Welcome
to the 1,243rd edition
of Loading...

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

We humans are a cynical lot, and that cynicism is ever-present
among MMOG gamers these days. Game launches in the past few years have
followed a cycle of incredible hype followed by bitter disappointment.
Are we becoming too jaded to see the promising MMOGs of 2010 with fresh
eyes? Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg recommends a dog's-eye view in today's
Loading... Happy Happy Joy Joy.

width="100%">

The Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

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

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2213">Dragon
   Age: Origins (Down 3 to #10)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
   Online (Down 3 to #10)
   
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City of
   Heroes (UP 3 to #17) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2213">
   
   

Recent Releases

• 9/22
  - Aion
  (release date)
• 10/8
  - Cities
  XL (release date)
• 11/3
  - Dragon
  Age:
  Origins (release date)
• 11/10
  - Final
  Fantasy
  XI Ultimate
  Collection (release date)
• 12/1
  - LotRO:
  Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
• 12/1
  - EVE
  Online: Dominion (expansion)
• 12/2
  - DOFUS
  2.0 (update)
• 12/15
  - EverQuest:
  Underfoot (expansion)
  
  

Upcoming
Releases

• 1/26 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2389">Mass
  Effect 2
  (release date)
• 2/1
  - Global
  Agenda
  (release date)
• 2/2 size="-1">
  - Star
  Trek Online
  (release date)
• 2/16
  - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
  2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
• March
  2010
  - APB

Loading... Daily

A few mornings ago, I found myself lumbering around in a sleepy haze.
The kids were on their way back to school after a long holiday
vacation, and I had to get used to getting up at the crack of
dawn-thirty again. I moved through my routine as caffeinated
relief dripped too slowly into the coffee carafe. While my groggy kids
did their morning thing, I sat down to begin my Ten Ton Hammer rounds:
check for reported forum posts, ban spammers, compile a list of the
day’s articles for a press release, and put together the Epic Thread
for Loading….



It was then that I heard the telltale clicking of claws on our hardwood
floors. I glanced up to see Toshi, our href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu">shiba inu
(a dog breed I've nicknamed, not coincidentally, the "shiba annoyu") go
merrily prancing by with a sock in his mouth. Our bathroom door doesn’t
latch properly, so he’d pushed it open and stolen the sock from my son,
who was in the shower.



“Toshi, no!” I scolded. I sighed and retrieved the undergarment from
him, then tossed it back in the bathroom so my poor son would have all
the pieces of his wardrobe handy when he got out of the shower.



I sat back down at my desk and tried to regain my focus. It wasn’t long
before I heard that same claws-on-hardwood sound…clickclickclickclick!
I looked up, and watched as our furry, fox-like puppy
sailed by, in full Wonder Dog leap, with his front paws
outstretched, his back legs tucked up, and his tail held high, looking
for all the world like he should be wearing a cape.



And, of course, he had a pair of stolen boxer shorts in his mouth.



I might have been frustrated--after all, I was getting nothing
accomplished and my work had been interrupted for the second time in
under five minutes--but I couldn’t help laughing. The thing that struck
me in that moment was the href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqGsxwQpa_g">abject joy
with which this little dog went about his pursuit of pilfered
underwear. There’s nothing quite so gleeful as a dog who has something
he knows he’s not really supposed to have, and who suspects that,
despite the odds, he just may have gotten away with it this time.



Author George Bird Evans wrote, “I think we are drawn to dogs because
they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we
knew better.” And he’s right. The more I observe my dogs, the more I
come to understand what a cynical lot we humans are. I keep dogs around
in part to remind me to stay focused on enjoying the simple things,
that even when I’m chasing my own tail…it’s all good.



Cynicism is present just about everywhere you look these days. The
economy’s still in crisis, and jobs are still in short supply. War is
still raging in the Middle East. But those are the big ticket items. On
a much smaller scale, I see the ever-present cynicism on our own forums
every single day. We publish an article about href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78776">Allods Online,
a promising new free-to-play title, and within minutes the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=412951&postcount=2">hostility
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=412952&postcount=3">begins
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=413023&postcount=5">to
flow.



I’m not holding this jaded viewpoint against gamers, and especially not
against our forum members, who are unabashedly cool. It’s no one’s
fault, really. While logic tells us that no developer in his right mind
is going to want to make a lousy game, new MMOG releases have
generated a cycle of incredible hype followed by bitter disappointment.
Part of the problem is that now we’ve come to expect
the disappointment. Instead of giving the games we play a fair shake,
we enter them instantly looking for flaws, for a reason to say, “See? I
knew it! I knew this game would let me down.”



My proposition, and indeed my own personal resolution for 2010, is to
try to enter this year’s crop of MMOGs with fresh eyes; to realize that
just because it’s been bad doesn’t mean it will necessarily stay that
way. We have some promising new titles on the horizon, from Star Trek
Online to Star Wars: The Old Republic to Final Fantasy XIV. I’m going
to let myself look forward to them. I’m going to go into them looking
for what’s right instead of what’s wrong. I want to find joy in playing
again, because there was a time when running around a virtual world
collecting virtual items and hanging out with friends and their virtual
avatars brought me quite a lot of happiness.



Failing that, at least I’ll have my pup to remind me that there’s
nothing like a freshly laundered, pilfered pair of boxers to
make the day complete.



Are you a jaded gamer? Are you hopeful about the games of 2010 or are
you skeptical? Share your thoughts in the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=48809">Loading...
forum.

---

Shayalyn's Epic
Thread of
the Day



From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6">Articles,
News and Events Discussion forum



style="font-weight: normal;">BioWare Announces Expansion for
Dragon Age: Origins



Our news writer estraordinaire, Martuk, posted yesterday that a new
expansion for BioWare's single-player PRG, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2213">Dragon
Age: Origins, was on the horizon. The expansion,
called Awakening, will be available on the Xbox 360
and Playstation 3 for
the price of $39.99, with the PC version retailing at $29.99.
Immediately, our community members said the expansion was too
expensive. And then that it wasn't. And then that it was. Which side of
the debate are you on? How much would you be willing to pay for a
full-fledged expansion? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=48792">Tell
us!



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

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread



"Well if it is a
full-fledged expansion I'm willing to fork out 40$. What I expect is
something at least 70-80% as long as the original game, with perhaps a
deeper story now that the core setting is out of the way.



Better this way than 5$ DLCs that add 30-40 minutes of game time."



- WZT

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



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

---

5 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 16 in January! 16 in
2010!

Exclusive Features and Original Guides Today at
Ten Ton
Hammer

• Star
  Trek Online Beta Journal #3 - Rising Through The Ranks
  
  Star Trek Online advertises itself as
  a skills-based
  system, not an experience-based system. This means that the player
  determines where the advancement occurs, not some pre-determined value
  or math equation. If you think this sounds confusing, you're
  not the only one.. Read Jay "Medeor" Johnson's latest STO beta journal
  and it will all become clear.
  
• href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/dodgingpvp">Aion
  Carebear's Guide to Dodging PvP
  
  Being a carebear in Aion is nothing to be ashamed
  of! Whether you regularly strive to avoid PvP combat or just want a few
  moments of peace every now and again, the tips in this handy guide will
  show you how you can avoid PvP confrontations in a PvP-centric game so
  you too can be a sly PvP-dodging carebear.
  
• Dungeons
  & Dragons Online: New Character Build - The
  Tinkerer
  
  The Tinkerer is a technologically obsessed Rogue/Wizard build with a
  twist of arcane magic designed with the roleplayer in mind. Join Eric
  “Dalmarus” Campbell as he creates this new character build, complete
  with feats, skills, spells, and its very own history.
  
• href="*%20http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/crafting/weaponsmithing_pt2">Aion
  Weaponsmithing 100-199
  
  If you're lost on the path to crafting the lost weapons of Aion,
  fear not. We have you covered for that lovely stretch of titanium and
  beyond. Tier 2 of Weaponsmithing is a costly venture but a necessary
  one to trudge through on your route to becoming an expert. So take out
  that loan from a legion buddy and get ready to hit that forge!
  
• Look
  into the Hole with Two New Exclusive EverQuest 2: Sentinel's
  Fate
  Screenshots
  
  EverQuest II: Sentinel's Fate will introduce
  more of
  the classic zones from Odus to Norrath and this week Sony Online
  Entertainment has sent us two exclusive screenshots from the Hole, a
  popular dungeon from the first EverQuest game being added with the
  Sentinel's Fate expansion. The new screenshots offer a look at some of
  the content that will soon be available for exploration in the dungeon
  when the expansion goes live.
  

Today's
Hottest Content

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78752">Global
   Agenda href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78752">
   Mission Types Interview with Exec. Producer Todd Harris
2. Star
   Trek Online Beta Journal #3 - Rising Through The Ranks
3. The
   Anatomy of
   Fleets in EVE Online
4. Dungeons
   & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Review
5. New
   Hopes - A
   First Look at Allods
   Online
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/editorial/endgameimpressions">Champions
   Online Review Part 3 – End Game
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/raids/icc/plagueworks">WoW
   - Guide to Ice Crown Citadel - The Plagueworks
8. The
   Ten
   Ton Hammer Best of 2009 Awards
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/dodgingpvp">Aion
   Carebear's Guide to Dodging PvP href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/editorial/2009yearinreview">
   
10. Going
    Klingon -
    A href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78574">Star
    Trek
    Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78574">
    Q&A
    with Zeke
    Sparkes

---

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!

- Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg and the Ten Ton Hammer team