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Lagwar Presents! Show #12 is here for your listening pleasure. This week Brilen and Ziss present Lagwar’s Guild Spotlight on ExtraWAR, from Warhammer Online. Simply use our built in player, Lagwar on iTunes, or you can simply right click on the download link above and select “Save Target As.” Then when prompted, choose a location on your computer you would like the file to be saved to. Then listen and enjoy! Please be sure to leave iTunes reviews and/or comments. We love feedback!!

ExtraWAR is a part of the MyExtraLife.com community, made famous by their World of Warcraft podcast The Instance and the AIE guild. Lagwar has no doubt that ExtraWAR has every bit of potential to become Warhammer Online’s AIE guild and beyond. Brilen and Ziss sat down with Scott C, ExtraWAR’s most fearless Ork and guild leader.

Here’s an overview of Show #12:
*Lagwar’s Guild Spotlight on ExtraWAR
*Brilen and Ziss sit down with Scott from ExtraWAR to discuss the guild and WAR
*Over 45 minutes of audio from our ExtraWAR interview
*See our separate written interview with ExtraWAR below

Subscribe to Lagwar Presents! at the iTunes store today! Please send us your feedback, comments, suggestions, or guild and clan info to Show@Lagwar.com.

[Scott] ExtraWAR is many things. A group of friends, a guild, a community if you will. When I sat down to think about this guild a lot of things went through my mind; things like, How will I find the time for this, What kind of money is needed, where will the people come from (I.E. members). I wanted the BEST, so that’s where I went….to the BEST community on the internet; Scott Johnson’s ExtraLife. I’ve been a part of Extralife for quite a while now, see, I’m such a big fan of comics and webscomics etc. so when I found Scott Johnson’s website it was like a home away from home for me. I was trolling the usual forums and I just couldn’t get this off my mind, why not take advantage of what is already set up here? What brought it on…..It’s kind of funny to explain this but, it was seriously a spurt of the moment kind of thing. I was listening to the Instance and scott gave a shout-out to his typefrag sponsorship and I got to thinking of how much I missed my old ventrilo server I had with some buddies back in d&d and battlefield, css, etc. I went and called a couple friends and we got on it and started chatting. It’s all $$ from there =) We have 88 members but some of those are initiates so we actually have about 65 registered.

[LW] Who all was involved in the creation of ExtraWAR? Was it spontaneous or was it in planning while WAR was in development?

[Scott] The creation was pretty much spontaneous. I really just fed off of the past; I was SO big into PC gaming in High school that I almost lost touch with reality. I was a big old kid that didn’t care about anything except getting home and playing some guild wars. I stopped playing for a year, got my life in order, and decided to come back and do this right. After the guild idea was formed and I bought the ventrilo, web host, and domain (which I was ecstatic about btw, I mean, how cool is ExtraWAR), I got together with my friends, Meister and Brandon, and I told them that I was going to form this guild and they pretty much supported me 100%. Meister, Brandon, and I all come from a pretty big PC gaming background; and we all have our niches. Brandon is the big melee guy, meister is the healer or ranged dps, and I’m whatever they want that can fit with the group =) We’ve been playing games together since the 7th grade and we pretty much know the in’s and out’s of our individual playstyles. In guild wars I felt that we were pretty much an unbeatable 3 man team, depending on if Brandon and I felt like aggroing worse than Leeroy Jenkins (which we did quite often fyi). I think that’s why meister got so good at healing.

[LW] What other games do some of the ExtraWAR members currently reside in?

[Scott] O….wow, great question. I’m glad you asked it because I specifically put a “what games do you play” question on the ExtraWAR application so I could get a taste of where our members are coming from here. There’s no simple answer, I would literally be sitting here for hours naming what people have put down. Some notable games would be TF2, COD4, BF2, CSS, WOW, GW, EQ2, LOTR, COH/COV, etc. We have quite a bit of…uhh…”older” gamers, some of our members are in their 60’s so I’ve seen people put pong, excitebike, tetris, centipede….it’s actually kind of funny to me, but that’s just my generation I guess.

[LW] How would you say WAR holds up to other games in the genre?

[Scott]I am completely amazed by this game. It is hands down my favorite MMO I have ever played (and I’ve played quite a few). I love comparing this game to other games in this genre simply because it just makes me smile thinking about how lucky we are to sit here and play a game of this magnitude. It’s funny that most people want to compare this game to WoW, they are completely different games. Theres a reason why world of warcraft have so many people paying monthly. For one, they pretty much stole Game workshop’s ideas, and two, it is SO user friendly. WoW is the best PVE game created, It immerses you in this world that you want to explore; you don’t feel as compelled to do something in a competitive manner. Where as WAR is so PVP based it compels you to strive for the best, you don’t want to beat around the bush, you want to get out there and whoop some butt to get the better gear to defeat the opposing faction. It’s all about bragging rights and taking down other real people….and that is what makes it different from others. Guild Wars tried this, and ALMOST succeeded. I say almost due to the fact that it still felt like a hassle to get into the 5v5 and the faction battles. With WAR, you turn the corner and can see a high elf over the horizon and start to battle right there.

[LW] How would you compare the PvE in WAR to other games? The PvP? Also, can you pick one thing that really makes WAR stand out in a world full of fantasy MMORPG’s?

[Scott] The PVE in WAR is pretty much the same as other MMO’s…I don’t see too much difference in that aspect. You get the quests, you kill something, you bring it back, you move on…etc, etc. It’s not supposed to be the most amazing new concept in PVE, EA Mythic wants you to move on to the challenging Renown aspect that they built this game around. You can see this in the game because as you advance, there’s less pve areas and more pvp. The PVP, as I touched on earlier, is absolutely the best I’ve ever seen integrated into a mmo. The reason why this is, is because the devs did not just “integrate” a pvp mode into a regular pve oriented mmo. The sole focus of Warhammer is one thing, one word, WAR. If there’s no war, then why the heck are you even playing? What’s your motivation? The reason why the PVP in war is so spectacular is that WAR is really everywhere.

[LW] Any specific reasoning behind your server selection?

[Scott] Kind of. For one, Wasteland is a sweet name for a destruction based guild. Another big reason behind the server selection would be the headstart. If you go back and look at the servers available to the collectors headstart, you’ll notice that Wasteland is not on there. The reason why we wanted one that wasn’t on the collectors is because we didn’t want our guild to fall behind. We wanted to start out on an even plane with everyone else, while still getting to play a little early.

[LW]What’s your opinion on the “living, breathing guilds” of WAR? Does it work? And is it really that different from how guilds work in other games?

[Scott] I remember every bit of anticipation, frustration, and excitement as we tried to get enough people to the capital city to form the guild. Before we made the guild I really had no clue to expect. I’ve never been a guild leader before, Meister has always done that. I knew that I was going to have a lot of options when it came to the guild but I’ll never forget my jaw dropping when I opened the guild leader tab for the first time. The guild system in WAR is amazing, I love the guild leveling, I feel that we as a group need to work hard constantly to see our rewards. The ability to capture keeps, form our heraldry, advance in status…its all fantastic concepts. This does not just feel like a group of people with guild chat like it did with wow. This group is a powerful, living, breathing unit, that can conquer anything in a matter of minutes if were working together.

[LW] What’s ExtraWAR’s status in-game currently? Can you give some details about what experiences and adventures you’ve had so far?

[Scott] Sure. We are currently about guild rank 10-11 at the time of writing this and we have had some great experiences already (although the best is to come.) We all usually get together and do some public quests together, this usually happens 2-3 times a week but its not really scheduled. We attempted to take down the dungeon in the Inevitable City…..that wasn’t a good idea. If you watch the guild video you’ll see my tanking failing miserably. The one great thing we have going on is a little something I coined “Midnight RVR”. Every Saturday night we get together and attempt to do some RVR together. We also just voted on a new night that is once a month, we call it “noob night”, its just a night where everyone goes back or jumps on alts and helps out all of the new members in the guild. It helps us get to know everyone.

[LW] Where does ExtraWAR hope to go in Warhammer Online?

[Scott] I want this guild to be one of the most recognized guilds in the game. Now, whether that means we are the best, or just the most fun does not matter to me. I simply want the best community possible, and if we whoop some butt on the way so be it. We have a good amount of really competitive people in this guild, I think that you’ll be seeing this guild in the future; I have very high expectations.

[LW] Karl Franz or Grumlok?

[Scott] Haha, Grumlok all the way. If you go to our website you’ll notice right away. I’m a big orc fan =)

[LW] If you could tell Mark Jacobs NOT to do one thing with this game in future developments that may be popular in other games, what would it be and why?

[Scott] Dance Emote. Haha, no but seriously, I would probably personally strangle him if he made the currency more important in this game. I love the Diablo factor, the fact that it does not matter how much money you have in this game. Gear = Glory. I can just see Mark Jacobs attempting to make the professions and auction house better, only to completely screw up and make it just like every other mmo where money = happiness.

[LW] How often do you expect to see Mythic deliver expansions for Warhammer Online?

[Scott] Hopefully Never. Ok, maybe like 1 every 3 years at the most. I’ve had my share of expansions with guild wars, thank you very much PlayNC. In my opinion, If I’m paying monthly for a game, I shouldn’t have to shove out even more for extra content.

[LW] Do you have any interest in the Warhammer 40K MMO that’s currently being developed?

[Scott] Definitely. And don’t be surprised if we want to make an ExtraWAR division for that game. I feel that the 40k universe is flawless and It would probably be a really cool environment. However….it’s not going to happen…I mean, come on, THQ? Yeah right. I have low expectations for it personally. But, interest? Yes.

[LW]For people reading this interview, how would a player gather more information on recruitment into the ExtraWAR guild?

[Scott] Well you would start by visiting our website at ExtraWAR.com. There you will find links to our forums, ventrilo information, application section, comic strip, store, etc.

[LW] Is there anything ExtraWAR would like to throw in this article that hasn’t been mentioned?

[Scott] I am so happy to be a part of this game and this group of people. We have such a great group of people I feel like I’ve made quite a few friends that I might have never met if it had not been for this community. I urge you all to come hang out with us. Feel free to apply for the guild regardless of if you play warhammer or not, jump on in the ventrilo and come chat. We’re all open to new people and we talk about pretty much anything. If you’re still thinking about WAR or are still waiting for reviews and fixes, don’t. Go out and buy this game, its worth every penny.

If you’re interested in helping the guild out, you can use the paypal link on the website. That money goes to funding our web host and ventrilo. You can also check out our store or feel free to leave suggestions for anything on the forums. You can also contact the officers as well as myself at extrawar@gmail.com