Loading... 38 Studios Concept Art

Welcome to the 882nd Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

Loading... putting the 'Mo' in MMOG.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

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Comic Con '08

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 181 BPM
Age of Conan - 79 BPM
Stargate Worlds - 25 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 17 BPM
EVE Online - 13 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 11 BPM
EverQuest II - 8 BPM
Atlantica - 7 BPM
Dungeon Runners - 6 BPM

The fantastic four continue to hold the top four spots in the Ten Ton Pulse. Recent waves of Wrath of the Lich King beta keys have pushed WoW closer to WAR for the number one spot. It's going to be a great battle coming down the stretch in Q4. DC Universe Online has dropped out of the top 10 after rocketing skyward on the back of the Jens Andersen interview.

My column about gaming genius landed with a thump yesterday. I thought it was a good one. Shows what I know. Apparently it wasn't controversial enough. Let's try something else on for size.

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Stormtroopers everywhere.

Jeff and I sat down with Scott Cuthbertson, Director of Creative Development for 38 Studios and were given a surprise. It wasn't one of those nasty surprises like finding a hair in your soup as you ladle out the last spoonful, it was a pleasant surprise, but more importantly it was a surprise that we were allowed to share.

Recently the team had brought in the talent of Thom Ang as Art Director to solidify the art style of the game. Thom, Scott and Mary Kirchoff, CMO of 38 Studios were generous enough to give us the very first look inside the game. The concept artwork is spectacular, but I've seen plenty of concept art that looked nothing like the in-game product. Thom understood our concern,

“One of the things that we’re doing to ensure this does translate into the actual game environment is that the concept artists who did this are actually the modelers. They’re taking their own paintings and, as artists they’re amazing, but as modelers and world builders they’re also amazing. They’re not having to hand this off to trust someone else to interpret it... They’re doing their own efficiency tests on it, so they’re involved from the beginning all the way through to end delivery."--Thom Ang

Jeff has posted an excellent overview of our chat with the 38 Studios team, complete with two exclusive, never before seen pieces of concept art! Does the art style

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Jaffa Kree!
The Stargate Worlds Booth.

appeal to you? I liked it, but it may not be for everyone.

Our Comic Con image gallery is also posted. Our photographers this year, Michael Sun and Phil Comeau worked overtime posting over 600 photos from the show. You may remember Phil from his risqué shots of previous events.

Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to create a Top 10 photos list from the show.

I know you're thinking something. Share! The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

Guiding You to the Next
Level... [Thanks to Karen Hertzberg for this weekly feature]

Let there be no doubt; our community site teams work hard
to put out quality guides to help you get the most of your gaming
experience. And now we've got your weekly guide to the guides. Here's a
recap of the information and updates published on our community sites
last week.

Age of Conan