Almost every gamer knows World of Warcraft, the massive MMORPG from Blizzard. However, there is another world that is more mature, dirtier – and better, as MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus believes. It’s about Warhammer, and the popular WoW almost played there too.
I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost 18 years and love the game for its humor. Blizzard has really done an excellent job here and built a world that I love to dive into. Elves, dwarves, orcs… High Fantasy is simply the best setting for an MMORPG.
Unfortunately, WoW often lacks the bite. The world often feels clean and nice. Sure, occasionally a corpse hangs from a tree, and the undead are quite a gruesome sight. Still, WoW does not fully tap into its potential to really depict the brutality of war as a “world of warcraft” could.
I know this, because such a better fantasy world already exists.
The older I get and the longer I play WoW, the more I wish that Warhammer had been more successful and today would be the biggest MMORPG. The thought that this almost happened is all the more bitter.
Especially Immortal Empires for Total War: Warhammer 3 makes me more and more excited about the great universe. You can watch the trailer here:
Warhammer is fantasy for adults
Warhammer is the competing universe to Warcraft and is even significantly older. The Warhammer tabletop was released in 1983 – 11 years before Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the first iteration of Blizzard’s strategy game.
The worlds are very similar, which may be due to the fact that both are heavily inspired by The Lord of the Rings. The similarities go even further: Many races are identical or at least very similar, and their archetypes overlap significantly.
Dwarves, for example, divide into different clans through their traditions, which inhabit different parts of the world. Elves are divided into multiple races, some embody pure magic while others represent the connection to forest and nature.
Even the gods and villains are similar, but Warhammer has a crucial difference: It is dirtier and meaner. Every race is initially racist, or rather: speciesist. Everyone hates each other, and alliances are based on expediency, not on real trust. Warhammer goes further where Warcraft does not dare to.
The idea of a world that is completely and continuously immersed in war comes through much more clearly in Warhammer. The fact that the greenskins exist solely for war, literally multiply like fungi, and follow gods that belong to the “WAR!!!” pantheon is strong evidence for that.
The brutally hard Warhammer: Vermintide 2 or the acclaimed Total War: Warhammer 3 show quite well how such a rough and brutal world can be implemented in video games without being tasteless.
This, by the way, is not just my opinion. Blizzard itself originally wanted to make a Warhammer game, as former Warcraft chief developer Patrick Wyatt explains in an interview with Kotaku. According to him, Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham actually wanted a Warhammer license. But then things turned out differently.
A new Warhammer game, Darktide, is coming soon—but in the Sci-Fi universe 40K, not in Fantasy:
Superman is the reason we’re not playing World of Warhammer
Why Warcraft ultimately didn’t become a Warhammer game can be explained quite quickly. Before Warcraft was created, Blizzard had already produced 2 licensed games, together with Detective Comics (DC), as Wyatt explains:
- The Death and Return of Superman from 1994
- and Justice League Task Force from 1995
The Death and Return of Superman was in fact the first game released under the Blizzard name. Prior to that, the game studio was called “Silicon & Synapse”.
The two superhero fighting games didn’t fare particularly well with the audience. For this reason, many of the developers at Blizzard back then resisted creating another foreign world and being bound by rules.
The Blizzard team wanted to create its own universe, and so Warcraft was born – albeit heavily inspired by Warhammer. And you can’t deny the success of the studio; after all, WoW is probably why everyone knows Blizzard today.
So why didn’t Warhammer hold its own? Well, it did. It just didn’t work.
Warhammer does many things better – unfortunately not Games Workshop
Games Workshop, the company behind the universe, created Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning with developer Mythic in 2008, its own Warhammer MMORPG. However, it didn’t last long.
By 2013, the servers were shut down again – officially because the license was not renewed. However, Warhammer Online is said to have attracted very few players, which could have been due to the game’s clear focus on PvP.
Many MMORPGs have already bitten the dust against World of Warcraft:
The decision is somewhat surprising, as Games Workshop is actually known for distributing the Warhammer license to almost anyone. There are dozens of Warhammer games in all possible variations: role-playing games, shooters, strategy games, hack and slay…
Even a second MMO attempt is being made. With Age of Sigmar, a new MMORPG for PC and mobile is set to be released, this time focusing on PvE. Whether that will run better remains to be seen.
However, it seems that the larger interest is in Warhammer 40,000, the science fiction offshoot of the universe. Here, players often spend hundreds to thousands of euros just for the tabletop. The universe is also accompanied by video games, books, and more.
Still, it is hard to understand why Warhammer Online had to die again. Since the closure, fans have simply continued to run their own server and still provide updates even 8 years later. Warhammer Online seems to still enjoy some popularity. Just not as much as WoW.
Warcraft has something that Warhammer lacks: Blizzard
The fact that Games Workshop is focusing more on 40K and less on Warhammer Fantasy may be due to the fact that Warcraft is now the larger and more well-known fantasy universe. And honestly: Without Warcraft, I probably wouldn’t even know Warhammer.
Would Blizzard be as renowned today if they had made World of Warhammer? Maybe, maybe not. The developers back then really had something to offer. But Warcraft was probably their canvas to showcase their skills comprehensively. Without limits.
Still, I am sure that the Warhammer universe has much to offer that no one has really wanted or been able to explore yet. Something that could dethrone World of Warcraft.
Unfortunately, things turned out differently back then, and Allen Adham’s idea of a Warhammer game was never realized. It would have been great if Blizzard had gotten the license and Games Workshop had given them all the freedoms.
Just a perfect scenario. But the world is not perfect – and that’s why we play World of Warcraft, and not World of Warhammer.
By the way, I am sure that at least one famous celebrity would agree with me:
Witcher star Henry Cavill plays Warhammer and has to explain that it is not World of Warcraft
