This must be one of the nicest features I've seen in a MMO. Guilds in Warhammer Online gain experience and ranks, just like players. This happens when guild members complete quests, take part in realm versus realm combat and so forth. At each new rank your guild unlocks newer features like Standards, Heraldry, ability to tax your members, tithes, tactic slots and so forth. You get vaults, guild calendars for events and all the goodies that go with it. Including special trainers and merchants in your Guild Tavern, teleportation scrolls that take you to your guild tavern, etc.

So yes, I joined Underworld Knights on my Chosen last night and what an awesome guild it is. Within about 5 minutes one of the guild members was offering me the remaining two pieces of my Tier 2 set piece. The Mythical (Better than Purples in World of Warcraft equivalent) pieces to complete my Obliterator set. I offered to pay, but was told that it's not how it works in this guild, members help each other even if they're new. I was stunned.

For those of you that follow Warhammer Online, there is now a Renown Rank 80 player in the game. That is the highest possible Renown Rank gathering an astonishing number of renown points.

If you do not know the game, it works like this. You have two possible ranks. One is your class rank which ranges from 1 to 40. This is your "level" in terms of PvE content. You also have a renown rank which ranges from 1 to 80. Your renown rank cannot be higher than your class rank. You gain renown points for killing another player, winning scenarios and taking Battle Field Objectives, Keeps and Fortresses and so forth. It is very similar to your Honour Points / Arena Points in World of Warcraft.

As his reward for achieving that rank he has gained a static +20% damage bonus. Now the interesting snippet and the core of that discussion centers around his play time. Slototh has played 59 days solid since the game release.

In the past couple weeks, I have seen the warhammer bloggers balloon and in the couple days I've seen signs of it shrinking. I've talked to players in game both vowing to stay, and others pledging to let their sub run out. With WoTLK right around the corner, what are you guys going to do? I'm on the fence at the moment.

Marauder...

In the beta I looked at them and though "meh". I didn't want a rogue. They are my second least favourite class in WOW (mage being lowest on my list) when it comes to having fun.
Today I decided to try a melee character and contemplated the Chosen a long time before I finally settled for Marauder for some strange reason I can't really put my finger on. Sleep deprevation, fever and intoxicatingly high levels of cafeine perhaps?

Anyway, Ranwulf came into being.

I guess there's more of you you there in the ether creating several character, trying to find one that just scream "I'm the one you want to play!"
I know I am... Which explains me trying out (and discarding) several character this weekend. In WAR, naturally.

You all know Greebo from my former topic, but I have one more screenshot of him that I wanted to share with you:

The quest you see me working on is done at the top of the citadel Chunderpants mentioned earlier. You're asked to knock down a stuntie (dwarf), put him in a barrel, then knock him off the tower and into the lake at the bottom.
What makes it even better is that I had 2 ranks earlier examined several "shaking barrels" at the edge of said lake only to find naked, angry dwarves inside with no explanation about how they came to be there. ^_^

But, onward to my other characters...

Dat's right youse stunties, I's da boss here, an' don't go on fergettin' dat or I's squiggie here'll have yer guts fer eatin's.

Dis here be me. Now git outa me face youse weakies...

So I bought WAR yesterday. Yup I'm an easy touch and despite my unshatterable resolve to wait and see what the reviews were like, I crumbled like a 3 month old dried out doggy poo which had been laying in the sun too long.

Soooo, I was futzin' around VeCo forums and wandered onto Warhammer Beta NDA Lifted by one of the TGC peeps. A quick glance-through at the rest of the thread sort of piqued my curiosity so I popped over to YouTube. (even though i've put the embeds here, i'd suggest watching the "higher quality" versions since the "standard" is, really, for crap.)

*cough* Hehe, for kicks and grins - Black Orc (set to a dance track, apparently, but footage is footage):

The WotLK cinematic.

I have to say that I expected something more "epic", but then I actually prefer this more sombre/ironic approach over a BC-like slideshow of various races/classes.

I also watched the new (at least for me) Warhammer cinematic trailer yesterday. It looks neat, methinks. They do seem to use every fanboy luring tactic in the book, including all-time favourites such as the Legolas-like elf chick, the half-naked sorceress, and the uber bad guy with the huge spiky armour with lots of skulls and thingies, but I kind of like the darker atmosphere.

And to say that I thought Sarevok to be borderline 10 years ago! Times have changed.

With no intention of playing the game, I felt myself swayed by the glossy newsletter that arrives in my Inbox every once in a while. It was a tossup between the Magus of Tzeentch and reading about the random words on their crafting system for convincing me that I needed to part with money for this. But then I sat down and pored over the Collector's Edition details and to be honest, that is what a Collector's Edition should be about. Let me explicate myself.