Loading...
is the premier daily
MMOG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Welcome
to the 1,343rd
edition
of Loading...
What if the concept of a
"theme park" MMOG were to cross over into being a
real world attraction? That's exactly what Game Nation has
proposed with the announcement of the "world's first
experiential video game theme park and resort". Yes, you read that
correctly. We'll take a closer look at one of the most
bizarre new concepts to hit the wide world of gaming in recent years
today in Loading... Welcome to LARPland.
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
are today's top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
II - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
Dragons Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online
Biggest
movers this week:
-
size="-1">2/16
- href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion) -
size="-1">2/16
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479"> LotRO:
Oath of the
Rangers (content update) -
size="-1">4/5
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83086">Pocket
Legends (iMMOG - release date) size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">
-
size="-1">5/1
- 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
(content
update) -
size="-1">5/11
- Age
of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer size="-1">
(expansion) -
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)
Releases
-
size="-1">June
9,
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
Online (release) -
size="-1">June
29,
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
(US - July 2 in EU) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Q2 2010
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon -
size="-1">TBA
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
Fantasy XIV size="-1">
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">6/15 -
6/17 - href="http://www.e3expo.com/">E3
Expo -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">6/25 -
6/27 - href="http://www.lfgexpo.com/">Looking
for Group
Expo -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">7/22 -
7/25 - href="http://www.comic-con.org/">Comic-Con
International -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">8/5 -
8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/">SOE
Fan Faire 2010 -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
9/6 - href="http://www.dragoncon.org/">DragonCon -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y">BlizzCon -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
-
3/26 (2011)- href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">CCP
FanFest
EverQuest II Prowler Mount
Last week href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84658">new
mounts were added to the
Marketplace store in
EverQuest II. This week, get a chance to win one of them FREE! Simply
send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "Gimme a
Prowler!" for your chance to win.
Additionally tune into href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live">Ten
Ton
Hammer Live this Saturday at 7pm
EDT for another chance to
win one of these cool new mounts. Participants will need to be in the href="http://omfg.fm/?p=Chat">podcast's live IRC chat
for to enter the contest.
Winners of the Loading... mount giveaway will be announced Friday, May
28, 2010. Winners of the podcast mount giveaway will be notified during
the show.
Loading... Daily
At one point or another, we've
all heard
of MMOGs referred to as either a "sandbox" or "theme park". The
differentiating characteristics
between the two being that the former tends to be somewhat open ended
but gives players the tools to create their own experience such
as EVE
Online's
Tyrannis expansion
which launched yesterday. The
latter tends to provide players specific points of interest and more
often than not leads them by the nose to get there through various
means as popularized for the masses by
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft.
Now, on any given day I come up
with plenty of wacky ideas that
I realize should never be made public. But even at their wackiest, I
don't think I've ever sat down and said to myself,
"Gee, I wish there were a real world MMOG theme park where piles of gamers could
LARP the day away and then settle in for the night with a relaxing
massage given by a team of ninjas." But when I first read
about
href="http://www.demandgamenation.com/">Game Nation,
that's exactly what I pictured. Or more
specifically, I pictured a cross between
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ04mfAY2BU">this
video, DragonCon cosplay
contests and Fantasy Island. And to be honest I don't know
whether I should be highly amused at the thought, or very, very scared.
Described as the world's first
Experiential Video Game Theme
Park and Resort, Game Nation claims, "Visitors will become
players as their dreams and fantasies come to life in adventures yet to
be told. You will become anything you like and live out the character
you create. But this is no game. It's real!"
Apparently we still have plenty
of time to ponder whether to be amused
or scared by the thought of what Game Nation is proposing, as the
official website states that a location for the theme park will be
decided sometime in the next 12 months. The '
href="http://www.demandgamenation.com/what-is-game-nation/">What
is Game
Nation?' portion of the site is
similarly cryptic, upping the
bizarro factor by 10 with a long winded description of setting out on
grand adventures or talk of majestic relics and whimsical hardware
rather than explaining what in the world this place is supposed to be.
Regardless, I have to admit a
morbid curiosity to see what ultimately
comes of this. For all I know it might not be the LARPland train wreck
waiting to happen that I imagine it to be, but then again all signs
point to a giant case of WTF? whenever I think about it for too long.
Do you think the world is
prepared for the coming of
LARPland? Do other, even more bizarre things spring to mind when you
contemplate the idea of stepping into a real world MMOG? Don your
favorite +10 Cape of Conversing and share your thoughts in the
Loading... forum!
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=724">Guild
Wars 2 General Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=51500">What
features will set this game apart?
When
it comes to Guild Wars 2, Blackmyst thinks it "COULD be the one" for
him. His post asks other members for their input on what will make
Guild Wars 2 stand out from a pack of promising upcoming MMOGs. What do
you think?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=51500">Discuss!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I'd have to list story and
potentially game play, but I'm especially excited for the new
soundtrack theme's. In my opinion GW has some of the best music to fit
the game situations and story I've seen in an MMO and I hope Jeremy
gets to pull it off again."
- Fatemaster
==============================
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
3 new Ten Ton Hammer
articles today! 100 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in May! 571
in 2010!
FEATURED
REVIEW
Review: Red Dead Redemption
(Xbox 360)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/red-dead-redemption">http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/red-dead-redemption
Rockstar Games, developer of Grand Theft Auto, has been developing Red
Dead Redemption for over 6 years now. Was it worth the wait? Is this a
new game in a unique refreshing setting, or simply GTA reskinned with
horses instead of cars? Mattlow takes the game through its paces to see
if it deserves all the attention it’s getting.
FEATURES & GUIDES
Planetary Interaction in EVE
Online: Preliminary Trip Report
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/planetary_trip">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/planetary_trip
The countdown to being able to loot planetary resources begins now. Ten
Ton Hammer Contributing Writer, Space Junkie, takes us on a tour of how
to be ready to begin our own personal resource plunder projects when
the final parts of Tyrannis are released on June 8th.
The Impact of Story Pt. 1 -
Guild Wars 2 Gets Personal
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/personal-story">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/personal-story
The latest update at the official site for upcoming Guild Wars 2 offers
plenty of fresh insights into how story will play a leading role in the
game. In this first of a two part look at the impact of story in Guild
Wars 2, Ten Ton Hammer dives right into the latest details on how
ArenaNet intends to give players plenty of tools to weave a highly
individual storyline within the overarching tale of the Elder
Dragons.
Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/interviews/dev_talk/2010/may">Dev
Talk: Top MMOG Devs Weigh
in on User-Generated
Content -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/8">Ten
Ton Hammer Live Ep. 8 - style="font-weight: bold;">Neil
Kaplan Man of Many Voices -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/editorials/return-to-guildwars">The
Many Reasons to Return to Guild
Wars -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/beyond/guides/war-in-kryta">Guild
Wars: The War in Kryta Guide -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/newsletter/issue-1">The
War in
Kryta Advances - style="font-weight: bold;">GW2
Weekly Report
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/contests/guildwars2_post-a-thon">Win
a Guild Wars 2
Art Book -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84691">Ten
Ton Hammer's Guild Wars 2 Community Site Launches! -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/dragonage/Darkspawn-Chronicles">Review:
Dragon Age:
Origins-”The Darkspawn Chronicles”
(PC) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/gold">Ultimate
Gold Making Guide for World of
Warcraft
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/forsaken-world/cbt">Forsaken
World Closed Beta Key Giveaway
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team
