From David To Goliath And Back To David Again.
By: Craythur
From David to Goliath and back to David again. Or: Northrends charms could not hold me long.
I had canceled my WAR account and retired my squig herder. I then caved into pear pressure (much of it from my wife) and returned to Warcraft. The timing of Wrath of the Lich King was no accident I'm sure. It was perfectly positioned to steal the thunder from Warhammer and devour anyone on the fence. Whether this was great timing on Blizzards part or a spectacular blunder by EA is perhaps irrelevant.
Northrend, the new continent at the center of the new WoW expansion, was visually stunning. The new heroic Death Knight character was uber-fun, and it's starting zone sported a revolutionary "zomg phasing" progression. Multiple instances of varying sizes, extended character progression, new skills, further crafting, gear, spells, and more were all part of the package. The expansion was polished as all get out. Wrath of the Lich King was pretty exciting all in all. There was plenty to do. But I would sometimes find myself staring at yet another stunning vista, players flying through the sky on dragons, and feel a stab of sadness for good old Warhammer. How could they possibly compete with this? I can run across this entire continent and never once get stuck on a graphical landmine or be kicked back to character selection.
Northrend was lovingly polished. The expansion to the end game exciting. The new content top notch. If it had released a year earlier I might have been content with it. There was a serious problem however. I had tasted RVR, and I loved it. There was very little WAR in Warcraft when push comes to shove. Blizzard had that one battle zone, yeah. But I never went there. To my surprise and the dismay of my friends I simply wasn't a Warcraft player anymore. Somewhere along the way I lost nearly all interest in PVE. My paladin made it to 74 (I think) before I took a another break from the game. I haven't been back.
Months pass. While I'm not gaming myself, I'm still surrounded by gamers. So I keep hearing bits of doom and gloom news about EAMythic and the sad state of the slowly dying Warhammer MMO. I find myself irrationally defending the game on many occasions. It becomes something of a routine among some of my friends and I. "But it had RVR!" I would passionately cry. Gleefully one of them would come back with "Yes. Buggy, broken, and unbalanced rvr right up until the server crash". they always managed to make RVR sound like it didn't deserve the capital letters. It was mostly in good fun. I'd always lose the argument. If WAR RVR was so much more fun than Warcraft PVE, Crafting, economy, social networking, stability, polish, endless growth, and battlegrounds why wasn't I still playing Warhammer? Why indeed? Oh ennui.
I started searching for Warhammer blogs for a ray of hope. Most had faded away. Of the remaining most weren't very up beat. It seemed Mythic wasn't giving folks much to look forward to. There was that Land of Sand. But Mythic hadn't folded. WAR was still there. It was down to under 10 US servers (60+ at launch /wrist) sure, but it hadn't gone offline. Where there is an electronic pulse there is hope.
While looking for 3rd party news sources I stumbled across a podcast for the Circle of Trust guild, order side on Phoenix Throne. Cotcast had a fun line up of regulars, banter, and drinking. Listening to past episodes was a pretty neat trip. They were recorded while WAR was young. After 10 or so episodes they had convinced me (indirectly) to come back and give Warhammer another try. I resolved to join them on Phoenix Throne. As it happens, just as I came back for a free 10 days I got to the episode where they finally gave up on Warhammer themselves. Ha!
While Circle of Trust had left the server, they had convinced me that PT would be the site of my return to WAR. Then I saw a post on the PT forums at Warhammer Alliance advertising an upcoming T1 Dwarf vs Greenskin event designed to introduce new players to the community and give a new generation of characters (new or rerolls) a chance to begin leveling together through the tiers. What a fantastic opportunity! So I renewed my subscription, rolled a Runepriest (Craythur!), and joined the guild specially made for the event. I had returned.