Welcome to the 1,165th edition of Loading...

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

SOE just announced the shutdown of nearly half the Star Wars
Galaxies servers. Is there another hope (besides Obi-Wan) for the game?
I think so, and it comes right out of SOE's playbook. Also, yet another
subscription-free MMO dings the multi-million marker. Are
these users well-earned, or has this become a race to see who can
loosely justify their PR first? These are our topic for today's
Loading... Million Man March.

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's today's top 5 Pulse results:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
    target="_blank">World of Warcraft
  2. Dungeons
    & Dragons Online 
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion 
  4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
    Online 
  5. EverQuest
    2
     

Biggest movers today:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/265"
    target="_blank">Dark
    Age of Camelot
    (UP 4 to #15)
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2213"
    target="_blank">Star
    Wars: The Old Republic
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38"
    target="_blank"> (UP 2 to #10)
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306">Jumpgate
    Evolution (down 2 to #16)
Recent
MMO Releases

Important
Dates

  • 9/15 -
    9/18
    - GDC
    Austin
  • 10/1 -
    10/3
    href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE FanFest
Upcoming
Releases

Loading... Daily

You heard it here first,
SOE is planning a more casual Star Wars MMO using the engine developed
for Free Realms. Between that news and the heady emphasis put on Star
Wars at this year's FanFest, it surely seemed like SOE was going all in
with LucasArts. Despite the hype, there's no glossing over low
population numbers, which are no shame for a six year old game
(especially one that came to be known more for its mistakes than its
successes). So maybe the only thing more surprising than SOE having 12
servers to close for Star Wars Galaxies is that 13 servers remain.

Instead of consolidating servers, I'd much rather have seen SOE take
the EverQuest tack and rollback some of these servers to SWG's
launch version, minus the ghost towns and busted equipment tables.
While some disparage the original SWG as being mad Raph's
sociological laboratory, I personally found a lot to like about the
game when it came out.  Jedi were awe-inspiring instead of
ubiquitous, persistent player-created structures like stores, homes,
and harvesters gave the world a lived-in feel (for perhaps the first
time in a 3D MMO), the Galactic Civil War felt active and real, and the
class structure, while a skill-based grind, was refreshingly different
than the typical experience treadmill.  Scores of players
formed much more of an attachment than I ever did, and would
probably flock to a retelling of the original game.

As it stands, SWG is probably more widely known as the first MMO to
truly break faith with its playerbase, at least in a way that a
malcontent can adequately describe in the course of an elevator
conversation. We'll probably never know the full story as long as
LucasArts holds sway, but whoever drove the game towards the mainstream
with cupcake Jedi and cheeseball interactions with the Star
Wars cast did this, the greatest IP ever to grace the MMO stage, a
great disservice.

Or SOE could make SWG subscription-free, as that seems to be good for a
few million registered players these days. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74388">Combat Arms
is the latest MMO(FPS) to join the million man march, announcing that
over 3 million have signed on. SOE's own href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287">Free
Realms pushed past the 5 million mark shortly before San
Diego ComicCon this year, according to SOE, and KingsIsle (makers of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1186">Wizard101)
likewise claimed the same number at AGDC, more than the total
population of Ireland, as its own.

Note that we have no way of confirming these numbers, which come
straight from the developers and likely include include a vast
percentage of "Facebook" players that might register but spend no
appreciable time with the game, but there's no denying that a "free
game" sign works just as well as a flyer announcing free beer
at your next party. For developers who, like big car
dealerships, care only about volume first and quality of the customer
second, it's a good way to make PR fireworks and thrill the
investors. Whether it pays off in the long run remains to be
seen, and I'd love to find out what percentage of these users become
profitable customers. If any bizdev types are brave enough to share
their conversion rates, email
me
and perhaps  I'll eat my skepticism.

What think you of the latest Star Wars Galaxies news? Are the
million-plus numbers for every free-to-play MMO that comes down the
line are justly deserved or wildly inflated? Your thoughts welcome in
the  href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46318">Loading...
forum.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142">WoW
News Discussion

href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46280">Blizzard
announces next MMOG to have "broader appeal"

We
know very little about Blizzard's top-secret MMO project except that
it's a new IP (not Diablo or Starcraft), and it's not a World of
Warcraft clone. And at the Deutsche Bank
Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco,
Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick announced that the next MMOG
would
have "a little more broad appeal."

Kotick has said a few strange things lately (like how Activision games
such as Guitar
Hero will likely bypass consoles

altogether in the future), but he's definitely managed to keep things
interesting. I'm waiting to see what Blizzard has up their sleeve when
they say that their next MMOG will appeal to a broader
audience--broader than the existing 12 million that inhabit WoW, that
is.

Our community members have lots of ideas. Perhaps you have some, too. href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46280">Make
yourself heard!

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread

"I like broads, they
appeal to
me. The new game is aimed squarely at me! Or do they mean they want to
appeal to more broads? I confuse easily.
"

- Medeor
==============================

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


5 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 29
in
September!
981 in
2009!

Today's New MMO Coverage, Features, and Guides

  • href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/playerresource">Aion
    - New Player Resource Unveiled
    Players have less than a week before Early Start and the official
    launch of Aion.  Are you ready?  To get fans
    prepared, Ten Ton Hammer has put together your one essential resource
    for your time as a new player.  Keep game vital info, do a
    little pre-launch research, and save newbie guides all in one easy
    location.  Just bookmark and visit as needed now and after
    release!
  • The
    Secret World
    - Combat System Q&A Video

    After learning a bit about PvP and playable factions in The Secret
    World, two topics we definitely wanted to learn more about were the
    game's active combat system and the just-revealed secret society called
    Dragons, a chaotic faction which counterbalances the self-righteous
    Templars and the bad boy Illuminati. Fortunately, Funcom Creative
    Director Ragnar Tørnquist and Designer Martin Bruusgaard obliged us
    with some new answers, including how TSW's combat system compares to
    that of Age of Conan. Watch this brief new four and a half minute video
    to learn more about combat and the three playable factions in The
    Secret World and see some of the latest screenshots from the game!
  • Champions
    Online
    - Skin That Build #2

    The character creation system of Champions Online is a robust and
    amazing tool that allows users to make just about anything their
    imagination can come up with. But often times, if you’re anything like
    me, you might not know where to start. That’s why we at Ten Ton Hammer
    have done some of the thinking for you.
  • Pre-GDC
    Austin Interview with Matt Firor

    Matt Firor is a fixture on the advisory board for GDC (Game Developers
    Conference) Austin and responsible for overseeing the production track
    submissions for this year's conference. Ten Ton Hammer got the chance
    to catch up to Matt before the beginning of GDC Austin this year to get
    his views on the GDC Austin, MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online
    Games), and where he thinks the industry is heading.
  • Champions
    Online
    : An Intro to PvP - Cage Match!

    Most players' first foray into PvP in Champions Online will take place
    in the Cage Match map for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. This
    guide is here to get you in the thick of the action as quickly as
    possible.

Hottest Content:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/playerresource">Aion
    - New Player Resource Unveiled
  2. The
    Secret World
    - Combat System Q&A Video
  3. Star
    Wars: The Old Republic
    VIP Interview from PAX 2009
  4. Global
    Agenda
    - Two New Maps & Female Character Models Video
  5. Pre-GDC
    Austin Interview with Matt Firor
  6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gordon_walton/interview">Pre-AGDC
    Interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic's Gordon
    Walton
  7. An
    In-Game Tour of Jumpgate Evolution with NetDevil's
    Scott Brown (video)
  8. Champions
    Online
    : An Intro to PvP - Cage Match!
  9. First
    Ever Look at PvP in The Secret World
  10. Aion
    Asmodian Female Emotes Video

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network! Have a
great weekend!

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


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Wars Galaxies 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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