Open RvR in Warhammer

In addition to letting everyone in on the tens of thousands of dollars spent (by me), and alienating your family and friends, I’ll also be throwing out complete banter about Warhammer Online and MMO’s in general. I’m currently playing Warhammer and have been since well before release.

Over at Wasdstomp, a little bit of a rant caught my attention about why Open World RvR “sucks”. This got me thinking, and I feel as if I need to respond to defend what I feel is a solid RvR game. By no means do I think it is flawless, but I do believe that since inception the game has evolved more into what players are looking for in a RvR based game.

I completely understand Wasdstomps frustrations about running for hours with what seemed like the hopes of a city siege, only to have people leave after locking zones. But this does lead to many other PvP opportunities in the game itself that actually promote your idea of not getting to a city every 3 hours. Yes, LotD opened. And just as the hordes of destruction ran there as they obtained access so did the hordes of order when they did. Why not go attempt to clear it for your realm mates? It’s definitely a shift in the monotony that locking zones sometimes brings, and it’s a heck of a good time.

The main actual problem I feel about the ORvR in Warhammer is one thing that you apparently enjoyed more than anything, and that is the zerging throughout the zones. When people think of Open World RvR, I’m pretty sure that they don’t imagine themselves running from BO to BO, and Keep to Keep with 100 other people just to lock the actual openness of the RvR. Yes, people can still go to the zones once they lock, but there is really no incentive to due to the shroud pulled over our eyes of zone flips and the domination system. There are too many zones, too many small maps, and too constrained of routes, and too little consequences for Open World RvR to be perfectly placed in the game of Warhammer as it is today. With such constraints currently enacted, it promotes the zerg mentality that is instilled in the majority of players. It makes small man RvR near irrelevant, and soloing a thing of the past and a lost art. The lack of pride in the game is due to this fact. When you run with 100 people, no real leadership or sense of worth is established. You simply just run to the next point wiping everything in your path. All strategy is out the window and the thought of actually losing something is long gone.

So yes, it is flawed, but I don’t think it should be completely dismissed. The combat is good, things are (for the most part) pretty balanced and there is always action somewhere if you’re looking for it. If some of the things I touched on here are addressed, I really think the community would be ecstatic. And let’s be honest, Mythic/Bioware is certainly attempting to address issues as best they can to improve the game and promote a long and healthy subscriber base.