Yesterday, Mythic released the much anticipated Producer Letter for December. Well, it was much anticipated to me anyways. It is a bit odd, after reading the letter I am both excited and disappointed. So what does Mythic have in store for us?
It appears WAR has had a change in leadership. Jeff Skalski was the Producer, but it was announced that Bruce Maclean has taken over for him. Bruce was the Live producer for WAR. Normally I would be worried, but Jeff has not jumped ship and is still working on Warhammer. I thought Jeff was doing a great job, so I was quite surprised about the change.
Now on to the letter! Most of it is a recap of the year. Reading through it does remind me that Mythic has been very busy with WAR. It has been a good year overall in my opinion. But that is enough dwelling on the past, what does our future hold?
Next year is going to be an exciting one, and I am looking forward to sharing more of our plans during the frigid days and long winter nights of January. We’ll have exciting new Live Events, new weapons and cloaks earned by spilling the blood of your enemies in RvR, a new Scenario structure, economy and loot drop improvements, adjustments to the King and Warlord encounters to convert them to RvR-only battles, UI customization enhancements, Tier 4 RvR campaign improvements, daily quests and so much more - and that’s just our near term plans for 2010.
That is all that was said about the future of WAR. It is disappointing that there was nothing concrete mentioned. Most of WAR's competitors have actually told their players of specific plans. Instead, we get vague concepts that may never happen. I can't remember how many improvements that Mark Jacobs mentioned that never saw the light of day.
I understand they don't want to tell us something that may not happen, but they went to the opposite extreme. Now it seems like nothing will happen with WAR, which is just as bad if not worse. How many times can they say 'we are working on improving the game'? Blizzard, the lumbering giant, tells their players specific details, even if they are a year away.
Now I did mention this letter got me excited, so let's end on that note. The best 'news' in that paragraph is they are working on making the final encounters RvR based. No more RvR to PvE! I think that will be a welcome change by most players. It is good to see WAR is finally embracing its RvR aspect, which is why players are here.
A new scenario structure and economy improvements were mentioned as well. Not much can be said about it, but it seems like a good direction. Another big deal is the 'new weapons' mention. As it stands now, you have to PvE in order to get the most advanced weapons. Hopefully this means they will be adding new ones that can be obtained by RvR.
So that's about it for the Producer's Letter. I like the direction, but the lack of any actual details is really starting to bother me.
