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“Realm vs. Realm really does set the game apart in that it is truly above and beyond what we would normally call PvP (Player vs. Player).”

“It’s a game that’s all about war.” That comment, from Senior Producer Jeff Hickman, is about the only way to sum up the massive experience that is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. In development at EA Mythic, Warhammer Online is on track to influence the MMORPG genre as much as it will affect the Warhammer IP.

“It’s set in the rich Warhammer universe that’s been around for almost about 25 years now,” Jeff continues. “It’s a war between two realms: the realm between destruction and the realm between order. In these two realms are six races, which we’ve broken up into three racial pairings. These races are pitted against their racial enemies.”

Battles will end up looking something like this:

Greenskins Vs. Dwarves
Humans Vs. Chaos Forces of Destruction
High Elves Vs. Dark Elves

“That’s six races that you have the opportunity to [control],” Jeff continues, “[creating] a never-ending struggle between order and destruction in the universe. The game is a mix of monster-hunting, questing, realm versus realm warfare (where the two realms are able to fight against each other – player versus player). It’s a struggle between the two realms for land conquest. For the conquest of the enemy’s capital cities, and for the utter destruction and pillaging of the enemy realms.”

Paul Barnett (WAR’s Creative Director) was about to chime in, but had a hard time talking with the pizza he had shoved into his mouth just seconds prior. “I started to eat this enormous piece of pizza because Jeff had started to talk, which generally means that for seven minutes it’ll be dry, dusty rubbish,” he says in an angry, semi-sarcastic voice. He held back laughter, but Jeff insisted he was kidding.

“What Warhammer is,” Paul continues, “is a fascinating use of the IP with great big fighting, iconic imagery, [and] great characters that charge around the land. Iconic characters that are all different, each with unique play mechanics, which means your play experience is not dull.”

Realm Vs. Realm

Jeff wanted to stress, repeatedly, the importance and superiority of Warhammer Online’s Realm vs. Realm combat. “Throughout your game experience, you can choose to either fight monsters and do quests, or you can choose to go out and participate in player hunting and warfare against the other realms,” he says. “This can happen from the moment you enter the game, it can happen all the time –you can participate any time you want – or it can happen as little as you want. It’s your choice how you want to play the game.

“RvR really does set the game apart in that it is truly above and beyond what we would normally call PvP (Player vs. Player). You have a realm of friends behind you. They’re always your realm of friends, they’re always there to help you. We invested in the game full of realm pride, where you really are encouraged to defend your realm, to defend your land, to defend your capital city from the incursions that are always coming your way. Realm vs. Realm is a very unique feature that we’ve implemented in a very deep way, again from the beginning through every area of the game.”

“We wanted to give players a unique experience no matter which class they played.”— Jeff Hickman

Player Vs. Environment

RvR isn’t the only excitement you’ll encounter. Warhammer Online also features an intricate PvE quest system. Jeff comments, “Something else that sets it apart are the unique PvE (Player vs. Environment, or monster hunting mechanisms) public quests. The system is unlike anything seen in MMOs today. Instead of going to an NPC or a person within a world and asking them to give you the task, when you’re playing the game there are quests that are automatically given to you and to anyone else in the area. Just by entering the area, there are quests that are staged.

“As you come into the public quest area, you’re automatically given the quest, and as you participate with others – everyone is participating in the same quest at the exact same time. When you finish one phase of the quest, it steps up to a new phase. The first phase might be, invade the forest to get wood for the lumber mill. You might have to pick up 100 pieces of wood and fight your way through the forest to get the resources for the lumber mill.

“Once you’ve collected 100 of those, the quest might step to a new phase where the spirits of the woods come out to protect the forest. Everyone is encouraged to fight the spirits. Then it’ll go to the next phase. Each phase is a little bit different and has a story that relates to the area that you’re in. These public quests are scattered throughout the world. As you’re adventuring and doing RvR or generally exploring the land, you’re going to be running into these public quests everywhere you go. So there’s always going to be something interesting that relates to the overarching war.”

PvE – Paul’s Take:

“What’s the problem with these games [MMORPGs]?” Paul questions. “The problem is, you go in and say, ‘What am I gonna do?’ I’m gonna go up and get killed by some eight-year-old ninja. Or I’ve gotta go up and do quest in an order. That’s not our game. With our game you go to a part of the land and say, ‘What am I gonna do?’ You’re gonna stop that giant from storming in and smashing the area to pieces! You go to another area – ‘What am I gonna do?’ You’re gonna stop the dragons from charging down and ripping the castle walls down!

“Sometimes you get through with an area and you want to go and do a quest. You go back there, and the story is still taking place! At the end of them are these big bosses, and you can smash them, and they all drop really cool loot, and every part of the land that you go to has really exciting quests that [need] 10 people, sometimes 100 people! Sometimes they take 10 minutes, sometimes they take hours! They’re always going on perpetually, and they are great!”

Dark Influences

“Everyone has learned so much from that game,” says Jeff, referring to their work on Dark Age of Camelot. “Specifically, the things that we’ve brought over to Warhammer, is of course the RvR system. That’s probably number-one. Dark Age of Camelot was our first foray into MMO RvR, and it was extremely successful for us. It [RvR] is what set Dark Age apart [from the other MMOs]. We’re taking what we learned from that game and building immensely on that.

“Whereas Dark Age of Camelot had one or two levels of RvR, Warhammer Online has four levels of RvR. So it’s very deep, and it’s also very broad in the sense that there are many things to do within our RvR and many places to do it.”

Guild management, as it turns out, was another area to consider. “We look at the current crop of MMOs today and know that there are things that we did really, really great in Dark Age of Camelot that just doesn’t seem like people picked up on. Guild management is a good example of that. We are looking at Dark Age of Camelot’s guild management at how we’re going to take WAR online guild management, or community management systems.

“The other thing that is kind of a little bit nebulous that we brought from Dark Age of Camelot is the diversity in Warhammer Online’s character classes. I think we have like 44 or 45 unique classes in Dark Age of Camelot. It was something that was difficult for us to maintain but was so rewarding because every player was able to experience something new and different depending on the class they played. That’s something that we’re bringing with us in a sense to Warhammer. In Warhammer we have 24 unique classes. Every class is different. Every class has some defining and unique mechanic that makes it different from the other classes.”

Keep your browser pointed to GameZone Online for Part 2 of our interview with the senior producer and creative director of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.