Welcome to the Warhammer Online Grab Bag, where your friendly neighborhood community manager will answer the most popular, and most interesting, questions in a new regular feature. Many things aren't yet certain, so try to be patient with us. Trust me - we're as eager as you are to see the features finalized, so that we can hear what you've got to say.

Grab Bag #15

Q: I would like to know what your belief, as a company, is when it comes to customer suggestions. Do you plan to stay in tune with the community well after release? Are any suggestions being made on the many community forums making it into the game?

A: We definitely plan to stay “in tune” with the community long after release. As long as there’s a game, we'll be out on the various fansites and forums reading what you have to say. I personally have an official presence at all the major fansites out there. As more spring up, I register on them as well. I visit all of them daily, reading and gathering feedback and even posting. Along with our extensive fansite interaction, we will also have a web-based feedback system for the community to send feedback emails directly to the community team, which will then be read, tracked and reported on to the Dev team.

Q: Will Warhammer Online have a similar system to Realm Points and can we expect to find player/guild rankings on the Herald?

A: Yes, WAR has a system of Renown Points and we fully plan to take what we started with the Camelot Herald up a couple of notches for WAR. Stay tuned for more details!

Q: What new updates could we possibly see in the new WAR Herald as compared to the Camelot's Herald?

A: We originally set the bar with the Camelot Herald. Now just about every game has leaderboards and such on their community site. We're looking to re-establish our leadership and set that bar all over again with the WAR Herald. While I don't want to give anything away this early, you will definitely be pleased with what we have planned.

Q: I keep hearing reports and rumors that the first phase of beta has started. Is this true?

A: Yes. Actually, we are in Beta 2 and it includes external testers (i.e. those not employed by EA or one of our partners) for the first time. It was a fairly small round of initial invites, compared to what we plan in the future, but we are definitely underway, so keep your eyes peeled!

Q: I won a closed beta spot at [insert event/contest/etc here]. Why wasn't I invited in the first wave?

A: The first wave of beta only contained members of our internal forums, our 'trusted testers' who have been with us for years now, and friends and family of EA Mythic employees. Winners from our various events and contests will be added shortly, with more and more newsletter subscribers being added throughout the summer and fall.

Q: When will the next round of invites for beta go out?

A: We will continue to add people to the beta as we need and can fit them in. We all know what happens when you set a hard date for something like this, so I won't do that. But it will be soon, so watch those inboxes and keep reading the newsletter!