Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Preview

After spending quite a bit of time in the Warhammer Online closed beta test, Ten Ton Hammer brings us a detailed two-page preview of the MMORPG.
As Paul Barnett and Jeff Hickman have stated over and over again, WAR is everywhere. While that may be uncomfortably true in our real world, it's also true in the world of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. From the very moment you touch down among your chosen race, you'll be pushed towards passionately believing in the enmity between the races of Order and Desrtruction. Although there was a definite hostility between the Horde and the Alliance in World of Warcraft, it pales in comparison to what you see in the battle between Order and Destruction in WAR.

For example, the very first quest I received from an NPC in Warhammer Online was to help gather bones in order to fire a Hellcannon a dreadful weapon of mass destruction that was to be turned against the races of order, specifically the humans in the Empire. You see, I was one of the Chosen, a class that specifically comes from the Chaos race whose hatred for the Empire has seeped into their very core. From there on out, almost every quest I received was written in that particular style: (Do this to help kill our enemies in the Empire.)

Now I know many of you are asking: (But why is Warhammer Online so focused on the conflict between these two factions (Order and Destruction) and why should I care?) By engendering this sort of hostility towards the various other races in Warhammer Online, the developers are hoping to really inflame the passion of gamers worldwide. They want them to have a favorite faction. Even in their online advertisements, EA asks players to (Declare Your Allegiance) and then points them towards one of the two factions. Just like sports fans with their favorite teams, players with their favored faction will be more than willing to stand up for that (team) and defend them in any way necessary. And that is exactly what the developers at Mythic are hoping to achieve. This hostility strikes at the very core of what Warhammer Online is all about, and that is Realm versus Realm combat and competition.