Adeptus Auctores: PAX Imperium .

In the grim darkness of distant Seattle, there was only a brief period of carnage and slaughter, but still the laughter of thirsting gods.

Transparency is the best route to a fans heart. Hype and faith can substitute for many things, but truth is stronger still.

The Laughter of the Gods

If you have some time today, I suggest to spend it checking in with the angriest Joe since Brother Joesephus purged Gamorax. Angry Joe and his team sat down with a number of press to get their hands on the pre-alpha version of Warhammer 40k Eternal Crusade.

Angry Angry Man

How pre-alpha? There isn’t even a patcher for it. Any earlier in development and you’ll actually be standing in a Games Workshop throwing dice.

What I enjoy most about the footage and action recorded by Angry Joe and from what you can hear of Ten Ton Hammer and others in the room is … well how organic it is. People get lost, people wander off. Miguel has to make corrections about where people go and what to do to get the demonstration done. For the price of 55 minutes of time I get to see why Miguel was so excited to have him visiting and why Angry Joe himself is excited.

In short you get to hear the same sort of experience I had myself in Cologne, though sadly I didn’t have the demo to drool over. There isn’t a PR filter or Publisher laying between you and the game colouring what we see and hear. Faith, excitement and hope are present of course, but that will always be the way when you have fans looking forward to something they really really want.

It wasn’t just the forces of the Angry Army or the Ten Ton Hammer there either. MMOGames had Nick Shively check out PAX and get his hands on the game for some early impressions. Check it out here.

Planetside

The scale of the battles is still ahead of us. In a way that is probably the thing I am missing most from having such a look into the early work on the game. The pre-alpha footage, the weekly twitch streams, they are all utterly fantastic in terms of involving fans and press in the actual progress of the game but …. there’s only so many people around at a given time.

There will come a day in the reasonably near future when people will find themselves with a selection of massive army sci fi properties. Planetside 2 (Long may the Vanu dominate Auraxis), Eternal Crusade itself and eventually CCPs Project Legion.

For me that has always been the lure and the ever so slight weakness of an MMOFPS. Unlike say EVE Online which seems to have another crazy story every few months, the joy and narrative from a massive war comes from your own actions and the little stories that happen amongst a few small people.

During the video above and in other venues you will have seen Assault Marines doing a little wall jump for extra air. That’s a fantastic little thing to slip in for us, but what I am really looking forward to is a bunch of people pulling off an over the top jump assault aerial ballet.

Suffer Not The Alien To Live

The Road to Arkhona is still long at the moment but at least we can rest assured that it will get shorter with each day. It’ll make the wait bearable because it’s the little stories I want to have. The tales of a clever assault on an Eldar base or the time that a squad of MMOGames fans turns back an Ork attack.

Awards, Rewards And More

While Angry Joe can take you through most of the PAX events, I think I shall take you through a quick round up of other details.

First and foremost, before we talk community things, a very Happy (but belated) Birthday to the Eternal Crusade Community Manager Katie Fleming.

Secondly talking about both Katie and the community, the entries for the Descent to Arkhona competition are being read over. Here’s hoping that something Eldar wins the grand prize. Not because I personally have any love for the tall aloof Xenos but because they deserve some small tidbit for being the poster child for Dying Race & Hubris.

If you missed out on the chance to bend words to the glory of the Emperor or whichever foul God you serve, there is another fan competition coming up. No details as yet, but there is a poll surrounding the tools to be used for it here on the official forums. So if words weren’t your path to victory, perhaps pictures will be.

Finally in the little community round up, if you are looking to get into the game and want to join via a referral code like this, the Eternal Crusade Reddit board continues to gather referral codes for people to take advantage of and join the crusade.

If referrals aren’t your thing and if you were suitably impressed by the awards being garnered by the game, as shown here with some of them coming from MMOGames from different writers, there is our brand new give away competition.

We are teaming up with the Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade team to give away 5 more of the Warrior Founders Packs!

If you would like a chance at winning all you have to do is follow MMOGames on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Once you are following whichever social network you prefer, share and/or retweet our announcement of the giveaway to be in with a chance to win. You can improve your chances by entering in all three of course, and to the winners go the spoils.

As ever I have been your servant, your Adeputs Auctores. Join us in a forthnight for more from the community and more from Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade.

Thought For The Day: Blind Faith Is A Just Cause