Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning compared to Counter-Strike?

I've already written a review of this game but to be honest that was when the beta ended and the NDA was lifted so the game I'm playing today is very much different than it was back then. Of course the mechanics and all the other things are the same now as they were then but when beta ended I had little hope that this game would be able to compete with the, then upcoming, Wrath of the Lich King expansion to WoW. Today I must say I view this game completely differently.

I started playing WAR because a lot of my mates were saying how much fun they had with the game and I must say I envied them quite a bit especially considering several of them had played DAoC for, what in this business can be considered, many many years. So I bought the game not with the beta days in mind but with a hope that I could find a way to view the game in a different light and find a game that I could come to enjoy for many days to come.

Which is exactly what I did. I installed the game over a month ago and for an MMORPG I've played it very few hours since, maybe a couple of hours a day spread out over that time. A bit more during weekends or days I've had off from work but some days not at all. Which for me is a completely new thing when it comes to MMORPGs. If know me or have read other posts on this blog you will understand what I mean.

The big difference between WAR and other MMORPGs I've played is that I've had a completely different view on this game. I usually play MMORPGs as just that, a role play game with massive amounts of players. WAR I've played more like Counter-Strike (also called CS) though which might sound odd if you usually play MMORPGs. But the fact is that one of the things that made CS so popular was that you could jump into a game and play for 15-30 minutes and have loads of fun. Over time people started forming communities around the servers and so you got to recognize people and you started chatting and so friendships were born. Take this parallel and move it over to WAR and you have a game here too where you can jump on for 30 minutes or so and play pretty much for all of those 30 minutes against other players and in the meantime also chat with your buddies in your guild.

I realize that it might be hard to picture the similarities if you haven't played both games extensively or both genres extensively. But both things are there in my opinion, now lets just hope that Mythic succeeds with the other thing that made CS so successful and that is to cater to the newbies and not to the pros. Many FPS games has died because the developers listened to much to the professionals (or in MMORPG terms the power gamers), the developers of CS managed to not do that though and so the game had a steady flow of new gamers coming to the game.

So in conclusion, Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning is a great game for those that want a game that they can get online with for about an hour and get some good game time during that time. There are of course other parts of the game that has much more in common with the classic MMORPG genre and much less with the classic FPS genre. But the parts that made CS so successful are also there and so, at least, this blogger hope that Mythic has found a concoction that will make this game live on for many years to come.

Spotify ... just wow

I recieved my invite for the free (but with ads) version of Spotify the other day and all I can say is wow.

For a person that love music but has a pretty low income I have been batteling with rising prices on music for years and so I've ended up listing mostly to internet radio and youtube to get to new music. It was probably almost 10 years ago that I actually bought a new album (except for the occassional gift for somebody). This is where Spotify comes in, at the moment I can listen to it free of charge and I can search through tons of tunes and listen to them how ever much I want. Only downside is that it's still a bit like listening to radio in that I get ads stuck in between the tunes.

Considering it's only about €10 per month (actually less now since it's 99 SEK wich is less than €10) for an ad free subscription I can definitely see me getting one as soon as Spotify moves out of beta, or more likely when I can afford it. So yes, Spotify is currently in beta but so far I haven't noticed it to be honest. I quite often use beta software (granted it's mostly computer games though) and most of them have bugs which prevents you from using them from time to time. However this flows really good and I've yet to have any issues what so ever with it. Although I haven't had a chance to try it on any other device than my stationary computer which is running Windows.

Anyway, one can only imagine how companies that still want to sell tunes for €1 or more with heavy drm protection can survive when services like this show up. As long as I have an internet connection, a device able to connect to it and the ability to produce sound I can now get to all my favourite tunes. Which pretty much means if I have a phone. So in the words of a famous American General, all I have to say to the big record labels that hasn't caught on to the fact that the market is changing yet is ... Nuts!

Oh and one last thing, Spotify seems only to be available to the Swedish market so far but hopefully they'll open it up to the rest of the world soon enough.