They've Sacked York!

I have to face the facts: based on my slow-as-snails leveling and my general casual playtime, there's not a great chance I'm going to get to participate in a city siege this year. Not to mention how fortress sieges now bring my computer down to its knees -- it's gotten WORSE over the last couple patches, if you can believe it -- so I have an inkling of how bad my computer would react to such an event.

By a few current reports -- via Reroller and Werit (part one and part two) -- I might not be missing much. Some of it seems to be working fine, but most of the current state of city sieges is lackluster or disappointing, particularly for those who might rush into a capital city expecting epic battles and desperate fights in back alleys.

Mythic didn't put all its eggs into one basket, but city sieges might be considered the biggest egg -- and a slightly cracked one, to continue the metaphor. This is something they absolutely have to get right. They have to. If players ultimately cannot topple an enemy's city and do something to change the game on a bigger scale -- and have fun doing so -- then that's it. Might as well pack our bags and head on out, because at that point WAR becomes a slightly more PvP-oriented version of WoW with nothing huge to distinguish itself. Maybe you disagree with that statement, but the sheer amount of PR that Mythic did concerning city sieges prior to launch put themselves in that position.

We're almost five months post-launch, and most likely every server's capital cities are sitting at five stars because not one of them's been toppled (at least, not without exploits). Servers and factions have their RvR experience stalled somewhere between fortress capture and functional city sieging. Again, I have no first-hand experience with any of this, other than dithering around in T4 RvR lakes and watching the abacus of zone flipping slowly change hands.

It's here where I start to wonder about what most people assume capital city sieges might be like when they first start WAR and before they do any serious research on the fact.  A lot of criticism has been levied at the overuse of PQs and the lack of solid RvR once an opposing force is inside the city.  Would first time players assume they could run through the streets, lighting houses ablaze?  Perhaps looting indescriminantly?  What would make their eyes light up with delight upon witnessing?

Capital City sieges are, obviously, a nightmare to design and implement, and I do not envy or belittle the effort on the development team's behalf in working on this.  I do sincerely hope we get word of a capital city falling for the right reasons soon -- I maintain that will be a one-time-only PR coup that might be worth all this fuss.

(This article belongs to WAAAGH! and may not be used without permission.  Scheming House is the tool of the devil.)