A heavy metal twist infact. In the newsletter which just graced my inbox I read that Mythic plans to introduce the new classes, or rather the removed ones, with a “live event” on the servers. First thoughts: Cool. Reading on, it tells about how the event will introduce a TEMPORARY new scenario and DAILY tasks through the Tome. Second Thoughts: Cool… but I have questions. Here’s the press release (bolds are mine):
Get a head start on the new WAR careers!!
When the Heavy Metal live event begins on November 17th, players who log into WAR will see a new tab in the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on this tab will open the Live Events page, where each day we’ll place a new daily task. Completing these daily tasks earns influence, just like you’d earn in a public quest. There are rewards for Basic, Advanced and Elite influence, culminating in the ultimate prize: the chance to play WAR’s new classes a full week before they’re released to the public! This last reward won’t be easy to earn, and players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event.Exclusive Scenario
We will also be adding a new scenario, Reikland Factory, for Heavy Metal that will only be available to players for the duration of this live event. This scenario will take place in a steam tank factory in the Empire Tier 4 zone of Reikland and see players battling for control of different areas of the factory. This new scenario will be available for players of all levels, on all tiers, but will not contribute to the campaign. Participation in this scenario will give players an extra 10% bonus to their Renown point gain.So sharpen your blades, load your handguns, pray to your gods and feed your Squigs and White Lions. Heavy Metal is almost here, and you don’t want to miss out!
Okay, sounds cool overall but there are a few things that I take issue with:
- It’s not for everyone. Casuals sound like they need not apply.
- The Scenario is TEMPORARY – WTF? I sounds awesome. Why would something cool like that not be permanent? Ehhh, second thought, I think they’ll be like “SURPRISE IT’S STAYING! DON’TCHA LOVE US?!” (I hope)
- Will not contribute to the campaign – in order others doing this does not influence zone control.
- 10% bonus to renown point gain …. *picks jaw up off the floor* Sorry, what? Man, the last thing we need is to entice people to go into these scenarios.
The fact that you can play the classes early, while a marketing gimmick, is neat. The new scenario looks great and maybe, just maybe, this will get people out of the Nordenwatch, Mourkain, Tor Anroc, and Serpents Passage scenarios only.
The intent of limiting its availability is obviously to inject excitement into the game. People like to have limited time stuff cuz then they feel special doing it. I think it will have a positive effect on players wanting to stay to experience this new content and trying out the new classes. It just reeks of marketing gimmickry is all 😛 If they have lots of spare time to make throwaway scenarios, why don’t they add a few more with the next update after that are permanent? 😀 Still it sounds like fun.
As much as I beyotched at Blizz for only making 4 $%#@’n scenarios, I appreciate them creating new content.
They just need to get RvR corrected also.
I don’t know about anyone else but the second I saw the info about this scenario it reminded me of a WAR version of Office (CS:S). But maybe you don’t go inside the building loaded with lots of halls…Hmmmm.
You’re right that unlocking the new classes early isn’t for the casual player . . . but it’s only 1 week early. The casual player is barely going to notice the difference. I’m playing WAR pretty casually, only level 21 so far, and while I’m interested in participating in the event, I really don’t care if I get to unlock the new classes early, since I barely have enough time to play the character I have. A week is nothing, all it’ll really do is spread out the rush of new tanks by having two ‘release’ days.
Other than the announcement of the new classes, which I’m extremely excited about, the rest doesn’t really interest me. Again as you clearly pointed out, this isn’t for casual players and ya, holy crap, that’s all we need is more enticement to play scenarios. Sometimes I wonder what they’re thinking over there.
I don’t see why the daily quests aren’t for casual players really. They might be quick ones that someone could easily do at any level within 30 mins or so.
One one hand, I like the daily tasks idea. It’s a good positive push for players to dig into different content rather than sit in the same Scenarios day-in-day-out.
On the other hand, I agree it doesn’t sound very casual friendly. Grinding with a timelimit, meh.
The whole thing sounds a bit rushed, but sorta in the right direction. Kinda a “we’ll see” for me.
Agreed. I think it could go either way depending on how mythic defines “This last reward won’t be easy to earn” and how the scenario turns out.
I’ll probably grind out all the crap for this. Seeing as I wanted to originally roll a KotBS. Not that I don’t like my IB. Plus, on a low pop server it gives me reason to log on(god low pop serves suck!)
Mythic needs to fix their current problems before introducing new ones.
My conspiracy theory for the day…
The classes pulled during beta were labeled fun to play by beta testers prior to them being pulled.
Is it possible that Mythic pulled a couple classes to keep a media train rolling (more talk of Warhammer during the first few months) as well as to have some “oh sweet! Mythic is awesome!” ammo right around WoW’s expansion to mitigate some player exodus?
Just to derail some of the theories here.
No one has ever played a Black Guard, they were NEVER in beta. The KotBS was only included in a few, very early phases, and had some major balance issues. They were also removed before the beta opened up to include more than a select group of players, so in reality 99% of the people who have played WAR never saw either class.
As for the event itself, casuals don’t worry about a one week preview, so the whole lead up to the classes is to give the dedicated core a bonus, no issue with that. The event has 3 levels of rewards, so casuals will still be able to get the first two, they just might not get everything to unlock the class preview.
Yep, Syncaine summed it up better than I did. The event isn’t casual unfriendly, but unlocking the classes early is. But as long as we can participate in the event, those of us playing casually have little reason to care about unlocking the class early. For me, at least, it’s not a goal that matters.