Posted 06/28/2009 at 01:48:24pm

WAR failed the only outcome was he should go. Hopefully next they will take Paul Barnett out.

Sold out to the highest bidder EA who carves up the Turkey.

Posted 03/12/2009 at 11:45:28am

DAoC was a good game, the difference is that Mythic are now EA and subject to their will. EA have been known to close their only other two mmorpg's for lack of performance.

People think or want to think that WAR is the same as DAoC. Some kind of evolution. It is not. WAR has the worst class balance out there. The game actually promotes the ZERG more than other because as you said there are too many people out there who can't defend. Whether that is player skill or just crap classes.... either way it is not good. Failhammer maybe.

Posted 03/11/2009 at 12:04:52pm

Oh dear, D.E. bitter till the end because it is nigh.

So Mythic announced 43 MORE servers to go. That would leave them with about 15-17 NA servers (not counting EU), I believe. So, if we apply what is a reasonable number for each of the remaining servers after this 2nd Round of Server Closings you get:

17 servers @ 10,000 a server= 170k subscriptions. That would suggest in the coming weeks, only 170k max on all NA servers, or something close to that.

Now that is bad financially, but in terms of playability for those remaining to play, it helps them as there is much less dead space. And there was a lot of space and no one home...

The real problem facing Mythic right now, is just how many six month subs or 3 month subs will NOT be returning, because that was not figured into the 170k above. I gave it based on what we look at today. So there is the possibility that it could go well under 170k for the first quarter of this year. If they have 170k now, would give second place in MMO land easily to EVE Online.

saw this post on F13  http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=16216.0

"Decided to put this in a post to track what's happening with the server merges "free character transfers".

US Servers - Alive
Badlands, Dark Crag, Darklands, Gorfang, Iron Rock, Ironclaw, Ironfist, Magnus, Monolith, Ostermark, Phoenix Throne, Praag, Skull Throne, Volkmar, Vortex

US Servers - Dead or Dying (date transfers off announced, included)
Anlec - 11/25/2008
Avelorn - 11/25/2008
Averheim - 11/25/2008
Azazel - 02/19/2009
Bechafen - 11/25/2008
Be'lakor - 10/31/2008
Bretonnia - 11/25/2008
Chaos Wastes - 11/25/2008
Drakwald - 11/05/2008
Drifting Castle - 11/05/2008
Eerie Downs - 11/03/2008
Grimnir - 10/31/2008
Heldenhammer - 10/31/2008
Hochland - 01/05/2009
Kislev - 10/31/2008
Kragg - 10/31/2008
Lucan - 11/01/2008
Lustria - 11/01/2008
Marienburg - 10/31/2008
Marius - 11/01/2008
Middenheim - 10/31/2008
Mordheim - 10/31/2008
Rakarth - 10/31/2008
Red Eye Mountain - 02/19/2009
Reikland - 10/31/2008
Saphery - 10/31/2008
Sea of Claws - 10/31/2008
Sea of Malice - 10/31/2008
Skavenblight - 10/31/2008
Sylvania - 02/19/2009
Thorgrim - 10/31/2008
Tor Achere - 10/31/2008
Tor Elyr - 10/31/2008
Tower of Doom - 10/31/2008
Ulthuan - 11/05/2008
Ungrim - 02/19/2009
Wasteland - 11/05/2008
White Tower - 10/31/2008
Wolfenburg - 11/25/2008
Wurtbad - 11/03/2008

EU Servers English Language - Alive
Burlok, Dragonback Mountains, Eltharion, Karak Eight Peaks, Karak-Azgal, Karak-Hirn, Karak-Izor, Karak-Norn

EU English Language Servers - Dead or Dying (date transfers off announced, included)
Alarielle - 22/12/2008
Axe Bite Pass - 12/16/2008
Clar Karond - 11/24/2008
Ellyrion - 11/24/2008
Finuval Plain - 11/24/2008
Karag Dron - 12/16/2008
Karag Orrud - 12/16/2008
Karak Ungor - 11/24/2008
Karak-Vlag - 11/24/2008
Karaz-a-Karak - 11/24/2008
Makaisson - 11/24/2008
Mount Silverspear - 11/24/2008
Sea of Dreams - 11/24/2008
Tiranoc - 11/24/2008
Tor Anroc - 11/24/2008
Worlds Edge Mountains - 11/24/2008
Yvresse - 11/24/2008
Zhufbar - 11/24/2008

Total servers alive 15 US + 8 EU English Language = 23 alive

Total servers dead or dying 40 US + 18 EU English Language = 58 dead/dying

Note, counting Oceanic servers as part of the US for ease of tracking, not including Russia or non English language EU servers.

.....

thats pretty drastic and i thought things were getting better. on the face of it don't look good at all. suppose it helps the little population left though on those servers. oh well going to wait it out a while.

Coughing it's last breath? less servers than AoC now that have people on them.

About the age comment, bring up the demographic statistics for visiters to warhammer websites, most are 15 and under which the market caters / gears up for. It is probably that age that most people got into the lore and then just grew old, thing is the game is nothing like the lore and sadly is ruined.

Posted 02/07/2009 at 02:51:46pm

Sure does ring a bell, EA rushed WAR out the door to beat Litch King, in doing so they forgot polish, extra classes and game content. They suffered for it and it looks like the game will be just another niche 50k'er.

Posted 02/05/2009 at 11:53:37pm

I read it on many forums, from friends alike too.

Simple fact is EA cut 11% of it's work force - between 30 - 40% got layed off at Mythic. Things are pretty desperate in game too, quite a few of those were senior devs.

First they say there won't be cuts + no official forums, now look what happens. They rush out info on expansion to soften the blow of the drastic sub drop.

The problem isn't the 300,000 they have left, it is how quickly they lost 450,000 players.  Do even a simple graph and put 750,000 at september, and then 300,000 on December 31st.   That is just a huge downward slope and there is no reason to expect the slope has changed.  It's also very very unlikely that they have 300,00 subscribers as of February 1st.

no matter how you the paint the picture in the brightest colors possible. ANYONE and I mean ANYONE will say that a loss of more then HALF you customers in a 2-3 month period is a bad sign. Yes there is some turnover after the first free month. But to lose more then half your customers is a bad sign simple as that.

Now on top of all that they cut staff numbers (doesn't matter what the reason is) when the game needs all the staff it can get. There are LOADS of bugs and issues throughout the game and even more so endgame. Will a reduction in staff keep the bug fixs coming at a steady rate like it has been? No, when you lose people things do not remain the same or even speed up 90% of the time. If a team of 400+ couldn't fix the issues how will a team of 200 fix the issues?

There is no evidence to show that the population of Warhammer has stabilized as of Dec 31st.... so there is no reason to think there are still 300,000 people playing today.... or that there will be more people playing tomorrow that are playing today.  At best, the game may level off someday, but it isn't in the near future.

It is leaking faster than any other mmorpg to date. Many are finding a return to AoC refreshing because of how much more polished it is because of the development time since launch that WAR lacks.

EA needs to attain around 500k for 18 months to break even. Do some research it has dropped poorly performing mmo's before.

Sorry if the truth hurts.

Posted 02/05/2009 at 08:40:36pm

Most WAR players seem to be finding a new home in the improved Age of Conan. A better PVP experience with proper meaning.

EA will probably cut WAR if it slips below 200k  users as they will making a loss. Won't be the first time EA shut shop on an mmorpg.

The figures dont take into account January either where most say another 50k players left.

Certainly doesn't look good. Blame the boring buggy endgame.

Posted 01/31/2009 at 12:57:52pm

We have 100mpbs in Canada now via Shaw Cable on Docsis 3.0. Rolling out more in the Western side over the next short while, mainly aimed at business'. 100up 5 down.

Posted 01/22/2009 at 01:18:17pm

NCIX has it listed for $333  Here: http://www.ncixus.com/products/35881/CMFSSD-128GBG1D/CORSAIR/

Posted 01/17/2009 at 04:27:52am

I saw this list for 2008:

TOP 20 best selling games of 2008 for the US:

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. Spore
3. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
5. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Ed
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. The Sims 2 FreeTime
13. World Of Warcraft
14. Sins Of A Solar Empire
15. Warcraft III Battle Chest
16. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
17. Crysis
18. Left 4 Dead
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Orange Box

NPD is for US results, but we need something world wide to get more of an accurate picture.

I think subscriptions will come in from March'09?

Posted 01/12/2009 at 11:31:29pm

Any games out there now that take advantage of CUDA?

I believe Age of Conan with it's DX10 patch that is on the test server about to hit live servers in a few weeks will be the first game to take advantage of it. Built upon a custom CUDA platform.

Been testing it out and the advantages looks to me that it is going to be around for a while yet.