fun as the ride to end game was. I think people would come back if they fixed a few things.
Hey, thanks for the mention man. Interesting topic of discussion too.
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