WAR Games

Mythic in it’s Bitter Rivals Patch 1.2 Public Test Server patch notes is finally addressing numerous bugs and balance issues.  Some of the rumors and opinions that came from Comic Con NY come to fruition, such as the nerf to the White Lion’s Fetch! ability becoming more in line with the Maruader’s Terrible Embrace.

Also, I am grateful on some of the changes to the Shaman, and not so on others. Do sumfin’ useful will now be useful as it will absorb more damage and Gather ’round will cast quicker and heal more. Both very good. But ”
* Gedup!: This ability’s build time has reduced, but its cooldown time has been increased.: not so good. I already have the instant tactic spec’ed for this and now that seems pointless. They don’t say what the longer cooldown period is either, so it may prove we’re no longer the best rezzers in the game; which was something since we are far from being the best healers.

Overall though I like it. They’ve addressed every class in some way, some more, some less, but everyone got something looked at.

I’ll address this more later…time ta WAAAGH!

Massively’s Brook Pilley  recently interviewed Mithan, head administrator at the Warhammer Online Valut Network Boards and PhoenixRed, head administrator for Warhammer Alliance. You can read the interviews here.

Both had some good things to say. I personally think they are needed, as some of the bloggers on Ryan’s Nerfbat have said.

The chart below shows a breakdown of MMOs subscriptions, etc. broken down per game, their market share, and genres as well.

ION 2008 an Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth

Here’s the survey.

But what do all those numbers in the article below mean?  I’ll try and explain it briefly.

Before I go into this, I want to make sure everyone knows I am not being a Jim Cramer here.  I’m not saying this stock is a good buy.  I’m not saying it’s a bad buy.  No “bull” or “bear” sound bytes.  All I’m doing here is giving my assessment of how I think the numbers announced affect the game I play, Warhammer Online.  It’s my opinion, and here it is.

First, from the filings we see that EA is cash heavy.  They have cash equivilents of roughly $2BN.  This is pretty good.  They could sustain losses such as they had for nearly 3 years.  Their total assets from the balance sheet is $5.2BN; total liabiliaties less the amount of stockholder equity is $2.15BN.  The Current Liabilities line items shows that they are pretty much debt free.

So yes, they are now going to be “agressively managing” the money that they now have by the cost cutting measures such as layoffs and the closing of 12 facilities, company wide, but also on how they bring things to market.  How does this affect WAR?  The new IP as they called it which includes WAR was mentioned as being quite profitable and that is where there is growth strength, in subscription titles; all but Star Wars had made money.  They also were talking up microtransaction based fee income.  We will have to wait and see if this is implemented in WAR.

EA is looking to expand into the Asian markets as well, which would only mean more money for WAR.

Although they hyped the new MMO with Lucas Arts, the new Star Wars MMO, they were talking about sequels for their current titles, including WAR.  John Riccitiello, CEO of EA said “we expect to benefit in the future from increased sales from these franchises. Generally, games with a “2” on them will sell better than the first version – and do so with a lower R&D budget”  So we can expect a WAR 2 at some point.

Final word:  EA is putting it’s dollars behind Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.  We can expect a sequel probably in 2010.  I won’t recommend buying EA stock but I will recommend buying WAR if you haven’t already.  BUY BUY BUY!

EA’s 2008 earnings will be announced during a conference call today at 2:00 PM PST. Besides WAR, EA publishes the Spore franchise which has done very well and is releasing expansions and console stand alone games this year. They also publish the Madden series which has done quite well.

There have been various rumors flying around the web mostly thanks to an unsubstantiated article on joystiq.com. Finally we can put these all to rest. Yes, there have been some layoffs, Mark Jacobs admits to this, as does EA. But read his responses here on WHA (easier than reposting from VN piecemeal)

Once the numbers are out I will post them here; below is a link to EA’s Investor Relations webcasts and conference calls. We all wanted to know the numbers of WAR, and soon we will at least know the financials.

http://investor.ea.com/events.cfm

Update:

There are currently 300,00 plus subcribers currently, generating $150MM profit (which may include all 3 of their IPs including Spore).  This number may be for their full IP lineup including Spore; reading through the 8k and press release now.  Not bad for a game people keep crying doom.  Also, they are predicting for 2010 to grow that number.  Overall the company posted a net loss of around $641MM, which is bad but misleading.

WAR Herald Press Release (Wow, Mythic doesn’t like giving the numbers, it took EA to do that.  This is the report that Mythic linked to)
SEC Filings

Press Release

8K

The below release was actually from back in October.  The current figures are listed above.  Below is what Mythic re-posted

Everyone here at Mythic Entertainment is beaming with pride at the current success of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning! The WAR is raging, players are having a great time, and today we announced that we have 750,000 players registered. This is an incredible number just three short weeks after launch. We want to thank each and every one of you for your support, and we look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with all of you as our numbers continue to grow!

WAAAGH!

Click ‘Read More’ to check out the Press Release.

Finally it’s been made official. The strong and powerful Orc Choppa and the whimpy Dwarf Slayer (I know, not too objective, but this is my blog, dammit, and I play greenskins) are due out sometime in March along with some other updates and events.

Seeing the game mechanics of the Orc Choppa from videos of Beta, they looked like a lot of fun, but perhaps a tad overpowered.  They continuously get stronger the longer they fight so if you don’t kill them quick, they will quickly kill you.  Yeah, I’m talkin’ ta you Order scum.  Leave my shaman alone already!

I will definitely be trying out this class.  I’m hoping the combo system is something that flows smoothely like the videos of old showed.  As to the Slayer, well, stunties I suppose needed something too; and they do, admitidly, look cool in their own right.  The battlefield will ultimately decide the winner of this contest though.

Along with the official announcement of the new classes, the various Valentine’s Day cards sent out have had their meaning revealed.  The Night of Murder event with the Twisting Tower, RvR dungeon with zombies; and more.  Here’s the schehdule given from the news release:

Call to Arms Live Expansion Schedule

• ‘Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals’ Live Event (March): Successful completion allows head start access to the new Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer careers. The event will also include the new Chaos-themed RvR Scenario, Twisting Tower.
• Two New Careers Join WAR (March): The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms.
• ‘Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands’ Live Event (April): Details to be revealed soon!
• ‘Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings’ Live Event (May): The race between Order and Destruction players begins to unlock the Land of the Dead for their Realm.
• ‘Land of the Dead’ Opens (June): The deserts of Nehekhara open to players with the addition of a new RvR-gated dungeon zone. To gain access to the Land of the Dead, opposing Realms must battle for control of the zone to access dozens of new Public Quests, instanced lairs, and a massive new Tomb Kings dungeon to plunder in search of the Casket of Souls.

Mythic is doing well with the updates so far.  As long as they keep these free they’ll get my monthly fee.  If they release a paid expansion before some major issues are addresssed it will be time to move on.  Keep going the way they are, they’ll have me for years to come.

*UPDATE: Tome of Knowledge had the letter “E” contrary to them saying “L” See picture in link below and compare to other letters.

Okay Mythic, what the zog is this? _ T N I _ T N _ V E R A _ Probably simple, but seemingly impossible without the other 3 blogs reporting their letters. And you, bloggers, get off yer git faces and let us know already. All the clues listed below in yesterday’s post, and at the various reporting blogs, we have come up some varying, interesting theories. But without more information, that’s all that they are, theories. These are the blogs reporting in:         *UPDATE: Tome of Knowledge added

• Asuryan’s Flames
• Epic Slant
• Fires of War
• Keen and Graev
• Lagwar
• Rainbow MMO
• /Random
• Stylish Corpse
• Tome of Knowledge
• Wall of Text
• Werit

Asuryan’s Flame, in my opinion, has one the best theories of all for this cryptic #/13.  Missing three letters shouldn’t be that difficult, and it’s not if we look at it backwards.  _AREV_NT_INT_  What are we looking for?  WAR Event Hints.  It fits, makes sense, and is no help whatsoever; it just told us what we were doing, looking for WAR event hints.

So that being determined, let’s look at some of the other clues.   Fires of War had quite an interesting letter.

Roses are Red

Khaine gives me power,

I’ll hunt you down,

In the Twisting

Tower…

So, what can we garner from this?  To me, it sounds like the possibility of an Elven City. At minimum the event would appear to be Death Night, and probably on a Friday the 13th which is coming the 2nd week of February (see Werit’s letter).  This I got from some of the other clues as well, especially all the references to Druchii; the black lipstick, the references to Khaine, the blood all over everything, and the “Which Elf”,  just to name a few.

However, Wrewdinge over at Lagwar has an interesting take that makes sense. 

“inside the Gotrek and Felix series there is a vampris’ who owns a massive mansion, filled with her minions. So I think that they’re going to add a dungeon that relates to her mansion.”

Good thought, and he’s not the only one with this theory.  However, Wikipedia (we all know that Wikipedias are absolutely fact…) has a verse that seems to relate to this:

The holiest time of the year for Dark Elves is Death Night. During this night the Witch Elves rule the streets of the Dark Elf cities, capturing anyone they find (whether they are slaves or Dark Elves) and dragging them back to the temples as sacrifice to Khaine.

Some speculate these are hints at the upcoming Choppa and Slayer classes; I believe they are completely misguided.  Especially since we seem to have deciphered the #/13 puzzle.  These are event clues, the classes are not an event rather an addition.

After digging, and compiling this information I’ve  come to the realization; I hate Valentine’s Day.

Best Youtube ever. Just had to share…fuck you!

Does Valentine’s Day = Death Night? Well, maybe it does.   Warhammer Alliance consolidated some posts from various blogs around. Like the Choppa/Slayer announcement, Mythic is once again being cryptic. Here is a little of what can be figured out from available clues.

_ T N I _ T N _ V E R A _ (UPDATE: three bloggers remain silent; this is what’s known so far.)

The above is assumed by various clues with number/letter combinations on the back of the bloody cards received; which when taken collectively indicate a 13 letter word or phrase. Check out the comments on WHA and the other blogs and you be the judge.

2nd week in Feb.
See you in RvR
Be there + beware (I believe from the original card at Rainbow MMO it is intended to be a “+” not an “&” symbol. In other words add the two words together somehow)
In anticipation, (again, something maybe in the word “anticipation”?
Which Elf (well, this one is a given)

Some people are equating the black kisses on the letters and such to vampires. I don’t know. But, from Keen and Graev’s:
Roses are red,
My heart is black,
If I tore off your head,
I’d mail it right back

This could still be applied to Death Night where the Brides of Khaine go around capturing peeps and sacrificing them to their god of murder.

Could this possibly be more info on when we get the Choppa and Slayer? Well, in a little over two weeks we’ll know.

Okay, rumor and speculation have been abundant since comments made a month or so ago by Mark Jacobs.  Now The Greenskin Blog and The Keen and Graev Blog report some interesting PR stunts.

The Greenskin, which represents us green bruddahs of da WAAAGH!, got this:

The clues lead to the line quoted at 1:16:06 in the movie the Predator, “Get to da choppa!” It speaks for itself.   When added to the other clues it’s a shoe in that the Choppa will be added or at least confirmed on 1/29/2009; the little WAR sign gives us the date.   Either this, or Mythic truly hates Destruction.

Check it out for yourself, it’s on Youtube.

On the Order side of the fence, Keen and Graev got the following:

Stinkin’ Stunties, always needin’ ta keep up wif us greenies.

From the looks of this package it was assumed that the Slayer would be coming to town, not the Hammerer.  Probably rightfully so, the red hair dye, again with the ominous 1-29-09 placard, and a hair shaver.  For those who know your Warhammer lore these fit nicely with the Slayers.

Well, I don’t play the Order side much but I do so adore my greenskins, and the Choppa was always a favorite.  I am very much looking forward to smushin’ me sum red haired stunties in deir skivvies.