Shadenfreude Much?

So remember way back when Mythic delayed Warhammer Online, and we chafed at the thought of Age of Conan having free reign to be the only bright new kid on the block for the entire summer? Yeah, guess that didn't turn out so great for them.

Not that I'm here to gloat or anything. But this goes to show that it isn't necessarily a bad thing to be an experienced MMO vet -- the more games I go through, the more apt I am at reading the signs of a MMO re-release, particularly when it comes to red flags. Vanguard had loads of them, for sure. Age of Conan did as well. Nudity and ramped up gore isn't a long-lasting game feature -- they're the staples of disposable horror flicks like Leprechaun 4: In Space. When you hear that spellcasters were highly underpowered compared to melee (and far more conventional), when players discover that female characters had slower combat animation times and FunCom claimed they couldn't fix it "for weeks" even after they acknowledged it, when nobody at launch could point to any significant end game features as a goal to shoot for... then I step out of the way and let the bulls charge at all of the red waving flags.

People got enthusiastic for Conan because it was pretty much the only player in town during May, and they gobbled it up with the desperation of a junkie needing a quick fix.

When WAR launches, it won't have the luxury of being the only major fall 2008 MMO release -- obviously, Lich King is going to get its fair share of press and acclaim as well. But the silver lining to this release window is that when -- not if -- WAR succeeds and rises on the shoulders of critical and player acclaim, nobody will be able to say it happened because there weren't any other viable new options around.

Heck, right now, the biggest complaints leveled at WAR from the beta client are mostly limited to: (1) it not being "fun" because it's too much like a MMO, (2) pet pathing awry and bugged mob AI -- both of which were problems introduced by the preview weekend patch but were perfectly fine beforehand and will be again, (3) questionable level of graphic detail -- which should be upped considerably at release including the lighting, and (4) potential, speculated gameplay issues involving faction balance (which nobody can predict accurately pre-launch), over/underpowered classes (valid, being looked into), and wondering whether or not there will be enough people to man all of the public quests. These aren't horrible red flags, like a lack of end game content, missing promised features or completely broken gameplay. Even the biggest critics of WAR grudgingly admit that it is a well-made game that will most likely be a rousing success in terms of subscribers. And there are far, far more positive reviewers and critics for WAR than there are against right now, even with the ammunition that the flawed preview weekend gave them.

It gives a new level of confidence and security, and going into a new MMO, those are valuable assets indeed to ease this player's mind.