Welcome
to the 1,287th
edition
of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Big news from 38 Studios and big news from GDC. It's a big
week at
Ten Ton Hammer and we can't wait to get started. Today, in Loading...
Great Big Week.

width="100%">

The Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse ( target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results over the
last week:

  1. World
    of Warcraft
  2. EverQuest
    II
  3. Dungeons
    and
    Dragons Online
     (UP 1)
  4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
    Online (Down 1)
  5. Lord
    of the Rings Online

Biggest
movers today
:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/88">Warhammer
    Online (Down 3 to #10)
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287">Free
    Realms (UP 3 to #17)
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
    Agenda ((Down 3 to #18)
Recent Releases
Upcoming
Releases

  • March
    2010

    - APB
  • April
    2010

    - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
    of Heroes: Issue
    href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">17
  • style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010
    - Mytheon
  • TBA
    2010

    - Final
    Fantasy XIV


  • style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
    - Star Wars:
    The Old
    Republic




Upcoming
Events


Loading... Daily

38 Studios comes back into the light today with some href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">pretty
big news. They've teamed up with Electronic Arts Partners to
distribute and publish their first title, codenamed style="font-style: italic;">Project Mercury.
This is a separate game from href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/883"> style="font-style: italic;">Copernicus
but it will share the same universe and will be available on PC, Xbox
360 and PS3.



Why is this cool? 38 Studios has been drawing a large group of
major designers and developers. They haven't revealed any real
information about the game(s) yet, but one needn't look any further
than their staff roster to see they've got some huge names behind the
projects. A lot of these people left very good jobs in favor of working
for the game studio, and to me, that says something about their plans.
But, I guess we'll have to wait to see.



GDC is upon us this week, and 38 Studios won't be doing any reveals
there, so we'll have to focus on other games. And do we ever have a
lineup.



This year Ethec approached me about covering GDC and of course, I was
more than willing. I started making some plans and spoke to some devcos
to figure out who was going to be there. Shortly after I started
setting up some loose schedules I realized that I may have gotten in
over my head. It started off innocently enough--a couple emails here, a
couple phone calls there, and the schedule was starting to look pretty
well rounded. Then the floodgates were opened and my inbox was filling
up faster than an Aion
Kinah
farmer spamming global channels. I was getting emails coming in from
127 countries in 49 different languages from thousands of gamers,
publicists, developers and designers. On top of it, there were soooo
many cool things that I wanted to check out. I was a tad overwhelmed.



"How's GDC looking, Ben?" Ethec asked at one of our meetings.



"I'm a tad overwhelmed," I responded candidly.



"Need a hand?" he asked. I broke down.



"You... you do
care, Ethec," I
sobbed uncontrollably. "I felt so alone, so scared. I.. I wanted to do
it all. I wanted you to be proud of me. You were never there when I was
growing up, but I always knew you cared... inside."



"Right," he replied, a touch of discomfort in his voice. "Ok, so I'll
bring the camera and we'll ask Medawky to join us."



"I... I love y..." I started.



"On to content plans!" Ethec interrupted. But I knew he felt the
magical connection too. No one could deny it.



So, now we have a nice sized team to cover the nice sized event. There
will be a couple of reveals that I can't get into right now, but be
sure to watch the Ten Ton Hammer pages for the hot news as it unfolds.
We've also booked time with Funcom (The
Secret World, AoC: Rise of the Godslayers
), Sony Online
Entertainment, True Games & Petroglyph ( style="font-style: italic;">Mytheon), Cryptic
Studios (Champions
Online, Star Trek Online
), Realtime Worlds ( style="font-style: italic;">APB), CCP ( style="font-style: italic;">EVE), BioWare and
EA (Star Wars: The Old
Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2
), En Masse ( style="font-style: italic;">TERA), gPotato ( style="font-style: italic;">Aika, Allods), and
many more. It's gonna be busy, it's gonna be big, and it's gonna be
cool.



Truth be told, we could have sent the entire Ten Ton Hammer staff and
still not have had enough time to see everything. GDC is huge so there
are some other things we won't get a chance to see. For instance,
NeuroSky sent me a little bit on their href="http://www.ballantinesbiz.com/mailer12a/lt/t_go.php?i=182&e=NDQ5NTg=&l=http://www.cnn.com/video/--Q-/video/tech/2010/02/04/sr.baldwin.mind.control.cnn">new
technology today. This thing lets you control things style="font-style: italic;">with your mind.
It's real Jedi stuff, and major awesome factor of x10. I may have to
break
in after hours to check it out. And hey, if security catches up to me,
I can just wave my hand and say "this is not the editor you're looking
for. Move along."



Anyway, I should head out to catch a plane, so I'll wrap it up here.
But before I go, if you're a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/membership">premium member,
don't forget to swing by the forums to href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49982">ask
your own questions
at GDC. No Jedi tricks here, simply post your questions, and we'll ask
them on your behalf.



And if you're not a premium member, let us know what you're looking
forward to this week from GDC in the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50031">Loading...
forums.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day




From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=616">EverQuest
II General Discussion forum



Raiding
in EQ2




Necro post alert! This one was revived today, and it's still fresh....



How's the raiding in EverQuest II, our community member,
luigi90 (relation to Mario undetermined at this time), asks. Is it
boring? How does it hold up to raiding in World of Warcraft?



We provided luigi with some answers. If you have more questions, or
want to give an answer yourself, bounce on over to href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47792">this
thread and plumb its deep content. (It's a stretch, I know,
but roll with it for my sake, mkay?)



==============================

Epic Quote from the Epic Thread



"No no no. Raiding in EQ2 is rarely just tank n spank. A lot
of the epic
mobs in the newer expansion have a lot of tricks that require raid
coordination and darn good leadership
."



- Savanja

==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!

New and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS



EA to Publish First 38 Studios Title

http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury



38
Studios has just announced a publishing and distribution partnership
with Electronic Arts Partners (EAP) to publish its first title. The
game, codenamed "Project Mercury" in 38 Studios' typically tight-lipped
fashion, is the first title to be published by Big Huge Games--the
Maryland-based studios responsible for the Rise of Nations series and
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, plus a number of XBLA games
including Catan--since its acquisition by 38 Studios.

 

FEATURES & GUIDES



Supplying Minerals Through Market Acquisitions In EVE Online

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/



When you're running a production business in EVE Online, there are
always supply issues to iron out. Space Junkie shows us a
slightly less common method of mineral acquisition.



WoW Weekly Report - "Microtransaction Revolution"

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue57



The
World of Warcraft Weekly Report is here this week with all of the
latest news plus a deep look into microtransactions in both WoW and
online gaming in general. Is the microtransaction revolution as evil as
the Burning Legion or is it something that's helpful to gaming as a
whole? Find out in the Weekly Report, and be sure to subscribe.

WoW Loremaster's Corner #5: A Steampunk Paradise

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/steampunk-paradise">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/steampunk-paradise

World of Warcraft has a lot of steampunk themes and we take a
look at them this week in our Loremaster's Corner. What kind of
technology is in WoW, how will things change in Cataclysm with the
Gnomes and Goblins, and what do the various factions and races think
about technology? All of this and more in this week's Loremaster's
Corner. 

Microcosms Issue #8 - Dare to Compare

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81851



While
it's natural for gamers to compare their current game with a past one,
and even more so with MMOGs, it is often times a misguided folly of the
proverbial apples vs. oranges type. Eschewing common sense Ten Ton
Hammer's Jason Bolton has dived feet first into the game resemblance
discussion with a look at how two free-to-play MMOGs stack up against
their AAA counterparts. Can there ever be equity between the two
styles? Read this weeks column to find out.


Today's Hottest Articles and Guides

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/preview/multiplayer_1stimpressions">StarCraft
    II
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/preview/multiplayer_1stimpressions">
    Multiplayer Beta Preview & First
    Impressions
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/interviews/update1.9">Aion
    Update 1.9 Interview with NCsoft
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">EA
    to Publish First 38 Studios Title href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">

  4. CCP
    Interview About EVE Online's Tyrannis Expansion
  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/reviews/addons/Underachiever">WoW
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/reviews/addons/Underachiever">U.I.
    Mod Review - Underachiever
  6. An
    Exclusive Interview
    with Video Game Composer Matt
    Uelmen
  7. WoW href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81817"> - To Buff, or
    to Nerf: That is the Question
  8. Aika
    Class Interview Series Part
    2 - The Cleric
  9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue57">WoW
    Weekly Report - "Microtransaction Revolution" href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue57">

  10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864">Supplying
    Minerals Through Market Acquisitions In EVE Online title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/"
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/">


Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!

-Benjamin J. de la Durantaye
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team




Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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