Video game publisher THQ and tabletop game publisher Games Workshop have already enjoyed great success since 2004 with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, the popular real-time strategy game based on the gritty and brutal Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe.
Today, the two publishers are announcing an extension to their licensing agreement to work together on new projects, including a Warhammer 40,000 massively multiplayer online game.

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I know a few people here expressed an interest in a 40K MMO, looks like we get our wish. I just hope they do it justice.

f*** this could be totally awesome

Well, All I can say is that I hope they get a good mmog developer on board. IMO Mythic should expand and work on this :)

edit: oh great, so they got vigil doing it, with zero MMOG experience -_-

last edited by casa at 14:01:05 02/Mar/07

I have zero expectations for this with Vigil making it

also.. isn't this the mmo that looks just like wow woth stupidly nintendo lookin' characters? bleh. warhammer 40k is supposed to almost be horror sci-fi... not blingbling bounce bounce pixie man with bright blue & red voodoo lights fx! extra-bleh.

Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning is the MMo that Mythic are making. It's not 40k.

The screenies for that Warhammer Online game look cool. The artwork is damn nice.

I hope this turns out well but chances are it will be dongs.

What's the diff between Warhammer and Warhammer 40k? (aside from the obvious answer, 40,000)

I'm the biggest Warhammer expert going round and Warhammer is like warcraft and 40k is like futuristic.

oh right, so its like 40,000 as in, 40,000 years in the future. SIMPLE!

dont see it doing very well with vigil making it. least their will be WAR to play :)

least their will be WAR to play :)

hellsf***enyer

Whats wrong with Vigil? Sure, as a company they might have "zero" experience, but they're made up of ex NCsoft people, so they have MMO experience between them. Blizzard had zero MMO experience before WoW too and they managed to make a moderately successful game.

Personally, this is the MMO I've been waiting for someone to announce, I'm completely and utterly over fantasy s*** now, I still enjoy WoW, but its pretty much filled my quota for MMOs with a fantasy setting. I've been waiting for a good sci-fi MMO, because there hasn't really been one yet (and yes I know about Neocron and Anarchy Online and Eve, but I did say "a good sci-fi MMO), and 40k is such a great sci-fi setting full of head kicking brutal awesomeness. Pity its still so far away though :(

major noob question here, but where did "Space Hulk" fit in with this warhammer 40,000

while i don't know anything about warhammer 40,000 i do know "Space Hulk" was a great PC game back in the 90's.

really scared the s*** out of me...

this might be the first mmo for a long long time that i might consider paying a subscription for...

in a nutshell space hulk fits into the warhammer 40k universe as so:

• ships can travel through warp space


• some ships get lost in warp space (for whatever reason)


• lost ship might contain valuble stuff (info, relics, etc.)


• space marines in terminator (aka tactical dreadnaught armor) get sent in to retrieve phat lewt

i wonder how they are going to design it

are you a commander of a space marine batallion?

are you 1 soldier?

sounds promising

i wonder how they are going to design it

are you a commander of a space marine batallion?

are you 1 soldier?

Eldar, Tau, Chaos Marines, This game has potential.

wouldn't playing a marine work well with a guild kinda system pave?

major noob question here, but where did "Space Hulk" fit in with this warhammer 40,000

It's a really narrow view of the warhammer 40k universe. It's still awesome cool though.

i wonder how they are going to design it

are you a commander of a space marine batallion?

are you 1 soldier?

You'll probably start as a member of one of the major forces with the ability to progress into one of the hero classes.

If we are lucky, you'll start off as a minor hero class and work your way into being a major hero - because, for the most part, 40k doesn't support much in the way of progression.

I.E. it would be extraordinary for someone to go from being a space marine to a librarian in the same chapter, rather he wouldn't have started as an inexperienced librarian and gotten more awesome over time. Also, it is totally impossible for someone to go from the Imperial Guards into a Space Marine Chapter.

As for the leading armies idea; The way most MMO architecture is set up, putting people in charge of entire military units isn't feasible. Without doing some pretty homoriffic short cutting, the los calculations alone would probably stop military sized NPC units.

librarians are found when they are kids and trained to be librarians from the word go, so yes that couldn't work

yeah i didn't think commanding a company of space marines was very feasible for a mmo

librarians are found when they are kids and trained to be librarians from the word go, so yes that couldn't work

All space marines are trained from a very young age. IIRC for their implants to 'stick' they need to be prepubescent. Actual space marines start off being teenagers - scout marines - and individually they are more powerful than most conventional weapons (I think a base scout marine is slightly tougher than a base orc).

The same kind of goes for most classic elements in 40k, an Eldar banshee will always be an Eldar banshee no matter how long they fight. They might one day become a squad leader, but they will still be a banshee.

This, in my mind, is probably two of the largest design challenges (when it comes to expectation management) ...
A) Why is any element of 40k running around by themselves. With the exception of very few hero's (like inquisitors), everybody runs around in military units. It would be hard to handle a nub zone of space marines where 400 scout marines are running around by themselves slawing s***.

B) How do you handle progression within the game that doesn't break cannon and doesn't give you the star wars galaxy of "I just want to play a Jedi Knight, not some random s***c***", of course in 40k replace Jedi Knight with one of the multitudes of awesome, yet everyday, unit elements.

yeah i didn't think commanding a company of space marines was very feasible for a mmo

Some problems that come up from architecture models, that would allow mass unit command, are a dependency on a phenomenal number of processes which are either on the server (a massive cost), client side (a massive security hole) or possibly just lame arse homosexual short cuts that would look so very dodge (flawed user expectations).

Nothing I've said is unsolvable, and I'm sure that the guys making 40k are looking at models to solve them. It should be interesting to see the development over time.

I don't care if they fudge the rules a little to make it work in an mmo setting, I mean they fudged the rules a little (or, a lot) in Dawn of War and I loved it. I just love the setting and the story and stuff behind 40k, I think it'd make for an awesome world to base an MMO in.

I don't care if they fudge the rules a little to make it work in an mmo setting, I mean they fudged the rules a little (or, a lot) in Dawn of War and I loved it. I just love the setting and the story and stuff behind 40k, I think it'd make for an awesome world to base an MMO in.

The thing that makes me wet about 40k as a MMO is the lore that sits behind it. The thing that makes me limp about 40k is that the easiest way to design and engineer a MMO means you've got to break s*** loads of cannon to do so; wading though heaps of lore as you do so.

What I'm afraid of is a total rape of the lore and cannon of the 40k universe to cash in on the 40k name.

dont worry im sure Vigil will be working very closely with GW just like how Mythic is with WAR. Mythic has to ask GW what they can and cant put into the game.

I remember as a kid getting in WH40k. I got a space marine squad and a bike. Painted about 3 before giving up, but I always did enjoy reading the Codex book. So much detail in the hierarchies and ranks. Tons of cool artwork.

I doubt I'll ever play an MMO again, but it's nice to see a futuristic one being made.

I remember as a kid getting in WH40k. I got a space marine squad and a bike. Painted about 3 before giving up, but I always did enjoy reading the Codex book. So much detail in the hierarchies and ranks. Tons of cool artwork.

The lore and background stories are the best thing that Games Workshops produce. Seriously, if people think that Blizzard have a lot of lore, they are going to be totally f***ing blown away when they read the lore of GW. More to the point, GW can actually keep most of their law in tune.

while i don't know anything about warhammer 40,000 i do know "Space Hulk" was a great PC game back in the 90's.

really scared the s*** out of me...

man, i remember space hulk

it was an excellent game

it desensitised me to fear

half tempted to find it and play again but i just know i'd be disappointed

yer, same here

sux when you go back and revisit something awesome from yesteryear (moofie/tvshow/game) and it just doesnt live up to your memories

i think ill just leave it as awesome in the past

man, i remember space hulk

it was an excellent game

My house mate Xyzzy and I bought up Space Hulk as an awesome example of 40k done right. Unfortunately, Space Hulk 2 is a depressingly good example of how developers take what seems to be minor design short cuts and ruin a franchise.

sux when you go back and revisit something awesome from yesteryear (moofie/tvshow/game) and it just doesnt live up to your memories


i think ill just leave it as awesome in the past

Wise words. I remember loading up Paradoid about 10 years after I used to play it thinking "this is going to be so awesome, it doesn't matter that the graphics are primitive the game play is so awesome!" and learning that I am, in fact, a minor graphics whore.

yer, i wish i had never gone back and watched highlander either

as a young fella it was just about the best moofie evar

when i watched it recently, it was terrible :(

yer, i wish i had never gone back and watched highlander either

as a young fella it was just about the best moofie evar

when i watched it recently, it was terrible :(

I'm really careful about going back and revisiting old classics I loved as a kid. I remember the Wise and Hickman's "Dragons of" dragon lance saga's and I loved them. When I was a bit older I thought, oh I remember that tear in my eye when Sturm sacrificed his life ... I'll read it again. Only to find it was drivel.

It's a horribly scaring process :(

Actually, whats kind of worse is following an author for years and then suddenly waking up and thinking "HOLY f*** TOM CLANCY, YOU'RE A f***ING DOUCHEBAG".

typo, you should try Project Paradroid.

i downloaded dialbo i (the shareware version) a few months ago
had a craving to hear the guitar thats in the music for the town level
and sean connery say 'stay a while and listen'

forgot all about the fixed walk angles, not to mention the fixed walk speed

i think diablo was the only game where the hero refused to run from anything

typo, you should try Project Paradroid.

Holy s***!

it was so cool though back in the day rash, you got to admit

way better atmosphere than diablo 2

All space marines are trained from a very young age

yeah but not all of them have psychic abilities :p

yeah but not all of them have psychic abilities :p

The vast minority of them do. In fact, most psychics are taken to be sacrificed at the golden throne.

The vast minority of them do. In fact, most psychics are taken to be sacrificed at the golden throne.

If they aren't outright killed by the local Arbites etc for being a potentially demon loving warp fiend, and are picked up the Black Ships of the Inquisition, yeah, probably so.

I've recently gotten back into 40k, mainly because of the whole developing fluff side of thing, and the simple fact of reading a whole heap of 40k books (eg, Gaunts Ghosts series, etc), has gotten me back into it. Played in a tournament the other weekend actually, good fun.

I'll look forward to this, providing it doesn't get canned in the meantime, though with THQ behind it and the success of the Dawn of War series, it shouldn't get canned.

I look forward to seeing 90% of the players using power armour, just like the real 40gay!

I look forward to seeing 90% of the players using power armour, just like the real 40gay!

Even first company marines don't wear terminator armour all the time.