Warhammer Online Introduces Dynamic Player Statues

[Andy Chalk]

Warhammer Online Introduces Dynamic Player Statues

Warhammer Online [http://www.warhammeronline.com] is working on a novel new approach to recognize outstanding in-game achievements: A Top Ten Leaderboard system that will feature statues of the game's top players erected in city centers.

Warhammer Online already has numerous leaderboards on the Warhammer Herald [http://herald.warhammeronline.com/d] that track players' greatest accomplishments, but actual in-game recognition is still sorely lacking. To help address that shortcoming, the 1.1 update, launching later in December, will feature statues of the best Warhammer players, erected dynamically in the game's cities.

According to the Warhammer Online dev diary, statue art was generated for both genders of every class in the game, at which point code was created to make the dynamic statue system essentially self-sufficient. Leaderboard data was then worked into the system, along with the means to inject the statue objects into the game, after which all that remained was testing.

"To test, we are taking data pulled from a live server as our test data for our internal servers," the diary says. "Using this leaderboard information, we then have the new dynamic statue system read it in and modify the statues based on the current leaders. Voila! Instant notoriety on our internal server." The diary goes on to suggest that other bonuses may be in store for players who earn statues, and that there may even be special rewards for "taking out" players who have statues.

More information about the new Warhammer Online player statues is available here [http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=494].


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[NiteRaven]

I love it every time a MMO comes out with a feature and labels it as a "new" idea.

Meridian 59, the first 3D graphical MMO, came out in 1996 with features such as: guild halls, guild hall raids, personal mailboxes, personal storage vaults, personal bank, guild storage boxes (guild bank), world message globes, guild message globes, world PvP, and player statues as mentioned here. (among many, many other features) They would periodically change depending on who was the greatest warrior or user of a particular school of magic in the world. I believe it was called "The Hall of Heroes".

In my opinion Meridian 59 was the pioneer and pinnacle of MMORPG developement and we've been on a downhill slide ever since. There is still one or two open severs in existence if you want to check it out. The graphics are, of course, outdated but the game play has yet to be matched.

Long live Meridian 59!

http://www.gilcon.net/meridian/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_59

 

[Zer_]

Snip

So true. Ultima Online also has a bunch of features that other MMO's claim as "New"

 

[Blind0bserver]

To be fair to the Warhammer devs, nowhere in either that article or the link do they claim that the idea is "new" or "revolutionary" to the genre. Either way, the folks who made Meridian 59 should be flattered. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

it could be new to game not necessarily brand new and innovative

 

[Theissen]

I like to think MMOs as being representative of the mentality of the society.

Back in the 90's (or that of the 90's which I can remember, I'm not that ancient), MMOs were a lot about coordinated effort and guild play.

While WAR is a self-claimed RvR game where guilds play a huge role, this idea further boosts the individuality mentality that thrived in WoW.

I don't like the new direction MMOs have taken. It ruins the feel of a multiplayer game.


While we're at it, I don't get how the company that created the best RvR game (IMO) can mess up this badly on a game that's supposedly all about RvR.

I was very much expecting WAR to become my game, but the level grind put me off. Also the feeling of community and union within one's faction was non-existing, which further put me off.

WAR is a clear example of an epic fail MMO caused by the desire to cater to the masses rather than sticking to its ideals.

 

[Virgil]

statue art was generated for both genders of every class in the game

So they just generated two models for every class? It's not even a model of the actual character?

I guess that's nice and all, but that's barely any more special than an ingame leaderboard or some other generic notification. If they want to make it really stand out, they'd take a snapshot of the character's equipment and title at the time they hit the top of the leaderboard and use that to display an exact model of the characters (with a suitable stone texture, of course).

While WAR is a self-claimed RvR game where guilds play a huge role ...

I think it's an error to equate guilds and RvR - Mythic certainly doesn't (and didn't in their previous games either). It would be a grave mistake for them to attempt to force groups and guilds to access core gameplay in this day and age.

 

[NiteRaven]

I guess that's nice and all, but that's barely any more special than an ingame leaderboard or some other generic notification. If they want to make it really stand out, they'd take a snapshot of the character's equipment and title at the time they hit the top of the leaderboard and use that to display an exact model of the characters (with a suitable stone texture, of course).

Yes, that's exactly what M59 did. They would actually take a snap shop of your exact character model including armor and weapons you had equipped at the time. It was rather novel concept and I always had a great amount of reverence in the presence of these statues knowing the amount of time and effort it took the players to achieve such greatness. (I think I earned a statue once for a short period of time

Anyhow, I applaud Mythic's efforts and my post wasn't intended to discourage these kinds of additions. It's pretty darn hard to come up with anything truly innovative in this day and age. Keep up the good work!

 

[Theissen]

While WAR is a self-claimed RvR game where guilds play a huge role ...

I think it's an error to equate guilds and RvR - Mythic certainly doesn't (and didn't in their previous games either). It would be a grave mistake for them to attempt to force groups and guilds to access core gameplay in this day and age.

Any effort to promote a sense of unity and fellowship within your faction falls short when the focus of the game is on individual accomplishments.

Given the fact that guilds can and are supposed to claim keeps, I assume it's in order to positively distinguish a guild from the others; to show to your faction that your guild is better than all the rest.

Now, having a game where there is no sense of communion within a realm, guilds don't matter that much. Keeps hold no value rather than just the few merchants who reside in it.


In a prober RvR game, such as DAoC, it was very prestigious for a guild to hold a keep, let alone a relic keep.

In WAR, there is no reason for you to do something remarkable with your guild, let alone your realm. You fight for yourself, you fight other individual players.



The bottom line is that WAR isn't a RvR game in heart. It's a PvP game with a lot of individual players that just happen to be on the same side. Obviously, you need 2 sides in order to have some fights going on. But don't worry, it's just a formality in order to maintain the illusion to some players that this is in fact an RvR game.
But you do need guilds in order to achieve a sense of realm vs realm, and the guilds need to matter to the game. It isn't so in WAR.



And before you might ask, yes, I am a very disappointed ex-WAR player.

 

[Nurb]

Whats the point of this? Every class looks the same because of armor set style restrictions, and the stone prevents any differentiating color, so basicly you have a generic looking class type with your name on it. Its a more labor intensive version of leaderboards on public websites.