Warhammer Online beta

By Robert Purchese Published 31 May, 2007

Sign-up now to take part.

French MMO outfit GOA has announced that sign-ups for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning are now open.

It coincides with the launch of the new European website in the build up to the game's worldwide launch in early 2008.

To join the beta test you simply have to fill in a few forms and register on the site. But don't be too hasty, because you'll need to upload your system specifications, which requires you sitting at the computer you want to play the beta on.

There's also no word on when the testing will actually begin, although we expect it won't be until autumn time.

Warhammer Online is in development at EA Mythic, and is being co-published by GOA and EA. It's an MMORPG that takes part in the familiar world of lead figures many of us painted as nippers - and maybe still do. Here Order and Chaos are firmly at war with each other, and you'll take up the fight on one of the two sides.

It's one of the big hopefuls in the genre, and like World of Warcraft and Lord of Rings Online comes complete with a strong brand association.

We had a little peek at it earlier this year and found it to be a unique and interesting offering. Head over to our Warhammer Online first impressions for more information.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Keso #1 5 years ago

    Anyone else having problems signing up?

    When I try to attach my DxDiag.txt file, it attempts to upload it but then displays the following message:

    "An error occured, we are unable to process your request. (code 417)".

    Any ideas?

  • Pike #2 5 years ago

    Warhammer? It's that World of Warcraft knock off, right?

  • Grobi #3 5 years ago

    Try the other way around Pike.

    I'm signing up for this, although I doubt my pc will be able to run it. :,(

  • ZuluHero #4 5 years ago

    its got some neat ideas of its own too you know - and given the licence, it has the potential to compete or even topple mighty Blizzard.

  • Pike #5 5 years ago

    Nonsense. It's obvious that this company is stealing everything from Blizzard. Shameful really.

  • mingster #6 5 years ago

    Lol.. what came first W40K or WOW...

    and yes the correct answer is... W40K

    You lose PIKE

  • Grobi #7 5 years ago

    I don't know about that Pike. The game might look similar to WoW (and why shouldn't it) but WoW shares elements from Dark Age of Camelot and other MMO's that were before its coming. Games are generally just copies of copies of copies after all with little things tacked on to change them.

    If your talking about the universe then I'm sorry to say Warhammer was actually around and kicking long before it. I could give more historic context if you want? Although searching on wikipedia or google will turn up a lot of information too.

  • Pike #8 5 years ago

    When I troll I expect people to be abusive, and not reasonable, Grobi. Please edit your posts and make them more abusive.

  • mingster #9 5 years ago

    He's obviously just young and nieve Grobi ...
    forgive him.

  • Grobi #10 5 years ago

    Hey, we all have to share the internet, so why not make it a place of love and joy instead of angry nerds quibbling about tiny insignificant things?

    What does everyone actually think about the upcoming game anyway? Any sort of apprehensions or hopes? I know that there are already guilds popping up (such as the Bugmans Finest all dwarf guild).

  • Pike #11 5 years ago

    Bah!

    Well, too be serious for a moment, I don't really have any big hopes for this game. It seems far too PvP centric for my tastes. I prefer the more PvE oriented approach of WoW.

    To me that also indicates that Warhammer won't be the game that knocks WoW off the throne. I get the impresssion that it's geared morte towards a hardcore demographic, while WoW's approach is more appealing to the masses. I also think Warhammer fans overestimate the mass martket appeal of the brand. Warhammer has a far nerdier image than Warcraft ever had. Unless the game turns out to be rubbish it will be a success, but it won't break anyrecords.

  • ZuluHero #12 5 years ago

    im hoping that it translates well into an mmo. Theres a huge amount of written lore and background, but it needs to feel like Warhammer and that includes large-scale battles! }:D

    I wonder if it'll be a cross between Warhammer Quest and Warhammer as Quest was more focused on a single character and dungeon exploration.

  • ZuluHero #13 5 years ago

    @Pike

    "Well, too be serious for a moment, I don't really have any big hopes for this game. It seems far too PvP centric for my tastes. I prefer the more PvE oriented approach of WoW"

    So by that reasoning, LOTRO should be the ideal game for you? ;)

  • orakio #14 5 years ago

    I have high hopes for this game. I'm not 100% sure it'll deliver, but what good will it do not to be excited about it at all?

  • uiruki #15 5 years ago

    When I registered, it didn't work in Firefox. IE worked fine though.

  • absolutezero #16 5 years ago

    Thats me signed up.

    "while WoW's approach is more appealing to the masses"

    Yes thats why every major patch Blizzard adds content that about 5% of the uber-base will ever see. While leaving everyone else to run about and do the same old shit over and over and over and over.
    Edited by absolutezero at 31/05/07 @ 16:15

  • MGG #17 5 years ago

    "When I registered, it didn't work in Firefox. IE worked fine though."

    Grrr, you mean it doesnt work in WWW standards, not "it doesnt work in Firefox". Dont give in, dont use IE, send them an email and tell them to fix it! We want working web standards, *NOT* MS "standards".

  • orcane #18 5 years ago

    horrible registration page...

  • Rafeage #19 5 years ago

    I've played most mainstream MMO's at some point or other (WOW, star wars, ect) but they've never kept my attention for more than a few weeks. I'm even Giving CoV another go with that free key and it's really not doing anything for me.

    Seeing as this is Warhammer though, this stance could change. As long as I can make a Dark Elf that looks like Malus Darkblade :-)

  • El_MUERkO #20 5 years ago

    /hugs pike, its ok we still love you, you're safe

    /touches ass

  • Rafeage #21 5 years ago

    oh yeah and am I the only one who see's the irony in that blizzard ripped off Games Workshop's fiction for warcraft/starcraft then GW ripped off blizzard for gameplay in DoW? And the exact same thing is happening with this and WoW?

    Probably not

  • Grobi #22 5 years ago

    Ripped off gameplay for Dawn of War? Which game did they rip off?

    I think Warhammer online will be like an upgraded version of Dark Age Of Camelot, probably with the successful features from many other MMO's (WoW included) with something new thrown into the mix for good measure.

  • Rafeage #23 5 years ago

    well, ripped off is being a little harsh, but being obsessed with DoW for a couple of years then playing warcraft 3 I did notice a huge amount of similarity between the two games. The Starcraft reference was more to do with the fiction.

    I never played DAoC but given the ones I have had a go on I'd say WoW seems to be the most similar :-)

    Although now thats been said I'll give DAoC a look-see.

    /tries to speed up time so can leave work and sign up for Beta

  • absolutezero #24 5 years ago

    Itll be a race between you and me to see who can create a character called Darkblade first then :p

    Might make a Witch Hunter called Ravenor just to see if you people throw a hissy fit or not.

  • Lovemoose #25 5 years ago

    I stopped applying when they asked for "Personnal Information"(sic)

    V. poor

  • ZuluHero #26 5 years ago

    Its ok - they use these types of sign-ups to whittle out the people who can't be bothered. Its fairly indicative of the type of player that endures the sign-up process, is usually patient with the game during beta.

    For people who just want to try out an mmo for free, this system will put some of them off.

    I’ve seen far more arduous ways to ensure a usually coveted place in a beta, which includes very active beta-forum participation with some companies expecting people to post almost daily.

    I'm done with trying to get into MMO's still in an early beta stage. While i used to enjoy helping to improve the game experience by finding bugs and such like, i often don't get the game at release. Its sometimes very off-putting to see a game in an early state, and it does have the knock-on effect of making the game feel less like a "world" and more like a..well... game. :p

    With MMO's its important to players that it feels like a living breathing world.

    For people who want to see the game in an almost 'finished' state, i recommend waiting for a Stress-Test, or an Open Beta, otherwise you are likely to be either disappointed or dissillusioned with the game, before it truly has time to take shape! :)

  • Lovemoose #27 5 years ago

    To be honest ZH, it wasn't so much the amount of info they need that put me off. I just find it hard to believe they can make a decent game if they can't spell the word "personal" properly ;)

  • ZuluHero #28 5 years ago

    oh lol - i never noticed! Woops /blush :)

  • MGG #29 5 years ago

    @Lovemoose - you should read most games source code if you think thats bad spelling!