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Human beings are suggestible
creatures. We like to think we’re
not, but try telling someone not to blink and watching them struggle
with the sudden inexplicable urge to do just that and you could be
convinced otherwise. And while gamers definitely have minds of their
own and make informed decisions about their gaming choices every day,
the power of suggestion is still alive and well. Karen
“Shayalyn” Hertzberg scratches the psychological
surface
today in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/oct/13">Loading…
Pink Elephants.

cellspacing="0" 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/">What
is The Pulse?).

Today's
top 5 Pulse results:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
    of Warcraft
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
    Online (UP 2)
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest 2
  4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
    of the Rings Online (UP 1)
  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
    Wars 2 (down 3)

Biggest
movers today
:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild
    Wars

    - UP 15
    to
    #12
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Runes
    of Magic

    - down 4
    to
    #17
    style="text-decoration: underline;">
  3. style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift:
    Planes of Telara

    -
    UP 3
    to
    #13
size="-1">Recent Releases
  • size="-1">7/27
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
    II: Wings of Liberty
    (release)
  • size="-1">8/17
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
    of Heroes: Going Rogue (release)
  • size="-1">8/18
    - href="http://everquest2.com/free_to_play">EverQuest
    II Extended (release)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/7
    - size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
    Assault on Balaurea (free
    expansion)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/29
    - Everquest
    2 Extended

    (release)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/30
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv">Final
    Fantasy XIV (release)

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">October
    14-15, 2010
    - Dungeons
    and Dragons
    Online: Update 7
    (expansion)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">October
    26, 2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/170">LEGO
    Universe (release)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">October,
    2010
    - Champions
    Online: Demonflame
    (expansion)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">November,
    2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online:
    Incursion (expansion)

  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">December
    7, 2010
    - World
    of Warcraft: Cataclysm

    (expansion)

  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Early 2011
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
    Universe Online (release)

size="-1">Upcoming
Events
size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">

  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
    10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y" target="_blank">BlizzCon
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
    -
    3/26 (2011) - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/" target="_blank">CCP
    FanFest
style="font-weight: bold;">Rift
- Ask the Devs!

Have you got a question about style="font-style: italic;">Rift:
Planes of Telera?
Well, you have a chance to ask the devs at Trion Worlds directly. Just
submit your questions href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53660">in
our forums.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore/scoreboards"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 580px; height: 249px;"
alt="World of Warcraft PlayerScore"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/misc/PlayerScore/2010/PlayerScore_101310.jpg">

What's
your PlayerScore?
World of
Warcraft players, find out at href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.


Loading... strutting around in
our epic gear.

Last night, I attempted to mess with my son’s head;
it’s one of the privileges of being a parent.



“You blink a lot when you’re trying to
concentrate,” I said.



“I do?” he asked, blinking. “Oh,
man…I do!"



“And your tongue is too big for your mouth.”



“But ith not. I don’t feel like meh tongue ith
too…damn!”



“Whatever you do,” I added, the final nail in my
little head-messing coffin, “don’t think of pink
elephants.”



My son hung his head. “I just thought of a pink
elephant,” he murmured in defeat.



I was goofing around, and I suspect my son mostly just played along
(he’s not that suggestible), but the little scene illustrates
an interesting concept—the fact that we humans are not immune
to the power of suggestion. In fact, we’re pretty susceptible
to it.



I’m convinced that gaming journalism and forums contribute
something to our perception of a game we haven’t yet played.
I won’t pretend to know how strong the effect is, but
there’s certainly evidence of suggestibility in gamers. For
example,  Nexon’s style="font-style: italic;">Mabinogi
sequel, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2462"> style="font-style: italic;">Vindictus,
kicks off its open beta today. Maybe you read Ben de la
Durantaye’s href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/vindictus/previews/sept2010">preview
and his description of the game’s active combat got your
blood pumping. Or maybe Ben’s grumbling about style="font-style: italic;">Vindictus’s
steep post-tutorial learning curve put you off. Either way, you were
tuned in to what Ben suggested—that this MMOG is either good
or bad, depending on which aspect you look at—and you may
have made a spot decision without playing the game. Now,
that’s not to say you made a bad
decision—there’s nothing wrong with saving yourself
some time and taking informed advice (and Ben’s is informed)
when it comes to deciding which games are worth your precious play
time. In this instance, the power of suggestion has pretty good odds of
working in your favor.



The issue becomes a lot more problematic when you’re tuning
in to forum chatter. Members of the gaming media try to present both
the good and bad about a game, but members of a forum community
don’t share the same responsibility or mindset. Have you ever
avoided a game because of the tirades of a few forum trolls rather than
legitimate criticism from respectable sources? Then you may have been
the unwitting victim of the power of suggestion via mob mentality.
Ditto if you listened to the voices of many Western gamers crying out
that Asian free-to-play games are all mindless grind fests and opted to
avoid them without trying some of the more highly rated ones for
yourself.



The reality is, none of us are immune to suggestion. If I hear enough
people talk down a game I’m likely to fall in step and
condemn it before I try it. Even if I’m convinced that I need
to make my own decisions there’s little chance for me to
completely avoid being influenced by the things I’ve heard
others say. That’s why members of the gaming press have an
extra layer of responsibility—before we trash a game (and it
does happen) we have to consider the weight of the influence we carry
by virtue of being part of a respected gaming network and not some
random blogger or forum rock star.



How are you influenced in your gaming decisions? Whatever you do,
don’t think of pink elephants…or comment on our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54116">forums.



Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of the Day



From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3">Tavern
of the Ten Ton Hammer forum



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54107">EA/WAR/SWTOR
Scandal



It's
rather trendy to be a disgruntled ex gaming employee with a blog these
days. At least this almost-ex artist from EA chose to remain safely
anonymous rather than to burn bridges in spectacular fashion. Then
again, as we all know, anonymity breeds contempt on the Internet, and
it's easy to let fly with whatever damning thing you want to say,
whether it's entirely true or not. Either way, if you want to dig into
the latest dirty scandal, this one involving the EA, BioWare Mythic
collective ( href="http://tentonhammer.com/war"> style="font-style: italic;">Warhammer Online
and style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars: The Old
Republic
),
Annatar has created a thread featuring the latest angry rant. Check it
out and href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54107">post
your comments.



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

Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread




"Interesting.
Qouldn't care to guess how accurate it is, but I've said all along Mark
Jacobs couldn't have been the sole reason Warhammer is what it is.
"



- href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=443894&postcount=2">bobfish

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


New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer



10 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 46 Ten Ton
Hammer features in September! 1106 in 2010!




NEW
YORK COMIC CON 2010




Kingdoms
of Amalur: Reckoning Update Q&A with Curt Schilling at NY Comic
Con 2010


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/koar/schilling-interview-ny-comic-con-2010">http://www.tentonhammer.com/koar/schilling-interview-ny-comic-con-2010

 

At href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/nycomiccon/2010">New
York Comic Con, we caught up
with 38 Studios Founder Curt Schilling to discuss the latest on style="font-style: italic;">Kingdoms of Amalur:
Reckoning.
During the interview, we learned of the launch timeframe for Reckoning,
whether R.A. Salvatore's involvement with the Cryptic Studios-produced
Neverwinter will affect his involvement with the game, and just a
little more about what our character's initial experience will be like
in 38 Studios' freshman project. It 's all in our latest style="font-style: italic;">Kingdoms of Amalur:
Reckoning Update Q&A
with Curt Schilling from NY Comic Con 2010.



PREVIEWS



Dungeons
& Dragons Online Update 7 Hands-On Preview


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/previews/update-7">http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/previews/update-7



In addition to two premium races and a number of improvements, Update 7
introduces a vast amount of free content to style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons and Dragons
Online,
and Ten Ton Hammer recently played through most of it with commentary
from from Design Director Iain Currie and Producer Eric Boyer. A vast
monster invasion is about to begin, and DDO players will soon play a
principal role in stemming the tide. A look at the first part of the
new Droaam story arc, plus new details and hints on the expansive
Endless Night event coming later this month, in an all-new style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons &
Dragons Online Update 7
Hands-On Preview.



MEDIA



Character
Origin and Creation Detailed in DC Universe Online Video


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/videos/character-create">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/videos/character-create



Have you ever wondered how you end up getting your super powers in style="font-style: italic;">DC Universe Online?
Sony Online Entertainment was in attendance at this year's href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/nycomiccon/2010">New
York Comic Con and revealed a
new character create video that explains that very thing. You even get
some extra story from where the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dc-universe-online/trailer/blur">Blur
Studio trailer
leaves off, expanding on events after Luthor's return. So start
planning what kind of powers you want and check out the video for
yourself.



CrimeCraft:
BLEEDOUT Trailer


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/crimecraft/videos/bleedout">http://www.tentonhammer.com/crimecraft/videos/bleedout



Vogster is expanding the storyline and graphic gameplay of its MMOG
shooter, CrimeCraft,
through a new partnership with Archaia Entertainment. The new agreement
will publish BLEEDOUT: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, which will bring together the
storytelling and artistic talents of a dozen of the comic industry's
leading artists. But the work doesn't stop with the novel because
Vogster will be using the story to craft the first expansion to the
world of CrimeCraft with BLEEDOUT. You can check out the trailer for it
here at Ten Ton Hammer.



LEGO
Universe Online Opening Cinematic at New York Comic Con


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lego/videos/opening-cinematic">http://www.tentonhammer.com/lego/videos/opening-cinematic



LEGO
Universe Online
is poised for
launch later this month and the team over at NetDevil showed off the
goods at href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/nycomiccon/2010">New
York Comic Con. We recently got
the chance to check out the game's opening cinematic at the event and
now you can too.



FEATURES
& GUIDES




Five
Market Trends For October In EVE Online


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/business/market-oct">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/business/market-oct



Space Junkie provides an analysis of the most noteworthy style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
market trends for early October in his latest guide. His goal is to
provide useful food for thought for players looking for speculative
opportunities, or just seeking to increase their understanding of how
the markets in style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
work.



Understanding
the Guild Wars Hall of Monuments Rewards Calculator


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/guides/basics/hall-of-monuments-rewards-calculator">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/guides/basics/hall-of-monuments-rewards-calculator



You can now find out what your past deeds will reward you with in style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2
thanks to the Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator. How does the
calculator work, what categories are there, and how are points gained?
These are the questions everyone is asking and we here at Ten Ton
Hammer have the answer. Check out our new guide to understanding the
Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator today!



World
of Warcraft's Patch 4.0.1 Resources


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources



Looking for a guide or some helpful advice on how to deal with all the
new features in style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft's
patch 4.0.1? Well, Ten Ton Hammer has a ton of guides and articles
related to the new patch ranging from patch notes, to an overview, to
guides to the new talents, plus tons more. Don't be lost in the new
world, come to Ten Ton Hammer and let us help you find your way.



The
First Five Things to Do in World of Warcraft's Patch 4.0.1


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/starting-patch-401">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/starting-patch-401



Patch 4.0.1 has hit style="font-style: italic;">World of
Warcraft by
storm bringing with it a new talent revamp, Reforging, and much more.
What is a player to do once they've logged into the game after
installing this massive patch? Well we have the first five things you
need to do after logging in to patch 4.0.1. Don't be lost trying to
figure out what to do, let Ten Ton Hammer walk you through getting your
character back up to speed in the 4.0.1 world.



An
Overview of the UI Changes in World of Warcraft Patch 4.0.1


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/interface-changes-overview">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/interface-changes-overview



World
of Warcraft

Patch 4.0.1 is incoming and with it a slew of new interface changes
meant to improve the ease of game play for all. However,
despite good the intentions, introducing new changes
always
causes confusion among the masses. To allow our readers to get a jump
start on the new changes and be one of the few who know exactly how to
use the new user interface features we here at Ten Ton Hammer are
pleased to present a overview of the interface changes coming in patch
4.0.1.


Today's
Top 10

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources"> style="font-weight: bold;">World of Warcraft's
    Patch 4.0.1 Resources
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/previews/update-7"> style="font-weight: bold;">Dungeons & Dragons
    Online Update 7 Hands-On
    Preview
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/charr-arena-event">The
    Last Whiskey Bar - An Exclusive First Look at the Charr Arena Event in style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Wars 2
  4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part2">The
    Rift System - style="font-weight: bold;">Rift: Planes of Telara
    Reader Submitted Q&A #2 style="font-weight: bold;">

  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war/interviews/carrie-gouskos-skaven-10.5.10">Skaven
    Exclusives! A style="font-weight: bold;">WAR
    Q&A with Carrie Gouskos
  6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm_druid_talents">4.0.1
    Updated Cataclysm
    Druid Talents & Moonkin Mechanics
  7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/champ/overview">Ten
    Ton Hammer's All New style="font-weight: bold;">Lord of the
    Rings Online
    Champion Class Guide
  8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part1">Reader
    Submitted Rift
    Q&A, Part 1
  9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/koar/schilling-interview-ny-comic-con-2010"> style="font-weight: bold;">Kingdoms of Amalur:
    Reckoning Update Q&A
    with Curt Schilling at NY Comic Con 2010
  10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warlock"> style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
    Warlock Guide Updated - 4.0

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg and the Ten
Ton Hammer
team


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

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

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