Recently MMORPG.com announced the winners of the 2008 Reader's Choice Awards.
In the voting for Best New Game, 4252 votes were cast. The editorial nominees were: Age of Conan, Atlantica Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea , Warhammer Online, and None of the Above.
Of all of the categories, this one presented us with the tightest race between two nominees. Mythic’s Warhammer Online and the ominous None of the Above category battled it out with WAR coming out on top with 33% of the vote. 3% more than None of the Above.
The voting broke down as such:
› Age of Conan
13.0%
› Atlantica Online
18.6%
› Pirates of the Burning Sea
4.8%
› Warhammer Online
33.2%
› None of the Above
30.4%
Warhammer Online launched on September 18th, 2008. The launch of last year’s first runner up in the most anticipated game category may have experienced a couple of push-backs, the removal of four of the game’s capital cities and careers, and a studio name change or two, but when the game finally hit shelves, players who had been anxiously waiting for the new RvR offering from Mythic Entertainment were not disappointed as the game came online with few, if any, glaring hitches. Warhammer power leveling is not the only focus any more; the player can experience more epic battles.
Warhammer, with its chewy RvR core, provided a departure from the same old, same old that people have been complaining about. Sure, it’s not the sandbox experience that some players are looking for, but at least you have, from the moment you step into the game, a number of advancement options open to you that allow you to depart from simple quest grinding. The War power leveling is difficult and attractive for experienced players.
Did Mythic launch a perfect game? No. As with any new MMO title, there are issues to be worked out, bugs to squash, and kinks to iron, but this year, MMORPG.com readers have voted and decided that it was the Best New Game of 2008 and because of its closest competition, the very least that you can say is that it’s literally better than nothing.