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Are you looking for the latest industry headlines? Look no further.

1. Daily Column
2. New MMOG Articles at TenTonHammer Today
3. Hot Content
4. Real World News - You Can't Make This Up

1. Daily Column

CCP, the developers of EVE Online have defended their game and their honor in a straight-up, in-your-face post that I'm sure Goonfleet never expected. Goonfleet is the guild of SomethingAwful.com readers who have banded together to spread their unique flavour across the Net. It is the group that CCP believes caused this controversy in the first place.

"Since last Friday, an unnamed corporation posted over 4000 times on EVE's message boards concerning these allegations. In addition, 1046 posts were made on Digg.com; 235 comments were added on Slashdot; and made multiple EVE-related edits on Wikipedia. Each of these sites was hit within a few hours of each other, at the start of the three-day Memorial Day weekend in the US and a three-day weekend in Iceland, all referencing unfounded allegations — now proven to be false — that occurred three weeks ago or longer.

The volume and timing of these near-simultaneous references is no coincidence: we were the target of a carefully constructed and well-timed social engineering effort by one of the largest player groups in our community. The intention? To undermine EVE Online and the credibility of CCP Games.

More specifically, the objective of this scheme was to permanently paint CCP as a biased and corrupt company that favors a select group of players over the rest of our community. In this particular case, instead of receiving notification of a possible problem and sufficient time to examine and address it, we faced a coordinated and hostile attack executed on our forums, Digg, Wikipedia, Slashdot, and other outlets at the beginning of a three-day weekend. We believe this speaks volumes of the intention of the person(s) responsible for orchestrating this scheme. Verification of this can be readily found on the forums of the people responsible—or at least could, the last time we looked.

Claims that the goal of this effort was to expose corruption within the company cannot be taken seriously. They are simply a smokescreen intended to mobilize and use the EVE community against CCP. There is no evidence to support the claim of information sent to CCP concerning internal corruption and wrongdoings on the part of our employees is being systematically suppressed.

The fact that this attack took place over a holiday weekend was especially revealing of motive, which we believe was specifically by design to ensure that CCP would not be able to react as fast and efficiently as we would under normal circumstances. The allegations investigated above by this internal affairs department will also be examined by our legal resources, as we do not intend to sit idly by while our servers, community and reputation are under attack. "

According to the EVE Online website Goonfleet has 2,756 members. The SomethingAwful.com forums have approximately 100,000 members.

It's no secret that a portion of the SomethingAwful crowd like nothing better than playing the role of asshole. It will be interesting to see how the SA crowd react to CCPs accusations.

You know you love to watch a train wreck.

2. New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

• Interview With Cindy Bowens, Former Vanguard Community Manager
  "Back in February 2006, many of us were surprised when the Vanguard development team announced that Cindy Bowens had left her position as Community Manager for Sigil Games Online. Kat "Lady Sirse" Spink, recently had a nice chat with Cindy about her experience as a Community Manager in this ever growing and changing industry, her new ventures, and her take on what happened with Sigil Games.
• Dungeons and Dragons Online: Custom Build - Sniper
  "The rogue is often considered to be a very poor combatant. However, by taking the correct feats (and adding a couple levels of fighter), they can be quite deadly at range. Learn how to make a rogue like this with Darkgolem's custom build, The Sniper!
• Dungeon Runners: Goes Live, Screenshots And Press Release
  "Dungeon Runners has finally been released! With a strangely quiet last few weeks of beta, the free-to-play fantasy MMORPG from NCsoft has now leapt into the limelight. In order to explain how the game's content and "membership" works, NCsoft has released a press release with several images attached. The Ten Ton Hammer team quickly descended upon the press release and images, posting them online for our readers to see. Enjoy!"
• Gods and Heroes: Tyrrhenian Shores
  "Ever wanted to know what to expect from and in Tyrrhenian Shores? Well wonder no more! Charabis has gone out and collected some fun information on the places you can visit there, as well as the types of people and creatures you can find."
• Lord of the Rings Online: Interview With Jeff Anderson
  "New interview for you all! We managed to get Jeff on the phone last week, and he gave us some juicy tidbits about the upcoming Shores of Evendim expansion. We also pried some nice details about the future of LoTRO while we had him there."
• Lord of the Rings Online: Guide To Prospecting
  "What could be more fun than digging in the dirt? Ten Ton Hammer has your guide to proper prospecting and how it fits in with all the other crafting professions. Grab your mining pick and take a look at this guide."
• Red Stone: New 2D Fantasy MMORPG Announced, Screenshots Revealed
  "K2 Network is at it again, bringing another quality Korean title to the Western marketplace in a free-to-play offering. This time around, K2 is importing a 2D Fantasy MMORPG by the name of Red Stone. The selling point behind Red Stone is the idea that players will have the ability to transform into alternatively powerful classes like a werewolf or fallen angel. Ten Ton Hammer scooped up the first screenshots released from the game - as well as the press release - for your viewing pleasure! Check them out!
• Vanguard: Wardship Armor Requirements Guide
  "Who knew Peril could result in such great armor? Xaices has sent us a handy guide to the requirements for the Marsh of Peril armor quests that originate in Thestra's Wardship of the Sleeping Moon. Check out his handy chart, plus a great armor screenshot, then go out and get your adventure on."
• Vanguard: Rogue Bug List
  "The great community at Ten Ton Hammer led by Neybreth has worked to produce a list of bugs and issues for SOEs development team."
• World of Warcraft: Elixir Addiction - Alchemy Changes, Good Or Bad?
  "With the recent changes to patch 2.1 we now see stacking elixirs and flasks a thing of the past. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should we still be able to use every single stackable elixir in the game at the same time or are the new changes a blessing? Our Topic of the Week this week goes into detail about the changes along with our opinion on it and as always you're free to jump in and give us your opinion on the Alchemy changes in 2.1!

3. Hot Content

• Lord of the Rings Online: Interview With Jeff Anderson
• Interview With Industry Legend, Don Daglow
• Fury: Q&A With Mike Hampden
• 38 Studios: R.A. Salvatore Interview Part 2
• Gods and Heroes - Video Interview With Chris Launius
• OGDC: Auto Assault Post-Mortem With Scott Brown
• OGDC: EVE Online Interview With Peter Gollan
• Pirates of the Burning Sea: Video Interview With John Scott Tynes
• OGDC: An Analysis Of Video Game Writers
• OGDC: How Developers Use Public Relations To Build A Brand

4. Real World News

• Condom Truck Tips, Spills Load [Thanks Matt]
  Sometimes these things just write themselves.
• Artist Protests Royal Family By Eating A Dog
  Apparently N. Korea has been protesting the Royals for years.
• Teacher Accused Of Bullying Students
  Pink Floyd says, "I told you so! Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!"

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com

John "Boomjack" Hoskin