Da Newz – July 3

Story of the Week: Guild Beta Begins

• It was an announcement that was heard ’round the world… of guild communities. The very, very long-awaited guild beta was pronounced to start in July, with beta keys flying every which way to various guilds who applied. And yet… and yet Chrono Chaos was overlooked. WE SHALL NOT BE SLIGHTED!

Beta Ticker:

• 752,553 (+8,950 from last week)

Quotes of the Week:

• “I can’t say why but believe the hype for WAR. I’ve heard from plenty of trusted people that this game’s on a solid bee-line to success. Trusted by me anyway.” ~ JoBildo
• “In truth, MMOG developers really haven’t seen anything comparable to this situation since the genre really began hitting its stride in early 2000. Even the competition between EverQuest II and the original release of WoW isn’t comparable.” ~ TTH on the WAR vs. WoW launch

New Sites & Blogs:

• Scribbles of the Dark Lich – never tell a dark lich they need penmanship courses!
• Adventures in MMO Community Management – starring Elizabeth Shue!
• MMOverdose – by Chrono Chaos member James Taylor!
• Elvish Parsley – WAR dev Justin Webb’s blog

From EA Mythic:

• James gives us an update on the BOOM! beta code situation.
• NLaMartina clarifies a little misunderstanding about Tchar’zanek.
• Iain Compton thinks fame is a fickle mistress…
• Justin Webb drools over a Dark Elf costume IRL. Also, make sure to check out his Ode to WAAAGH video!
• Justin also talks about the difficulties of making proper MMO tutorials.
• Paul Barnett will be at the San Diego Comicon.
• Why didn’t Paul go to GDC? Read all about it at Rock Paper Shotgun.
• Ten Ton Hammer interviewed a couple of WAR devs: Ahmad Zabarah and Chris Behrens.
• Warhammer Online will ship to Russia in early 2009.

Articles & Essays:

• Rock, Paper, Shotgun has yet another wrapup of the Richard Bartle thingamajigger… can we stop talking about this already?
• (If not… here’s some more from Heartless Gamer)
• Hardcore Casual helps us to avoid MMO burnout with liberal doses of cream.
• Arbitrary wonders if we bloggers should — or will — identify ourselves in game or not. Just to be on the safe side: kill anyone named “Syp”. Name-stealers, all!
• The Greenskin has bad news of a possible delay… for the Brits!
• Wrenn boils down all women in MMOs as Legit, Predators or Sl*ts. Charming!
• War Noob finds that Amazon.com is a great place to recruit for guilds.
• Werit wears a worry. It’s a small worry.
• RadarX attempts to forsee what “Coming Attractions” WAR might bring.
• Keen does a bit of analyzing the June newsletter.
• A Wall of Text picks apart — and this is true — Jeff Hickman’s spasms.
• Brotik doesn’t let a little “hasn’t actually played the game yet or gotten solid reports” stop him — he knows who’s going to be nerfed come release!
• The July newsletter grab bag will cover the Magus career, so if you have questions you’d like answered regarding the Magus, drop them in this Warhammer Vault forum thread.
• CyberVic analyzes the video Paul shot concerning creature animation.
• War Noob asks, “When the poopie hits the fan, who do you want at your side?”
• He also likes the music featured in a recent WAR video.
• JoBildo muses on what class he’s going to play.
• Massively thinks that WAR is looking much nicer — graphics-wise, that is.
• /random doesn’t think level discrepancy will be as big of an issue in WAR due to the end game.
• Scribbles of the Dark Lich does a bit of June newsletter digesting of his own.
• WAR is worth waiting for, Scribbles thinks.
• “WAR – A PvPer’s Dream?” at Word of Shadow looks past the hype train to the rich, gooey center of WAR.
• “How Players Change Over Time” is a cold, hard look at genetic mutation at Book of Grudges.
• Can good sportsmanship even exist in online games today? Massively has a great article about this subject.
• The Order Strikes Back Again at the White Tower, this time slapping dem White Lions around.
• MMOverdose looks at the calm before the storm. This is calm?
• Garthilk at WHA gives us an in-depth look at the Shaman career, including skills!
• Werit’s imagined up a pretty detailed and believable expansion pack for WAR.
• Thallian remains unconvinced why he should care about WAR.
• The Greenskin compares and contrasts expansion policy between WoW and WAR.
• Brotik is giddy with anticipation!
• War Noob is concerned about class homogenization in WAR… will it happen?
• When you go visiting a new country — or MMO — do you want to be an ignorant tourist. Heck ya!
• Snafzg reminds us of an important cautionary tale via Mythic’s Trials of Atlantis expansion.
• War Noob wonders how fast people will hit level 40 or renown 80. I wonder if we’ll start referring to ourselves as a 38/20 Goblin Shaman.
• It’s gear vs. skill time at the White Tower: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Some jerk got interviewed over at Warhammer Alliance. Pah.
• Would you kindly vote on a WAR mousepad design for Mythic? (Bioshock fans, that’s for you!)
• WAR-JOL spends some time looking at zergs in PvP and the ramifications for WAR.
• “WAR: Behind The Career System Part 2” at MMORPG interviews Adam Gershowitz about career balancing.
• Follow that up with a swig from A Wall of Text, who loves the taunting feature.
• Massively’s found a WHA poll of potential players’ ages to be of particular fascination.
• Book of Grudges pulls for the underdog… classes, that is.
• War Noob frets about Warhammer Online’s Narrow Release Window, which is responded to by Bloghammer.
• Massively takes a look at Warhammer’s tabletop Order classes to see how they transitioned into WAR.
• Book of Grudges looks at WAR’s tactical PvP situation.
• TTH marks it as the fight of the year: WAR vs. WoW launch. Who will survive?
• The Greenskin presents another always-fascinating Forum Watch!
• The Cogworks wonders if Mythic will host a MythiCon, or something similar, after WAR releases.
• “Career Smackdown: Marauder vs. Shadow Warrior” at War Noob!
• Werit thinks the White Lion is just a weak little pussycat after all…
• The Greenskin brings you 50 Tidbits Straight From The Mouth of Josh Dresher.
• Keen wants his PvE, and he wants it NOW, or ELSE!
• GameSpot’s Pre-E3 feature mentons WAR as one of the most anticipated games of 2008.
• 1UP does a quick little hands-on preview.
• Apparently I have TEH POWAH to make a poor guy change his blog name. Sorry Vic!

Videos & Podcasts:

• ChaosCast Episode 3 – with Warhammer Alliance’s Garthlik
• Massively Speaking #11 covers a bit of the Richard Bartle blurb.
• Dreamy Gamer posted a couple videos of Paul Barnett talking about how to get into the games industry.
• IGN hosted a 5+ minute interview with Jeff and Paul. Groovy!
• Podcast of Reckoning #4 – with Josh Drescher

Fun & Games:

• Book review! I remember these! Book of Grudges reviews a completely different book: Gotrek and Felix – the First Omnibus.
• Yellow squigs at CyberVics! You bring the dip, I’ll bring the dental floss.
• Snafzg posts a new comic at The Greenskin: Orc 1 and Orc 2!
• And then he gets one-upped by a fan comic in the same vein!
• “The Inquisition Part 3” at Secret Life of Mobs continues this compelling storyline.
• The Order of Destruction has some pretty good “out of office” replies for the week of WAR’s launch.
• Catch your July WAR desktop calendar at Warhammer Vault!
• Bloghammer has a funny little video his friend made as an attempt to get into beta.
• Snafzg has whipped up his own squig in the Spore Creature Creator.