Introduction to The War Z

What is The War Z

The War Z is an open world zombie survival horror video game developed by Hammerpoint Interactive. The War Z features both first person and third person shooting perspectives. The game offers players the option of killing zombies or playing against other users (PvP). The War Z can be purchased and played online without the need for a ongoing monthly subscription with free updates. Players can however purchase cosmetic, and convenience items such as private servers, or additional weapons and ammo, that they would otherwise have to find in the game. The War Z has dedicated public servers accessible by all players in addition to player purchases private servers. The game runs on the Eclipse engine (not to be confused with BioWare's engine of the same name) made by Arktos Entertainment.

The War Z began its closed beta on October 2012, and was fully released on Steam December 17, 2012. Two days after the launch (December 19, 2012) the game was removed from Steam due to player complaints regarding features implied on the webpage that were not currently available in the game. After rectifying the issue, The War Z was again made available for purchase on Steam (February 26, 2013). The game has since received extremely negative reviews from professional critics.

FUN FACT: all the screenshots on http://www.playwarz.com/media.html are false. There are no NPCs in yellow outfits cleaning bodies There is no prison like structure with a mass grave near it.

Availability

Originally, The War Z could only be purchased from www.TheWarZ.com. It was later released on Steam, where it was pulled off and then months later put back on with most of the claims gone from the store page.

Servers

It was originally claimed that the War Z would have servers from 70-250 players. Currently the game has 100 player servers.

Engine

The game runs on the Eclipse engine made by Arktos Entertainment. The Eclipse engine is also used in the game War Inc Battle Zone.

The game runs on the Eclipse engine (not to be confused with BioWare's engine of the same name) made by Arktos Entertainment.

Controversies

In October 2012 executive producer Sergey Titov referred to spawn campers in The War Z as "faggots" in a forum post. A representative of the game's press team issued a statement saying that Titov has no prejudice against homosexuals and that it was just a poor and inappropriate choice of words.

On November 15, 2012, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sent a letter to the game's publisher and developer stating that the request to trademark the name The War Z had been suspended. The cause of the suspension was the close resemblance of the game's name to the title of Paramount Pictures' upcoming film World War Z. On December 24, 2012 Titov responded by saying that he doesn't think that the trademark has been suspended even though the USPTO lists it as suspended.

On December 17, 2012, Hammerpoint Interactive launched the "foundation release" of the game on Valve's digital distribution platform Steam. Sergey Titov stated in a press release “Now that we’ve reached the Foundation Release milestone we will continue to work, as promised, to add features and content that will satisfy our community and keep them playing.” The developer was accused of attempting to get customers to buy the game directly from their website rather than Steam's platform by claiming that they would be raising the price of the game on Steam.

Following the game's release many customers accused the developers of fraud because of key features that were advertised but not featured in the game. The game was initially described on Steam by the developers as containing certain features, such as multiple large game worlds varying in size, a skill point based leveling system, player versus environment combat, hundred-player servers, and private servers, none of which were a part of the game at the time. The Steam page was updated within 24 hours of release, but still mentioned features not yet in the game. Titov defended the way the information was presented by stating that the map size and player limits fell within the ranges shown, e.g., "Size of the area, once again, come on—[the] first map is over 100 sq km. So [the] text is right." However, an independent analysis by PCGamesN.com estimated the actual map size at just under 10 sq km. Titov also claimed that players had misread the information about the game's features on the store's page.

The game has also received criticism for using a pay-to-play business model while including the micropayments frequently seen in a freemium game. On the day of the game's launch, players could respawn one hour after their character died. On the following day, Hammerpoint Interactive released an update that increased the respawn time to four hours and added the ability to instantly respawn for in-game currency that is purchased through microtransactions. Two days later, a patch was released that returned the respawn time to one hour.

When questioned about the complaints received, Titov responded by saying that the customers complaining were a minority and "As of right now over 93% of our customers like the game, with over 40% saying it's perfect and around 50% saying it's good, but they'd like to see more polishing and features."

On December 19, 2012, a Valve employee stated that they would be investigating concerns raised by users about censorship and moderation on Steam's forum. The concerns were directed towards a developer of the game who was accused of banning Steam forum users unfairly for criticising The War Z. On the same day The War Z was temporarily removed from sale on Steam's store, with Valve issuing a statement saying "We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build." Valve also said that users could submit a ticket for a refund if they weren't satisfied with the game.

On April 2, 2013, OP Productions announced that The War Z game and forums had been taken offline as "hackers gained access to our forum and game databases and the player data in those databases." Hackers gained access to user information such as email addresses, character names, IP addresses, and encrypted passwords. No payment information was stolen, though it was noted that simple passwords would not be hard to extract from the stolen data.

Press release feature list

None or very little of what Hammerpoint originally claimed, turned out to be true. Before the War Z was allowed back on Steam, most of the claims had to be removed.

• currently 1 map of roughly 10km squared
• Two modes of play: Normal and Hardcore
• Combination of first-person and third-person perspectives
• Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player)
• Strong Role Playing Elements on special servers
• Multiple playable characters with customizable features
• Unique social elements, including bounties, help requests, trap setting, etc.
• Safe Settlements where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for *other players
• Dozens of unique skills that can be learned and improved
• Up to 100 players per game server
• New weapons and items become available as players explore the game world
• Little developer support with occasionally scheduled hotfixes
• Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client
• Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions
• Pay to Win
• 1 Hour Cooldowns between death
• Hackers are a constant problem that is currently being fought to fix