Welcome to the 1,158th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
While harbingers of doom predicted the end of the MMORPG even
in
EverQuest's heyday, we've quietly proclaimed that all your games would
someday belong to the MMO category. Cody "Micajah" Bye sits in on Ten
Ton Hammer's daily newsletter as Ethec travels to PAX and lays out how
MMOs have influenced an entire generation of console games in
Loading... The Rise of the Massively Single Player.
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:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
-
EverQuest
2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan
Biggest Movers today :
MMO Releases
-
8/4 -
World
of Warcraft Update 3.2 (content patch) size="-1"> -
8/25
- CrimeCraft
(release date) - 9/1 -
Champions
Online (NA release date)
Important
Dates
- 9/4 - 9/6
- Penny Arcade Expo
(PAX) - 9/15 -
9/18 - GDC
Austin - 10/1 -
10/3 - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE FanFest
Releases
- 9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date) - 9/15
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date) - 9/22
- Aion
(release date) - 10/9
- Cities
XL (release date) - Early 2010
- APB
Loading... Daily
(Thanks to Cody Bye for taking on Loading... today as our crew moves
into position at PAX 2009)
At
the advent of the internet, no one really knew the potential that sat
before them. Pushing information was certainly a nice feature, but few
people could have predicted the explosion of social environments like
Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook. While people in the late 80s and early
90s were content to go on their local BBS or hop into an IRC chat room
(if their bandwidth could support it), it took a global acceptance of
the technology to really begin pushing the social borders of that
technology. Now social communities dominate the top spots on the
internet ladder, and only the massive search engines like Google or
Yahoo come anywhere close to matching their stickiness.
The
massive online game, in many ways, has evolved in an opposite fashion
to whats found in Web 2.0. In many respects, titles like Utlima Online
and EverQuest were social networks that evolved ahead of their time.
These games integrated forums and online interaction to form a sort of
cohesive community of players. You could meet new people either via
their forum posts, in-game chatter, or through your friends, similar to
the progression we go through in these social networks. While the
social networks are certainly set-up for the lowest common denominator,
theres a striking similarity between the early interactions of gamers
and the current gesticulations of our MySpace friends.
But
in recent years, our massive online games have gone through a shift in
their mentality. While EverQuest and Ultima Online required you to
recruit friends to play the game, our current crop of titles dont see
that as a prerequisite. Games like Guild Wars, Warrior Epic, and even
the once party-intensive Dungeons and Dragons Online actively assist
the player if they dont want to rely on their friends to achieve
anything in the world. You can achieve almost as much solo as you can
with a friend or two at your side; it may not happen as quickly, but
you dont need to spend hours LFG either.
Yet the social
potential of these games still exists. Players congregate in hubs
vast cities or swathes of land where players can mill about doing
non-combat oriented activities and anyone that wants to find a friend
in these areas is more than encouraged to do so. NPCs rarely offer as
reliable a playing partner as another human, but still I see so many of
my compatriots jumping into these games alone and working their way up
to level cap without even speaking to another soul.
And I
must admit Ive done that in a number of recent MMOs. In both Guild
Wars and World of Warcraft, I level my toons all the way to level cap
without Unlike the social networking sites, making friends and/or
allies in a massive online game takes time AND effort. People dont
befriend you at the drop of a hat anymore, and the sheer effort to put
yourself out there to be friended is often an exercise in futility.
So
whats a social player to do? If games arent requiring groups to play,
the potential for social interaction is limited, but if grouping is a
fostered mechanic, will your play session be limited?
Enter the realm of the massively singleplayer game.
Lets
define this concept for those of you that arent familiar with this
sort of terminology. Rather than forcing players to interact with each
other, a developer begins by constructing a wholly single-player game,
meaning you can play a well-crafted title with a beginning and an end,
thus allowing you to win the game. After theyve completed this
portion of the gaming experience, the developer then gives the players
a number of options. Said developer can either create an online world
that allows players to create persistent characters, ala Diablo, the
upcoming Torchlight, and NHL 09; or the devs can create
building/modding tools, allowing for a community to spring up
around their game, much like whats occurred with Oblivion, Neverwinter
Nights, and BioWares upcoming Dragon Age: Origins.
As
strange as the concept may sound, there is definitely a burgeoning
effort to support this style of gameplay among the aging gamer
population. Many of us still want to be included in a social sort of
environment, but the time commitment of real life doesnt lend itself
well to regularly scheduled raids or hunting parties. The creation of
mods, however, is very much a community driven experience. Even if
youre not a writer, modeler, or artist, there are still plenty of
things for a community member to do. Testing is a vital part of the
process, and without folks interested in jumping into newly created
worlds, most of those would fail to even exist.
Even games
with constant pieces of downloadable content might even be considered
massively singleplayer to a degree, simply because their communities
are always aching to see the next exciting piece of their characters
epic story. Fallout 3 continues to entertain gamers, even though the
title was released months ago. Gamers continue to jump onto their
forums and discuss the game.
Our Premium Members at Ten
Ton Hammer have also felt this rising attraction towards massively
singleplayer gaming. In a recent poll hosted by our forum goddess Karen
Hertzberg, the majority of our members would be content with Ten Ton
Hammer expanding its reach into the realm of massively singleplayer
titles. Although most were strict about the network not jumping too
far over the line meaning dont go and start talking about the next
Gears of War title those that did vote for the expanded reach seemed
eager to read our take on some of these upcoming massively singleplayer
titles.
While the staff still hasnt made any concrete
decisions, it would be interesting to hear all our forum members take
on the subject matter. Games like Dragon Age: Origins and Diablo III
seem like an easy inclusion into the massively singleplayer niche,
but what other games fit that category? Would Fallout 3 be included?
Even then should a network that strictly covers MMOs even think about
touching these primarily singleplayer titles? Are massively
singleplayer titles the way of the future?
Let us know on the forums or shoot me an email.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=588">Aion
News & Articles Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45894">Aion
Images Showcase New Character Creation Options!
Quick!
Which one of these things doesn't belong in the Westernized version of
Aion:
wings, ethereal glow, afro hairdo? It's totally the ethereal
glow, right? There's something about that very Asian-MMO-esque bloom
haloing everything that seems a bit...much.
But some of our
members seem to think the fro detracts from the glowing,
other-worldly stuff, and therefor doesn't belong. I'll let you be the
judge. Take a look at this thread to get a glimpse at some screenshots
of the newly Westernized Aion character creation options, complete with
fro, and then
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45894">tell
us whether the you think the upgrades are an improvement.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"In other news: New
achievement:
For the Good of your server you have killed 5 characters with afro
haircuts; all further earn double rewards!"
- Anacche
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
4 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 14 in
September!
956 in
2009!
New Coverage and Guides At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Features:
-
style="font-weight: bold;">Aion: A Tale of Two
Halves - Elyos and Asmodae
Aion
is almost upon us! With the launch date just around the corner now is
the time to arm yourself with the most important knowledge of all,
which class to play. As a faction based game that doesn't allow you to
have characters from opposing factions on the same server you need to
know which side suits you the best. Join Medawky this week as he takes
a look at the major and minor differences between the two warring races
of Atreia -
style="font-weight: bold;">Champions Online vs. Aion:
Battle of the Year
It
is the battle of the year! Not unlike the brutal November when
EverQuest II and World of Warcraft duked it out all those years ago
(hmm..wonder who won that one?), now Champions Online and Aion go toe
to toe to win players and conquer the MMOG industry! Who will win your
vote, devotion, and more importantly, your money? It's a hard decision
to make so we pick apart these two major titles to highlight the basics
that will attempt to woo you. Are you a heroic spandex
wearing
do-gooder? Or are you a bitter Daeva looking to right the unspeakable
pains of your broken world? Find out in the battle of the year! -
style="font-weight: bold;">LOTRO Past to
Present: Through the Depths of Moria
The
Lord of the Rings Online has changed a lot since launch and nothing has
brought more content to the game than the Mines of Moria expansion.
This week Ten Ton Hammer examines how the game has changed since the
launch of Mines of Moria and what kind of new content has been added to
the game.Through the use of session play, Turbine was able to allow the
player to encounter the fabled balrog of Moria. -
style="font-weight: bold;">Champions Online
Comic: Zeroes - "Seriously..."
Champions
Online is based entirely off of superheroes. The big, the bad, and the
bold all share Millennium City as their home. But what about the less
than average caped crusaders? Who will tell their story? Our friendly
average (or slightly less-than) hero Nothingman has a thing or two to
say about all this launch day patch business.
style="font-weight: bold;">Giveaways:
Hottest Content:
-
style="font-weight: bold;">Champions Online vs. Aion:
Battle of the Year -
style="font-weight: bold;">Aion: A Tale of Two
Halves - Elyos and Asmodae - Aion
Images Detail Westernized Character Options -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions/humor/queereye2">Champions
Online: Queer Eye for the Superhero Guy #2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rise_of_the_godslayer/craig_morrison">Age
of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Interview with Craig Morrison - EverQuest
Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace - Champions
Online: Embracing the Future of MMOGs -
Exclusive
Champions Online Launch Interview with Bill Roper -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">BlizzCon
2009 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">
Coverage Portal - Final
Fantasy XI: Moogle Kupo d'Etat Walkthrough Tour
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Cody Bye and the Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dragon Age: Origins Game Page.
