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is the premiere daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,440th
edition
of Loading...
This Tuesday marked one of the
most important dates in the overall lifecycle of
style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World of
Warcraft since the
game’s initial release nearly six years ago. What has become
a traditional event leading up to the release of a major expansion, the
newest patch for the game is significant for a number of reasons that
go far beyond giving players some shiny newness in game to keep them
occupied until the full
style="font-style: italic;">Cataclysm
experience is unleashed on December 7th. We’ll take a closer
look at this, and why the entire industry could benefit from taking the
same approach to pre-expansion patches today in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/oct/14">Loading…
The Line Begins to Blur.
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 2
(UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
of the Rings Online (UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online (down 2) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age
of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
(UP 1)
Biggest
movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift:
Planes of Telara
- down 3
to
#16 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online
- UP 3
to
#19 style="text-decoration: underline;"> -
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
Wars 2
-
down 2
to
#7
-
size="-1">7/27
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
II: Wings of Liberty
(release) -
size="-1">8/17
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
of Heroes: Going Rogue (release) -
size="-1">8/18
- href="http://everquest2.com/free_to_play">EverQuest
II Extended (release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/7
- size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
Assault on Balaurea (free
expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/29
- Everquest
2 Extended
(release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/30
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv">Final
Fantasy XIV (release)
Releases
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">October
14-15, 2010
- Dungeons
and Dragons
Online: Update 7 (expansion) -
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;">October,
2010
- Champions
Online: Demonflame (expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">November,
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online:
Incursion (expansion)
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">December
7, 2010
- World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
(expansion)
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Early 2011
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online (release)
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">
- Ask the Devs!
Have you got a question about style="font-style: italic;">Rift:
Planes of Telera?
Well, you have a chance to ask the devs at Trion Worlds directly. Just
submit your questions href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53660">in
our forums.
alt="World of Warcraft PlayerScore"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/misc/PlayerScore/2010/PlayerScore_101410.jpg">
What's
your PlayerScore? World of
Warcraft players, find out at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.
Loading... we put the argyle
in socks!
If there’s one thing I wish all MMOG devcos would adopt for
future releases it would be the almighty Sock Slot. Those of you who
have followed my seemingly random musings here in Loading…
and on our forums know that I have been on a campaign to make this a
reality for most of 2010. And while it may be a sure indication that
there are times when I only have one foot centered in reality, the
other foot is somewhere off in a virtual world wishing it had a +10
Sock of Unstoppable Argyle to keep all that clunky plate or stiff
leather armor from chafing so badly. Will an MMOG developer step up to
the plate and answer the call before the year is out? It seems highly
unlikely at this point, but surely it will happen in 2011, right?
But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about today. No
sir!
No, I wanted to talk about the second thing I wish all MMOG devcos
would adopt for future releases. If you’ve taken the time to
read the intro to today’s Loading… then you
already know that I’m referring to Blizzard’s trend
of releasing a game changing mega-patch just prior to the launch of a
major expansion.
My reasoning here is pretty simple. Not only does it build the kind of
pre-launch hype for current players that out-of-game marketing could
never hope to achieve, but it also gives players a taste of the future
glory that awaits them.
In the case of patch 4.0.1, we also get to experience some of the most
significant changes the game has seen in nearly six years for the price
of our monthly subscription. For the next few weeks we get to walk in
two worlds at once – the Azeroth we’ve known and
loved since 2004, but with the tools and talents that will soon carry
us into a new era for. In many ways that era has already begun.
An interesting side effect of note here is, having actively
participated in the beta since July using a character copy of my main
characters on the live servers, logging in with them now I keep
expecting to be able to do things, see revamped zones, and go forth and
kick some Twilight Cultist ass in ways that I’m not quite
able to yet on the live servers. Thankfully the full transition will
occur soon enough, and in the meantime I’m beginning to get
fairly excited about the fact that one week from now I’ll be
on my way to the west coast for BlizzCon.
Mind you, there have been plenty of other developers that have released
meaty new chunks of content or even full expansions for free over the
years. One need only look as far as
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">
style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
for a perfect example here. Still, there’s something to be
said about rewarding longtime subscribers with cool new things to
tinker with, regardless of whether or not they ultimately purchase the
full expansion.
Did I drink too much of the Blizzard Kool-Aid this week, or are the
pre-expansion mega patches one of those killer concepts that other
developers should put some serious consideration into adopting? Scamper
on over to the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54140">Loading…
forum
and have your say! And
don’t forget to check out our complete
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources">resource
portal for Patch 4.0.1 over at
style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft
– Ten Ton Hammer!
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=54064">A
Crime Against Humanity?
Why
isn't Monty Python a part of every school's curriculum by now? Brave
SirRobin asks. Why isn't "Every Sperm is Sacred" sung in Sunday school?
We have no answer...other than to reward him with a collection of our
favorite Monty Python videos, all embedded in one
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54064">convenient
thread.
=====================================
Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread
"My
Monty Python references are always lost on the younger gen. No one ever
knows the air speed velocity of a unladen swallow."
-
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=443812&postcount=6">Savanja
=====================================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
5 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 51 Ten Ton
Hammer features in September! 1111 in 2010!
REVIEWS
Medal
of Honor Review
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/main/reviews/Medal-of-Honor">http://www.tentonhammer.com/main/reviews/Medal-of-Honor
Medal
of Honor is one of
the most recognized first person
shooter series of this last console generation. Whether you started on
the
original on Playstation, or joined the Allied Assault for its big PC
debut, Medal
of Honor players can proudly
say they were there playing and FPS before
style="font-style: italic;">Halo
and Call
of Duty made them cool. But
can the series return to glory? EA employs the help of
Battlefield
developer DICE to try and revitalize the series with some
modern flair, and compete against the
style="font-style: italic;">Modern Warfare
juggernaut.
REGULAR
FEATURES
Free-to-Play
by Play: A Microcosms Recap
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/microcosms/2010/oct/14">http://www.tentonhammer.com/microcosms/2010/oct/14
We
review and chronicle so many games here at Ten Ton Hammer that
sometimes even our most loyal of readers can miss one. For
that reason
Microcosms periodically recaps the best of the best in an easy to read
and concise format. Which games have been occupying the
lion’s share of
Jason “Medawky” Bolton’s time these past
few months? Check out this
week’s Microcosms to find out.
FEATURES
& GUIDES
Top
Ten Newbie Mistakes In EVE Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/newbie-mistakes">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/newbie-mistakes
There are mistakes, and then there are mistakes that could have been
avoided. Here are ten of the latter that newbies in
style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
seem prone to, all courtesy of Space Junkie.
Gearing
up for WoW Cataclysm PvP
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm-pvp-gearing">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm-pvp-gearing
The arrival of
style="font-style: italic;">Cataclysm
means a complete gear reset which will put all the new level 85 players
at the same starting point. This is the perfect time to get ahead of
the game and get geared for Player vs. Player combat. Ten Ton Hammer
shows you how.
DCUO
Pushes Back - For Better or Worse
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/editorials/dcuo-pushes-back">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/editorials/dcuo-pushes-back
DC
Universe Online made the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90381">announcement
last week that the game isn't ready and release will be delayed until
early 2011 much to the dismay of its many fans. In a sagging niche of
super hero games, DCUO is walking into a mine field of expectation and
high hopes. Will the push back hurt a game that is already flying under
the radar, or is there hope that DCUO can break through and wow a jaded
market? Read Savanja's thoughts in DCUO Pushes Back - For Better or
Worse.
Today's
Top 10
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources">
style="font-weight: bold;">World of Warcraft's
Patch 4.0.1 Resources -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/previews/update-7">
style="font-weight: bold;">Dungeons & Dragons
Online Update 7 Hands-On
Preview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/charr-arena-event">The
Last Whiskey Bar - An Exclusive First Look at the Charr Arena Event in style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Wars 2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm-pvp-gearing">Gearing
up for WoW
Cataclysm PvP style="font-weight: bold;">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part2">The
Rift System - style="font-weight: bold;">Rift: Planes of Telara
Reader Submitted Q&A #2 style="font-weight: bold;">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war/interviews/carrie-gouskos-skaven-10.5.10">Skaven
Exclusives! A style="font-weight: bold;">WAR
Q&A with Carrie Gouskos -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/main/reviews/Medal-of-Honor">
style="font-weight: bold;">Medal of Honor
Review -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/newbie-mistakes">Top
Ten Newbie Mistakes In style="font-weight: bold;">EVE Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm_druid_talents">4.0.1
Updated Cataclysm
Druid Talents & Moonkin Mechanics -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/champ/overview">Ten
Ton Hammer's All New style="font-weight: bold;">Lord of the
Rings Online
Champion Class Guide
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten
Ton Hammer
team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.
