Even though I am not (particularly) amazed by what Mythic has done with Warhammer, I can honestly say that the game has made me really excited about what kind of MMO games we will be able to see in the next couple of years.
Of all games on the market today, MMO games are the most limited by available processing power. The processing power (in particular) that has been limiting these games has been server-side processing power because, when you’re trying to create an environment for 1000+ users, each user can only get a tiny-portion of available processing power.
World of Warcraft was impressive for its time because it provided a rich environment which was (about) as dynamic as an early 90s PC RPG … NPCs could walk around a little bit (for example), and create an environment that didn’t feel amazingly stale. Warhammer takes this to the next level and the world is becoming more dynamic and interesting.
Over the next couple of years, server hardware will get to the point where a MMO can have the level of dynamic and rich environment that only (really) started to become possible with previous generation consoles and the PCs of their time. With a company (like Blizzard) who can polish a game to an absolute glistening shine you should be able to get some really impressive games.
