Da Newz – July 10

Story of the Week: [tie] Browncoat shakes the boat & Silex hits the jackpot

• While it wasn’t a huge news week, two stories did bubble to the top. Browncoat on WHA wrote an argumentative piece on Mythic’s marketing strategy, which got wordy Mark Jacobs to respond. Meanwhile, Silex from Warhammer Info wrote up a simply awesome hands-on article (with pics) from a recent convention.

Beta Ticker:

• 762,013
• +9,460 from last week

Quotes of the Week:

• “The way beta is going right now, I’d expect the NDA to be lifted sooner, rather than later. I want to lift the NDA well before the OB.” ~ Mark Jacobs
• “The beta ticker on warhammeronline.com shows nearly 750,000 beta signups and at least half of those are European.” ~ Iain Compton
• “We’ve thrown away some of our most darling ideas because they turned out to be crap…” ~ Paul Barnett
  

New Sites & Blogs:

• Warhammer Info – newly renovated and WOW does it look awesome!
• Warhammer Online Mods – “coming soon!”
• Archmagery – its magicky!
• Boathammer: Age of Bloggening - I was bloggened once…

From EA Mythic:

• Mark Jacobs anticipates the NDA to be dropped fairly soon(er)! He reports that open beta is “on track.”
• IainC says that any EU Warhammer client will be able to connect to any EU server, and helps to clarify a lot of what GOA is doing to provide WAR for Europeans.
• Josh talks about what he’s playing.
• The Summer Show Season whisks Josh away to a magical fantasy land with Charlie the Unicorn.
• WHA interviewed Warhammer’s art director Greg Grimsby. Dude, I want “Grimsby” in my name!
• TTH interviewed Josh and Christian Bales about the Living Guild System. Part 1 of 50.
• Then, part 2 of 50.
• Iain dishes out some more details on the CE pre-order, here and here.
• CVG tackled the Beast — Paul Barnett — for an interview concerning the beta.
• Mark responds to WHA article (see below) concerning Mythic’s “magic show”.
• Gold sellers: WAR ain’t having that, says Mark.
• Missy reminds us: if you want a job at Mythic, they’re hiring. At $12.07/hr.
• David Petit does a dev diary on guilds!

Articles & Features:

• Enter the WAAAGH! Photo Contest — fabulous prizes! Fame beyond your wildest imagination!
• Get your June Newsletter on, if you haven’t read it already.
• Keen wants your WAR gaming questions to bring with him to E3!
• Book of Grudges reports that the Play.com codes have finally gone out.
• Have we had our fill of hype yet? Go hyper-speed to Book of Grudges!
• Who’s Tzeentch and what has he done for you lately? Cicadymn fills you in with his first part of a series on WAR gods.
• Snafzg wonders why the NA WAR CE’s haven’t sold out yet. Wow, that’s a lot of acronyms.
• War Noob demands — at knifepoint — that you have your main picked out already!
• What will you give up when WAR comes out? Me, I’m going for “back hair”. That stuff’s addictive, man.
• Stormcrow (he will peck your eyes out with words, dude) waxes philosophic about collision detection. Part 1.
• More instancing! More pizza! More roller disco! Werit wants one of these three things in WAR.
• W&W shows us how he’s picking his main class… and it’s a little convoluted!
• What gaming jargon will WAR inherit? IMO, ding, noob!
• What worries Boathammer? Hint: it’s not tooth decay.
• Book of Grudges talks community and guilds… hm, this question sounds familiar… form letter?
• Browncoat over at WHA is concerned about the “EA Mythic Magic Show”. Step right up!
• War Noob, however, took offense to this article and wrote a scathing response.
• And then Arbitrary got the final word.
• Scribbles needs help thinking up a great guild name. I suggest “Cheese and Quakers”.
• Will EA Mythic really live up to the launch standards that some have set? NecroRogIcon thinks not.
• Book report time! Arbys does an advance review of Empire in Chaos.
• White Dwarfs — have you been attacked by one lately? The Cogworks fills us in on some of the lore.
• Werit wants to see a WAR Collectible Card Game… yeah, me too.
• Undercover Devs — you might be one and you don’t even know it!
• Silex gave us an excellent Origins report about all things WAR!
• Warhammer Info tackles the ever-sticky population balance issue.
• Can I get a quick RvR explanation please, with a side order of fries? Thanks.
• TGR issued a short hands-on article revolving around WAR.
• Frontline #3 is on virtual store shelves right now.
• Forum Watch – is it watching you?
• “Know Your Gods: Khorne” at The Greenskin is a bit khorny.
• “Paper, Stone, Scissors” at JeuxOnline has several charts detailing the checks and balances of the WAR role system.
• Archmagery thinks about CC. Close captioning for the hearing impaired.
• Why pick an archmage to play? Because it’s shiny! Follow that up with what we know and don’t know: part 1 and part 2.
• War Noob is stockpiling names. Hey! Syp is taken! And then he talks about his first 120 minutes in WAR.
• Boathammer looks at WAR as a collection of games within a larger game.
• What’s straight time? Will the whole casuals vs. hardcores debate reignite? Who am I? These, and moer, at Boathammer.
• The Order of Destruction speculates. And then speculates. And then speculates some more.
• Bo balances all at The Greekskin. Greekskin? Er, Greenskin.
• Archmagery wraps us all up warm and snuggly in the winds of magic.
• O Rly? (CyberVic’s fifth blog title) examines how WAR is going to fight inflation… or not.
• Will Archmagery heal your sorry butt? You better hope so, for your sake.
• Skill. Gear. Cheesecake. Boathammer needs all three to win.
• Hardcore Casual wonders what kind of jerk, exactly, will WAR have the most?
• How will Heartless Gamer cover the gap until WAR? Find out!
• War Noob closes up shop. Thanks for the memories!
• Could AoC’s launch hurt Warhammer? What about lice? Snafzg needs to know, and now!
• Could AoC’s launch help Warhammer? W&W responds!
• Should Book of Grudges roll on an RP server?
• “Hey Mythic, are you ready?” Botik asks.
• Who is Werit, you might wonder, and what will he be?
• Chappo has some mindless speculation about WAR.

Videos & Podcasts:

• ChaosCast #3 got a nod on Massively’s podcast wrapup.
• Warhammer Vault reposted a few gameplay videos and interviews courtesy of WAR-Mongers.net.

Fun & Games:

• Warhammer Vault’s throwing a July contest for people who write… good… stuff.
• “My Little Greenskin #1″ at Bloghammer introduces us to the grocery side of WAR.
• What’s your WAR-Statistic?
• “The Inquisition Part 4″ at Secret Life of Mobs keeps us guessing!
• Sign up for the Boathammer MMORB beta!
• Order of Destruction is voting for Mark Jacobs for President.