So ends my time in WAR. Putting this here also so I can thank them
So my time here draws to a close; (skip to the dotted line if you don't want to read me beeping off)
I gave them one year. Tonight with much sadness I cancelled my accounts out. The last year has been such a ride for everyone involved with Exitium I want to thank them all for being a part of the small guild we called home. Unfortunely Mythic has pretty much driven me from WAR, I can’t sit by night after night anymore and deal with the uphill battle we seem to have to wage to even be on the same level as our friends across the isle. (the latest bowl of crap is the AM VS shammie heal debuff, look it up) I have been a paying customer of mythic’s on and off for 7 years, since March 2002. I survived the horrid bad times in daoc and enjoyed the up swings. I stuck with them after WoWs release (played wow for 4 months and never shut my daoc account down). literally over a thousand dollar i have pumped into them over the years (I was paying for 10 daoc accounts at one point)
My story is a little different than most, in august last year I had already started recruiting and getting in touch with ex-daoc 8v8 players, seeing who wanted to play WAR. We talked at length about what kind of group and who was going to do what role. We linked up with the guys from Exitium, (Reckoning decided late to go order. I almost was PT order up till 1 week before release) A good portion coming from WoW and discussed a 12 man idea, we over recruited on purpose to give us a buffer when people couldn’t log on. who was playing what was set, 2 group concpets were set. This was all done before release.
As the months went on from release more and more people kept falling off from playing, either due to the game, some personality conflicts or generally just apathy for the game and enjoying their lives outside of WAR.
My officers and I kept recruiting and rebuilding the guild. Any glimmer of talent that could be exploited and given a chance we took it, kept refining the guild group, over and over. More and more LV runs, city dungeons, builds, specs, everything we could do to keep it fun and competive. (how many city runs you ask? I’ve played every class in there barring a WE, sometimes doing 3 runs a night to keep my guildies outfitted).
I kept telling them that mythic will get it fixed, daoc didn’t enter its golden age until a year after release, I kept running groups, trying to keep everyone playing.
In the end, I don’t have a group to play with, life beyond the game has taken many and they are just not logging on. We chat on vent or message services. I don’t want to rebuild again, I actually don’t like MMOs (go figure) and the way they are heading currently is just not my cup of tea.
What truly pissed me off at the end?
Pve, the dumbing down of daoc, and glaring class balance issues (WoW lite + rvr is crap)
As much as people bemoaned the ToA expansion from daoc, it was not nearly as bad as what WAR offers. At any given time my friends and I could get something done in ToA, a simple matter of getting 2-3 people together with some bots and getting the artifacts done with little hassle. No lock out timers, no retard drop rates. We could just go in and simple fix up whatever alts needed items, and jump on the normally ran ML series going almost every week on any of the three servers/realms we played on. Even if by chance the artifact didn’t drop, at some point someone was farming them and you could throw money at the issue and just buy it after getting credit. (I HATE BoP with a passion btw) A couple months after ToA’s release when the bugs were fixed and some things with leveling were loosen you could take a toon from 1 to 50 and ToA in a week with some effort and be done, rvr ready. Try that with WAR.
The thing is, once this was done, that was it, a little PBae artifact leveling in PoC or wherever and those toons never had to set foot back in pve again. Off to rvr till you went blind from monitor glare.
Not so with WAR, as I played my little shammie, over the last two weeks, I kept in the back of my mind what I needed to get him really end game set-up. After the 9 months in LV for one toon to get their DP set (granted most don’t and combined sets, but these are non-healers) do I really want to go through that YET again?
No
No more 5 day locks outs, no more 2-3 hour LV runs while we get nothing for anyone, no more buggie Tovl, no more.
Lotd was a cruel Joke, can’t really get anything done in there without a group, can’t 2-3 man things because they keep making “fixes”. Just a giant PQ fest of crap with a horrid buggy dungeon added on for giggles. The little lairs, oh, ya, basically all bop and you need 5-6 people with more lockout timers. Just GREAT.
As to the dumbing down of Daoc, originally Daoc was marketed as EQ lite with this whole new idea about pvp. No longer would you worry about getting roflganked while pulling 3 mobs, you would have 3 sides and there would be massive areas with keeps and things to fight over with your teammates away from where you would be leveling and questing. What an idea at the time. Daoc also addressed a lot of issues that royally pissed off EQ subscribers, corpse runs, losing levels, body looting, down time, twinking. In the end, lighting struck for mythic. The game had depth and complexity coupled with a great team based pvp system.
Mythic wanted to repeat this concept with WAR. They failed. WoW lite with rvr attached was not the path they should have gone. WoW was already changing in the years WAR was in development; they were addressing the players concerns and gripes. They were making changes to loot and pvp as it is in that game. What I think mythic truly failed to understand that their fans (300k-400k player base just WAITING plus whatever would be pulled from WoW and warhammer tabletop/rpg fans) wanted a refined updated Daoc 2 with WAR skins. they were DEAD set against doing this, and said so.
we wanted something that an ex-daoc player could log onto and go “OH, they got rid of that annoying thing and fixed it. Awesome!”. Nothing more could more could of shown that they were not going that route then the testers revolting in late 2007 and demanding open field keeps and objectives. They were not even going to do this! The whole game was to be based off scenarios till the beta testers put their collective feet down and said NO. Keeps were not in WAR till early 2008 and frankly it shows in the structures and how the lakes are designed.
WoW players that started there were not looking for anotehr fisher price MMO, they wanted somethign with more depth, something to dig their collecitve teeth into and experince that daoc RvR they might of heard about from friends and what was being spouted on the boards by all of us ex-daoc people. In the end, mythci went the totally wrong direction.
Did they fail in 100s of other areas? Yes, simply put. Lag, class balance, bugs, horrid end game, very bad PvE,etc etc. I think a lot more people would have put up with 1-2 items from them, but all 3-4 major problems, no. Not in this day in age.
They also tried to pull the same stunt they did with daoc, making one side stronger, better toons, less needed for all abilites, etc. aka "incentives to play the less populated side" then after the populations even out a bit more, nerf the stronger side, this backfired badly. To give them credit where credit is due, the launch was solid (least from my gaming time) far better than other MMOs including WOW. One can hope this is what Bioware is taking from mythic, their ability to launch a solid stable server.
Mythic listened to the wrong people, or they chose to try and make the game simpler. (they admitted they wanted it to be more 1st time MMO player friendly, wrong way to go mythic) I don’t really know. I have a list of 26 things on a compare and contrast with daoc/WAR, a post I made back in October. Sadly hardly any of those things were real issues from daoc, but since they got massive VN play time, they must have been the worse issues. So mythic sorta listened, looked at WoW and fell on their faces.
They were also very pig headed and stubborn about a lot of things, and they got that from no idea where, but in the end, it hurt them also
Over 1+ million customers lost in 1 year is very bad no matter what spin you put on it. MJ got booted becuase of this, devs actually got transfered BACK to daoc!
Finally, an offen repeated joke in our vent, Mythic’s WAR patching is like when you take your car in for an oil change and they give it back with no windscreen. You yell and stamp your feet to get the windscreen fixed and they give the car back missing the radio. After awhile you want to slap someone, just go all ‘70s pimp and backhand them. (if I ever get the chance, I will stand up publicly and rip them a new one)
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My main account goes dark on October 13th , it is paid for till then, I'll stick around and watch but this is my swan song.
Lastly a list of names and guilds I want to shout out to: ( I always miss people, so it might get edited)
Gisli and company for the internal boards and keeping my grumpy self in the loop
Gisli (again) – for trying so hard to keep the fight going. Mythic failed you old friend
Aoann - for still being a bar wench
The Daoc RP cluster Mids for the community we managed to transplant here. It made it worth it, thanks for taking me in when I moved from alb nimue years ago.
The guin alliance for deciding to go PT order and fight us, rekindling an old WAR
Vydor - for always trying to be positive
Bolt - fun times in the begining bro
Joven – for being the zerg lighting Rod. You were needed, even if some of your calls were fraking stupid, thanks for going through all the poo and hassle
Daboss – for so much positive screaming in regional and trying to fight the good fight
the rest of the zerg leaders - keep doing what you are doing. You are silently cheered by many of us. we know what it is like to herd cats hoped up on acid. Many of us have done it all before
Mac – who I hadn’t seen since 2002 on alb nimue, we fell into the old banter without pause! Better to be the man behind the king sir, always remember that
Dep- for always waving or sending me a tell in your broken English. You did it again my Spanish friend. Still one of the best ever.
Tyv – for getting exitium going, sharing guild leadership with me and my pissy 8v8 people. Thanks for paying for vent sir!
Coel – thanks for being one of the best chosen on PT and my Guard bish! And remember, you have to CLICK the ability to actually buy it goober, what a long way you have come
kellse - for being a great healer. it wasn't daoc my dear. I forgive you for stealing my chosen sent shoulders
Blytin – for re-rolling. finially getting the idea if you live, you actaully KILL peopleand having EVERY excuse possible why you ran off after that one hurt guy, then dying
Esoni - for having just enough adhd to be one of the best sorcs on PT and loving to bomb with me
Lhmagma and family - thanks for being a part of Exitium, best of luck in Daoc
WHA boards - for not completely got all old school daoc VN crazy. only like 3 AJ posts in a year!
Duvent – for amusing me on the boards and leading the order kids around the lakes
Kiamar - for leading the order zerg, seriously. it is a thankless painful job, well done
Trang - for the honest debate about Eng VS magus. parting shot: Eng's get DPS from their weapons for the AF based attacks. translates into 3.8 or so ballistic per DPS to magus's 5 per dps for the same attacks
Vohannan and Munhel - thanks for trying out Destro and leading the hordes and the chats in vent
to the order that have took a stand and admitted the glaring imbalances - thank you for showing honor between enemies. all postering and poo talking aside, you'r a credit to gamers for taking a stand and saying things are broke when you could remain quiet
The Voltron alliance(version 1 and 2) – we tried, in the end, mythic failed us
KoWW - thanks for grouping my gimpy shammie
Obilt,BDM,Irony, Epic, and NC – for showing the rest of order how it is done and causing so many whines. my warm hearted salute to you guys
Covenn - for being a damn fine player in both daoc and WAR. no more whinning about rift sir, you didn't have to cancel after all
same token - I really wish we could have had more 6v6 action, but the lakes were too small, play times to hard to get together, scenarios were to random with what else was in there. to all those guilds that were here and tried. I salute you my old friends and enemies for trying
Nalasar - for all the gold scarabs and chats. much love old timer(if your still playing in october I'll pay you back with interest)
Pureblade - you are still a salad tosser, and a fine player. thanks for leading the kiddies from time to time
Marv – for taking all the abuse in alliance. I still claim your pet out DPSes you, on either toon!
To the hundreds of tells I got over the year from Ex-daoc friends saying “hi” nothing brought a smile to my face and put me in a good mood more than being remembered even after 6 years of being apart. (granted it might have been since I was a vulgar a.s.s in daoc, but you remember!)
all the destro I pissed off - I meant every word, but I could have been more diplomatic about it. Just things fustrate me
both realms - if you are going to use the "plug the door" trick for defence, please learn how to do it. it is embarassing watching it fail after I showed how to do it back in october
to the mighty 300 - best fort defence EVER. 11 VS 4 warbands. 4 were left standing
to the order in our benny hill video (see sig): come on guys, that was just silly and you did it two nights in a row. That kinda thing ends up getting people nerfed for the wrong reasons
Ragnei - for deleting your 40 AM in october and switching sides, and then coming back for a last hurrah in June.
Ukarang – I can’t believe you remembered me from mechwarrior 4!
Timmy - thanks for getting your comp fixed and coming back to play. (you know, turning it off once a year and resetting! ) You've been a friend
Saithia – for being my love of my life that I met in a daoc 8v8 group of all places, dealing with my crap, and for getting the rest of your family playing. Esoni, Vensal, and Tiesienna. I love you and thank you for doing anything in game i asked, even if you hated doing it. also for everything out of game that has helped me through this year+ (calm down boys, minds out of the gutter)
Exitium – past present and future. for putting up with me in vent (I yell a bit when people are being dumb <grin> ) and showing such great improvement over the year. I am so proud of what we did and the terror we caused. Nothing will take that from us. 1.5 Wbs at a BO? hell with it, straight up the middle and kill them all. (sad part it actually fraking worked more then it should have) thanks for putitng up with all my DAOC VS WAR rants over the year, I guess i wanted you guys to know what it could have been like. We really shook the pillars of heaven and hell. I'll miss you all so so very much
To Phoenix throne - You are and always will be what I think mythic wanted for warhammer. the never ending fight, the best and brightest lights from daoc that I knew were all here at one point or another. this server will always be remembered as warhammer online's shinning example of what could have been.
And to mythic – You shot your 100 million dollar load and blew it. I wish it could have gone better, but you were not the same company that had lighting hit it with daoc
Paul barnett - you should of really kept your mouth shut when it came to game mechanics. You made a fool of yourself and your company
<--mythic-->
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