14 DAY TRIAL // Warhammer Online is due out this fall and the developers at EA Mythic really want to make this game a revolution as far as MMOs go. And because World of Warcraft has tackled the player-versus-environment gameplay very well, Warhammer Online: The Age of Reckoning, or WAR as they like to call it, will try to best WoW in the player-versus-player mechanics.
The entire experience of the game is built around constant warfare between two ideologies, if you will. On one side we have Order, with the Empire, the High Elves and the subterranean dwelling cities of the Dwarf Kings as the main faction. On the other side we have Chaos, with the northern marauders, Demons, orcs, goblins and Dark Elves that support it. These two sides are engaged in total warfare, without respite and without the limits that World of Warcraft places on the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde.
The largest battles in WAR will feature 40 players on each side battling out of control of cities and other strategic points. There will even be a moment when the capitals of different factions will be vulnerable as a result of the constant tug-of-war and if a capital is stormed the faction that loses it will have to battle to reacquire it or settle for a temporary capital.
In addition to capitals and cities, which belong to factions and are part of the overall conflict between them, each guild will get a chance to create and maintain a keep, which can be upgraded and will serve as an adventuring hub. But a keep is also a good reason for PvP as players from rival guilds get to raid and even sack them. This is not factional warfare at work, but rather fighting between guilds that might belong to the same side of the overall conflict.
Electronic Arts has high hopes for its Warhammer based MMO project and if all these PvP mechanics are well implemented then the game might prove a success.