by Thekk, 2 days ago
Folks,
As of now, the Non Disclosure portions of our North American Beta Testing Agreement is now officially lifted. From this point on players may now freely talk about their experiences in the game as well as post screenshots, videos, etc. We will be sending an email out to all our current players with full details about the lift over the next 24 hours. Players with access to our forums can also see the letter there. Players may not talk about nor reprint posts from our forums and our Test Servers (currently Deathsword) are still fully covered by the confidentiality portions of our Beta Testing Agreement. So, other than that, free feel to talk about and share your experiences in WAR.
My thanks go out to everyone who has beta tested and continues to beta test WAR. It has been with your help and feedback that WAR is where it is today. We really appreciate your effort.
WAR is almost upon us!
Mark Jacobs
VP, GM Mythic Entertainment
by Thekk, 3 days ago
Post by Mark Jacobs:
Folks,
I'm going to be posting a lot over the next few days but here's a quick update/explanation of where things stand now:
1) As to the type of Open Beta that we are having, I've said for over three years that our Open Beta is not going to be a "Everybody come into the pool, the water's fine!" type of Open Beta. We have never been interested in just having hundreds of thousands of people beat against our servers just so a few thousand can get in. I'm not familiar with any MMORPG company offering an OB where they can support everyone who wants in to the OB. OBs are usually limited in the number of servers/amount of bandwidth that is available for the OB players. If you offer an OB with an almost unlimited number of keys (or keys that vastly outnumber server capacity), you're either really using to stress test your login process or doing it solely as a PR move. I'd rather have an OB where we know the size of the potential player pool and have enough servers and bandwidth so people can actually get into our OB. We'll be distributing lots of keys to our OB with our partners, just as other MMO developers have done in the past. More on this down the road a bit.
2) As to the length of the OB, we have never said that it was going to be a month nor have we ever hinted at it that. The vast majority of OBs run by MMORPG companies have not lasted a month. Is a week too short? I wish we could have made it longer (maybe 2 weeks) but the timing just didn't work out. OB is the last hurdle before the game goes LIVE and with the added Preview Weekend, we lost a few days that might have been able to go into the OB. So, for those that pre-ordered the game, the added Preview Weekend gives you some extra time before the OB. For those that haven't pre-ordered the game and are upset that the OB isn't long enough of a time to tell if you like the game, then I'll say the same thing I've also said for years, then wait a few days or a week, etc. until after the game launches and decide then. Frankly, once the NDA lifts and with the information storm that will follow its release, I can't imagine that players won't have enough time and information to make an informed buying decision.
3) As to the lifting of the NDA and the start of Open Beta, I've been very clear on the fact that the two things are not related at all.
4) As to the NDA, we expect to lift it tomorrow morning. I was hoping it was going to be today but I wanted to wait till I got the beta reports from the weekend and we just didn't have enough time to get everything coordinated with our partners in order for the press release to go out today. This is not the fault of GOA at all, we just had a lot of data to go through and by the time we did that, it would have been too late to put out the release today. As to the three issues that were holding up the release, I'll be discussing them tomorrow. While I wish that we could have lifted the NDA a couple of weeks ago, I'll explain why tomorrow. Given how many MMOs/games don't lift the NDA until launch (or just before or in some cases, never), our lifting it more than 4 weeks (only slightly but it's still 4+ weeks out), is more than sufficient for all the information about the game to hit the Internet.
5) As to the "Why am I downloading the client weeks in advance" stuff, well, it's because we wanted to avoid the situation where we tell people that OB is starting in a week and then people couldn't get the client in time. If we had done that, there would have been lots and lots of posts saying "Epic Fail Mythic, I couldn't get the client in time for your OB!!!!' if things went wrong. By allowing people to download the client early, everybody will have plenty of time to get the client. While I'm usually quite willing to admit when we make a mistake, letting people get the client early is not a mistake, it is simply another way to make it easier for people to get the client. Given the issues with the Torrent solution we used, anyone who says that we are wrong to let people download the client early is simply looking to bash us for no reason.
6) As to how people are going to get the client, as has been speculated, we have added FilePlanet to our file distribution methods. As promised, you do not have to be a FP subscriber to download the client. By retaining both our current methods and by adding FP, we are once again making it more convenient for players to get our game. Additionally, when the game goes LIVE, we will be using our own Mythic Patcher to download updates to the game just as we did with DAoC in addition to other possible methods.
So, that's the quick update for now.
Mark
by Thekk, 3 days ago
Mythic Begins Preparations for September 7th Open Beta
FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 2008--Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that the open beta for their highly anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM) (WAR), will begin on September 7th, 2008. This means that hundreds of thousands of fans will be able to enter the gritty fantasy world of WAR to experience the thrill of Realm vs. Realm(TM) (RvR) combat before the game goes live on September 18th, 2008.
"For three years we have been saying that 'WAR is coming' and the team has been working hard to deliver on this promise," said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "In just a few weeks, we are going to throw open our doors and invite more players into the game than ever before. They will have a chance to delve into the open beta and see for themselves that WAR has arrived and it is glorious!"
Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners. Participants of the North American closed beta will automatically be granted open beta access. For more information about the WAR open beta, visit
www.warhammeronline.com/openbeta.
Available for PC, Warhammer Online is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. WAR will be the first MMORPG to launch servers simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Oceania when it goes live on September 18th, 2008. For more information, visit
http://www.warhammeronline.com/.
About Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM)
Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm(TM)! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, creators of Dark Age of Camelot(TM). Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests(TM). Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. Sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation; the Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS Freestyle(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is
www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at
http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Dark Age of Camelot, Public Quests, and Realm vs. Realm are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either (R), (TM) and/or (C) Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.
CONTACT: TriplePoint
Eddiemae Jukes, 415-955-8522
eddiemae@triplepointpr.com
or
Electronic Arts Inc.
Tammy Schachter, 650-628-7223
Senior Director
tschachter@ea.com
Scott Gamel, 650-628-7286
Sr. PR Manager
sgamel@ea.com
SOURCE: Electronic Arts Inc.
Source-
http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88189&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1188038&highlight=
