Let's all take a moment of silence as another long running MMORPG takes its place in the annals of history. Mythic Entertainment has officially shut down the servers for its Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning title. This termination is coming just months after the game celebrated five years of service.
The main focus of the title was realm versus realm multiplayer, which had gamers battling against one another to capture and defend points across the game's world. It received great accolade in 2008, including some awards from IGN, Gamespy, and G4TV, and some believed that it might become the "next best MMORPG" thanks to EA's impressive bankrolls, Mythic's solid development skills, and Game Workshop's creative and imaginative Warhammer universe.
Unfortunately, it failed to put much of a dent into the massive community that had already flocked to World of Warcraft, and after Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King, Mythic's hopes of domination all but ceased. The developer had planned to release a free-to-play version, as well as an expansion titled "Blood Hunt," but neither idea came to fruition. "WAR," as it was affectionately known to fans, managed to sell 1.2 million copies in its first two weeks, but unfortunately Mythic ran out of time and resources to keep what many consider to be a beloved PVP experience alive.
Above is one of the screenshots from a "final war" that developers set up for players to enjoy. Mythic released the following statement about their five-year run,
"We here at Mythic have built an amazing relationship working with Games Workshop creating and running Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning over the last 8 years," Mythic said earlier this fall. "Unfortunately, as with all licensing deals they do eventually come to end and on December 18th, 2013 we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online. As such we will no longer be selling 3 month game time codes or have the ability to auto renew your accounts for 3 months as of September 18th, 2013."
Any players who may have purchased time cards or were paying for "in-game time" will receive full refunds, and more information regarding the shutdown can be found on the official website's Refund FAQ's page.
If you're having a hard time letting go, you can still play on a private server, like this one that is currently in open beta. There were only around 95/1000 players online at the time of writing this article, so it definitely isn't as "epic" as the official Mythic servers were. Still, if you're itching to play this is your only option.