MMO news, guides, reviews, features, interviews and more at Ten Ton Hammer

BBC News has a story of the many problems that seem to be plaguing the giant World of Warcraft. Our own Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle is quoted in the article. Yep that smart guy belongs to us. If you haven't had the chance to read any of Jeff's articles, take the time now. It's good to see his insightful opinions recognized.

Oh, I guess I should tell you about the story itself.

Since it launched in November 2004, World of Warcraft has proved hugely popular and now boasts more than six million regular players around the globe. The game lets players control different sorts of characters, including warriors, warlocks, wizards, druids and rogues and take them adventuring in the fantasy world of Azeroth.

However, some fear that this growth has come at a high price and the playability of the game is suffering as Blizzard, the company behind WoW, struggles to support those millions of players.

One thing you can be sure of is that our World of Warcraft Community isn't being plagued by anything but an overabundance of great information.

More World of Warcraft news.
Don't have a place for your guild to call home? Check out Guild Portal. It has the best tools.

Will the E3 goodness never stop??

here’s a vicious war being waged in a remote corner of the galaxy. The bloody tide of death and destruction that has swept through system after system, seeking to blot out the last vestiges of free sentient life, has found its way to the last redoubts of freedom.

It is here that the surviving sentient species have gathered, to give their all in one last great battle…

Witness exciting combat footage from the AFS frontlines! Be prepared for intense action as these warriors go up against the relentless Bane. The rest of the galaxy may have been easy pickings... but that was yesterday. Now they face the AFS and the price of their arrogance will be high indeed.

Download the new trailer here.

More Tabula Rasa news.

There's a new developer diary for Chronicles of Spellborn.

Stratics.com published a new dev diary explaining the way npcs are placed in world of The Chronicles of Spellborn. The article explains how the developers made sure each npc encounter is unique and challenging. The article includes some nice model shots and artwork showcasing some of the npcs that can be found in the game.

Find it here.

More Chronicles of Spellborn news.

Ever wonder how much our favorite MMORPG publisher is making? I certainly do. I chalk it up to an obscene amount of curiosity.

If you're struck by the same level of curiosity that I am, you are in luck! Yahoo Finance has NCSoft's first quarter earnings report.

By game, Lineage® posted sales of KRW 30 billion (US$32 million), up 1% from the previous quarter. Lineage II saw its contribution dip 4% to KRW 29.1 billion (US$31 million) from the previous quarter. Sales of City of Heroes/City of Villains and Guild Wars decreased by 58% and 57% respectively to KRW 6.5 billion (US$6.9 million) and KRW 6.3 billion (US$6.7 million).

The first quarter results marked a downturn from the previous quarter and NCsoft attributed this to a lack of new product launches. The company explained the results were generally in line with forecasts made at the beginning of the year. NCsoft anticipated that sales will resume growing in the second quarter with the launch of new products. The company also revised its earnings guidance to KW 353 billion (US$375.8 million) in sales and to KW 50 billion (US$53.2 million) in operating profit based on product launch plans and market circumstances.

I'm surprised by the decline in sales for both the "City of - " franchise as well as Guild Wars. They're both fantastic properties. Lineage 2, meh, doesn't surprise me in the least. I imagine that it's doing really well in the Asian market.