What I said about the game’s future development being hard to foresee still applies. Mythic went with a smart strategy by previewing the game in small chunks. They show some little bits of the game just to entice, then wipe the characters and take down the servers again. They show just enough to test the stability and make you want more, but without spoiling it all.

It’s very hard to understand how the game will do in the longer term. There are issues of factional balance and overall RvR flow, there are issues of character growth. Most of these remain completely hidden at the moment and this situation would encourage a prudent approach to the game.

What I suggest, though, is contradictory. If you want to play this game, do not wait. Play at release. Despite the bugs, servers going down and all sort of problems, the most fun in a MMOs, especially a “social” one like Warhammer, comes from being there with everyone else and enjoy the rush. Get over the bugs, have some patience, but do not wait.

The best tip is to start when everyone else does and try to keep up. Don’t level too fast, don’t level too slow. Find a server that is well populated because waiting in a queue can be preferable of getting stuck in Public Quests or RvR due to the lack of players.

I don’t expect Warhammer will do a big splash. Despite the feedback is much, much better than the one preceding Age of Conan’s release, the amount of “noise” and interest doesn’t seem as high. For the kind of game it is, the potential is in a slower growth, over time. A better retention overall. Piercing through the release of WotLK is the biggest challenge for this game.

The problem, again, is that this potential slow growth is crippled by the game design itself. Because if from a side the game promotes the socialization and collaborative gameplay like no other MMO in the market (and so that slow growth in subscriptions I expect), from the other it cripples it because as the playerbase moves through the content and levels the new players will find a game that is a lot less welcoming and vibrant.

Warhammer’s biggest strength and biggest weakness in one.