warhammer-online posts

Mythic Entertainment has reportedly suffered through yet another massive amount of layoffs as part of the plan by its owner Electronic Arts to cut its work force by another 1,500 team members. Fans have already express their worries that Mythic will no longer actively support their MMO game projects, particularly their most recent game Warhammer Online.

Not so, according to Mythic's executive producer Jeff Hickman. In a post on the official Warhammer Online web site he states that the game and the two others under Mythic's wing (Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot) are still alive and well and that Mythic will "continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content." In particular, Hickman states that Warhammer Online's recent "Endless Trial" program has brought in "a flood of new players" to the game. The big question? Will those efforts be enough to get people to sign up for the game?

Warhammer Online has been live to the public for over a year now but developer Mythic Entertainment is still refining the fantasy MMO's marketing in terms of bringing new people to the game. Today they announced that they are dumping their 10 day free trial of the game in favor of an "endless" free trial.

What does this mean, exactly? Well instead of having the game not be playable any longer after 10 days without paying for it you can continue to play Warhammer Online in a limited fashioned for as long as you want with the new trial version. You can play a character with any of the careers and take that character up to level 10. You are also limited to some of the tier one locations in the game. It also has the newly launched New User Journey that gives new players more extensive tutorials on how to play the game. Finally the new free trial allows people to start playing after a certain amount is downloaded; the rest of the game's content is streamed in while you play.

After a few months of beta testing, Macintosh owners now officially have another MMO to play. Electronic Arts announced that the Mythic Entertainment-developed fantasy MMO Warhammer Online is now officially released.

The Mac version is free to download for any current player of the PC port from the official Warhammer Online web site. However if you are an all new player it will cost you $19.95 to get the new Mac version from the GameTreeOnline site. That price includes 30 days of free online game time; after that it will be time to break out the monthly fees. The Mac is gaining more and more MMOs; NCsoft recently ported City of Heroes to the Mac as well.

One of the cool things about massively multiplayer games is the ability to generate live events and nowhere is that more evident than during Halloween where a number of MMO games stage live events filled with monsters and otherwise supernatural events. We've already reported on Champion Online's Blood Moon event and Star Wars Galaxies' Death Troopers but our sister site Massively has been keeping track of other MMOs holding similar events.

• Fallen Earth is letting its players fight off zombies in their Days of the Dead event which you can see above this post. That event begins next week.
• Everquest II players is holding its Nights of the Dead event from now until November 9 with decorations, special item drops and more.
• Warhammer Online players get serious with their Daemon Moon Rising event that begins on October 23. Look for a new public quest called Daemonball Rally among other things.
• City of Heroes players have their own unnamed Halloween event beginning on October 20. Heroes will face a wave of enemies when they destroy a Haunted Sigil and are rewarded with a "ghoulish surprise" if successful.

Electronic Arts has now nailed down an exact release date for the Macintosh version of their fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. The Mythic Entertainment-developed game will be released as a native Mac product on October 28 for $19.95. That includes 30 days of free game time on their servers.

EA announced their plans to make a Mac version of the game some time ago and there's still time for folks to check out a beta version of the Mac port that can be played for free for 10 days. If you want our opinions on the Mac conversion based on playing the beta client check out our recent Mac Monday column on the subject.

City of Heroes' five-year monopoly on the comic book superhero MMO space came to an end recently with the much anticipated release of Champions Online. Based on the pen and paper role playing game and developed by Cryptic Studios, the company that originally started CoH in the first place, Champions is the newest contender for players who want to slip into virtual spandex, suits of armor, mystic robes and everything in between. They all come together to protect Millennium City, a metropolis under siege by practically every conceivable domestic, mystical, extradimensional and extraterrestrial threat.

Check out all Champions Online downloads

It's not too often that games show up on a cable TV network devoted to food. Yet that's just what's going to happen tonight as the Food Network's Ace of Cakes puts the spotlight on making a cake based on one of Warhammer Online's monsters, the Squig.

Yep, that's the elaborate cake creation in the picture above which was made earlier this year for the Baltimore Games Day Warhammer Online booth by Ace of Cakes' leading man Chef Duff. He's already calling the creation the best cake he has ever made for the show. You can check out the episode tonight at 10 pm ET.

[via email press release]

Welcome to a special Mac Monday, as this time around I take a look at the new-to-the-Mac Warhammer Online. Now, there are a few ways to go about this. I could write this up for people who have never played an MMO before, but it's likely that if you're reading this blog, you're probably well-versed in the genre. I could write it for people who haven't played World of Warcraft yet, but again, if you care at all about Warhammer Online, it's going to be because you want to know how it stacks up against the reigning champion.

Then you have my particular point of view, which is as someone who's played WoW a bit, but not to the point of intimate familiarity with all mechanics -- I've done no PvP, I don't raid, and I've never made it past Level 30 wtih any of the numerous characters I've rolled. So this article will assume enough familiarity with the competing titles -- and make no mistake, they are in competition -- to make certain comparisons, which is at this point an inevitability.

Macintosh gamers have yet another MMO that will soon run natively on their platforms. Mythic Entertainment announcement this morning that a Mac version of their fantasy MMO Warhammer Online will be released for that platform sometime this fall, allowing Mac owners to play the game on the same servers as their PC counterparts.

The Mac port of the game is being handled by TransGaming using their Cider technology to put a "wrapper" around the code so it can run on Intel-based Mac computers. A beta version of the Mac client is already available to download. Current Warhammer Online players will be able to check out the Mac beta client in full but new players are limited to a 10 day free trial.

One of the two major news items from Wednesday (the other being the whole id Software-ZeniMax Media dealie) was the revelation that Mythic Entertainment and BioWare would now be part of a new RPG/MMO division at Electronic Arts. The heads of BioWare are the new heads of the game division while Mythic co-founder Mark Jacobs decided to either leave or got kicked out the door (depending on what theory you believe).

Today the official community site for Mythic's MMO Warhammer Onine has a post from the game's producer Jeff Hickman. While most of the post deals with upcoming updates to the game he did address the changes that were announced Wednesday.

Hickman states, "We are committed to Warhammer, Ultima Online, and Dark Age of Camelot, and have solid plans for each game. I look forward to discussing our plans for of all of these games with you in the near future." At the end of his post he added, "The Winds of Change are upon us, but the ship and crew remain the same. As I've said before and I'll say it again, from myself and everyone at Mythic: Thank you for your continued passion and support. We look forward to the many months and years ahead...WAAAGH!"