![]() Just recently Mark Jacobs, VP of Mythic Entertainment, inc. announced that the developers had decided to cut 4 of the 6 cities originally planned for Warhammer Online in the game under development. The reaction across the internet has been a bit like the insane King Denethor in the movie Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as he yells to the citizenry of Gondor to flee, telling them "All is lost!" There have been tag lines like "Bombshell: Major Features Cut From Warhammer Online" and "Warhammer Online Loses 66% of Cities" "" touting that a major part of the game has been lost. First let me say one thing about that: Give it a rest. This all goes to operate on the same basic principle - nothing has been "lost" from the game at all because it hasn't even been released yet. In the past, there have been players who break an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) who have hurt a game's reputation by talking about problems that occur in closed beta, long before the release of a game. When this happens, people who are just considering playing the game begin to think poorly about it, before the developers even have a chance to solve the problem. Mark Jacobs's announcement has had a similar effect, but has gone way past that point. Yet who can blame the gaming community for the reaction? If there is a culprit at fault for building up expectations about the release of Warhammer Online to unrealistic proportions it is Mythic Entertainment themselves. In fact Mythic Entertainment has proven their ability to build interest in their game long before its actual or even announced release date. It has reached the point where the blogosphere, forums and mmo gaming community in general has set its hopes for the future squarely on the shoulders of Warhammer Online. Over and over again I have heard gamers claim that they are playing one game or another "until Warhammer comes out." (Warning to Darren from Commonsense Gamer: I will now use the "P" word...) The developers at Mythic Entertainment have long since passed the point where Warhammer Online needs to be "polished" when it comes out. So many expectations have been built up around this game that is expected to be "practically perfect" "" a difficult, if not impossible task, for anyone whose name is not "Mary Poppins." There is an old adage, and a lesson my grandmother taught me, that the developers at Mythic Entertainment should have heeded "" "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." By building their game up, and setting it upon such a high pedestal, Mythic Entertainment created an atmosphere in which they could not hope but to engender such a response to their announcement. Don't get me wrong. While the reaction may be a bit overboard in some cases (a bit like dynamiting open a can of beans) I don't think it will have any long term negative affects on the marketability of the game. In fact it might even do the marketability of the game some good. If the announcement lowers the pedestal upon which we have all placed Warhammer Online a bit, perhaps we will not have unrealistic expectations of the game when it is released. Online time will tell. See you online, - Julie Whitefeather |