When you're working on something that involves a lot of detail, such as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), you need to have proper documentation. EA Mythic Content Director Destin Bales readily admitted this. In fact, he explained what went into the company's ten thousand page strong portfolio.

Bales mentioned that the document may be outlined in three parts: the lowdown on what WAR is all about, the primary development features and risks, and the schedule, staffing and resource requirements.

On top of the actual portfolio, Bales also noted that EA Mythic makes use of zone design documents. These basically help the team to keep WAR as WAR - the documents outline everything about zones in great detail. According to Bales, this is usually done in three steps:

1. The Writing Team does a brief story for each individual area.
2. The World Design Team sketches out the basic layout of the zone.
3. The Quest and Encounter Teams plan out the content and commence with the designs.
   

Basically, the purpose of the entire thing is to help guide the EA Mythic team every step of the way. Every point, every idea is documented and evaluated for future reference. That way, development on Warhammer Online remains focused and centered, as it should be.

Bales even included an excerpt of the back story on Mount Bloodhorn, straight from EA Mythic's humongous pre-production document. If you'd like to read it, feel free to click on the source link below.