Welcome
to the 1,311th
edition
of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMOG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Whether real or imagined, video game addiction is being dealt
with
sternly to the East. Find out what Korea has in store for minors who
play too many games in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/apr/13">Loading...
Train-to-Zone Spotting.
The Pulse
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:
- World
of Warcraft -
Age
of Conan (UP 2) - EverQuest
II -
Dungeons
& Dragons Online (UP 1) -
Lord
of the Rings Online (UP 1)
Biggest
movers this week:
- 2/1
- Global
Agenda (release date) -
2/2
size="-1"> - Star
Trek Online (release date) - 2/16
- href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion) - 2/16
- LotRO:
Oath of the
Rangers (content update) -
4/5
- Pocket
Legends (iMMOG - release date)
Releases
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">
-
April
2010 - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
of Heroes - Issue 17: Dark Mirror - style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon
- Summer
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB - TBA
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
Fantasy XIV
-
style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
The Old
Republic
Upcoming
Events
-
style="font-weight: bold;">4/17 - 4/18 -
href="http://www.ankama-convention.com/en">Ankama
Convention #5 -
style="font-weight: bold;">6/15 -
6/17 - E3
Expo -
style="font-weight: bold;">6/25 -
6/27 - Looking
for Group
Expo - style="font-weight: bold;">7/22 - 7/25 - href="http://www.comic-con.org/">Comic-Con International
-
style="font-weight: bold;">8/5 -
8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/">SOE
Fan Faire 2010 -
style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
9/6 - DragonCon -
style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y">BlizzCon
Loading... Daily
"Get off that machine and go to bed!" I
remember well those words. My mother would frequently use them when I
was a teen and I'd be in our basement happily playing King's Quest
games on our Amiga 500.
And if I didn't heed the warning?
Well, the power supply for the computer was guaranteed to be M.I.A the
next day, or even for a week pending how promptly I responded to my
mother's words. I learned quickly that my mother had little to no sense
of humor when it was time for bed, and as rebellious or cheeky as I
was, it was a battle I could not win. So I invariably conceded. It was
a system that worked.
Korea has their own system in mind. I have
to admit, too, as strong as my mother's words were, the Korean Ministry
of Culture, Sports and Tourism may have her beat. Earlier this week
they announced a
href="http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100412000752">pair
of policies
that will attempt to police underaged access to online games. For them,
it's more about battling video game addiction than it is about ensuring
enough rest for school the next day.
One way they intend to
combat the addiction is by having a "nighttime shutdown" where minors
will be forced out of gaming sessions promptly at midnight. The second
part of the policy is a slowdown system which will throttle internet
speeds dramatically if underaged gamers are on for a long period of
time.
Despite the efforts, they don't seem to be too optimistic as they
expect serious youths to find ways around the system anyway.
Color
me a cynic, but if addiction is a reality, not only do I have to echo
their thoughts in that people will find a way around the system, but I
have to ask what's the point? I'm pretty certain you don't treat drug
addiction by only allowing addicts to shoot up or smoke up until
midnight then yell "Get off that pipe and go to bed!" However,
realistically speaking, it's unlikely they'll have the manpower to
strap addicted youths into their beds for several months, feeding them
manually and taking care of their other natural body functions while
the screaming minors hallucinate dead murlocs crawling across their
ceilings.
Perhaps Ten Ton Hammer forum poster OneEyeRed has the right idea when
he says in our news
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50715">forums:
"The responsibility should be held on the parents to keep their
children in check."
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=561">Ten
Ton Torched forum
Seriously,
WTF?!?
"What the fark is up the recent spate of new members whose posts are
little more than thinly veiled ads for frickin' Fiesta Online?"
asks Annatar. The quick and easy answer is: they're shills. We know
they're out there, and we know what they're up to, pretending to be
community members and participating minimally in the community but just
enough to seem legitimate and to pedal the game they're (in theory)
being paid to pedal.
Technically, these people aren't
blatantly breaking any rules. In fact, I suspect they're little more
than fans who collect a (probably small) paycheck for sharing their fan
love and a few select topics (like the one about the great in-game
event du jour or the sale on such-n-such
microtransaction.) Are you bothered by the shills, or do you ignore
them? Go ahead and href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50735">vent
in this thread.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I blame Martuk. He most probably reported some minor news
article dealing with Fiesta and now its like we have the internet
version of crabs infesting the site!"
- Annatar
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
6 new Ten Ton Hammer
features
today! 56 in April! 415
in 2010!
INTERVIEWS
Pure Artistic
Vision - A Guild Wars 2 Concept Art Q&A with Daniel Dociu
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83246
From FIFA Soccer to Mechwarrior, James Bond, and a variety of IPs and
titles in-between, Daniel Dociu's artistic work in the field of game
art spans decades. More recently, however, Daniel's artistic vision has
helped imbue Guild Wars and its expansions with a style that is unique
among MMORPGs since the very beginning. As we learn more about Guild
Wars 2, a massively-sized project compared to its predecessor, we've
also been exposed to some incredible concept art from Daniel and his
sizeable team. That art, the vision behind it, and the inner-workings
of the ArenaNet art department - these topics are the subject of our
latest exclusive Guild Wars 2 concept art Q&A with Daniel
Dociu, Chief Art Director.
FEATURES & GUIDES
Ten Ton Hammer Live Ep. 2
- A Fallen Earth Update with Project Manager Colin Dwan
http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/2
This week host Jesse Cox is joined by "Fallen Earth" Project Manager
Colin Dwan and OMFG's Davlen for a look into the future. The dark
twisted world of a post-apocalyptic hellscape ruled by mutants and
zombies. Where you fight with shotgun in one hand and half dressed
futurisitc biker babe in the other. Sounds like my kind of place.
Oh...and they talk about Fallen Earth 1.4, riding chickens, and the
idea of player housing.
A Simple Introduction To Invention In EVE Online
http://tentonhammer.com/node/83310
Invention is an arcane process in EVE Online by which limited-run
blueprints for most of the advanced, tech two items are produced. Ten
Ton Hammer Contributing Writer, Space Junkie, sets sail in these stormy
waters to explain, simply, and help you figure out just how the heck
Invention works.
Microcosms #13 - Lucky 13
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83305
While most people consider 13 to be an unlucky number, we here at Ten
Ton Hammer don't happen to agree, at least for this week. You see this
marks the thirteenth week our free-to-play feature column - Microcosms,
has been published. To celebrate, our own Jason "Medawky" Bolton is
grabbing his black cat, stepping on a crack under a wide open ladder
and throwing caution to the wind as he looks at 13 of the top games in
the segment as determined by our fan interest indicator, The Pulse.
WoW
Newbie Guide: Dungeons and Raids
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/newbie/dungeons
Many
players in World of Warcraft take running instances, heroics, and raids
for granted. It is just something they do as part of their
normal
time playing the game. To a great many other players though, they
really do not have a clue what these items even are as they have come
from RPG and single player games were instancing is not an
issue. So in this guide we explore what these items are in an
MMOG
and why the new players should care about them.
WoW: PvP in Cataclysm -
WoW Weekly Report
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue62
Our World of Warcraft newsletter arrives every Tuesday morning with the
latest WoW news, awesome guides, and David "Xerin" Piner's voice going
over this weeks topic. This week we've got ten tons of class previews
here at Ten Ton Hammer and a look at how the class changes seem to be
focused on PvP.
Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features
- Pure
Artistic Vision - A Guild
Wars 2 Concept Art Q&A with Daniel Dociu - Ten
Ton Hammer Live Ep. 2 - A Fallen
Earth Update with Project Manager Colin Dwan -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/wonderking/levelup">WonderKing
Level Up Giveaway from Ten Ton Hammer Now Live -
Borderlands
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83273">: Add-On Pack
Reviewed -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/viborabayoverview">Champions
Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/viborabayoverview">:
Vibora Bay Overview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/features/top_ten_newbie_mistakes">Starcraft
II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/features/top_ten_newbie_mistakes">:
Top Ten Newbie Mistakes - Battle
of the Immortals Closed Beta Key
Giveaway Begins - WoW:
Cataclysm Class Previews -
Shaman, Warlock and Priest -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/everquest/nostalgia">Awakened
Nostalgia - EverQuest
Relived -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/editorials/CC/intro">WoW
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/editorials/CC/intro">
Op/Ed - Casually Casual: Because Casual is NOT a Dirty
Word
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team
