Welcome to the 971st Edition of Loading...

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The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Hammer Pulse (What is Pulse?). Here are the daily rankings:

  1. World of Warcraft
  2. Warhammer Online
  3. Age of Conan
  4. City of Heroes
  5. Stargate Worlds (UP 4)
  6. City of Villains
  7. Atlantica Online (down 1)
  8. EVE Online (down 1)
  9. Star Wars: The Old Republic (UP 1)
  10. Guild Wars (down 2)

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.


Loading... Daily

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It's day 2 of our CME Kids Holiday Donations Drive and we've reached $280 in the first day. Thanks to all of you that have given! We've still got a little under seven days to go to reach our goal of $1500, so please give if you can. Remember, you can help just with a $5 donation or by buying a Ten Ton Hammer premium subscription during this week!

This just in - Atari buys Cryptic Studios. This news, along with the retail publishing deal announced last month for EVE Online's March 2009 expansion, means that Atari is making itself a serious name in the western MMOG market. Blizzard, EA, SOE, Turbine, NCSoft and now Atari?

Unlike other acquisitions as of late, I don't think we have anything to fear from this one. Atari is definitely trying to repurpose itself, and its course will be determined by its next big publishing success as much as anything. Cryptic is Cryptic - anyone that's spent five minutes in a room with Jack Emmert knows that that particular developer has as good a chance of standing up to any potential publisher nonsense as any developer. I am wondering where the 2K Games publishing deal for Champions Online stands as a result of this announcement, so we're still digging on that front.

As much as that first announcement plays mild, our second news bit is big and ugly: Sony cuts 8,000 jobs and seeks to "pull out of unprofitable businesses" to shave $1.1 billion in costs.

This one has me afeared, even though all the specific language in the official announcement seems geared toward Sony's electronics and manufacturing arms. There is this troubling little sentence though: "downsize or withdraw from unprofitable or non-core businesses." Is Sony Computer Entertainment America (North American operations for PlayStation 2 and 3 and the PSP, and now SOE finds itself in their org chart as well) considered an unprofitable or non-core business? We know and know well that the PS2 is SCEA's bread and butter, with the PS3 still losing more money than it generates.

As it's unthinkable that the push behind glitz and glamour consoles like the PSP and PS3 should be toned down - just a quick look at the Sunday ads for big box retailers will clue you in to where marketing priorities stand - so will all or part of SOE be sacrificed on the corporate altar? Initial reports from the inside (nothing I can quote) are an emphatic no, but we'll report what we can find out once the west coast offices open for the day.

It's a big news day, so discuss your hopes and fears in the Loading... forum, or as always feel free to email me directly.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day




from our WAR: General Discussion Forum



PTS
patch 1.1 omfg...Orvr REWARDS :O (Spoilers?)




With a subject header like that, how can Pwntnub's Warhammer Online thread miss?

Pwntnub says, and I quote:

"T4 RVR items are just insane.. you have to see for
your self... let me put it this way.. The gear will allow blackguards
to have OMFG damage like everyone has been wanting.. T2 wepon alone is
like 50dps and +17 wepon damage... and %5 chance on hit to do xtra
damage... and like +40 str Do you see what this is going to... ****ing
crazy stats like everyone has been wanting !! and this is just for the
BG :O...
"


You get all that? Need me to translate? I'm pretty sure it means something like this:

Ladies
and gentlemen, there is a new patch on the test server about which I am
incredibly excited. How do you fine folks feel about it?


Sadly, this thread derailed
into yet another treatise on grammar. But you (yes, you!) have the
power to right it, regardless of whether you're grammatically
challenged, grammatically pristine, or somewhere in between. WAR's upcoming patch does appear to have a high awesome factor, so head over to our forum and add your input.


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

Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread
:



"It's patches like this that
make me confident that Mythic will continue to turn a good game, into a
great game. This and the PQ you can do with small groups! Exactly
what's needed.
"



- mattlow



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



Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let
us know
!

15 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 58 in December! 3032 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Interviews

Community

Guides

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

  1. CME Kids Holiday Donations Drive - Day 2
  2. Final Fantasy XI: The Future of FFXI Interview
  3. The Agency: Advancement Q&A with Matt Staroscik
  4. Warhammer Online: 1.1 and You - A Look at the Next Patch
  5. Warhammer Online: 7-Day WAR Report
  6. Warhammer Online: WAR Torn - "Last Chance"
  7. 38 Studios: Senior UI Designer Irena Pereira
  8. Ten Ton Turnip #2 - Blizzard Buys Mythic!
  9. Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - Distributive Properties
  10. World of Warcraft: Goob & Begud - "Not So Bad"

Real World News


Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

-- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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