Welcome back to the 65th edition of Reloading...! 



Glad to have you on this flight.  Please remain seated while we taki for takeoff.



I’m John Hoskin and I’ll be your MMOG tour guide today.  Enjoy the ride!



“At the end of the day, one shall stand, one shall fall.” – Optimus Prime



Everyone can use a feel good moment to start the day.   Let’s go with this…



*|YOUTUBE:RlQEoJaLQRA|*



Thanks for taking some time out of your day to read this column.  I truly appreciate it.    If you happen to use Twitter, you can follow me @BoomjackTTH.   I rarely use Facebook, but I do occasionally post gaming related tidbits on Google+ where you can find me as simply John Hoskin. 

 

If you didn’t watch the video that I linked above (or couldn’t because you were at work) then take a moment and watch it when you have the time.  It’s an inspiring look at what makes us tick and how our reptilian brains (the parts that tell us that something “feels” wrong or “feels” right) in many ways dictate how we experience the games that we play.  Don Norman puts his finger on why some games hook you in and make you feel good while you play and how others leave you feeling irritated when you are done. 

 

Portal 2 was an excellent example of a game that hit the mark.   It put the player in a stressful situation, but walked the fine line that allowed the player to still think in a broad spectrum rather than the panic stricken focuses thought that we use when our fear mechanisms kick in.   Portal 2 was not only fun, it “felt” right, so much so that a young man had levels professionally built to propose to his girlfriend.

 

*|YOUTUBE:o8SdYz7cq04|*

 

In a previous column I posted the odd trailer for the Transformers MMOG.   There was very little information and by little I mean none, so we made it a priority to get out and talk to the Jagex team about this mystery game.  As luck would have it, we were able to chat with Steven Huckle, the Art Director.    Ben milked a few details out of Steven that have kept me interested.  I’ll be thrilled when they are able to tell us more.

 

By the time this column hits your mailbox it may be too late, but just in case…  We have a Camp Our Spawn contest on with LOTRO: Rise of Isengard Beta Keysas the prizes.

 

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3 has been getting a lot of headlines recently and with it many questions about the new Void Storage.   Davey P. has your answers in our Void Storage Preview

 

Thanks to Karen, I got word that GameStop was opening Deus Ex boxes and removing the free coupon codes.   What in the name of????  Ars Technica got the scoop. 

 

Last, but not least I had asked how many games you purchased through Steam.   Here are some of the responses.

 

“I use Steam pretty much exclusively, and the lack of Steam support for the only two games I'm buying this year (Battlefield 3 and Sweater) pissed me off big time.  I will still buy those games, but have deemed to do so the cheapest way possible and will not be forced into using Origin, which is basically a poorly stocked Steam-wannaba bloatware.” -- Michael

and...

“I've used steam for the past 3 years, I would say about 90% of my purchases are on steam, the only games that are not steam purchases so far, are SWTOR and a few game discs like AOE3 etc.” – Nathaniel

and…

“Regarding the "what percentage of your game purchases are through the Steam service" question, I always try to buy my games on Steam. If I cannot choose however, or the price difference is more then €5 and I want the game badly enough, sure, I'll buy it outside of Steam. But If I can choose, I prefer my games on Steam.

 

The reasoning behind it is that I like all my games in one place. I never have to fear that I lose a game or the disc becomes unreadable. My internet speed is 40mbit (4.5~ MB p/s) so the waiting time for a download is like 15 minutes. In the meantime I'll just take a coffee and check the news.

 

It's true that sometimes you need internet to play a game and if "The Net" is down your screwed. But to me the positive outweighs the negatives. For me it's also a place to discover new indie titles. Like SPaZ and Dungeons of Dredmore. And to close my praise, the discounts, sales and daily discounts are totally awesome.” – Johan

 

It was pretty much unanimous that Reloading… readers love Steam.

 

That’s it for today.  Thanks again for reading.   See you in-game!



Until we meet again,

John “Boomjack” Hoskin


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 © 2011 Ten Ton Hammer  


Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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