ISSUE NINE:
World and Theme
Both games take place in established fantasy universes, stretching back one or more decades. Both are beloved by fans. But which do we love more? And which works better for an online RPG?
The World of Warcraft Platform: The original Warcraft was released in 1994, and while it started as a fairly straightforward orcs-vs.-humans throwdown, over the years the mythology has grown considerably. Warcraft III in particular added a great deal to the lore, so that with the release of World of Warcraft, players could interact with locations and epic heroes they were familiar with from the games. In recent years, novels and comic books have broadened the lore considerably.
The Warhammer Online Platform: Compared to WoW's relatively short history, the Warhammer universe is an elder statesman. The miniatures game first debuted in 1983 (and was obviously a major inspiration for the original Warcraft game). The universe was further fleshed out with a pen-and-paper RPG in 1986, not to mention the many novels that followed. Among wargamers, the Warhammer universe is the de-facto standard for fantasy miniatures gaming, with dedicated retail stores across the U.S. and Europe. Developed in London, the Warhammer universe has a distinctly British sense of humor (sorry: %26quot;humour%26quot;), with a world that's simultaneously dark and darkly comic.
The Lich King Factor: The WoW expansion allows players to fight toe-to-toe with the most notorious and eagerly-anticipated of all Warcraft villains: Arthas. It also explores the last of the universe featured in the previous Warcraft videogames, and starts to dive into the lore from the comics and novels (particularly the stories of the various dragonflights).
Silvermoon City: The Blood Elf capital in World of Warcraft.
Our Verdict:
Gerald: - WINNER: TIE
This is a case of the derivative work nearly exceeding the quality of its inspiration. While I prefer the darker and grittier theme of the Warhammer universe, the superior art direction in World of Warcraft has resulted in a more vibrant, colorful world that is far more fun to explore. The artists are responsible for creating the world, and Blizzard has the best artists in the business. Thematically, I prefer the open conflict and raging full-scale war of WAR over WoW's uneasy truce between the Horde and the Alliance. Let's call that a tie.
Delsyn: - WINNER: Tie
I will no doubt be skinned alive by Warhammer fans who view the Warcraft world as a derivative, inferior copy (ignoring the obvious Tolkien influence). Despite being inspired by Warhammer, Warcraft headed off in its own direction long ago and now rightfully deserves to be considered its own entity. Both work very well on their own terms. Warcraft's world feels a bit more static, more of a grand backdrop on which the players pursue these epic stories -- like being part of a giant play written by someone else. There's a great appeal to being an actor in a well-told tale. Warhammer Online, on the other hand, feels more like improv. It has a compelling setting but the story created by the players is their own. Both have their place and both are great when done well, which is the case here.
Fargo: - WINNER: World of Warcraft
I guess I get to be the tiebreaker on this one. I agree with all you said, but I would add: The Warcraft universe is populated by such memorable characters and despicable villains that it's hard not to feel an immediate connection to the game world. More importantly, you've interacted with these characters before, in other games. When I troop through the Dead Scar, I know that the devastation I'm seeing was Arthas's work. More importantly, I get a grim feeling of pride, because I'm the one who created the Dead Scar when I played as Arthas in Warcraft III. This is my handiwork! I think it's easier to care about WoW's world.
ISSUE TEN:
Performance and Stability
Performance is a key issue in online games, especially in the MMO genre, where server problems can crush the overall game experience. In addition, we don't all have uber-computers at home capable of running state-of-the art PC games. So which game runs more smoothly from a technical front?
The World of Warcraft Platform: WoW certainly shines on this front (although that may change -- see below). Even the most basic of system configurations can play the game with silky smooth framerates. Want to play on a laptop? WoW is your game. After working out some launch kinks years ago, the servers have been extremely solid. There's even a full-featured Mac client. Of course, the price of this compatibility is a very simplistic graphics engine, something that's disguised by the quality of the art and animations.
The Warhammer Online Platform: It's too early to say how Warhammer will perform in the long term, but the launch went relatively smoothly. Servers aren't crashing, and the only complaint is that some overpopulated servers have wait times during peak hours (a problem that should resolve itself sooner rather than later). The real issue right now is client performance -- it takes a beefy system to run the game well, especially during the large player conflicts that are at the heart of the game. Also worth noting (although not as important) is that client bugs still persist, leaving characters floating above the ground or shimmering with effects that should've faded.
The Lich King Factor: This is one area where the upcoming expansion may hurt WoW. Having learned a lesson from the crunch of players in Burning Crusade's first zone, the new expansion features two different starting areas. It's an unknown if the complexity of the new zone -- with destructible buildings and vehicles -- will cause server instability. And the new environments are certainly more complex than the zones in the original game. Will the expansion introduce bugs and problems into a solid game? We hope not, but it's too early to make the call.
The Blue Screen of ... Raid Wipe?
Our Verdict:
Gerald: - WINNER: World of Warcraft
Warhammer Online is still growing, but as far as launches go it's been remarkable. It's completely bypassed the baby steps phase, and is playable in a way that most MMOs don't reach until long after launch. Still, World of Warcraft is the most polished MMO in the biz, and has years of refinement under its belt. It also benefits from far lower system requirements, which is incredible considering how beautiful the game can be, and a large factor in its monumental success. I'm surprised that we haven't seen a WoW client that'll run on an iPhone, considering the computers that I've seen running the game. You'll have a smoother, more trouble-free experience playing WoW today than you would WAR, which shouldn't be a surprise.
Delsyn: - WINNER: World of Warcraft
For the moment, anyway. Four years is a long time to work out kinks and Blizzard's come a long way since the epic server queues and inventory bugs that marked the launch. That said, Warhammer Online launched well and is catching up fast. It's got performance problems to be sure, but these will get better as Mythic optimizes the client and server software and makes the whole thing work better. As time goes on, players will also be purchasing upgraded computers -- some for this very game -- that will alleviate many of the issues they're having.
Fargo: - WINNER: World of Warcraft
Even as I was trying to take screenshots for this article, a Warhammer crash inexplicably rolled back my character 10 minutes. The game is definitely playable, but it's rough. And on my home machine the other night I tried to help defend Altdorf against a raid, but the mass of enemy troops brought my framerate to an unplayable crawl. Does this mean I won't be able to participate in the high-level content? I hope not. Meanwhile, World of Warcraft runs like butter. My friends bring over their laptops and Mac Powerbooks and we have LAN parties. I don't think we'll ever be able to do that with Warhammer.