Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

The WoW Economist is back, if you already didn't know, and has a few top notch articles already out there. The latest one, about Guild Economics in Cataclysm, has a really good line about what if there were guild retention bonuses. What if you or the guild got a bonus for having people stay in the guild? Would it help turnover rates? Pretty thought provoking and exactly why it's an excellent read.

Retention Bonus: For every guild member you retain for more than 1 year (or for X% of Guild Member Retained), the Guild shall XXXXXXXX. The end is blank – too many possibilities (1/pt). I originally wrote that the Guild shall be awarded X gold, I mean wy not?. Then I thought why not it be Improved Penny Pincher above to say 25 -50%. Then I thought wait, what else could it be? I think some sort of bonus for retention should be awarded but maybe not just limited to economic rewards. I like the idea there is a carrot out there for Guild Management to run a Guild with high retention figures.

The WoW Economist has a good article up today. You should go give it a read.

With the already bursting patch notes list for Aion patch 1.5.1, NCsoft has added to the preliminary list with even more fixes and updates. While the new additions are primarily minor changes there are some interesting alterations that caught my eye including aether extraction captcha and helpful keyword searches on the broker.

1. When you extract Aether, there’s a chance that Aether Poison Gas will infiltrate your body. The poison blocks gathering for a certain period of time unless you detoxify the poison.

- Once you are poisoned the only way to detoxify yourself is to utter the "Cleansing Word.”

- To utter the Cleansing Word, type the randomly given letters and numbers within the designated time

- When you utter the Word, you get three chances to enter the correct letter/number sequence. If you fail three times, Vitality Extracting and Aether Extracting are prohibited.

- The “/ExtractStatus” command provides your extraction status.

- When you have Aether Poison Gas in your body, you can still move and activate other abilities, so move to a safe place before you utter the Cleansing Word.

You can get the full and newly updated patch notes here or just catch the latest additions by following this link.

Have something to say regarding the latest update? Share your thoughts with other players by clicking the "Post your comments" link below.

In an attempt to balance a few select realms Blizzard will be offering free character transfers. These transfers became available today (November 5) at 11:15am PST and will be ending Thursday, November 12 at the same time. If the transfer goals are met before November 12, the transfers to or from any realm may be disabled.


To see if your toon is eligible for transfer check out the blue post here.

Today Blizzard released two unique purchasable pets: Pandaren Monk, and Lil‘ K.T. Each pet is ten dollars each and can be found on the online store in the Collectibles tab. Half of the proceeds from every Pandaren Monk purchased through December 31 will be donated to the Make-a-Wish foundation. Both pets have some fun special abilities and will be sure to entertain you and your friends!


To read more about these pets visit the Blizzard Store

After topping digital download charts for pre-orders and continuing to dominate after release, Aion is finally dropping to the bottom of the top 10 a month after release. Direct2Drive and Steam have released their top 10 lists for the week of October 25-31 which very well could be the last week the game shows up on these charts at all.

Direct2Drive:

1. Borderlands
2. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition (Preorder)
3. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Ed. w/ Prima Guide(Preorder)
4. Torchlight
5. Tropico 3
6. Dragon Age: Origins (Preorder)
7. Civilization 4: The Complete Edition
8. Aion
9. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Halloween Promo)
10. Risen

Steam:

1. Borderlands LW: 1
2. Left 4 Dead 2 (Pre-Order) LW: 2
3. Torchlight LW: Not Listed
4. Football Manager 2010 LW: Not Listed
4. Dragon Age Origins: Digital Deluxe Edition (Pre-Order) LW: 3
5. Killing Floor LW: 10
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Pre-Order) LW: 5
7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Sale) LW: Not Listed
8. Dragon Age Origins LW: 4 (Pre-Order)
9. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Sale) LW: Not Listed
10. Team Fortress 2 (Sale) LW: Not Listed
10. Aion: Standard Edition LW: 7

Aion certainly had a good run on sales charts and as routine sets in for gamers who have decided to stick around after the first free month, sales will start to find their comfortable groove for the time being.

So now that the initial mad dash has subsided, did Aion find a solid playerbase? It is still pretty populated on my servers, let us know how it's looking from where you play by clicking the "Post your comments" link below.

Gamers aren't the only people creating everything they can to show their appreciation for BioWare's latest RPG masterpiece, Dragon Age: Origins. Musical groups have gotten on board to show their support as well. Inspired by the game, 30 Seconds to Mars wrote This is War and put it to some previously seen cinematics. The results are well worth watching.

Check out the video here!

Lavasoft, makers of the popular Ad-Aware Internet security software have developed a new version of Ad-Aware specifically aimed at gamers. The latest version offers real-time anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. Given the increased popularity of online gaming, cyber creeps have began targeting more online gamers with the goal of stealing account or personal finance information.

The online games industry is booming and, according to the Malware Labs at Lavasoft, cyber thieves are cashing in. In fact, malware authors are capitalizing on the transfer of cash and virtual goods that takes place regularly in online games by developing Trojans aimed specifically at plundering passwords and harvesting log-in details from users of MMORPG's. The scammers are usually after the credit card and billing information for online game accounts, and even the virtual world loot, which they can auction off for real world money.

• Read the full press release here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Runes of Magic players will be engaged by a new challenge soon. Frogster has announced details about a new 12 man raiding instance coming to the game with one of the coming updates. Players will need to brave the Aotulia Volcano to face off against the new flame dragon Gestero.

Of the five ancient dragon races, the flame dragons are the strongest and most powerful species. To fight and vanquish them is an almost impossible task. Yet, Taborean heroes are called to face up to the challenge, for the Naga have captured Gestero, a renegade flame dragon, possessed by demons. They want to use him to help them suppress the free people of Taborea. Whoever wants to stand in this fire-spewing monster’s way must penetrate deep into the fire of the Aotulia Volcano. On the way down into the crater, raid parties will find wave after wave of heavily armed elite Naga barring their way.

• Read the full press release here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Cryptic has released a new developer's diary explaining the episode missions in Star Trek Online (STO). Episode missions play much like an episode of the TV shows and draw the player in to complex quest chains that were written as though they were a standalone TV episodes themselves. Each episode reveals more about the STO storyline. At launch the game will have roughly three seasons worth of content that will draw the player into thick story with evolving plots.

As the story develops, the stakes increase. While Episodes later in the game don't take longer in terms of time or the number of in-game objectives, plot itself accelerates to a dramatic pitch. The threats you'll face are as great as any you've seen in the Star Trek movies. That's not to say early missions are anything to scoff at, however; the early Episodes are designed to be intriguing and dangerous, too.

• Read the full diary here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

The first month of veteran rewards are now available for players to activate on their Aion accounts. These rewards will generally be available on the first of every month for active players, but as our first month in game comes to a close, rewards had a minor delay and were finally disbursed today, November 4th.

Players who active these gifts on their account will enjoy an expand cube ticket, a new pop legend emote, 4 lodas stone amulets that offer an experience increase while in use, and 4 very useful revival stones.

To activate these on your account, follow these directions:

1. Log in to your NCsoft Master Account.
2. Click the Game Accounts link.
3. Select an Aion game account listed on the Game Accounts page.
4. Click the Apply in-Game Items link in the Action section.
5. Select a server in which you have made a character, and click the Next button.
6. Select a character to receive the Veteran Rewards, and click the Next button.
7. Click the checkbox next to an item pack or packs, and click the Next button.
8. Review the confirmation page, and click the Apply the Items/Item Packs to This Character button.

Once you've assigned items to a character, log in to Aion and retrieve the items via in-game express mail.

Log in and get yours now and start reaping the rewards of membership!

Cryptic updates their superhero MMOG, Champions Online, with another patch today. The main purpose of this patch is to fix stability issues with their databases.

You can read the patch notes here.

One of the things that stands out as the strangest item I have seen in a patch is the addition of arena points to battlegrounds. Huh? Aren't arena points by definition supposted to come from Arenas?

• PvP
  • Battlegrounds
    • Battleground Experience: Battleground experience gained is now based on the level of the player gaining experience, rather than the highest possible player level in that Battleground.

    • All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards.

Check out this and other changes in the newest PTR Patch Notes found here.

It seems like it was just the other day... Wow, does time fly when you're having fun. Blizzard is getting ready to celebrate 5 years of WoW. Check out the news post for more details.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of World of Warcraft on November 23, 2004 -- and to kick off the celebration, every week for the next five weeks, we'll be giving out prizes to players as a way to say "thanks" for being a part of the World of Warcraft community these past five years. Each week, we'll randomly select winners from a different group of accounts based on how long they’ve been playing the game. The first week’s winners will receive a World of Warcraft Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein courtesy of this week'’s sponsor, Taverncraft. For more details on prizing and eligibility, please check out the rules at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/5year/index.html and stick around for more five-year-anniversary festivities in the weeks ahead!

Make sure that Internet security is up to date. MMOG gamers seem to be the target of Worm and malicious software attacks according to a recent Microsoft Security Intelligence Report called Sirv7. According to Microsoft, Taterf, a worm that spreads via mapped drives in order to steal login and account details for popular online games saw a 156% increase since the second half of 2008 and mainly targets MMOG gamers.

Taterf, with detections up 156 percent since the second half of 2008, targets massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These attacks rely less on social engineering to spread, and more on access to unsecured file shares and removable storage volumes — both of which are often plentiful in the enterprise. Taterf’s impressive growth underscores the need for organizations to develop guidelines for removable drives (such as thumb drives) and evaluate how connections are made to outside machines.

• You can read more here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Star Trek Online lead designer Al Rivera recently spoke with incgamers.com about the upcoming MMOG and what players can expect in the Federation and Klingon conflict. Al also touched on the death penalty, crafting, and how many different variations of ships the Federation and Klingon Empire will be able to choose from.

First, let me be clear, there are 16 Federation ship configurations. Each configuration allows the player to customize from the parts of three different ships – for instance, the first ship you get is a Lt. Cruiser, and you can customise it from the parts of a Miranda, a Centaur, and a ShiKahr (something new we introduced to the IP). So technically, there are 48 Starfleet ship models in the game, but there are 16 playable configurations (five Escorts, five Cruisers, five Science Vessels, and one starting Lt. Cruiser).

Don't forget to also check out the Ten Ton Hammer interview with STO's Craig Zinkievich.

Turbine has extended its pre-launch offer for Siege of Mirkwood (SoM), the upcoming expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players now have until November 18 to take advantage of the pre-order offers such as subscribing for multiple months and getting the SoM expansion for free.

Turbine, Inc. announced today that due to popular demand, it has extended all pre-launch offers for The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™.*Players now have until November 18th to take advantage of the special offers for the new digital expansion to the 2008 MMO of the Year which will launch on December 1st in North America.*

• Read the full press release here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Quest Online has announced that Alganon will enter open beta on November 11, 2009. Players who want to participate can register to do so on one of Alganon's affiliate sites or the Alganon official website.

Alganon Announces Upcoming Open Beta

Chandler, AZ - (PRWEB) November 2nd, 2009 - Quest Online is pleased to announce its upcoming November 11th Open Beta for Alganon, a fantasy-based Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). This is the final stage of beta testing before Alganon's official launch on December 1st, 2009.

Players wishing to participate in the Open Beta test will be able to join through numerous affiliate game sites including, but not limited to, IGN via Direct2Drive/FilePlanet, MMORPG.COM, Curse Gaming, as well as the Alganon and MyAlganon websites.

Alganon's recent beta updates have included many additions and enhancements including:

• New Quests, Creatures, Weapons, Armor, Mounts, and Pets
• Enhanced environments and visual effects
• New Class actions, abilities and studies
• Full guild support with MyAlganon tie-ins
• Banks, Shared Mail, Auction and Consignment houses
• Study Queue, enhanced Tradeskill recipes
• Updated Alganon Installer
• Numerous bug fixes revolving around connectivity and stability
• Improved client framerate
• A highly-interdependent crafting systems that encourages crafters to work together
• A Family system that helps unite players with similar play styles
• New in-game ticket system tied directly to Support
• A rich and vibrant MMORPG community

"Alganon is what players have been waiting for," says co-founder and President, David Allen. "All one needs to do is play during the Open Beta to find out. Prepare to be captured by a fun game and beautiful world you can immerse yourself in for years to come."

Alganon is an upcoming fantasy-based MMORPG that allows thousands of people to play together in a virtual world that features a rich history dominated by commanding deities, powerful weapons and armor, deadly magic, epic quests, ancient places to discover, the utilization of detailed tradeskills, and more. Designed from scratch and based in a uniquely created world, the initial goal in designing Alganon is to provide "Fun game play with unlimited growth in a massive world of immersion and interaction".

About Quest Online, Inc.

Founded in early 2006, Quest Online, LLC (http://www.qol.com) is a privately held corporation focused on the development of high question, visually beautiful and deeply engaging next generation MMORPG games.

# # #

• Discuss this and more on our forums.

In the continuing on again-off again saga that has come to define Blizzards operations in China, the games servers have once again gone dark. The perpetual tuesday morning that Chinese gamers endured for most of 2009 has been extended indefinitely as NetEase, the company tasked with the localization of the game, was found to have commited "gross violations" of Chinese law. But don't cry too much for Blizzard, according to a Reuters report, Chinese operations only account for about 10% of their annual earnings.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has joined forces with Wizards of the Coast to develop Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, a new online, 3D turn-based strategy game based in the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse. The new game will allow players to to control forces made up of cards from the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse and engage in scenarios or PvP play. The game is being developed by SOE's Denver studio and is slated for release on PC in early 2010 with a Playstation 3 release soon to follow.

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics will allow players to command forces of dramatic 3D figures and powerful spell cards pulled from the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse. Players can participate in single player scenarios or jump right into PVP action against other players worldwide, 24 hours per day. Magic: The Gathering – Tactics is expected to feature regular content expansions, a robust tournament environment, an achievement and rankings program, and original stories of the Planeswalkers of Magic: The Gathering.

• Read the full press release here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

It looks like these people have some serious time to devout to hobbies other than playing WoW 24/7. Pumpkin carving at this level is a very serious skill! Awesome work guys.

We're frightened. We're amused. We're impressed! The winners of this year's pumpkin-carving contest have been chosen -- and they're spooktacular. We'd like to thank everyone who participated this year, and we can't wait to see your knife-wielding skills in action again next time around. Check out all of the winners here.

Bethesda isn't the only one with lawyers. Gamasutra is reporting that Interplay has filed a counterclaim against current Fallout owner Bethesda for breach of contract. The company is alleging that Bethesda has breached the Fallout series asset purchase agreement which seems to be the same charges Bethesda has brought against Interplay. The suit alleges Interplay is and will continue to suffer financial loses due to Bethesda's alleged breach.

"As a result of Bethesda's breach of the [asset purchase agreement], Interplay has suffered, is suffering, and will continue to suffer substantial damages and irreparable harm in an amount within the jurisdictional limits of this Court," said Interplay's filing, which was obtained by Gamasutra.

• You can read more here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures' Game Director Craig Morrison has released a new letter to the community this week. The latest update is mostly about community related stuff and how community members can earn free game time by getting their friends to play, but Craig also talked about the development focus on the next update and he even dropped a nice little nugget of information about the coming expansion Rise of the Godslayer. You can learn more about Rise of the Godslayer in our video overview.

Internally we have a major focus on the expansion content, and the first closed beta testing phases are in progress now. We are currently working through the second and third iterations of the first three playfields and all the content that comes with them. There is a lot involved in the expansion and you’ll start to see more glimpses of it over the course of November.

• Read the full letter here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood (SoM) is less than a month away from launch and this week LotRO developer Brian “Zombie Columbus” released a new developer's diary to explain rewards in the SoM. Rewards are earned through Skirmish Marks that can then be bartered off at vendors. Brian also explains some of the planned content for the expansion and reminds us all of one very important thing. No matter how fun or dull the content may be, it all comes down to just one thing. It's all about the lewt baby.

People play new content for the rewards. Sure, if the content is fun it is more likely to get replayed, but even if we made the hardest, most boring boss fight in the game drop the best loot, a lot of people would still play it. With that in mind, we've tried to design the Skirmish rewards system in as free-form a way as possible, allowing players to play the content they want and receive mostly equivalent rewards.

• Read the full diary here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

Players of Aion have been anxiously awaiting news of the veteran rewards, and now the wait is over!

These rewards will be available to players who have active accounts as NCsoft's gift to you for enjoying the game. There will be a new reward every month for the first 6 months and the 6 month reward is a wonderful ornate set of wings that you can apply to all of your characters over level 40.

Month 1: Pop Daeva
* Expand Cube Ticket
* Pop Legend emote
* 4 Lodas Amulets
* 4 Revival Stones

Month 2: Honored Daeva
* 4 Lodas Amulets
* 4 Revival Stones

Month 3: Dance Daeva
* Adept of Aion title
* Forbidden Dance emote
* 4 Lodas Amulets
* 4 Revival Stones

Months 4 and 5: Honored Daeva
* 4 Lodas Amulets
* 4 Revival Stones

Month 6: Soaring Daeva
* Wing Feather of the Black Cloud Traders (level 40)
* 4 Lodas Amulets
* 4 Revival Stones

You can get the full veteran reward details by following this link.

What do you think? Are these rewards incentive to stick around or just minor perks for already dedicated players? Get in your thoughts by clicking the "Post your comments" link below.

In a nod to El Día de los Muertos ,a holiday of remembrance that traces its routes to ancient Mexico, World of Warcraft unveils a new holiday, Day of the Dead. The holiday is observed November 1st and 2nd, just as its real world counterpart that celebrates those that we have lost, and will take place in the graveyards near all major cities throughout the game world. New items, buffs and an achievement are yours for the taking by participating in the celebration.

You can check out all the festivities on the official Day of the Dead page.

BioWare has rolled out another segment of juicy content for Star Wars: The Old Republic with the release of information for the Jedi Knight. Along with the release of new information about the guardians of the Republic also comes new screenshots of the Jedi Knight in action.

A symbol of hope in dark times, the Jedi Knight stands for the legacy of the Jedi Order—more than twenty-thousand years of protecting the Republic and keeping the peace across the galaxy. Though Jedi Knights have served as generals, guerilla fighters, and warriors for generations, their legendary combat prowess faces its greatest test during this age.

• Check out the latest holonet update here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.

It seems that NCsoft continues to keep an ear to the ground when it comes to community topics and as Aion's latest patch notes share, they are not only listening but also taking action.

This patches points of interest?

- Slightly increased the drop rate from monsters in the Instanced Dungeons.
- Greatly increased the drop rate from the final bosses in the Instanced Dungeons.
- Slightly increased the EXP gained from gathering and crafting.
- Increased the EXP reward of some quests.
*These quests include many quests in the [Elyos] regions of Eltnen, Theobomos and Interdikah, and the [Asmodian] regions of Morheim, Brusthonin and Beluslan, and also the [Elyos/Asmodian] quests in Reshanta.
- Increased the Kinah and item reward of some quests.
*These quests include many [Elyos/Asmodian] quests with the recommended level of 20 or higher.
- Slightly reduced the EXP penalty due to the difference in the levels of group members when in a Group or Force.

You can get the full list of proposed patch additions here. Do keep in mind that it is subject to change before the patch goes live.

What do you all think? I'm tickled that a few key issues are being addressed. Will this satisfy more people that it will irritate? Share your thoughts by clicking the "Post your comments" link below.

In the spirit of the Halloween season the good folks over at  Lords of the Ring Online continue to favor us with treats from the newest expansion Siege of Mirkwood. Today's offering is five screenshots from the Scuttledells area, deep within the forest that was once known as Greenwood the Great before becoming tainted by Sauron.



Stay tuned for more information about this expansion as it is released.

Adding another name to the long list of MMOGs celebrating the spooky season, GodsWar Online has unveiled it's own take on the popular holiday. The game will host five different events, including trick or treating with a GM for the chance at a special prize.

You check learn more at the official site.

Macintosh computer users have long felt the pain of not being able to join their PC brethren in a vast variety of gaming goodness for what seem like an eternity. At least not without some inventive work-arounds and more than a few chicken sacrifices to the gods of Voodoo. Fortunately for them, Mythic has heard their cries and has released a native Mac version of Warhammer Online. It's time to get your WAR face on!

Mythic Entertainment is pleased to announce that the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Mac version is now available. Players on both PC and Mac platforms can now battle and quest together on the same servers - WAR is now truly everywhere!

Check out all the details here!