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is the premier daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!

Welcome
to the 1,396th
edition
of Loading...

At some point or another,
many of us have pondered what powers we’d want to have if we
were a super hero. Even if we haven’t necessarily been wacky
enough to try and become a super hero in real life, it’s
readily apparent that a lot of gamers are at least excited about the
idea of living out that fantasy in an MMOG. However, relatively few
developers have taken the plunge into that particular niche over the
years, and SOE will be the first to give us a real taste of what it
would be like as an active participant in an established comic book
setting. Learn how its newest super powered MMOG is stacking up
against the competition today in Loading… We Can Be Heroes.

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/eq2">EverQuest II
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
   Dragons Online
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
   Universe Online

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306">Jumpgate
   Evolution
   
   - UP 11 to
   #19
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/34">City
   of Villains
   
   - UP 10 to
   #14
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
   
   - Down 5
   to #7

• size="-1">5/26
  - EVE
  Online: Tyrannis size="-1">
  (expansion)
• size="-1">5/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2422">Craft
  of Gods size="-1">
  (release)
• size="-1">6/9
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
  Online size="-1">
  (release)
• size="-1">6/29
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998"
  target="_blank">APB
  (release)
• size="-1">7/13
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801"
  target="_blank">Mytheon
  (release)
• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2461"
  target="_blank">Need
  for Speed World
  (release)
• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
  II: Wings of Liberty
  (release)

• size="-1">August
  17, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
  of Heroes: Going Rogue (release)
• size="-1">September
  7, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
  Assault on Balaurea (free
  expansion)
• size="-1">September
  30, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv" target="_blank">Final
  Fantasy XIV size="-1">
  (release)
• 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;">November
  2, 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
  Universe Online (release)
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Events

• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">8/18 -
  8/22 - href="http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/en/gamescom/home/index.php"
  target="_blank">Gamescom 2010
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
  9/5 - href="http://www.paxsite.com/paxprime/index.php" target="_blank">PAX
  Prime
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
  9/6 - href="http://www.dragoncon.org/" target="_blank">DragonCon
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/8 -
  10/10 - href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/">New
  York Comic Con
• 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="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">HOT!
Visit href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides">Ten
Ton Hammer's StarCraft II Guides
portal to gain that competitive multiplayer edge, or to read our Wings
of Liberty
single player campaign mission walkthroughs!

Loading... The Graphic
Novel coming soon!

By now, many of you are no
doubt used to seeing the representative
listing of our Pulse charts right here each day in Loading…
as well as various other places around the Ten Ton Hammer network. If
you haven’t as of yet taken the opportunity to read up on
what the Pulse is all about, we have a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">full
description for you to
delve into. In a nutshell though, think of the Pulse as
a passive rating system that tracks what’s important to the
people visiting Ten Ton Hammer based on which specific titles from our
ever growing list of 383 MMOGs (and counting) that people are checking
out.

I’ve had a secret
love affair with the Pulse for quite some
time now, as I personally feel there’s no better metric out
there for seeing exactly
which titles are making gamers’ socks
go up and down on any given day. Sure, there are bound to be industry
wide events or trends that help influence the hype factor for a given
title across a broader spectrum of MMO gamers. But on the whole, that
daily snapshot can be an interesting way to gauge how pronounced that
hype factor is waxing or waning.

While it hasn’t quite
hit the very top of the charts to snag the number one slot from the
reigning champ,
it would appear as though I’m not alone in thinking the
latest challenger to step into the super hero MMOG arena is an
extremely
worthy contender. I’ve been watching the
development of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online
for quite some time now, and if the
leap up to the #5 position on the Pulse is any indication, so
have many of
you.

If you’re curious to
learn more about DCUO and what it is
about the game that’s garnering so much attention, I highly
recommend that you check out our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/previews/hands-on-aug-2010">DC
Universe Online Hands-On Preview
from the recent href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire/2010">SOE
Fan Faire. I was already very
impressed by href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/e3/2010/dcuo-e3-interview">what
we were shown in the demo
earlier in the summer at E3 2010, but from
the sounds of it DCUO is shaping up to be an incredibly awesome gaming
experience regardless of your prior knowledge of the iconic DC
characters
you’ll have the opportunity to interact with when the game
launches this November.

One of my favorite quotes from href="http://www.kickass-themovie.com/">Kick-Ass
goes something like,
“Doesn’t it bug you? Thousands of people want to be
Paris Hilton and
nobody wants to be Spiderman.” As true (and
sad) a statement about modern society as that may be, it seems pretty
evident to me that thousands of people do
want to be their favorite
DC characters, or at least virtually so.

And don’t forget
that if the DC Universe isn’t
quite
up your alley but you still want to create a Hit Girl of your
very own in a super hero MMOG, the launch of the Going Rogue expansion
for href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
of Heroes
is just around the corner. If you haven’t
already done so, you'll certainly want to use your cybernetically
enhanced vision to scan the details in Ethec’s href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/coh/going-rogue-preview">hands-on
preview to learn more about why
this is easily the coolest thing to hit
the City in recent years.

If I were a super hero, this
would be the point where you’d
become engulfed in a mysterious purple cloud, masking my hasty retreat
into the urban landscape. But don’t be alarmed –
the cloud isn’t poisonous, or at least I don’t
think it is! I’m sure most of you have at least some form of
awesome travel powers, so just to be safe this might be a good time to
put them to use. In fact, why not use them to run, jump, fly or
teleport on over to the Loading… forum and share your
thoughts on upcoming DCUO and Going Rogue!

Meanwhile,
in another part of the city…

A dark figure emerges from the
shadows to
whisper,
“Don’t forget to read part one of our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/hands-on-preview-part-1">hands-on
preview of Rift:
Planes of Telara!”
before
receding back
into the shadows from whence it came.

Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of
the Day

From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4"> /OOC
(Off-topic) forum



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52534">Is
this chick really a gamer?



Ten Ton Hammer tried a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gamergirl/2009/June">Gamer
Girl
series back in 2009, and unfortunately. you didn't bother to read it so
we discontinued it. (Much to our Executive Editor, Ben's, dismay. He
was the photographer.) Now here you are on the forums asking for
pictures of more gamer girls. Go figure. Got gamer girl photos? Are you
a gamer girl? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52534">Post!



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

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread



"*gasp*
Was this insinuating that pretty girls can't possibly be hardcore
gamers? Shame! "



 - href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=438297&postcount=8">Savanja

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

New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

5 new and exclusive
Ten
Ton Hammer
features
today!  55 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in August! 871
in 2010!

style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">HOT!
TRION
GAMERS' DAY

Rift: Planes of Telara First Hands On Preview Part 1

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/hands-on-preview-part-1">http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/hands-on-preview-part-1



Very recently, Ten Ton Hammer was among the first group of gamers to
spend some hands-on time with Rift: Planes of Telara. For this part of
the preview, we'll explore never-before-seen classes, character
creation, and the new starting areas of Shadowlands, Free Marches, and
Silverwood. Along the way, we'll delve deeper into concepts like
character progression and rifts and discover never before discussed
topics like the death penalty, early boss encounters, professions and
crafting. All that, plus some close-up impressions of one of Rift's
never-before-revealed classes in part 1 of our first ever Rift: Planes
of Telara hands-on preview!

style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">HOT!
SOE FAN FAIRE

Hacked! SOE Tells You How to Protect Your Game Account

href="http://tentonhammer.com/features/how-to-protect-your-account">http://tentonhammer.com/features/how-to-protect-your-account

 

You
log into your favorite game account to find the worst has
happened--your character is stripped and everything you've worked for
is gone. This is just one of the ways gamers can detect compromised
account security. Scott Dale, Assistant Manager of Account and Billing
Support for Sony Online Entertainment, gave an enlightening
presentation at SOE Fan Faire telling gamers how to detect an account
breach, and how to prevent one. Read on to learn how to preserve your
valuable virtual assets.

INTERVIEW

Exclusive
Interview with Allods Online Associate Producer Darren Allarde

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/allods/interview/allarde-aug-2010">http://www.tentonhammer.com/allods/interview/allarde-aug-2010



There's
been a lot of activity over at Allods Online the last couple of months.
With the recent deployment of the game's first expansion, Revelation of
Gipat, gPotato decided to up the ante and give away $50,000 in prizes.
Ten Ton Hammer managed to corner Allods Online Associate Producer
Darren Allarde and harass him to find out about the new expansion and
what's being planning for the future of the free-to-play Allods Online.

MEDIA

Jagex
Releases New Trailer for Stellar Dawn

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87847">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87847



Jagex,
the makers of RuneScape, has just released a new trailer highlighting
their upcoming sci-fi MMO, Stellar Dawn. Set in an alien landscape, the
adventure will begin in 2011. The video trailer visuals some visuals
and storyline elements for the game. Looks like players start off in a
bad way according to the trailer. Hope theres enough lifeboats!

FEATURES & GUIDES

A
Look at ArenaNet's MMO Manifesto

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/mmo-manifesto">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/mmo-manifesto




ArenaNet
has recently released a new video detailing their MMO manifesto and
reaffirming their stance on making Guild Wars 2 different than the
other MMOs out on the market. Here at Ten Ton Hammer we've taken a look
at the video and the followup posts. What does the video mean and what
details can we summarize from it? Questions like this and more are
answered here at Ten Ton Hammer.

Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/hands-on-preview-part-1">Rift:
   Planes of Telara First Hands-On
   Preview - Part 1
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/wings-of-liberty">StarCraft
   II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/wings-of-liberty">:
   Wings of Liberty Review
   
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/news/scars-of-velious-reveal">EverQuest
   II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/news/scars-of-velious-reveal">:
   Destiny of Velious Unveiled
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire2010/pool-party-video">Video:
   From the SOE Fan Faire 2010 Pool Party!
5. href="http://tentonhammer.com/interviews/soldier-connects-across-Star-Wars-Galaxies">Deployed
   - A Soldier Connects Across style="font-weight: bold;">Star
   Wars Galaxies
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/personality-and-immersion">Personality
   and Immersion in style="font-weight: bold;"> Guild
   Wars 2
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/previews/thunder-bluff">WoW
   Cataclysm href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/previews/thunder-bluff">Beta:
   Thunder Bluff Preview
   
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/reviews/ghosts-of-ascalon">Guild
   Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Book
   Review
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions-online/interview/shannon-posniewski/august2010">
   Serpent Lantern Interview with style="font-weight: bold;">Champions
   Online Executive Producer
   Shannon Posniewski href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions-online/interview/shannon-posniewski/august2010">
   
   
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides">StarCraft
    II Guide Portal

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the Ten Ton Hammer team