Culture Shock part II – Warhammer Online

Brian Ambrozy 6 Mar, 2009 at 6:19pm ET Article published in Gaming

war10day One of the primary reasons I jumped in and decided to do a 10-day trial of World of Warcraft (and blog about my experiences) was my absolute ignorance of the mythos going in. I had never played a single Warcraft game, knew absolutely nothing about the world, and nothing about WoW culture. The only Blizzard game I had ever played was Diablo.

I am the same way with Warhammer. I know absolutely nothing about it, which was in evidence today in Icrontic IRC:

<Canti> it’s just the original starcraft
<Canti> and a halo ripoff
<@primesuspect> wait
<@primesuspect> …
<@primesuspect> warhammer is like.. space stuff?
<@primesuspect> I thought it was like WoW
<winfrey|56k> 40k is
<Canti> bahaha
<@primesuspect> axes and dwarves and shit
<Canti> oh wait
<winfrey|56k> not mmo warhammer
<Canti> wut
<@primesuspect> < so confused

See? That’s how confused I am. I just found out today that there are actually TWO Warhammers – a Warhammer and a Warhammer 40K. Also, apparently there is a game played in real life with little miniatures of robots and space marines. I don’t know if those are in the Warhammer Online game I’m about to download.

Get ready for 10 days of transformation from utter noob to Warhammer expert. I’m downloading the trial right now. Wish me luck.

Comments

6 Mar 2009 ~ 7:21pm mertesn There are two tabletop games (the originals): Warhammer Fantasy (High Elves, Orks, etc) and Warhammer 40K (Space Marines, Tau, Eldar, etc)

There are three Warhammer RTS PC games: Warhammer 40K Dawn of War, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War II, and Warhammer: Mark of Chaos (fantasy based)

There is one Warhammer MMO: Warhmmer Online.

Yes, the miniatures game is expensive to get into as are pretty much all miniatures games. There are models, paints, tools, and books to purchase. I play a different miniatures game (Warmachine) which requires a significant monetary and time investment but I consider it well worth it.

Now you know more.
6 Mar 2009 ~ 7:29pm primesuspect So is it safe to say that Warhammer Online (the MMO) is the MMO version of Warhammer Fantasy?
6 Mar 2009 ~ 7:31pm mertesn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_online

You are correct.
6 Mar 2009 ~ 8:55pm Gate28 *points to the many, many threads and blog posts concerning warhammer and 40k minitures*
9 Mar 2009 ~ 2:35pm kryyst So is it safe to say that Warhammer Online (the MMO) is the MMO version of Warhammer Fantasy?
It's safe to say that Warhammer Online is an MMO game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, more or less. But it's still rather far removed mechanically from Warhammer Fantasy, be it Fantasy Battle or the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. In terms of comparison aside from transplanting creature names and visualls. Warhammer Online really is nothing like the mini or RPG version of the game.
9 Mar 2009 ~ 6:14pm BuddyJ Warhammer Online is the MMO offshoot of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, a 25 year old, ever growing and much beloved setting.

Good luck in your quest. I'm interested to see how your perspective is shaped based on your previous WoW experiences. The first time, you came in as a total virgin to the genre. Now you're familiar with so much more. How will that familiarity translate when you're outside your comfort zone?
9 Mar 2009 ~ 7:53pm Thrax It won't be much different from the time Keebler mov-- oh...
27 Apr 2009 ~ 3:46pm Lykurgos Warhammer Online is probably best described as being set in the Warhammer world, and drawing heavily upon the setting, context and lore of Warhammer Fantasy, whilst being most similar to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

It does not bear any resemblance to the type of game that is Warhammer Fantasy Battles, which is all about tactical battles between units of troops, war machines, heros and monsters. People who have played Warhammer Fantasy Battles will recognise a lot of the things present in Warhammer online, but the experience is a very different one.