Welcome to the 925th Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

Loading... out-leveling the competition daily.

First, at Ten Ton Hammer, you vote with what you view. The outcome is The Pulse.

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. (What is Pulse?)

1. Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
2. World of Warcraft - 164 BPM
3. Age of Conan - 40 BPM
4. Tabula Rasa - 14 BPM
5. Atlantica - 12 BPM
6. Lord of the Rings Online - 11 BPM
7. EverQuest 2 - 10 BPM
8. EVE Online - 9 BPM
9. Dungeon Runners - 9 BPM
10. Mabinogi - 9 BPM

It was with a mixture of joy and sheer terror that I accepted John “Boomjack” Hoskin’s offer to take over his daily column daily, starting today. This will always be the newsletter that John built, and we’ll be sure to get him back for a guest column occasionally, along with other great guest columnists.

That said, the introductions and hazing are complete, so let’s start Loading…

Football - and I don’t mean soccer - is our weekend obsession in the fall here in the US, and if you like to see the underdog prevail against all odds, it was a great weekend to be a football fan. Four of the top ten ranked college teams fell to lower-ranked or unranked teams, and the trend continued in the pros on Sunday with KC and Washington pulling out upset victories against previously unbeaten opponents.

At Ten Ton Hammer, the success we’ve enjoyed has been something of an upset. Over the four years I’ve been with the network - something like a lifetime in Internet years - I’ve watched promising games come and go, we’ve surpassed competing sites that seemed at first unbeatable, and in all that time we’ve kept our core team intact and steadily improved our site, forums, and content consist. Likewise, many of the active folks in our community and forums have been with us for years, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t first thank all of you - writers, contributors, and longtime community members - for teaming up with us for the long haul.

Whether or not you consider Warhammer Online’s 500k subs in the first week an upset victory as well, WAR players have enjoyed a very smooth launch and a game that emphatically delivered on all its gameplay promises. Server imbalances and queues, however, continue to be a problem. In an exclusive Mark Jacobs interview last week, we learned that in addition to cloned servers, Mythic would allow free character transfers if server populations don’t level out.

Continuing on, Mark said that as advantage in numbers doesn't necessarily equal victory:

In terms of ongoing balance, it's important for people to understand that just because you're outnumbered on a server, doesn't mean that the other guys are going to win. That's the beauty of this; you can have Destruction have 20% more people than you, but in scenarios you can still kick their butt. Even in open RvR; if you go back to the Camelot days, how many times did the underpowered realm - in terms of numbers - win? It was all the time.

It remains to be seen how the numbers game plays out in higher level keep and siege RvR play, but one thing about PvP remains true in every game, an organized, experienced force will beat out a disorganized one every single time. If the Order underdogs can start overcoming the numbers gap with grit and saavy, upsets will be the order of the day, and numbers won’t be a problem for long.

Did all this upsetting talk upset you? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.


Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day

Sometimes they're funny; sometimes they're foolish; sometimes they're flaming;
sometimes they're cool. Whatever this one happens to be, it's
our Epic Thread of the Day.

====================
From our WAR: General Discussion Forum

So, what are we all hoping for in the first content patches?

Warhammer
Online has been unleashed on the MMOG gaming world, and Barbarious
thought it a good time to ask what WAR players are hoping for in the
early (and inevitable) content patches. Are you in the "fix what's
broken" crowd; or do you have some slicker ideas for what should
lie ahead as WAR goes from work-in-development to ongoing
work-in-progress?

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Realistic wishes: a bit more variety in the armor and more plentiful tokens." - Swayne
====================

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

19 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 279 in September! 2483 in 2008!

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

Images/Video

Reviews

Op/Eds

Community

Guides

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

  1. Warhammer Online: First Impressions
  2. World of Warcraft: Are Heirloom Items a Good Thing for the Game?
  3. WAR-Torn #6: The Uniformity of Good
  4. Warhammer Online: Exclusive Post-Launch with Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher
  5. City of Heroes: Issue 13 with Matt Miller and Brain Clayton
  6. Warhammer Online: Post-Launch with Mark Jacobs
  7. Champions Online: Lead Designer Randy Mosiondz
  8. World of Warcraft: How Will Raid Changes Affect Guilds in WotLK?
  9. Want to be Ten Ton Hammer's Guild of the Week?

Real World News

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

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


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning 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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