MMO Weekly 27/01

Hello friends, and welcome to the very latest episode of MMO Weekly!  Just like always, we cover the oddest, weirdest, and funniest stories in MMO gaming (we throw in a bit of actual news, too!) for your entertainment pleasure.  C'mon inside, get yourself a cup of grog, and listen to the tales of epic adventure!  Or epic dorkiness!  Whichever!

There's lots and lots of Warhammer news this past week.  First, the Warhammer Grab Bag went up, explaining those frustrating game mechanics you never really understood.  Second, the PR and design teams all went to South Korea, to promote the launch of the game there.  Korea should be a great market for Warhammer, as they are simply voracious for both competitive PvP games, as well as MMOs of all kinds.  Since Warhammer is a competitive PvP MMO, it combines the best things into one, and should be like catnip to your average South Korean gamer.  (Oh, and on the flight to Korea, veteran Warhammer PR guy Josh Drescher got vomited on.  Way to go, Josh!)

Beyond all that, there is a Warhammer mystery brewing.  Venerable Warhammer blog The Greenskin received another of those oh-so-mysterious packages from Mythic this week.  You'll probably remember that Keen and Graev had received a similar package last week.  The Keen and Graev package contained a package of hair dye (orange) some hair clippers, and a promise that more would be revealed at the end of January.  After a bit of research, Keen and Graev determined that the package was hinting that the Dwarf Slayer (They're offensive warriors that don orange Mohawks.  Get it?) would be introduced into Warhammer late in January.  

A bit of background:  prior to launch, Warhammer had cut two melee DPS classes – one from the Destruction side, one from Order - from the game.  WAR fanbois and fangurls, of course, utterly freaked out when these cuts were announced, but Mythic vowed to restore both classes to the game for free.  Since Mythic has a rock-solid reputation for keeping their promises, it was only a matter of time before two new player classes were restored.     

The package at The Greenskin was a similar hint in that same vein.  The big exception, of course, was that this hint didn't point to the Dwarf Slayer.  The items sent to The Greenskin included a copy of Predator (yes, the Schwarzneggar film), a note that read simply “Go To 1:16:06”, and a promise to reveal more at the end of the month.  

What's at 1:16:06?  It's the famous scene in which Arnold screams out “Get to the chopper!  Get to the chopper!”  The kicker, of course, is Arnold's pronunciation of the “chopper”.  He enunciates it more like “choppa”.  In light of Keen and Graev's findings, this led The Greenskin editors to conclude that the Orc Choppa would also be introduced into Warhammer at the end of January.  

How will all this pan out?  It's very hard to say with any accuracy.  While the Dwarf Slayer and Orc Choppa would fulfill Mythic's promise to restore two DPS classes to the game, these hints may yet be pointing to something else.  Whatever occurs, a few surprises are sure to be in store.  More can be found here and here.

Age of Conan also made some MMO headlines this past week, and it wasn't good news.  First, Funcom announced that their in-progress spy-based MMO, The Secret World, as undergoing a serious overhaul.  The producers indicated that these changes were a response to the success of World of Warcraft.  They felt that TSW needed to be substantially different from WoW in order to be successful, and was thus being overhauled.  While additional details were scarce, this has to be in response to the spanking that Age of Conan has been taking at the hands of WoW and other MMOs.

Speaking of Age of Conan, it seems that development of the game for the XBox 360 is...well, progressing slowly.  It had been thought that the 360 version of AoC was nearly complete.  Funcom developers backed waaaaay off that expectation this week, stating that a “small, dedicated team” was working on the game, and that it would be done when it's ready.  When will that be?  The developers definitely weren't saying.

The “I'm So Gamer” video circulated this past week.  Is it a parody?  Is it genuine?  You be the judge.

Is it possible that Chewbacca has possessed a piece of furniture?  This guy thinks so.

As if you needed another reason:  Reason #83 that gnomes are really, really creepy.

If you think that the teen vampire show Twilight meshes perfectly with WoW (and who doesn't?), then this guild is perfect for you.  

Somehow, gold ads for WoW began appearing on the WoW official forums.  Now THAT is awesome ad placement, folks.  

Plain Sight is an MMOish robotic planetary-conquest sword-fighting shooter.  Wanna give it a try?  It's in open beta, and the gameplay is so innovative it might very well be worth your time.  More details about the game can be found here, and the client can be downloaded here.  

And last, but not least, we have Felicia Day.  She appeared on the late night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and taught him how to play WoW.  Felicia, to be sure is into it.  Jimmy....not so much.  Check out the video in full right here.

And that's all for this week, friends.