WoW vs. WAR: Fall Battle Between Two MMO Juggernauts

It’s no secret that these two gigantic MMOs–World of Warcraft and Warhammer: Age of Reckoning–will produce a war greater than any previously witnessed on the gaming battlefield. In the unforgiving world of MMO dominance, WoW sits on top, undaunted. For the past few years, we have been teased and tickled with Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and its release dates. Now, we’re closer than ever to the release of WAR and EA/Mythic should be deeply concerned. Blizzard will let none survive in its quest for MMO glory, and have literally pulled a fast one in order to maintain their dominance.

The recent announcement of the Wrath of the Lich King beta came as a great surprise to many gamers far and wide. Blizzard’s classical development philosophy of “It’s done when it’s done” has obviously been tossed down the Blackrock mountainside. Instead, they have assigned quite a few extra peons to expedite the completion of WotLK.

Blizzard is not fooling around with the EA/Mythic launch date of WAR, which is reported to be September by GameStop. All signs are now pointing to the fact that both of these companies will go to war for the top slot this fall, and it seems that neither plans to back down.

This should be of great concern to EA/Mythic, if it wants to ever have a chance to claim victory over WoW. Beating WotLK to the launch date is the best opportunity to snag some of Blizzard’s content-craving gamers whilst running dry on Outlands adventures.

Both of these releases have plenty going for them. Besides being an entirely new game with new (albeit familiar) content, WAR introduces several new, enticing aspects. Among these are customizable characters (for example, you can wear trophies and guild indicators), realm vs. realm open combat (with keeps containing NPC defenses), and Tomes of Knowledge (a one-stop shop for stat-tracking and general info). Meanwhile, aside from the standard new areas and instances, WotLK introduces the much anticipated Hero classes–as of right now only the Death Knight–and a new Inscription class.

With the inevitable MMO battle drawing closer between WAR and WoW, you would almost think Blizzard was releasing an entirely new game and not an expansion. But this is only a display of power that is behind the force that is driving Blizzard’s successful MMO. Hope might still lay in Warhammer’s established fan base–especially for its tabletop games. Nevertheless, EA/Mythic is certainly the underdog in this fight, and had better hope they can exploit a potential chink in Blizzard’s 8.5 million links of armor.