Welcome to the 860th Edition of Loading...
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Daily Column
Loading... Celebrating Canada Day.
First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.
If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)
- World of Warcraft - 200 BPM
- Age of Conan - 133 BPM
- Lord of the Rings Online - 67 BPM
- EverQuest II - 61 BPM
- Warhammer Online - 41 BPM
- Vanguard - 36 BPM
- Dungeon Runners - 33 BPM
- Guild Wars - 33 BPM
- EVE Online - 32 BPM
- Lineage II - 29 BPM
Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! (This will be a short column, since Phil is also Canadian and he's the "Link Man".
Though traffic is slowing down for Age of Conan, the number of people creating accounts for the game remains high. Funcom announced that 700,000 player accounts have been created so far. Make no mistake, many of those accounts are still in their 30-day trial that comes with the purchase of the game, but it is still an impressive number making it the #2 "Western" MMOG.
We have 1,000 or so Warrior Epic closed beta keys to give away. Danny makes the rules and hands out the jewels. Go get 'em.
Researchers at De Montford University in the UK are working on a way to control a computer without using a keyboard or a mouse. (I think that's called a gamepad, but hey) Anyway, they decided that many of you don't have arms or perhaps just don't have hands, so tracking your eye movements would be a cool way to move the mouse. Of course, they only want to use this with the most important applications. Perhaps a user could navigate through an email program or browse the web. A person without arms would likely want to do these things, but wouldn't be able to. Wait a minute now, a person without limbs would more likely want to play World of Warcraft. Here is the video evidence.
I got out of the habit of visiting Raph Koster's blog over the last few months which is really a shame. He has a lot of great opinions on the industry, where it is going and where it came from. He recently wrote about the influence of MUDs (text only multi-user dungeons) on the evolution of MMOGs. With his usual panache he threw in a plug for his web-based MMO infrastructure as compared to the current "Old Guard" client - server system.
First up, the link to Raph's article which includes excellent links to comments by Steve Danuser and Ryan Shwayder. The community manager on Raph's project even gets into a mud-slinging contest with one of her readers over whether all MMOGs are the same.
"You’re right. I forgot to mention how some games can have different NAMES then one another. How games can be made by DIFFERENT DESIGNERS.
Regardless how much experience it takes to level, it’s still a grind. You can wrap a piece of shit in pretty wrapping paper, but you’re still going to be getting a piece of shit. I’m not usually down for getting into arguments here on my blog, but I’m guessing you are a newbie to the MMO scene. Some of us have been doing this for almost a decade and we’re qualified to call it as we see it." -- Tami Baribeau (Community Manager for Areae, Inc.)
I've never met Tami. I'm sure she is a fantastic person. She was a prolific blogger that ended up working for Raph's startup, which gives her some virtual street cred. That said, her About Me section claims that she is 23. If so, her decade of "doing this" started when she was 13. Fair enough I guess, but to my knowledge prior to her recent hire at Areae she never worked in the industry. Anyway... on to the story.
It all started when Richard Bartle made a comment that he wasn't going to play Warhammer Online, because he already played it. It's called World of Warcraft. Ouch! Mr. Bartle, I have nothing but respect for what you have done in this industry, but the times they are are a changin'.
It's almost if... maybe... possibly, game designers go through the same lifecycle as game journalists. Once you reach the point where you can't play a game because you are really just analyzing it then the fun must be completely lost. The comment is also likely born from the academic versus hands-on animosity that exists in any industry. Academics talk about it. The hands-on folks do it. The two groups rub together and sparks fly usually because some group, calling themselves intellectuals decides to do some "research" on games, telling the hands-on developers how many mistakes they have made. The old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach" fits all too well many times. This isn't to say that Mr. Bartle is completely out of touch. Quite the opposite, but in this case he seems to be mixing what he wants to play with what the mass market wants to play. He is neither right nor wrong, but everyone on both sides of this argument wants him to be one or the other. Frankly, it's his opinion and who cares? His influence over what the average gamer purchases is insignificant. Kristen Salvatore, who you have probably never heard of has more influence over how many copies of Warhammer Online will be purchased than Richard Bartle.
How do you feel about the whole situation?
Do tell. The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.
Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team
