With over 700,000 beta testers signed up for EA Mythic's epic fantasy MMO title Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the developers are currently in full swing, testing many of the different Campaign aspects the game will feature. The forces of the Empire and Chaos square off in war-torn areas of Talabecland and High Pass as the war slowly approaches the Empire capital city of Altdorf.

The current phase of testing began during the second week of April and ran until the second week of May. This round of the closed beta will determine the fate of Altdorf and will test various elements of the RvR Campaign. Several features were tested extensively and included:

• The first version of our in-game mail system
• Siege Testing
• Campaign Testing
• Fortresses
• Altdorf
• Twelve Careers with Career Mastery.

The testing phase was divided into two parts. The first portion focused on the updated PvE content and careers. The devs noted that players should make it a point to test the new career mechanics with templated Rank 20 characters.

The second part of the test focused on the overall campaign itself. The bar was further raised and the devs allowed the creation of templated Rank 40 characters to test Open World RvR, Fortresses, and Keeps. It was important for them to collect feedback and data on how actual Campaigns were played out.

As an added bonus, the developers revealed some interesting background correspondences, which add some amusing local color into the RvR aspect of the game. Each of the major factions participating in the current phase gave their own in-character output regarding the state of the current "war".