Let me preface this article by saying that, for a very long time, I have not been an MMO fan. I have always loved the concept behind them, but the execution of MMOs has not been to my liking. That's not for lack of trying either. I've beta tested lots of MMOs, from old ones like Asheron's Call and EverQuest to newer ones like RF Online and Auto Assault. I've even played trial version of the big boys like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: Galaxies. None of them appealed to me because aside from the mindless questing there seemed to be no point. The closest thing I got to an MMO addiction was Guild Wars (not technically an MMO, I know), simply because of the mission-based structure. It had a point. This is the same reason that I am now hopelessly addicted to Warhammer Online. It, too, has a point.


I only recently got caught up in the Warhammer Online hype, just about a week before its release. Before then I could care less, I figured it was just another generic MMO that wouldn't interest me. Once I got around to reading about it, though, I had to play it. At first I was concerned about dropping money on a game I might not like, and then having to pay a monthly fee for it as well. Then I remembered I've spent $50 on games I've played for less than a month before, so how could this be any worse? I took the plunge, and now I can't stop playing. I'm not going to write a review because, quite frankly, I don't know enough about the game yet, and it would take me a long time to get to that point. I'm also not going to bore you with a list of all the game features because you can find that in a million places. What I am going to do is show you the kind of experience you get playing Warhammer Online that just can't be found in another MMO.


A few nights ago I was doing a Public Quest (PQ) in Troll Country and ended up in a party with a few other people. We finished up the PQ and were waiting around for it to reset when someone said, "Hey we should do a keep siege." Great idea, I hadn't done one yet. I was all for it, as were a handful of other people. At the time, the Realm vs. Realm (RVR) area in Tier 2 was under complete Order control. As members of Destruction, it was our job to go piss all over that. We gathered up our group of five in the nearby town and we set off. We made it about halfway to the keep when we came across a marauding pack of Order players. Not having a healer, we were instantly at a disadvantage. Our group put up a good fight and held them off, but there were sacrifices in the process. I didn't make it.


I respawned in Koulnur's Encampment, nowhere near my party. I was still just outside the RVR zone, so I started making the trek back to them. Before hitting the keep, they were going to take one of the camps in the RVR zone. Controlling these territories weakens the keep's NPC defenders, so it's an important step in the process. On my way to the party, I came across another group of Destruction players trying to capture a camp. I had a dilemma now. I needed to meet up with my group as soon as possible, but these guys looked like they were struggling and needed help. I did the right thing and assisted this group. With another tank to take some of the damage, we made quick work of the camp and captured it. I convinced these guys to ride along for the keep siege, which was great since they had a couple of healers. 


When we arrived at the next camp, my original group had doubled in size. Some of our guild- and alliance-mates had heeded the call to battle and showed up. Now our warband ran seventeen people deep, more than enough to handle any packs of Order players. Once everyone was settled, we made for the keep, which we actually reached with no Order encounters. The front of the keep was stacked with high-level Order NPCs. Before we attacked, a group of Order players came bursting out of the keep. Unfortunately for them, they were few and we were many, so we made quick work of them. We moved onto the NPCs, which was time consuming, but didn't seem that dangerous. That was, until, the Order reinforcements showed up. With our backs to them, we didn't even notice until they were right on us, but now we were sandwiched between Order players and Order NPCs. Thankfully our healers did a great job and we managed to take down both sides.


With all the enemies down, one of our guys had time to set up a battering ram. With the ram set up, a few of our guys flanked it and started beating at the front door. The rest of us guarded them against a few waves of Order players, none of which came as a serious organized threat. Eventually the front door was smashed in and all of us piled into the keep. Things quickly became hectic. With so many people crammed into the keep it was tough to keep track of Order vs. Destruction. It actually looked like a giant castle battle, which was very cool. We made our way from floor to floor, killing all the guards as we went. Finally we reached the floor with the Keep Lord, an extremely high-level hero. Ignoring the guards on that floor, we all focused our attacks on the Keep Lord, hoping to take him down as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, now was the time the Order guys decided to organize an attack. At least eight of them burst into the room and started wailing on us. What was already a hectic battle just went completely nuts, with people from both sides everywhere. For the moment we abandoned our effort on the Keep Lord and focused on the Order players. There was serious attrition, with many of our guys going down. Things looked especially bleak when we lost one of our healers, but after a heavy battle we managed to repel the Order players. Dead bodies littered the floor, and the only Order force left was the Keep Lord and a handful of guards. This was no longer a problem for us. We finished him, and the keep was now ours. We all congratulated each other, but it didn't take long for someone to say, "Let's get the next keep..."


I'm sure this sounds a bit dramatized, but this is the sense of being in a real war that Warhammer Online brings, even from the very beginning. The beauty is that the game rewards you for participating in the ongoing war, and often funnels you into these areas through questing. You can try your best to rank up on your own, but eventually you'll get swept up in the battle, whether by being forced to enter Open RVR areas for quests, or by doing instanced scenarios like King of the Hill and Capture the Flag. When you do end up in the battle, you'll realize it's what separates Warhammer Online from its other MMO brethren. The beauty of it is that I haven't even reached the real war yet, that comes in Tier 4's tug-of-war-like RVR battle, where if your side pushes far enough you can capture the enemy capital, then loot and pillage to your heart's desire. Yeah, I'm not there yet, but I can't wait to find out what it's like, because I've finally found an MMO with a point: war.