40K Eternal Crusade or is it Eternal Cash Grab?

Anyone remember the first attempt at a 40K MMO? It was called Dark Millennium and was being developed by THQ. Well, long story short THQ went under, but Dark Millennium was getting the axe before that happened. There was barely any video of game footage released and it just ended up being vaporware.

Warhammer Age of Reckoning utterly failed as a MMO, mostly thanks to EA. Sucks because I bought into that game early and beta tested it quite a bit. What a crock of shit.

Stepping away from MMOs for a second, Dawn of War 1 was pretty good, Dawn of War 2, not so much. I understand DoW 2 was a reskinning of Company of Heroes but it just didn't work well. Bloodbowl was actually pretty good, they didn't try to do anything crazy with it, they just translated the board game to the PC, turns and all included. This pretty much ends the list of good games.

Other games using the GW IP have been pretty horrid. Remember Space Marine? That game was nothing but subliminal advertising to get you to buy more Space Marines. I swear the most times I heard the words Space Marine said in a minute in that game was 37. "Get the Space Marine!" "Looks it's a Space Marine!" and on and on. Fucking hell that got old quick. That game was nothing but bolter porn, and that's being nice.

Want to really laugh? Here's a list of all video games released that used GW's IP:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Games_Workshop_video_games

Wow, there's some real classics in there, Battle March? I poop socked while playing that game! Glory in Death? I still play it to this day! Storm of Vengeance? Screw Heroes of the Storm, this is the super elite pro MOBA!

As you can clearly see, video games based on GW's IP have had a piss poor record. The majority of them are flops and some were canceled because even the designers realized they sucked.

So now a company called Behavior Interactive is developing 40k: Eternal Crusade, which is a MMO. Yea, a real note worthy studio, everyone's heard of them! They've worked on absolute masterpiece games like Doritos Crash Course, High School Musical: Making the Cut!, The Awesome Kimpossible Series, SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton's Robotic Revenge and last but not least Doritos Crash Course 2! So as you can see the game is in great hands.....

Now they've launched a Founders Program, which can been seen here:
https://www.eternalcrusade.com/founder-store

The model for the game is apparently buy to play (you buy the game and don't have to pay monthly fees) with a free to play option, but you only get to play as an Ork Boy. Founder's Packs start at $40, which is decent, but they top off at $450! What does $450 get you? I have no clue! It looks like in game money that can be used in a different cash shop for items. So it appears you get to unlock a different store to spend money in after you run out of the founder's pack money, wow!

Look, I understand MMO pay models, the company has to make money somehow, but some of this just doesn't sit right. You can pay $35 to gain access to a different weapon in the Rouge Trader shop, like a limited edition bolter. But it's only for access to that item, you don't even get it for that price!

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here, but stay clear of this future train wreck for the time being. Putting out these expensive ass founder's packs and promising early access to something we haven't seen too much video of this early into development is throwing up flags left and right. I'm pretty sure this game will continue the GW video game tradition of being canceled or just plain sucking.

I would have more faith in this if Brad McQuaid was in charge........ lol

The More Things Change....

The more they stay the same?

Recently there has either been announcements or rumors about new rules editions for various table top games. Warhammer Fantasy Battle is moving on to 9th Edition. 40K is rumored to be coming out with 7th Edition this year. Infinity is coming out with 3rd Edition (I didn't even know they were on second...). Firestorm Armada came out with 2nd Edition last year. So did Malifaux.

Do these new editions really change the game all that much? I can't speak about Infinity because I really don't much much about the game or FSA because I haven't played it in ages, but I can speak about the others, to some extent.

WFB 9th edition. The only new thing I've really heard is that they're moving the story line ahead, which is a great idea. I love how Privateer Press does this with Warmachine/Hordes. Every new rule book that they release moves the story line along. I'm still waiting to see what the hell is going to happen with Karchev! Other then that, what will really change?

40K and 7th Ed, or 6.5, or 6.1 or whatever the hell people are going to call it is odd. It's been 2 years since 6th Ed came out. GW did go a bit overboard with the additional rules and supplements and what not so I can see the need to try to reel all that back in with a new edition. I will be honestly shocked if they move ahead the story line, because it's been stagnant for years upon years.

Malifaux 2nd Ed was advertised as being a streamlining of the rules set. While it did this it also changed things around quite a bit in my opinion. The whole list building mechanic that was added to the game kind of took away from the charm Malifaux had in 1st edition. Everyone knew what each character did but now in 2nd you can build out your characters differently. Considering Malifaux is a character driven game it just took that charm away because now my Perdita could be totally different from your Perdita.

Now looking at WFB and 40K, my opinion is GW's new editions just rearrange thing around. No matter what they do you will still be rolling on the same table for ballistic still, weapon skill, strength against toughness etc.... The same system that's been used for almost 20 years, and I think it's really starting to show its age.

I believe that other systems out there are much better than the old GW roll on a table system. Warmachine/Hordes has you roll 2 dice (or more if you boost, weapon master etc...) and you add a score to it and compare it to a score an opponent has. Malifaux is very similar but you use cards instead of dice. Dreadball and Deadzone only has you roll against your own ability scores, so you don't even need to know your opponents ability scores to play the game.

The other issue with new editions is how they impact supplemental books, such as codices, army books, stuff like Planetstrike, etc... We all know GW is not on their game with keeping all of their armies up to date. Malifaux took months to get all of their masters and crews updated to 2nd edition. Companies need to keep this in mind when they decide to move on to a new rules edition.

So the point I'm trying to make is, do new rules editions fundamentally change the game or is it just lipstick on a pig? Is it change just for change sake? Is it a way just to make more money?

I find it to be a case by case basis and I know first hand how an edition change can just turn someone off from a game. GW edition changes fall under the lipstick on a pig and more money categories. Malifaux seemed to be change just for change sake.

This just makes we wonder how long will games like Warmachine/Hordes, Deadzone and Dreadball will go before a new edition. And when they do, just don't do it for the sake of change or for a quick buck.

New Fantasy Wood Elves

It pains me to do so, but I like to give credit where it's due. The new Wood Elf Treemen looking amazing! They're pretty fucking expensive (well it is GW after all, duh) but I'll always give credit when a company puts out an excellent looking model, and these are. It is always nice to see an army that hasn't seen an updated in god knows how long get some attention. I know Dan (from TEW) is probably excited.

If anything, I might have to try to obtain one and maybe use it as a counts as for Circle in Hordes, lol.

Here's the link in case if you haven't seen them yet.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer?N=102351+4294967192&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=phl&view=table