Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning finally shipped last Thursday, and the inevitable question is already on the lips of industry and MMO fans alike: does the game have a chance of putting a dent in World Of Warcraft‘s feverishly dedicated user base, or will it be forgotten in the shadows of Blizzard’s reign of online gaming?
Lead designer and Mythic studio co-founder Mark Jacobs commented on the issue, telling Gamasutra in a recent interview why he feels ready to go up against WoW:
“We’re not saying we’re going to beat [Blizzard], but we’re not afraid of them … we have our own hook; that’s [realm versus realm combat], and we’re pushing it and we’re pushing it, just as we’re pushing other innovations in the game. Blizzard is number one; we don’t mind being number two, especially if it’s a competitive number two. I can’t worry about that.”
Sounds reasonable, and a sight more logical than the Denis Dyack approach. I haven’t plowed a decent amount of time into an MMO in years (although I’ll likely resume for the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online), so it’s hard for me to say if I think Warhammer Online has the chops to be number two. Will you tak ea break from WoW to give it a spin?
[Thanks, Joe]
