Catharsis

One thing I have tried so very hard to avoid when lighting a fire beneath this blog again, was a Warhammer Online post-mortem.  The more I thought about, I realized that I would just be beating a horse that had been thrashed to death, pummeled while dead, resurrected, then flogged some more for good measure.  But it has been with a potent sadness that I have watched the WAR blogging community shrink over the past few months.  Players are growing increasingly frustrated with recent changes, and it really is no secret that WAR finds itself at a fateful crossroads at the moment.

With only a few servers left running, there is no question that the vultures are gradually beginning to circle…eager to pluck the meat off of WAR’s fragile corpse.

I still play it all out in my head like it was some sort of dream.  To this day I can acutely feel my initial reactions from WAR beta all the way to launch, its historic rise, and ultimately its plummet to the depths we see now.  But if I sat here and attempted to chime in with my thoughts on how WAR got to where it is, I would only be regurgitating analysis from many other sources that are already available to you.

 

 

Now one thing I would like to say at this point, is that WAR isn’t dead yet.  It’s getting a little too close to the scythe for comfort, but hope springs eternal.  And I am one to always believe that it’s never too late to stem the tide.  But up to this point, Mythic just doesn’t seem to possess the ability to fix the problems.  Much of this is because WAR’s issues are all so deeply rooted in its design that they would truly need to revamp much of the game.

This is not going to happen, period.

So what we are left with are small bandages patched onto a titanic leaking damn that is eventually going to break open.  But rather than sit here and write what has been said before, I am going to try and aid my catharsis for WAR by linking to some of the most insightful comments I have found regarding why WAR ended up the way it did.  I am doing this as much for myself as anyone else, as I am still coming to grips with the fact that WAR is the game I really want to be playing.  The problem being that it just isn’t the game it should have been in the first place.

So let us hold hands and pray as we open our hymnals to page 113.

 

Where did Warhammer Online go wrong?

 

This article touches on many of the most popular points…the lack of a third realm…few viable in-game options other than PvP…horrible class balance…population imbalance…terrible performance given the look of the game…all of WAR’s sweet spots of pain, if I may be so bold.    It makes for a fairly accurate read so I think it’s a useful place to begin.  But the source which offers some of the most interesting and less well-known facts on WAR’s happens to be a thread on the Warhammer Alliance forums.

 

The Main reason why WAR failed

 

This really does have just about all you need to know concerning WAR’s troubled development.  Though I advise immediately skipping to page 8, as the first 7 pages of the thread are hijacked by a troll who constantly argues the meaning of the word “failed”.  I am not really sure what point he is trying to make here, as I think its safe to say that going from around 80 servers to 4 can be considered a failure.  But hey, some people love denial and cling to it until the cows come home.  So rock on there.

But back to the WAR discussion…some of the finest criticism in this thread comes from Sir Robin.  So start with page 8 and move on from there.  I will still be here when you return. 

 

 

So there you have it…they were planning on totally instanced PvP to setup the realm war.  That doesn’t really sound like the game we all wanted, does it?  But by the time they realized the problem they were already in beta, so they were forced to shut things down to add an Open RvR system that is borked to this very day.  So WAR really has been in fix mode since before it even launched.  Keeps were never supposed to be there in the first place, which is why we got keeps that were not even as well developed as the ones in DAOC, made over 7 years prior to WAR’s release.

But to bring this distasteful rehash to an end, I can only say that I will continue to follow WAR in the future and may even log in from time to time.  But I just can’t see myself spending any significant amount of hours there unless we see some drastic changes.  Though I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is still a small part of me that hopes…that waits with baited breath for the final realization of the game I so wanted to love that just never really seemed to love me back.

Over the hill?

From an MMO perspective, this is truly something I have been wondering as of late.  Have I just been around the block one too many times?

 

 

Am I forever destined to be a jaded gamer who wanders from title to title, hoping something might actually knock my socks off the way Everquest once did?  Will I stroll through the fog of my MMO memories without reprieve, searching endlessly for a transforming experience that will forever change the way I look at online games?  Maybe that’s all too much to ask at this point.  Perhaps I am the problem, not the people who make these games.

Or perhaps it is a little of both.

I may well be in need to soften my expectations when I step into a new MMO for the first time.  But in return for me lowering the bar, MMO devs really need to get their butts in gear and heighten their ambitions a little bit.  That’s the deal I am willing to strike at this point.    Historically, my time in any particular MMO has always varied and that is by design.  I do tend to hop around some to help fight the onset of MMO burnout, which can strike people like me rather viciously I am told.  But let’s face facts for a moment…I have been playing MMOs for over ten years now.

I have always loved them and probably always will.

But as the coming of each new game passes, I find myself slightly more turned off by the genre than turned on by it.  I keep looking for a game that will bridge the gap between what we once had and the advances we have made since those early days.  I honestly feel that the closest we ever got to an MMO of that caliber was Vanguard, but it was fraught with so many other problems that it just crumbled beneath the weight of them.

But this all brings me to the present and where I stand with Rift right now.

Rift is the most polished MMO to be released since World of Warcraft, this is without question.  It is fun, well constructed, and offers some wonderful class options with the Soul system, not to mention the fun that can be had with the rifts themselves.  The rifts are basically like Public Quests 2.0, and that is a compliment.  WAR gave us Public Quests and it was a wonderfully unique idea.  Now Rift has taken them slightly further, though I still think they are destined to suffer from the same problems that WAR’s did.  Basically, once you do them 100 times the bloom is going to come off the rose a little bit.  Trust me on this.

 

 

But for someone who has played so many MMOs, the taste of  Rift as a whole strikes me as just too familiar.  It’s like going to a pizza parlor that isn’t the one you enjoy the most.  What they serve you may be very tasty and certainly worth your money.  But you will always be thinking about the kind of pizza you really want and how what you are currently eating is good, but not different enough to make it special.  So with Rift, I find myself enjoying the game and appreciating the fact that we finally have a new MMO that was actually released when it was ready.

But I also find my thoughts gradually drifting to other places when I play Rift, haunted by the nagging feeling that I could enjoy Rift on a casual basis, but not really sure if it’s something that I want to sink my teeth into the way I have with other MMOs in the past.  Some examples of that would be Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Eve Online, and Lord of the Rings Online.  Those are all MMOs that I dove into head first and explored just about every facet of gameplay they offered me.  Each one is dear to me in different ways, and I will probably always pop back in to check on those games from time to time.

So while it would not be strange for me to do that while still playing Rift, I now find myself a little troubled by the idea that my mind is already wandering as I play.  It just feels…I don’t know…too soon for me to be having these sorts of desires.  I fully expected Rift to sweep me away for at least a few months, with no thought of playing anything else even entering my mind during that time.  But it just hasn’t happened, even though I have found pleasure in playing Rift and exploring this exciting new world that Trion has given us.

I also have to say that if Rift does possess and ace in the hole, it’s Trion Worlds.

 

 

These guys have their act together in a big bad way, folks.  No company is perfect so don’t kid yourselves, and Trion will have their missteps as all developers do.  But I don’t think I have ever seen a group of devs this on the ball so early in their game’s release.  It not only bodes well for the future of Rift, but for other titles that Trion will undoubtedly make as time goes by.  The thought of how well Trion has responded to player concerns heartens me greatly, providing that warming touch of hope I need to keep plugging away.

But at the end of the day, it all comes down to how much fun I am having and whether or not Rift delivers in the ways I need it to for my own personal enjoyment.  Right now I give the game very solid marks, but I do fear that there might not be enough new spice to keep me playing heavily in the months ahead.  Deep down I think what I really want is an MMO with Rift’s polish combined with the heavy PvP focus that Warhammer Online brought to the genre.  So if Trion can develop the PvP in their game and turn it into something more than what the average MMO offers, then they just might find me subbing for a very long time.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

A Second Chance to Carve your Skull

Now if only I could temporarily change my blog’s background to something like this…

 

 

Poor old Ingvar…doomed to countless amounts of farming by a bunch of bunny hopping, foaming at the mouth MMO addicts.  But getting back to the point here.  If I could just change my background to that picture then I could say to hell with the long-winded post about where I’ve been, what I’ve played, and why I have suddenly decided to return, as that image would tell you all you needed to know about my status.   But that just wouldn’t be my style, now would it?

So yes indeed, my interesting gaming compatriots…I’m back.    Would someone please que the bloody inspirational music?  It’s awful quiet in here.

 

 

Now that’s more like it, thanks Mr. Jablonsky.  So out of the depths of Middle Earth I am come, or at least the earth part is within the vicinity of accurate.  Nevertheless, I am going to make the naive assumption that kicking the tires around here will be just like riding a bike again.  And though I highly doubt I will reach the heady days of early 2010 as far as post count goes (my keyboard has already filed an injunction against me for the times when smoke was frequently spotted funneling out between the keys).  I do hope that I’ll at least be seen here at headquarters with a little more regularity.  But fear not in any case, dear readers.  My intentions are full of rainbows and win.

 

 

Now I know what most of you are probably thinking right now.  Nightwreath, you incessant windbag, why the hell should we care whether you’re back or not?  The answer to that question is simple and contains no misrepresentation or innuendo whatsoever.

You shouldn’t give a rat’s ass.

But just in case a few of you might be reading this and have allowed yourselves to become intoxicated enough to care…then why don’t we begin with a summation of my life over this past year.  It will be brief, I promise you.  The tale goes a little something like this…

 

 

Hello again.  Welcome back!    It’s a little scary out there, isn’t it?  We’re talking about places where angels fear to tread, that kind of thing.  So why don’t we just stay here for a while instead?  The weather is much more forgiving in these parts anyway, and I have it on good authority that we’ll have access to cookies if we keep our voices down.  But now we’ve got the boring crap out of the way, right?  That alone tells me that it’s time to move on to more substantial things.  So let’s talk MMOs.

Yes, those dastardly time-sinks continue to be a part of my life whether I like it or not.  Usually that counts as a positive, but if I get any grayer in the hairline as an MMO-Vet I fear that I might completely loose the ability to enjoy them at all.  That’s a scary prospect in and of itself, but in some ways I think I’ve just played too many MMOs to be truly awestruck by them anymore.  I still enjoy them immensely, please don’t misunderstand me.  But I do find that the overall experience has become somewhat diluted for me as the flow of time has pushed the genre forward.

That’s not to say that I’m one of those cranky old cooks who thinks that MMOs should be just like they were in the old days.  But I do recognize that something is missing within the core of these games right now, but placing your finger on the point and then trying to talk about it with people is much like trying to hold a civil, intelligent discussion on the topic of politics.  About three minutes into the conversation something like this always happens…

 

 

So what am I playing right now, anyway?  The answer to that query would be somewhat surprising, given my history.  But I currently do not hold any MMO subscriptions at all.  I’ve gone cold turkey.  Over the past year I have seen much happen over the MMO landscape.  I watched Warhammer Online slowly devolve with a heavy sense of regret, I had some good fun with the Cataclysm expansion, and popped my head in a few other places here and there.  But all of that has brought me to the point where I am now, just an MMO gamer with no place to hang is hat.

As for WAR, it’s a game that I will always love and hold dear to my heart, but I have finally reached a point where I can no longer convince myself that it’s worth my subscription in its current form.  I’m not going to get into the what, where, when, and why…as I think there are plenty of great WAR bloggers out there who can give you a sense of why the game is stuck in a rut.  Perhaps that will change someday, but for now WAR and I have reluctantly parted ways.  I wish Mythic all the best in their future endeavors, and I hope they know that I’ll always be cheering for them no matter what course they take.  *cough – DAOC 2 – cough*

As for WoW, I greatly enjoyed hopping back on my Warlock for Cataclysm and also found the new 1-60 questing to be quite fantastic in many ways.  But once I hit 85 and with the prospect of a raid schedule looming, I decided to take a step back before I got overly committed.  I have plenty of responsibilities in RL as it is, and I just wasn’t sure that a raiding schedule was going to make any of that easier on me.  What I really wanted was just a place to level, explore, and hopefully find a little PvP while I was at it.

So where does that leave me now?  Funny you should ask, but given that if you’re reading this blog then you’re probably an MMO player…and if you’re an MMO player and you look at the current date, then you’ll most likely know what’s drifting out there just on the edge of the horizon.  Though I see many different positives and negatives regarding it, the beta has been far too polished and smooth for me to say no at this point.  My gaming instincts quickly took hold of me and I pre-ordered the Digital Collector’s Edition before you could say the word spineless.

 

 

Yes my fellow gamers, I am here to declare that I will be playing Rift beginning on February 24th (headstart).  For the lone person here who has no idea what I’m talking about, allow me to explain.  Rift is a new MMO due to release on March 1st, with those of us who pre-ordered getting the opportunity to play it slightly ahead of that date.  (Feb 24th)  As to Rift’s core identity as an MMO, I’ll let the folks at Trion Worlds (the developers of the game) fill you in.

 

 

Much like before, I will be here to report and comment on my various adventures both within Telara and elsewhere.  So I hope that some of you will pop in from time to time and enjoy reading about them.  I won’t be blogging nearly as much as I did back in the day, but I’ll do my best to carve out some time when I can.  It’s good to be back, though, that I can say without hesitation. 

So until next time…

 

1.3.5 is Live!

Fantastic!  I get home from work and discover that Patch 1.3.5 has been deployed!  Then I check the Herald and find out that Badlands is now down for maintenance until 9pm EST.  *sniffle*  Aww hell, this is still the best news to hit WAR in some time!  New City Sieges are upon us!!  Woohooo!!!

So why are you still here?  Get out there and WAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!  

Unless you are on Badlands or Volkmar, then you can join me as I…

Hitting the wall

I have had very little time to actually play MMOs lately.  I keep trying to log into AOC and get through the 70s, but more and more I feel like I am hitting a…

Is it me or could AOC have used another 70-80 area?  I am getting sick of Kheshatta and I have found Tarantia Commons to be a little on the dull side.  I am sitting at level 77 and am honesty thinking about using the Offline Leveling to take me the rest of the way.  I try to log in and burn through some quests, but I get bored way too quickly because I am so sick of those areas.  I really want to check out the expansion because people seem like they are having fun with it.  I am just wondering if AOC really needed another 20-40 zone when we could probably have used a little love for 70-80.

Don’t get me wrong, as I do like that Funcom threw something out there for people who are new, returning, or running alts.  But when I look at the balance of content and see myself not having very much fun in the 70-80 range, I keep thinking that something should have been added for those levels.  They could even have started the first RotGS area at 75 rather than making it all for 80s.  *shrugs*

Anyways, my WAR icon is glaring at me something fierce for neglecting it recently.  So it’s definitely time to go get my WAAGGHH on I think.  I have a young White Lion to level up, after all!  I will mention one thing I have noticed in my time back in AOC when comparing it to WAR.  I have truly come to appreciate the way Warhammer Online allows you to level from both PvE and PvP.  I enjoy PvPing in Conan, but that halts the leveling process for me because I only receive PvP experience for it.  In Warhammer, I receive both regular experience and renown for taking part in PvP.

I do love that system, I must say. 

Expansions – A Shot of Adrenaline

In a recent interview with Massively, Warhammer Online Producer Carrie Gouskos was asked if a boxed expansion was still in the cards for Warhammer Online.  Her response, “Absolutely not out of the question, that’s certainly something that I would like.  Expansion is a funny word, and it sets expectations in a certain way, but we also don’t plan on only doing specific patches going forward.  That’s probably the best answer I can give you.”

To that all I can say is this…

After seeing all of the positive energy that the Rise of the Godslayer launch has infused into Age of Conan, I am more certain than ever that a boxed expansion needs to be in WAR’s foreseeable future.  To be fair, of course, I am on the record as being very pleased at the direction WAR is heading right now.  The Dev team hit up cities and I’m thrilled to hear that Open RvR is next on the list.

Everything seems to be moving along just as I hoped it would be, and I know that an expansion is not something that anyone on the WAR team would want to tease without being 100 percent sure that it’s going to happen.  But here’s to hoping that internal conversations are going on somewhere about what a WAR expansion would look like and what features would best enhance WAR in the long term…*cough* third faction.

Gamers are a fickle bunch, and I hope that no one on the WAR team underestimates just how many players get bored and will come back to check out an MMO because of an expansion.  The publicity alone would be like a breath of fresh air for a game that rose quickly, fell hard, and is now slowly but surely battling its way back to respectability.  There are things to take care of first, such as Open RvR once the new City Sieges go live.  So we must not lose perspective here and get ahead of ourselves.

I just hope that somewhere…somehow…the conversations on structure and design have already begun.  Such an event would be a shot of adrenaline unlike anything WAR has yet to experience.  There are plenty of bitter gamers out there who cast off WAR and believe it to be dead.  Nothing would shut them up better than the announcement of new content via expansion.  The players want it, the Devs want it, and the game needs it.

For my part, the best I can do is to continue writing about Warhammer Online and show people that not only is it far from dead, but alive and kicking with some of the best PvP action this side of the multiverse. 

Life

It does have its own way of reminding you that you’re not always in control, doesn’t it?

I have been busy, busy, lately…so much so that I have barely had the time to sit down and play me some WAR or AOC.  I was finally able to get my hands on Rise of the Godslayer after that little side adventure, so I jumped into game for about an hour yesterday.  I roamed through some of the zones in Khitai and checked things out, got a feel for the place.  The aesthetics of the new continent work very well in my opinion.  There is a wonderful sense of scale that is buoyed by the draw distance of the graphics engine.  Only Vanguard can match AOC on that level.

But I wasn’t really able to play much, though I did take advantage of the Offline Leveling and bumped my Barb up to 76.  Only four more levels to the cap, and the last ones are usually the toughest.  Fortunately, I snagged the Collector’s Edition upgrade and now I have that 12 hour double-xp potion.  So I will be saving that for a day when I can really sit down and let loose.  I need to start working on my Bear Shaman (50) as well.  I haven’t played that class much since I used my free level 50 to get him.

I had completely forgotten about that little perk.  Once you get a character to level 50 in AOC, you gain a one-time ability to create another character who begins at level 50 instead of level 1.  You gotta love little gifts like that, and it certainly brought a smile to my face when I realized that I had not taken advantage of it yet.

As for WAR, I think I will be alternating my time between my SW and my WL for the foreseeable future.  I regret not being able to take more advantage of that double xp Mythic had going, especially for my Shadow Warrior’s renown.  But life just gets in the way of your fun sometimes.  I’ve had plenty of class work to tend to and it has kept me occupied lately.  I am enjoying the Scout spec I have settled on, though, and Scout is still the most viable SW spec in my opinion.  The others have advantages as well, but they just aren’t tuned well enough yet in my eyes.

Moving on to my young White Lion, I want to see how he feels once I get pounce.  So it looks as though I’ll be starting the leveling grind all over again.  I do wish Mythic would get the pat pathing smoothed out, as it still seems to be an issue and has been since launch.  Other WLs are telling me that they alter their specs for large battles not because of actual strategy, but because the WL pet pathing is so poor it detracts from their efficiency and so they switch their spec around so they can still be viable.

That screams…

…to me.  But as with all things, I will level up and see how it plays out for myself.  That’s all I have for now.  Happy gaming! 

White Lions, let me hear you!

I will update the Funcom-account issue once I hear back from them.  In the meantime, for the last few days I’ve been thinking about taking my White Lion up through the ranks.  I am still enjoying my SW and always will, even if I think the class needs some tweaking.  But the White Lion was a class I played back in Beta and enjoyed immensely, despite the various pet issues.  The pathing was always a little wonky and it still looks to be as far as I can tell.  Nevertheless, I always enjoyed the idea of a warrior charging into battle…brandishing a giant pole-axe with an armored lion at his side.

So how are the White Lions fairing these days?  I’m sure I will get many and varied answers to that question, but I like to ask it anyway.  At the end of the day, it’s usually best to just play what you enjoy rather than worrying about how the class is doing from a balance standpoint.  I found the mechanic to be fun even with the pet issues, so that is probably reason enough for me to dive right in and start leveling him.

So perhaps I should rephrase my question.  What White Lion specs are people generally using these days?  Which ones seem to be the most effective?  Come on, White Lions, let me hear you! 

Monday’s WTF – Games Workshop sues Curse?

In a special edition of Monday’s WTF, I would like to take a moment and talk about the recent new regarding Games Workshop, owners of the Warhammer property.  It appears that they are now suing Curse for operating a website called Warhammer Alliance.  Most people in the WAR community know that Warhammer Alliance has been a fan site since 2005.  I remember stopping by there in the months building up to launch and taking part in the fevered excitement.  I honestly did a double-take when I heard that they were being sued by Games Workshop, and I refer you to this post from one of the Warhammer Alliance founders.

Heya Folks,

For those of you whom do not know me, my name is Shelby Cardozo and arguably I’m the founder of Warhammer Alliance. I figured I’d pop out of the shadows and clear up some misinformation about the site, it’s history, and my dealings with Games Workshop.

Lets rewind to 2004 and remember the old Warhammer Online that was canceled by Climax Entertainment. Well in late 2004, there was a Warhammer community that refused to die ( WarhammerOnlineForums.com). Unfortunately however, the site admin for the WOF was on hiatus and slowly the site was having problems and the community was on the rocks.

Enter 2005 and Mythic Entertainment. It was early 2005, soon after my Imperator fansite was sunk that I offered to help out the WOFs. Specifically, I’d relaunch the site as Warhammer Alliance. The site was relaunched around August 2005 and believe it or not, the site had ads on it back then. Specifically, I knew that the site was going to get big and I knew that in order to keep the servers running when the site got big, that ad revenue would be required. So, the site was launched (with ads) and we all looked forward to a new Warhammer Online.

Things went fantastic. The community, the developers, we were all so excited. The site was growing and the community was having a blast getting excited all over again. Fast forward to late 2005 and an interesting phone and email conversation I had with Sanya Weathers of Mythic Entertainment and Erik Mogensen, the Licensing Manager for Games Workshop.

The topic of discussion, we didn’t have a proper disclaimer at the bottom of the site. So, I worked with Sanya and Erik to ensure we met standards that all parties would be happy with. We settled on the same footer you see today. “This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited or Mythic Entertainment.” And an added a link
to a longer disclaimer.
This footer and disclaimer was agreed to by Games Workshop, the Licensing Manager and Mythic Entertainment.

Things seemed to be going great. In fact Erik even registered here at the site and granted us a some interviews. Read that again. Games Workshop was helping promote the site by doing interviews with us back in 2006. Here is a link to Eriks first interview.

Now, fast forward to today.

Games Workshop is suing Warhammer Alliance. Now, I’m not a Rocket Surgeon, but this lawsuit smells like Greenskin dung to me. In the suit they allege that they just became aware of the site. But they were promoting it in 2006, 4 years ago?

You see folks, Warhammer Alliance, even today is a news site. The staff here do Warhammer news reporting, original news and commentary. In the same way that AppleInsider.com covers apple products, WarhammerAlliance.com covers Warhammer Online. This lawsuit is really just a gross perversion of trademark law and I hope that Curse puts up a fight.

But hey, that’s just me. You guys are free to form your own opinions.

The link to the Official Complaint can be found here.

So I guess I’ll start off by saying…

That is my initial reaction after reading through the complaint filed by Games Workshop.  I simply cannot understand their thinking here.  They are attacking their fans for what…being fans?  They are claiming in that very complaint that ownership of the Warhammer name is not established.  Umm…read much?  I give you the disclaimer link found at the bottom of the Warhammer Alliance webpage.

Disclaimer of Copyrights

This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. Age of Reckoning, Chaos, the Chaos device, the Chaos logo, Citadel,Citadel Device, Darkblade, the Double-Headed/Imperial Eagle device,’Eavy Metal, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Golden Demon, Great Unclean One, GW, the Hammer of Sigmar logo, Horned Rat logo, Keeper of Secrets, Khemri, Khorne, the Khorne logo, Lord of Change, Nurgle, the Nurgle logo, Skaven, the Skaven symbol devices, Slaanesh, the Slaanesh logo, Tomb Kings, Trio of Warriors, Twin Tailed Comet Logo, Tzeentch, the Tzeentch logo, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Warhammer World logo, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf logo, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either (r), TM and/or (c) Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2006, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Games Workshop is also claiming that they have little knowledge of Warhammer Alliance, but their very own Erik Mogensen held an interview with Warhammer Alliance back in 2006 as stated in the above post.  So I just don’t understand what in the world is going on here.  Is this a money grab?  Did Games Workshop have a change in management who decided that on second thought, to heck with those wonderful fans at Warhammer Alliance!  It’s really hard to say for sure.

Games Workshop is even claiming that they could not contact anyone who works at Curse.  This is in spite of the numerous links all over the site?  I just don’t get it.  One thing is for sure, though, this definitely qualifies for a WTF moment.

Battle for Badlands

It’s that time again, folks.  If you play WAR and make your living carving up skulls on the Badlands server, then now is the hour of your discontent.  Now is the time to rally your brethren to a worthy cause.  This is where we fight and where our enemies shall die.  We will give them nothing…and take from them…everything.  The Battle for Badlands returns, sponsored as always by the Gaiscioch Family!! 

Discover more at Battle for Badlands.com