In an unprecedented move for online gaming news networks, the Ten Ton Hammer Network, has decided to remove all secondary market ads from its 13 community sites and hub, effective immediately.

First and foremost in the proposal was the fact that the vast majority of companies that Ten Ton Hammer (TTH) deals with, game developers and game publishers, are very much against this advertising. TTH had conceded previously to its Vanguard, EQ2, and WoW communities exemption from running these ads because the developers/ publishers for these games are foursquare against secondary market promotion. With Vanguard at least, not carrying these ads is a condition of eligibility for affiliate status, a much-prized position for all Vanguard communities and fansites.

TTH's CEO, Patrick Connoy, said, "Our main goal at TTH is to give our rapidly growing list of MMOG fans as much new and exciting content as we possibly can to make their game playing experience as rich as possible. The full support of the game publishers and developers is a critical hinge in making sure we have access to the most recent and exciting developments that our readers will enjoy. We hope this very tough financial decision for TTH will be in everyone's best interest on a long-term basis."

In making the announcement to the Ten Ton Hammer community managers, Comeau advised:

"In the interests of fostering additional goodwill with the publishers and
developers of our industry (the vast majority of which are vehemently
against anything remotely associated with the secondary market), we will
begin removing all secondary market code blocks from all our sites, beginning
immediately."

The sounds of thuds heard around the network were all the jaws dropping in surprise, quickly followed, at least in the Vanguard camp, by tremendous glee.

The immediate effect of this step will be a rather large reduction in the revenues typically generated from the advertisers that were carrying secondary market promotions on the TTH sites. Hoskin put it this way:

"Our sole source of revenue across the massively multiplayer channel of our network is advertising. This particular advertising outperformed all other forms of advertising on our network. The numbers were large, making it a difficult decision to forego revenue in favor of better developer relations. We are a business, not a fansite. We spend a great deal of money covering events and paying community managers to run our sites. I'm confident that the developers and publishers of MMOGs will step in and provide advertising dollars to replace the dollars lost by our network not running secondary market ads."

The Ten Ton Hammer group hopes that this move will make the developers and publishers of the games TTH covers further aware of its commitment to the best interests of the industry.

Comeau wanted to emphasize that the biggest factor in this move was the nearly unanimous stance of the people and companies in the industry with whom the Ten Ton Hammer Network deals every day.

Hoskin summed it up:

"The reasons are clear. We value our relationships with the developers and publishers, who for the most part are against the secondary market. If their position changes, then our position will likely change with it. The publication / developer relationship is symbiotic. Developers make sacrifices to provide us with new and entertaining content for our readers and we in turn make sacrifices on their behalf."

This doesn't mean that Ten Ton Hammer management is for secondary markets. It means they are for the industry that TTH serves. From this reporter's point of view, it takes guts to put your money where your mouth is.

The Ten Ton Hammer Network is owned and operated by Master Games International Inc., a corporation founded in 1997 by chess organizers, International Grandmasters and patrons of the game. The flagship site of the network, WorldChessNetwork.com, is the ultimate chess community on the Internet.

Built as a community-nurturing network from the ground up, Ten Ton Hammer provides game players with a home away from home where they can chat live with their friends, post in the message forums, share game stories, and ask questions.

PATRICK J. CONNOY is the President, CEO and a Director of Master Games, International (MGI), as well as an avid chess player. Prior to joining MGI in 2000, Connoy spent over 30 years in the healthcare field, holding a variety of executive-level positions in marketing, finance and general management. Connoy worked for American Hospital for over 10 years as well as for McKesson Corporation for more than five years and was also President/CEO of two highly successful medical startup companies. Connoy graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. degree in Business Administration and has also worked as a stockbroker and healthcare industry consultant. He devotes 100% of his time to MGI (the parent company of Ten Ton Hammer and World Chess Network) and is responsible for coordinating and managing all of its business activities.

JOHN HOSKIN, the COO of Master Games, International, and Marketing Director of Ten Ton Hammer, has been a part of the computer game industry since 1996. He was the founder of the original GameStats.com site that gave hundreds of game websites a home on the web and dozens of game developers their start in the industry. Notable sites include; allakhazam.com, heavengames.com and apolyton.com. Hoskin joined Master Games International Inc. in 2001 and turned a chess-only network into a MMOG network. Currently, Hoskin lives in the tiny municipality of Prince Edward County, Ontario Canada.

PHIL COMEAU is currently the Managing Editor/Communities Director of TenTonHammer.com, having joined the group in 2004. A life-long gamer, he has been involved with gaming fansites in one shape or fashion since the internet made the jump into web browsers. Previously, he was News Editor, then Senior Editor for GameStats.com. Phil is currently working with John Hoskin to expand the new TTH network into the MMO genre.

The curious name for the network of Ten Ton Hammer was the result, according to Hoskin, of scientific selection.

"Ten Ton Hammer was scientifically chosen by asking an incredibly small
sample of people which of our potential names they remembered a few days
after hearing them," he said.

"Ten Ton Hammer was a candidate simply because I thought a sledgehammer, nine pound hammer, would be a nifty logo. It became One Ton Hammer, which sounded too much like Won Ton Hammer and TenTonHammer.com was born."

The network continues to strive on behalf of the people who come to the Ten Ton Hammer communities for news and views. Ten Ton Hammer welcomes your opinions and invites you to share them here in the forums or by email to Phil Comeau at comeau@tentonhammer.com.