I may be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone from Blizzard saying anything derogatory about Warhammer Online. The same can not be said for the developers of WAR, however.
In an interview with Eurogamer today, WAR’s Paul Barnett had a few chioce words to say about WoW. When asked what he thought of Lord of the Rings Online developer’s recent claims that their game can be as popular as WoW, he said
Oh, crikey. Crikey. Lord of the Rings? Crikey. Well, he’s closer to his product than me, so I don’t really know.
I think if ever there was a fantasy MMO that had the greatest possibility to proving that there’s more to this business than just everyone else and this freak of WOW, it’s Warhammer. The time’s right, the market’s right, WOW’s old enough now that it’s losing its lustre, more people than ever are online, it’s a cool world, it’s well realised and we’ve got new things to offer. Do I think we’ll be the second one? Of course I do, in fact I think we’ll be the first one; we’re just not there yet.
And he didn’t stop there. When asked why players should pick WAR over Lich King, he said:
I really like Blackpool, it’s marvellous. Got a tower, you know. They sell fish and chips and it’s got a golden mile, a whole mile of things to do. But you know what, I went on holiday to Blackpool 17 years in a row. Sometimes you just want to go to Vegas.
We’re the greatest hits of MMOs with all the crap bits taken out. No item damage - that’s really good for WOW heads. No graveyard running. You can level in PVP. You get loot from PVP. Public Quests are a joy. It’s funnier than WOW. It’s easier to play, but all the dragons are still left to slay: in WOW, there really isn’t that much to do, not any more. You can wait for two years and get another ten levels, but you’ve probably seen it and done it.
Bottom line, its a beast to be up against.
And now for my personal opinions on this…
Why am I not surprised this man went to Blackpool 17 years in a row; sounds completely believable.
And in my experience, Greatest Hits are the best bits of everyone else’s talent, slung together in a way that doesn’t really gel.
And here’s another quote I didn’t put in the article because he mentioned it again (obviously short on anything else negative to say about WoW):
“You know, I quite like the fact that we don’t have item damage, and you won’t have to keep spending money to make your sword sharp. That’s cool, that is. I like the fact that you don’t have to run miles from the graveyard to get back into the action. I like the fact that you don’t have to go to someone with a stupid celebrity name to buy a bag to put stuff in. I like the fact that I can move where my map goes and make it different sizes, or just delete it. I think these things are great.”
Well good for you Mr Barnett, but you sound a little too desperate to me. When you have to resort to slagging off someone else’s game to make your own sound better, it’s a sad day in the gaming industry.