Da Newz – June 5

Beta Ticker: 720,380 (up +20,125 from last week)

Quote of the Week: “We’re sort of winking at you, you know? We’re saying ‘oh, we know what you’re going to do.'” ~ Carrie Gouskos on the Tome of Knowledge

Story of the Week: Massively visits Mythic. Michael Zenke just became the most envied person in the Warhammer world, as he was invited into EA Mythic to conduct numerous interviews, play testing and investigations into WAR. A week later, and we have 15 (!) articles for his work. Here they are:

• “Massively Goes To WAR: Your Questions”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Jeff Hickman’s View of Warhammer Online”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Emotions behind the Tome of Knowledge”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Interview with Senior Designer Dan Enright”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Insights into Warhammer’s crafting system”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: How to Conquer a Capital City”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Exploring Warhammer’s Capital Cities”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Everything You Need To Know About Guilds”
• “From Tabletop to Desktop: WAR’s Destruction Careers”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: The Early Days of Mythic Entertainment”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Spotlight on the Goblin Shaman”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Spotlight on the Dwarf Engineer”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Spotlight on the Chaos Marauder”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: Every Warhammer Class Explained”
• “Massively Goes To WAR: How you get your public quest loot”
  
• Finally, you can look over all the screenshots used in the Massively Goes to WAR gallery.

In Other News:

• /random is frustrated by the bounds of the Warhammer NDA, but I think you can read around the lines to know he’s excited about the game.
• Another week, another great Forum Watch, brought to you by The Greenskin!
• Australia now has 6,000 copies of the WAR Collector’s Edition on sale.
• A Q&A with Mark Jacobs at Venture Beat – it’s a really insightful interview that doesn’t just rehash over the same-old, same-old.
• New dwarf art is available for your discerning tastes at Warhammer Vault.
• Keen’s Korner – “Crafting a new way of Crafting”. See what he did there? I did!
• Book of Grudges asks the question we’ve all wondered: “Is PvP really just for the hardcore?”
• WAR Europe has a neat section on the website entitled “Fan Tales” for beta players to post stories.
• Josh Drescher is a nerd.
• WAR-RvR.net is taking questions about the White Lion career for next month’s grab bag — so go dump your mind there.
• Warhammer Geek’s latest parody is a subject near and dear to many a heart: “CyberSex Mistell”.
• Warhammer Vault continues to impress us with two new wallpapers: a Greenskins and White Lion throw rug!
• The Tome of WAR — a Warhammer Online mod/addon site — is in the making, and the creators want to share their vision and get feedback on this WHA thread.
• Josh Drescher gets personal. Oh yeah baby. Oh yeahhhh.
• There’s a new Warhammer novel that’s being released online, and you can read it as its published, chapter by chapter!
• Art director Greg Grimsby popped by the WHA forums to explain how the dwarfs ended up with the gyro-harness mount.
• RadarX over at TTH evaluates whether or not the $80 Collector’s Edition is worth it.
• There’s a really cool — freezer burn cool — review of WAR from the NY Comic Con. Methinks the guy liked it!
• This doesn’t have so much to do with WAR as it does MMO development as a whole, but I love this article over at Eating Bees like I love my non-existent children.
• Mania’s Arcania, a WoW Hunter Pet blog, has written up a piece on WAR’s White Lion class. Cheeky!
• Book of Grudges reports that Play.com has apparently sold out of the WAR CE.
• Warhammer Conflict’s announced a pair of new features: Richest Members and Sudoku!
• And then they had to go and add Conflict Pets just to mess my little duo news tidbit up.
• Should you update your Dxdiag file if you change your system and want to get into closed beta? A WAR dev answers the question here.
• Stop your grinnin’ and drop your linen — the newest Greenskin Forum Watch is here!
• Mugs up, ale down! A new dwarf blog is on the scene: The Cogworks!
• Three new crafting screenshots are now available at TTH, which come from the new crafting interview with Mark Jacobs. I’m lovin’ it!
• Book of Grudges chews on the new Engineer info.
• Jeff Hickman popped onto the WHA forums to calm some minds over large-scale RvR.
• The Cogworks has the latest Engineer News for you to digest.
• Hardcore Casual mulls over whether WAR will be a serious threat to WoW or… not.
• TTH has a recap of all the crafting info we’ve been handed.
• “That’s WAR!”, a new Warhammer podcast is available — if you can understand German, that is.
• “Warhammer Online: End Game” over at GameZig discusses the much-anticipated massive PvP bouts.
• Another one hooked: “Warhammer Online: My interest unlocked”
• Warhammer Conflict has another Guild Chat Event this weekend — get wooed by WAR guilds!
• James Nichols clarified how you use your Amazon pre-order codes.
• New Secret Life of Mobs comic: “Skaven Army”
• Over at Video Game Theory, they muse about how WAR’s guilds will outlast other MMO guilds by a long shot.

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ChaosCast #1 – It’s My WAR And You’ll Bleed If I Want You To

One of the best perks of doing this blog is making new friends who share the same hobby. After a *really* late night on Saturday, Keen (of Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog), Snafzg (of The Greenskin) and myself stumbled our way through recording our very first Warhammer podcast, which we’re calling ChaosCast.

What’s ChaosCast? It’s our attempt at bridging the WAR blog community together, even if in a small way. Sure, it’s fun writing about these subjects in our blogs, but sometimes we need to hunker down in hunter-gatherer herds and hash things out as friends chatting.

It’s a bit of a long first podcast, as we had a lot to go over, but future ChaosCasts — we’re aiming for one every two or three weeks — will be shorter and contain 90% more karaoke. If there’s anything you’d like us to discuss in the show, just leave a comment on this post.

Hope you enjoy!

(Special thanks to Snazfg for doing the incredible music intro, and for Keen working up the graphic and setting up the podcast hosting. I just showed up and used my mouth to make sounds.)

Listen to ChaosCast #1 here!

Show notes:

• Who we are and what we’re doing here
• May newsletter discussion
• New community sites: DaBigWaaagh, Book of Grudges & WaaagHead
• The Wiki Invasion
• NDA & getting into closed beta
• Massively’s massively cool WAR articles

Da Newz – May 15

Beta Ticker: 692,706 (+7,821 from last week)

Quote of the Week: “The best way to look at it is that Warhammer is Batman.” ~ Josh Drescher

Story of the Week: Oddly enough, the biggest story about WAR this week wasn’t about WAR at all — but instead, the blitz of World of Warcraft expansion info that was suddenly thrown all over the place. Many Warhammer fans are nervously chewing their nails at the shift in spotlight (and unrestrained speculation about the supposed fall head-to-head battle of the two titles), but Massively actually thinks WoW is a positive factor in the future success of WAR. In any case, a clash between these two titles looks to happen this fall, as Vivendi confirmed that Wrath is “anticipated to be released in the second half of 2008.”

In other news:

• Warhammer Geek reports that a new German online magazine, Frontline, looks to be fans of Warhammer Online — check it out if you speak Germaneze.
• In the mood for a few good men… er, videos? Warhammer Vault points us toward Warhammer-Portal for some Warhammer-Videos.
• The Greenskin reports that EA bought out Rupture. What does that mean for WAR? Snafzg speculates that the technology might be used to help extend the game experience beyond the game itself — as in social networking.
• GamesIndustry.biz gives us a sneak peak at an interview with Josh Drescher, including the revelation that the Mythic team has at least five years of content and leveling mapped out.
• Speaking of interviews with Josh, bit-tech.net has a pretty cool chat with the man about taking on World of Warcraft and how WAR is like Batman (among other topics).
• Action Trip’s second WAR Progress Report has a great overview of what WAR’s been up to, and what it’ll offer the average player.
• With all the hubbub over EA using DRM in its upcoming games, Mark Jacobs popped onto the VN boards to assure us that WAR will not use DRM (which isn’t really needed in MMOs anyway). Wow, that’s a lot of acronyms.
• Need a little Capital Cities RvR in your diet? Warhammer Vault’s got you covered.
• TTH muses on the promise by WAR’s devs to make the game viable for solo players as well as groupers.
• Mythos has announced at least five years of… something… more planned, and Keen’s all over the analysis.
• Or you could just take the word from the horse’s (the horse here being Josh Drescher) mouth.
• That Videogame Blog has a massive hands-on preview of Warhammer Online — cool info in here about gear and mounts, if you’ve been searching for tibits on those.
• JeuxOnline does us proud by translating an older French article of theirs mulling over the upcoming WAR beta/release/NDA dates. There’s a really handy chart in here too — check it out!
• Warhammer Conflict Wiki would like you to sample their wares by reading up on a dude named Malekith. We think he’s a baker.
• Another week, another awesome wallpaper from Wallhammer Vault (wait… Wallhammer?): The Marauder!
• Warhammer Conflict would like to invite you to peruse and participate in one of its famed Focus Discussions!
• The Greenskin brings a drink of water to the parched soul with his seventh webcomic, “There’s Nothing To Fear”
• Tobold wonders “Will Order or Chaos Prevail in WAR?”
• Warhammer Geek parodies Pinball Wizard with their WAR-themed tune “Witch Elf Woman”
• Want to give your cellphone or MP3 player a bit of Warhammer love? The Greenskin reports that WAR wallpaper for these devices are now available!
• With all the new Lich King info, doom ‘n gloom pronouncement for WAR’s future have been stirred anew. West Karana declares that she will “sit this one out” when it comes to this year’s major MMOs.
• QJ.net takes a brief, insightful look at the Zealot career.
• This is a little old, but this YouTube clip of Dwarf WAR music is… awesome. Pure awesome.
• JeuxOnline has a funny little article wondering about how you can cement your reputation as a “legend” in the upcoming WAR.
• How much will WAR’s graphics affect (good or bad) its upcoming release? Keen compares and contrasts with other MMOs.
• Making me think of the old SAT questions, Tobold posits “AoC is to WAR as EQ2 is to WoW”
• On the WHA forums, Iain Compton straightened out a few facts about the timing of the guild beta, open beta and NDA liftage.
• Keen reports that WAR’s graphics are definitely showing some polish, which I suppose is a “good thing”
• EA Mythic has announced Warhammer Online: The Official Drink. Cheers!
• MTV tries to be convinced by Mythic to make WAR their first MMO — yeah, we SO want those guys playing with us. Because they keep it real.
• Thought we’d go another week without mentioning Greenskin’s Forum Watch? Think again!
• IGN gives Warhammer Online a progress report, and its good enough to avoid a spanking by the parents.
• 1Up’s done their own hands-on WAR play, and have the stones to share it with you personally.
• You know you want to drool right now, so check out these brand new screenies here at VE3D!
• During the Spring Press Event, GameSpot got their grubby little mitts on WAR and molested it until it gave up the literary goodies. I’m kinda creeped out by the previous sentence, even though I wrote it.
• The Warhammer comic is finally on newstands, according to this unnamed source.
• Warhammer Geek’s started to offer exclusive wallpapers, and you can snag the first two here.
• GameSpy has a brand new article looking into WAR’s newbie zones, and it’s a fun read! After you’re done with that, Keen’s got a bit of follow-up commentary on the piece.
• Josh Dresher gave us a brief summary of the EA Games Spring Break, whetting our appetite for more info in the near future.
• Josh Drescher did another interview (the man is a MACHINE), this time with GamesIndustry.biz entitled, simply, “Warhammer Time!”
• Wikis are all the rage these days, it seems, and Warhammer Geek’s launched the fourth (I think) WAR-related wiki. Which one will become the standard? Anyway, you can read there announcement here, and check out (and contribute to) the new Warhammer Geek Wiki here.
• Warhammer Geek’s posted four motivation-style wallpapers (I particularly enjoy the squig one).
• Do you want to write about WAR but don’t want to have to hassle with your own blog/site? Warhammer Gamers is hiring (“hiring” being a loose term — don’t think there’s pay involved) new writers to the staff. Go apply today!
• Finally, The Secret Life of Mobs has a new WAR comic this week — “No More Beercraft!”