So I clocked in about 5 hours of beta testing Warhammer today. Now I can finally quantify all the excitement that I’ve channeled since World of Warcraft. All in all, Mythic had an interesting take on how video games sort of encourage you to grind the same thing over and over again. After a while, it gets tedious. I realized that I’m not the same gamer I was from 5 years ago. I’m less patient and I have less time to dedicate to gaming (yeah right, I’ve clocked in 5 hours!).

The first five hours of play brings so much engagement to players. Compared to other MMO’s (especially to World of Warcraft), Warhammer: Age of Reckoning has a crap-load of things that can be done in almost all parts of the map. The quests are fun, if not downright stupid – I had to load myself onto a catapult to be flung into the enemy’s castle, and I had to load up unconscious dwarves into barrels and toss them from the castle walls.

Warhammer Online succeeds in bringing something for every gamer, whether you only have 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 10 hours of free time. It’s exactly what I hoped it to be – a breath of fresh air from my previous experiences with online role playing games. It has a Team Fortress 2 co-op flavor to it, which is, I think, why I found it appealing.

To put my beta impressions in a nutshell, unlike other MMO’s that reward players based on how long or how hard they play, Warhammer Online rewards players by simply playing the game at their own pace.

So far the only other Filipino I know who’s playing the open beta is Kiven. We’re both parked on Oceanic servers. We’re playing Chaos. Anyone else into this stuff?

This is probably the most valuable piece of paper in my room right now. It’s been an incessant habit – me checking DataBlitz for anything new even if I very well know that Warhammer Online isn’t coming out till mid September. So I was, after at least visiting the store twice a week for the past month and a half, flabbergasted to see DataBlitz accepting advanced copy reservations of the Collector’s Edition for Warhammer Online.

I was telling Rico how different this would be from Age of Conan, and not trying to justify as to why I bought that game in the first place. Truth is, even if AOC introduced an innovative combat system and a fantastic early game narrative, the game broke where the first island, Tortage, ended. It became clear that AOC was just another MMO with a unique combat system.

Warhammer Online isn’t about interacting with environments, or solo-ing, or role playing. It’s war and conflict all throughout and I guess what makes this appealing to me is that, once I step into the world, everything just falls into place. Here are a few quotes from the Ask the Beta Tester Series:

The Open Group system, along with the much-vaunted Public Quests, seeks to have players collaborating from the earliest levels. Simply by setting foot on the battleground of a Public Quest, a player learns the importance of participating in gameplay with others.

Players who jump in-game from WoW or Age of Conan are going to find a title filled to the brim with fun gameplay and constant WAR. PvP players are going to be ‘coming home’. This is the game you’ve always wanted. Lore nerds and story fans will find plenty to love, and those of us who actually enjoy grouping will see our style of play lauded from fairly early on.

So yeah, Warhammer Online seems to be that Player vs Player oriented MMO that doesn’t promise to be something it’s not.

Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition

The Collector’s Ed for WAR (Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) is pretty kick ass. This is the package I ordered, arriving mid September. One of the biggest advantages of the collector’s ed is that I get to participate in open beta without having to apply, XP multiplier tomes, bonus quests, plus a wider library of exclusive titles for my avatar and in game ite– ok I’m rambling.

Spending on Gaming?

The truth about these purchases (and people like Kiven very well know this) is that these games actually become cash cows for gamers like us because even though we spend for these, we easily liquidate them by writing reviews and FAQs for local computer game magazines like Game! from Hinge Inquirer and Playground by October 80.

Thus, the advice I have for people who have expensive hobbies — LEARN HOW TO LIQUIDATE YOUR HOBBY!