Welcome to the Warhammer Online Grab Bag, where your friendly neighborhood community manager will answer the most popular, and most interesting, questions in a new regular feature. Many things aren't yet certain, so try to be patient with us. Trust me - we're as eager as you are to see the features finalized, so that we can hear what you've got to say.
A: The plans for the Greenskin army include Orc-apults to throw them great distances. And we certainly PLAN to have the Black Arks in the game, but no construction has begun… and that means no promises from me.
A: No, our partner GOA is handling all European distribution and all the European servers. They're also handling the translation issues for the German, Italian, Spanish, and French players.
We are working much, much closer with GOA than we did on Camelot. The experience of the typical GOA player, and that of the typical player in North America, should be exactly the same with all content being released simultaneously.
A: MD: Each of the six armies in WAR will have a city that acts as that army's home base. Usually this is the capital city for that army's race. For example, High Elf players will be able to visit Lothern, while Dwarf players can go to Karaz-a-Karak. These are the cities that enemy armies can siege and even occupy for awhile. At the present time, these six cities are the only ones we're planning to do for launch.
Meanwhile, check out Grab Bag #3; most of what I know is there!
Generally speaking, you guys may want to check the newsletter archives before sending questions. Sorry to do a retread so early in this column's history, but it was the top question in the Customer Service category this month across all languages.
A: Much, much later in beta. The Camelot Grab Bag contains all the content I want to post, and I get rather defensive about letting anyone else make those decisions.
The WAR Grab Bag gets reviewed by a secret cabal of cruel overlords wielding pointy sticks. This is a temporary measure in part to make sure I'm not shooting off my mouth about anything we've promised (to a website or magazine) as an exclusive. More often, it's to make sure that I'm not talking about anything that has changed between my writing this thing and the newsletter going out to your inboxes.
That's the fun of trying to write a monthly feature on a game in development.
Once we creep into Beta 2, or possibly open beta, these columns will go straight from my talons to your eyes. Wait, that sounds freaky. Oh, never mind.
A: I suggest you all apply for a spot in the guild beta when I post that form. Those chosen to participate will be part of Beta 2. We very much want our game to meet with the approval of long-time Games Workshop players. The game won't play like the tabletop game does, of course, but the world we're building should FEEL like "home" to you.
A: Waaaaaaay too early to say for sure, gang. I've been winking at people and saying "The second best system for sale next summer." I'm only mostly kidding.
A: Handy little things, those, and a VERY popular question. I shall quote myself from a recent Camelot Grab Bag:
Those little plastic cards, preloaded with several months of subscription time, are pretty neat. But any question that begins with "Why doesn't Company X do Y" can be answered with "Money."
Other MMO companies that use the game cards will admit that 2-3% of their players use them, and that it comes out to a loss for their company. Retailers sell them on the same terms that they sell software boxes - meaning half of what you pay is going to the retailer. So, a month's play time on one of those cards costs you twelve dollars or more, but the game company only gets half.
2-3% of our customers use Pay By Cash (http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/kb/article.php?id=455), and less the processing fee, the subscription money comes to us.
(There are various "pre-loaded" credit cards out there, that act as a debit card on a total dollar amount that you pay up front. Some of these, MC and Visa, work pretty well. One provider is located here: https://www.greendotonline.com/contents/login.aspx. The American Express preloaded cards almost never work, be warned.)
With all that said, we'd like to offer the game cards, and we have business guys constantly trying to negotiate an arrangement on this topic.
***
Man, this summer is just flying by. I enjoyed meeting many of you at ComicCon in San Diego a few weeks ago, but what I really enjoyed was seeing so many people have such a good time playing the PRE-ALPHA BUILD of WAR.
PRE-ALPHA, BABY. Sorry, couldn't help it.
We're finishing up the next build that will be available for play at our next few shows, with more developed characters, content, and combat strategy. It's taking shape right before your eyes if you attend GW's Game Days, or pretty much any large gathering of fantasy and gaming fans.
Hey, speaking of! I somehow conned my way into the group heading to the Leipzig gaming convention taking place August 23-26. If you were planning to make your way to German gaming heaven, and you run a fan website or a guild planning to play WAR, I'd love to shake your hand and thank you in person for getting behind our little game. Give me a buzz at sanya AT mythicentertainment DOT com, and let's see if we can meet up.
Y'all have a great month.
