Warhammer Online: 750,000 Strong and Growing

a quick gaming update from Renzie Baluyut.

No doubt about it: the whole gaming community's tuned in to the latest on what Blizzard has to offer on BlizzCon this weekend. But Mythic reveals the latest figures on its own MMORPG title- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning- which hit shelves just last September 18.

At the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, Turbine CEO James Crowley delivered a keynote address, and announced that EA Mythic now pegs the registered player total for the fantasy MMO title at 750,000. That's a full quarter-million up from when Warhammer Online came out just less than a month ago.

Already, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning may be "the fastest-selling new MMO of all-time," as EA Mythic claims. But can it sustain its subscribers after a couple of months?

Funcom's Age of Conan- another MMORPG- racked up a fairly impressive 400,000 subscribers in its first week upon dropping in stores. Three months after launching however, while Funcom may have sold some 800,000 copies of the game, only 415,000 subscribers stuck around.

Both Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Age of Conan will be up against some pretty stiff competition in a few weeks. World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, comes out on November 13. WoW already has at least 11 million subscribers to its name- and those numbers are expected to shoot up once WotLK hits shelves next month.

Cheers, everyone!

Have You Checked Out The World of Warcraft Comics?

Here's something every World of Warcraft gamer can appreciate: a whole bunch of World of Warcraft funnies- 15+ pages of comic strips- right smack in the WoW Official Website Community Page, which you can check out right here.

I gotta credit my girlfriend for pointing this one out to me. Yes, she plays World of Warcraft- heck, even more so than I do. Just the other night, she was checking both our accounts to see which ones needed renewing, and she stumbled upon the motherlode of WoW humor.

We eventually ended up reading them all. Of course some were funnier than others, but it was great to know how there are so many passionate players out there who came up with all these great strips.

You can see all kinds of renditions of familiar World of Warcraft character archetypes- some anime-ish, some intentionally drawn crudely- the variety in itself is a testament to WoW's universal appeal.

It seems that World of Warcraft players have been submitting these funnies since May of 2006- that's exactly 2 years ago- and more seem to be coming in. We're both looking forward to seeing more of these entertaining comic strips.

So next time you check out your World of Warcraft account, take some time out to browse through the rest of the WoW Official Website. Drop by the Community Section and check out the comic strips. Good times, man.

Cheers, everyone!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Gaming.

That's right, welcome to my world.

Welcome to the world of a 34-year-old self-professed geek- who, by day, slaves away at a regular job and does business like most radio executives, but by night, hunkers down in front of yet another PC and dives into role-playing games.

That's right. I work hard so I can play. I work to pay my monthly World of Warcraft fees. I work to check out Datablitz (the local gaming software retailer) to see if the new game I've been waiting for is already out. I buy gaming merchandising when available. I get other people to play. And now, I'm blogging about it.

This blog- Renzie on Gaming- gives you my personal perspective on games, gaming gear, games marketing, and the gaming industry, and how the gaming industry affects the rest of the world. My personal perspective, ladies and gentlemen. Ultimately, this is all about what I think, and what I care about.

You're all welcome to stick around and poke around if you like. I even encourage you to leave a comment or toss around an idea or two. It's all cool.

See you guys around. Cheers!

Back To Guild Wars!

OK. This whole day job is eating into my otherwise perfect gaming lifestyle. Two-and-a-half months ago, I was contentedly satisfied playing my World of Warcraft- until I was hit by the stark realization that, yes, the gaming lifestyle needs to be supported by a steady source of income. So I begrudgingly returned to corporate slavery to generate the resources required to keep on gaming.

And here comes the announcement of the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Ahh. I have such fond memories of Guild Wars. It was the very first MMORPG I got into (since I was very much working at the time). I've started playing in early 2006, and I've worked my way through the Prophecies campaign, the Factions expansion, and then the Nightfall add-on.

They say that Eye of the North is Guild Wars' first REAL expansion. What exactly they mean by that, I have no clue. But whatever it is, it sure sounds a whole lot better than the first two. Yay! More Guild Wars action for everyone!

Guild Wars is a great game for people who have work. While, yes, World of Warcraft is just as entertaining (or arguably more so), you'd like to be able to make full use of the gaming time you're paying for every month. Unlike WoW, GW is free-to-play (after your initial purchase, of course). And unlike LOTS of other free online games out there, this one actually kicks ass. The storyline is very engaging, the character development allows you for lots of customization, the quests are appropriately challenging, and the game has incredibly high replay value. Getting both add-ons (Factions and Nightfall) gives you a lot more quests to play with, additional storage space, four extra character slots, improved henchmen and so much more. Oh, and it looks and sounds good too.

So just before I go get myself a copy of Eye of the North, I'd like to back and revisit the lands of Tyria, Canthia and Elona. Spend some time with old friends, make some new ones- getting myself in the mood for a lot more Guild Wars action. Let's play!