It's Time To Flex Your Virtual Muscles

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Daily Column

11 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 90 so far in December!

First things first, we have a new comic up! I've been throwing Lumio some ideas and he is knocking them out of the park.

First things second, Coyote's entry in the Zuda comic contest has dropped to third. I'm not sure how this is possible since 4,000 of you read this column every single day and have nothing else to do at work except vote for "Avaste Ye". Take a minute and go vote. It's a personal affront to every Loading... reader that the comic is in third place. You brought down Rosie's blog. You can certainly outvote a bunch of ComicCON refugees. To the 396,000 of you miscreants that read this in the blog each month. Cripes... if 5% of you voted that site would have more visitors that it gets in a normal month. Flex your virtual muscles you 98 pound weaklings. Vote! If you are wondering who the Hades Coyote is then click here. Usually NSFW. You've been warned.

Lineage 2 releases a new expansion today titled, 'The Kamael'. We kick off the launch with an interview featuring Tim Tan, the producer on the title.

Isn't it strange how we are considered childish because we play games? Acquaintances who bowl, watch Deal or No Deal or partake in some other philistine pastime take great pleasure in guffawing about our hobby. We take offense at the jibes or ignore them as best we can, and yet many of us believe that we have outgrown some MMOGs, considering them too childish. Some of us feel the need to ingratiate ourselves to our critics, while others could really and truly care less. As a reader of this column you likely fall into the latter category.

How many of you believe that you would not enjoy Webkinz or Club Penguin. I'm raising my hand. I'm one of the elderly, the aged, grizzled by years of MMOG play. I replenish my mana by drinking water, not Full Throttle. I have no firsthand interest in games geared to the younger host, but I do have two children who find Webkinz simply mesmerizing. I'll let them review those titles. In the big scheme of things it is a shame. The #2 and #6 most searched for terms on Google last month were Webkinz and Club Penguin respectively.

Our new site dedicated to games for those of you of the youthful persuasion is called TenTonHamster.com. We debated dozens of names before deciding on Hamster. I believe it was Phil who swayed us in the end. He's a big rodent fan or was it a big rodent? I can never remember.

Thank you to each and every Loading... and TTH reader. Yesterday we broke a one-day traffic record previously held by our Leipzig coverage. The convergence of World of Warcraft Patch Day, Age of Conan Class Interview #4, Kohnke Bohnking Perpetual, our new TenTonHamster.com site and cosmic rays all contributed to the record and to the unexpected slowdown of our servers. Way to go! Break them again please! We get some witty retorts from our sysadmin, Iain when things are getting hammered. Yesterday he "took the servers, put them in a corner and told them to think about what they had done." Apparently his mad robo-parenting skillz are outstanding as the problems went away. Well done robo-parent. Our readers, sticks of RAM in hand, salute you!

I have become accustomed to reading articles by Jeff and Cody which is a blessing and a shame. These guys are so good that I find it very difficult to read articles that I should be reading elsewhere. Nice job guys. I don't thank you enough. In appreciate I recommend that everyone send in Bobble head dolls of rodeo clowns and linebackers care of Jeff and Cody respectively.

For those of you keeping score, my 'play' time is being spent back in World of Warcraft. My wife wanted to try an alliance character, so there you have it, I'm playing Alliance. It feels wrong, dirty somehow, but I'll persevere. I went with a class I have never played, the Shaman. There have been cries, whimpers really, for me to use Dungeons and Dragons Online as my next 'reintroduction' title. There have also been whispers heard for Anarchy Online. Are there any other requests before I take the plunge into one of these titles? For what it is worth, EverQuest 2, my last 'reintroduction' was a total success. I give the game a healthy thumbs-up and recommend it to anyone who wants a steeper learning curve than WoW provides. The Sarnak starting area was spectacular.

Here's a peculiar piece of random thought for you to mull over. Why was it that I felt I could never "catch up" in EverQuest 2, yet I'm sure I can do so in World of Warcraft? It's irrational, but the sense that I could never catch up to the end-game players lingered in my mind with EQ2. It doesn't in WoW. Both games have been out for three years. I can't catch up to the end-game players in either game, so why do I believe that I can in WoW? How do they build that important (to me) carrot into the game? Enlighten me!

Comments, questions or naughty pictures? Hit the forum or hit my mailbox. --Boomjack

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to.

Real World News

Merriam-Webster's Word of '07 is 'w00t' [Thanks Amber]
In other news, we've run out of words.
Schumacher May Be Germany's Fastest Taxi Driver
May be?
Padres, Cubs, White Sox Interested in Fukudome
Sportscasters await the first mispronunciation.

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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