Loading... The Road Not Taken

Welcome to the 885th Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

The column today is brought to you by Warhammer Online. In the days leading up to the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, there is a great unrest amongst the Realms. The forces of Order and Destruction are hungry for battle and the taste of bloody victory. The time has come to sharpen your blades and don your armor. The time has come to gather recruits and strengthen your armies. The time has come to fight for control over the unclaimed territories of North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The Age of Reckoning is near. Declare your allegiance, choose your army, and march into battle on the Road to WAR. Register Now!

Loading... putting the 'Mo' in MMOG.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

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?)

World of Warcraft - 200 BPM
Warhammer Online - 150 BPM
Age of Conan - 87 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 21 BPM
EVE Online - 15 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 15 BPM
EverQuest II - 12 BPM
Stargate Worlds - 11 BPM
Dungeon Runners - 9 BPM
Vanguard - 9 BPM

World of Warcraft recaptures the top spot in the Ten Ton Pulse, while Tabula Rasa climbs the charts on the news that a few lucky players will have their DNA sent into space.

We have an unusual contest starting today. Think Guitar Hero meets Mission Impossible and you're on the right track for our Beamz Harmonious Contest. Coincidentally, Mythic Entertainment also started a contest today called, Road to WAR which has caused such a stir that the servers running it stumbled, crawled and then stopped completely. It appears to be back online now, so hit the link and go check it out. Band together in our forums and win unique WAR titles!

Tony Jones has been fastidiously updating the Warhammer Online FAQ to keep you up to date on all of the changes to the game.
As news has been rolling in about prospective launch dates and pre-orders it has become more difficult than ever to keep up with everything you need to know about Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Fortunately Ten Ton Hammer has been watching intently and updated our Beta/Release FAQ with plenty of official information which you can use. Want to know what the Collector's Edition contains or if your computer has the necessary system requirements? The Warhammer Online FAQ has your answers.

Jeff, Phil and I got some answers from Sebastian Strzalkowski of the SOE Free Realms team. This 13-minute video interview taken at the SOE Block Party is the most in-depth look at Free Realms to date.

If you are a Stargate fan we have posted our Stargate
Worlds First In-Game Footage - Part 3: Playtest and Q&A Session from Comic Con. This is video taken from at the very first interview with anyone on the planet showing gameplay. We can't thank the Firesky/Cheyenne Mountain team enough for allowing us to be the first media outlet to view this content.

Perhaps World of Warcraft is your passion and quite frankly, you're happy and comfortable in that world. Never fear, we are producing as much new WoW content as we ever have. Today we bring you, WoW: The Incoming Death Knight Zerg Editorial.

Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Lich King are both coming down the pipe. Which are your more excited about? It's a bit like Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. -- Robert Frost

Mr. Frost would play Warhammer, but will you? Can the Mythic team make up the four-year headstart that Blizzard has in their favour?

I know you're thinking something. Share! The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

[A big thanks to Karen Hertzberg for putting together the links and Real World News.]

14 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 344 in July! 1931 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Comic-Con
2008