Warhammer 40k MMOG

Courtesy of Kotaku: News on Vigil Games' (THQ) Warhammer 40k MMOG.

Essentially, Warhammer 40k's MMOG will have big battles and 'the coolest looking characters of any MMO, ever.'

Says creative director Joe Madeureira:

"All of the races important to Warhammer 40,000 lore (not to mention the fans) will be represented."
"We want each and every race to have weight in the game world... and feel distinct."

Note that he doesn't say, all races will be playable.

This doesn't bode well for Warhammer 40k, and I hope THQ leans hard on Vigil to teach them what they learned from Dawn of War.

Players want to play as their favorite race.

With arguably the largest Science Fiction setting in the world, it's very easy to alienate (no pun intended) half your audience, by only including the easiest races to make. For players like me, it's as simple as this:

Include playable Tyranids, I will give you money.
Don't include playable Tyranids, I will never give you money.

I worry that a half-assed MMOG will do no favors for the 40k universe. It's part of the reason why I haven't pursued a career with THQ in Austin - I couldn't handle watching people who claim to know what they're doing, wreck something I love so much.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is more than just war.

Gamasutra or Bust

After that C & D letter, I really started to think about how companies view their Intellectual Property.

I'm still quite bitter about TEARDOWN being told to shelve their amazing Space Hulk remake until further notice - which hasn't come yet. Thankfully, you can hoist your sails and still find the game being torrented.

As I continued to dwell, I realized I wanted to publish an article on how fan-made products can be a really good thing for the IP's community, if fostered and cared for correctly. Harry Potter has a HUGE amount of fan-fiction written about it. How engrossed would fans feel, if Rowling picked a few of the best authors to help her write the Harry Potter encyclopedia? I'd have a lot more respect for Rowling, that's for sure.

Looking back to TEARDOWN, I'm very curious as to how many of the 327 Gigabytes downloaded, went to players who hadn't played 40k since they played the original Space Hulk board game. Or even better, how much nostalgia was nurtured. How much curiosity was piqued. If I were in the Public Relations offices of Games Workshop and THQ, I would love to get my hands on the curious folk who haven't paid attention to the IP in a decade or so. Chances are, they would absolutely love where the games have gone. Now, however, all they see is the traditionally cold Games Workshop preventing them from having fun.

Not cool.

This is gonna germinate for awhile.