Munkey FireTruk

The headstart ended this morning and the deadline for entering valid CD keys has passed. However, Mythic was wise enough to extend the deadline for select customers, depending on purchase method. Playing for a few days and then getting locked out because the UPS guy is functionally retarded and/or your retailer doesn’t grasp the importance of crushing your enemy would…suck.

So, after a lot of conversations I’m happy to announce that over the next few hours we are going to extend the grace period for all customers of Amazon, GoGamer and the EA Store till the 22nd of September. Based on the data we have gathered, these companies account for just about all the customers that were concerned about their chance to get into the game today. Thus, if you currently have an account with us, you’ll be able to get back into the game while you wait for your game to be delivered. Of course, all characters are still intact and no billing of any credit card has taken place (it couldn’t, the account still has free time on it) since the accounts were simply deactivated not wiped.

Find the official word from Mark here…

While playing numerous scenario last night I found myself longing for the release of World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King™. This may sound odd given the fact that quitting WoW was indeed a forever kind of thing, but hear me out.

There are too many WoW players in WAR! The types of players that would spend the entire game getting farmed midfield in Warsong, constantly fighting on the road to stables in Arathi…or better yet afk in the tunnel during Alterac.

These wastes of digital flesh now find their home on the instanced battlefields of WAR doing absolutely nothing positive to advance an objective. After a few pathetic outings I started keeping track and found that the average number of teammates even attempting to take or defend objectives was two.

Longing for the days of cooperation and comradery that DAOC exhibited, I humbly request…WoW, take these people back.

My first thought when opening up my CE edition is that the miniature sux!  It’s my fault for expecting something better than what I got, but this thing is pretty weak.  The Collector’s Edition page shows a nicely painted miniature fully assembled and looking good.  I’m still not sure if mine is broken or not.  The CE description says “Assembly and painting is required”, and the miniature I receive is in peices.

The two books are cool, but I was hoping for some sort of mouse pad.  The final tally of items in the CE is box is.

1. Graphic Novel
2. Warhammer Online Art
3. Crappy miniature
4. The game

Even asking a GameStop employee to simply see a Collector’s Edition box with the naked eye results in the rage-inducing response of “Did you pre-order it?”.

So last night (the last night before the official release) we ran into our first serious server issues on Iron Rock. For 20+ minutes the lag was so bad that nobody could do anything other than chat. Mobs were unresponsive, characters weren’t regenerating and “is anyone else lagging?” was echoed throughout the zones general chat. This was followed by the server going down all together for a time. Once back up there was a rollback to 10+ minutes before the lag event even started…anyone that got a nice drop in those ten minutes is going to be pissed.

Confirmed by stopping by the local Fry’s this morning that the CE didn’t make it to store shelves. Looks like it was pre-order only.

Having been to this same location for the previous WoW releases it was interesting to compare the public reaction. The Burning Crusade release had at least 50 people camped in front of the store for hours waiting for it to open. Many began sprinting to the software section once allowed inside…only to discover that both the collectors and standard versions were housed in an enormous display in the center of the store. Contrast that with this morning where some old guy shopping for cameras and myself were the only customers in the store. WAR didn’t even make it to end-cap status, just a dozen or so copies sitting on the bottom shelf of the MMO section.

Clearly less hype was to be expected, WoW is a juggernaut. Is this an ominous sign of lacking interest in the MMO community, a successful proliferation of the pre-order concept or is WAR just not worth getting out of bed early for?

Mythic Entertainment’s latest MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is GO

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=293

Much lunch time conversation has been dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of melee combat mechanics. It turns out that someone already did much of the work:

http://disquette.wordpress.com/warhammer-online-melee-combat-mechanics/

Now we just need someone to put together a calculator/simulator.

We are a Warhammer Online guild playing Destruction on Iron Rock. WAAAGH!!!