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is the premier daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,392nd
edition
of Loading...
This week Team Hammer is
out in force at the annual SOE Fan Faire where we’ve learned
the first details on the newest expansions for EverQuest
and EverQuest II.
We have an
overview of some of the major features being introduced such as player
housing in EQ and flying mounts in EQ2, and will also take a look at
one simple concept that the entire MMOG industry could benefit from.
All this and more awaits you today in Loading… Gaming
Upstream.
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:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
II - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
Dragons Online
Biggest
movers this week:
-
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)
Releases
-
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;">8/5 -
8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/" target="_blank">SOE
Fan Faire 2010 -
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;">10/22 -
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... Daily
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild
Wars
did it over five
years ago. Most if not all browser based MMOGs do it. Turbine
introduced it with the relaunch of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
and Dragons Online
as a
free-to-play title and will be implementing it when
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">Lord
of the Rings
Online
gets the same treatment this fall. SOE is doing it for the new,
lightweight free-to-play
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
II: Extended
client. Now it looks
like Blizzard is also jumping on board and doing it for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm">World
of
Warcraft: Cataclysm.
But what is this magic
“it” I keep referring to? If
you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about
streaming patch content for MMOGs while you play.
While a simple concept, I find
it interesting that it’s taken
a pretty long time for the top names the industry to finally catch on
to the notion that players get rather annoyed when attempting to log in
to their MMOG of choice only to discover that they get to sit and watch
a progress bar fill up at a painfully slow rate before being able to
actually play. However, if there’s one concept that
I’d love to see universally adopted by the industry moving
forward, this would be the one.
The second thing would be the
most glaringly obvious omission from just
about every title on the market: sock slots. I still can’t
imagine how awful it would be to stomp around in full plate armor all
day without any socks on. Mind you, I’m not so certain that
adding a new “knitting” tradeskill profession would
be a big win with players no matter how awesome the stats on socks
would be, but I digress!
Streaming client or patch data
while playing still has the potential to
be a negative for some players, at least if it causes the game to
become sluggish while the patcher chugs away in the background. From
the sounds of it this
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/editorials/EQ2-Extended">seems
to be the case with the current
testing
phase for EQ2 Extended, and back in the early days of Guild
Wars this
also lead to some rather annoying rubber banding issues that have
thankfully been all but completely erased since then.
Still, this is a welcome turn
of events for my gaming dollar, and one I
thoroughly encourage other developers to adopt moving forward.
In other news, Team Hammer is
currently in the trenches at the SOE Fan
Faire. So far we’ve learned the first details on House
of
Thule and Destiny
of Velious, the newest
expansions for the original
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
and EverQuest II
respectively, and will be bringing you even
more coverage from the event throughout the weekend. In the meantime,
be sure to read our article covering the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/87661">Expansion
Highlights for EQ
and EQ2 which we’ll be
taking a more in-depth look at later
today.
That about wraps things up for
this week, but as always I’d
love to hear your thoughts on streaming patches, sock slots, and the
latest and greatest SOE Fan Fair. So scamper on over to the
Loading… forum to have your say, and have an excellent
weekend!
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=615">EverQuest
II News & Articles Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52677">
title="blocked::http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52706">EverQuest
II Extended - My Two Coppers and a Tour
There
are few people with more EverQuest II knowledge than Savanja, who has
managed Ten Ton Hammer's EQ2 community and kept its guides and other
content updated for years. This week, she posted her opinions and first
impressions of EverQuest II Extended, EQ2's upcoming free-to-play
version, which is currently in beta testing. Community members have
been flooding to the thread to discuss EQ2 Extended and ask questions.
Savanja's been answering them. (Told ya she was knowledgeable!) If you
have your own opinions, or a question or two, about EQ2 Extended, head
on over and
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52677">get
talking.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Ok
I get it, you almost have to think of it as a completely different game."
-
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=438224&postcount=16">Protect
==============================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
2 new and exclusive
Ten
Ton Hammer
features
today! 28 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in August! 844
in 2010!
REVIEWS
Guild
Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Review
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/reviews/ghosts-of-ascalon">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/reviews/ghosts-of-ascalon
Guild
Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon is now on bookshelves everywhere and is one of
the most anticipated events of the year in the Guild Wars universe.
It's full of lore, information, and background on the
upcoming Guild Wars 2 game, but does it live up to everyone's
expectations? Find out as we review Ghosts of Ascalon here at Ten
Ton Hammer.
FEATURES
& GUIDES
Cataclysm:
New Rogue Talents
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm_rogue_talents">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm_rogue_talents
World
of Warcraft rogues have been riding a balancing rollercoaster for all
of Wrath of the Lich King, and it's not over yet! Cataclysm is
delivering a significant revamp to the sneaky stealthers. Check out the
new talents and get some analysis on how they will affect your
playstyle.
Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/interviews/darkshore-in-cataclysm">Exclusive
Cataclysm
Preview Q&A - Redesigning Darkshore -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/reviews/ghosts-of-ascalon">Guild
Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Book
Review -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions-online/interview/shannon-posniewski/august2010">Exclusive
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">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/guild-wars-2/video/jeff-grubb/ghosts-of-ascalon">VIP
Video Q&A with Guild
Wars 2
Ghosts of Ascalon Author Jeff Grubb -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides">StarCraft
II Guide Portal -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/editorials/EQ2-Extended">
style="font-weight: bold;">EverQuest II Extended –
My Two Coppers and a Tour -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/ui-changes">World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Interface Changes -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/free-to-play">Can
LotRO
Duplicate The Success of DDO?
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/interviews/free-to-play-georgeson">
style="font-weight: bold;">EverQuest
II Goes Free-to-Play - A
Q&A with Producer Dave
Georgeson -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/coh/going-rogue-preview">Into
the Gray: A Hands-On
Preview of City
of
Heroes: Going Rogue href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/coh/going-rogue-preview">
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten Ton Hammer team