Welcome to the 913th Edition of Loading...
If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's news syndication program. Enjoy!
Loading... is brought to you today by Warhammer Online. Start the Realm War now. Join Order or Destruction, Earn Gold to win battles in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The Winning Realm will be rewarded with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in-game prizes. Visit Road-to-War.com .
Daily Column
Loading... where if you can't be handsome, at least you can be handy.
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?)
- Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
- World of Warcraft - 148 BPM
- Age of Conan - 46 BPM
- Tabula Rasa - 15 BPM
- EVE Online - 12 BPM
- Lord of the Rings Online - 11 BPM
- Everquest II - 9 BPM
- Vanguard - 8 BPM
- Stargate Worlds - 7 BPM
- Cabal Online - 6 BPM
The Warhammer Online team has been very good to us. At E3 this year it was a blog by Josh Drescher that brought all the fans to the yard. Next was a Comic Con blog by Paul Barnett, followed by Jeff Hickman blogging from PAX. With mere days until the launch of the most anticipated MMOG in development we now have Justin Webb, Senior Designer on WAR giving us the goods in his own words. He's playing here all week folks! Check out our Exclusive WAR Launch Blog with Justin Webb.
"As launch approaches, tempers begin to fray. As a social experiment, I want to see whether small insignificant requests can push someone over the edge. This small regular column is something I like to call “Can I borrow a dollar please”. Today, I try to” borrow a dollar please” from Ken Shuck [Insider Note: Ken is the Senior Development Director and ultimately my boss]. He’s been looking a bit stressed recently, so here goes:"
Blogs, interviews, advertising and the various other cogs in the public relations machine are tough pieces to fit together properly. Developers or in most cases the publishers do their best to let everyone that will listen know how great their game is going to be. It is inevitable that the PR machine builds monumental expectations from would-be customers.
The problems arise when those expectations are not met. So far, WAR has met my expectations, but to be fair I tried to keep them reasonable. I've seen enough games launch that I know what to expect. My expectations are based on experience. Warhammer tabletop gamers or even players coming to WAR from other MMOGs may not have the same historical references to draw upon.
I give you, Five Things To Expect When Warhammer Online Launches.
- The starting zones will be jam-packed with players trying to do the very same things that you want to do. I know, I know, the King gave you a personal quest, unfortunately he is an idiot savant and gives that quest to everyone. He's the Dustin Hoffman of WAR. He wants you to kill three marauders because they are an incredible threat to the town. Well, guess what? Marauders are being hunted into extinction. They are on the endangered list. They are wiped off the face of the map as fast as they can spawn. It would have been better if the Marauder King had given you the quest to wipe out players hunting his species into extinction. Be patient, players will spread out soon enough. Enjoy the first few days trying to finish the quests that involve killing a specific mob that spawns every three minutes with 3,234,996 other people hovering around also trying to kill it.
- Players don't form lines. You've formed a group, invited everyone that you can see to join you to get Mob123 when he spawns, but before you can attack him a single player, who refused to group, ninjas the mob. You'll be upset, but get over it because it is going to happen again and again. If India or China ever take over the world, this is how things are going to be. Consider it a primer.
- The servers will come down. Inevitably there are bugs that only rear their heads when the servers are fully loaded, like on launch day. The servers will come down. Relax, grab a beverage, pat your kids on the head and keep clicking on the WAR icon until you get back in. Oh, and check the TenTonHammer WAR news to see what's up. Avoid forums unless you need to raise your blood pressure.
- You will make friends. MMOGs are social games, but for many players it is the anti-social behaviour (see #2) that drives them to band together. You will find players that are very adept at what they do, players who are funny and even players who are just plain nice. Revel in it. Make them your friends. That is what will keep you playing long after you have done a scenario 1,234 times.
- Message forums will be a cesspool. You've found a message forum and it is filled with people just like you. On launch day that will change and your happy community will be filled with 'Those that must be heard'. Ignore them. In a month everything will be back to the way it was. 'Those that must be heard' are transient. They will pass through like hobos in the last car of the train, smelling up the joint for a short time until the crisp breeze of the first subscription renewal blows them all away.
I could come up with many more things to expect, and perhaps I will if prodded, but that should get you started. Will WAR live up to the hype? Do you have your own five things to expect on launch day?
Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.
--
Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Thanks Karen Hertzberg]
Sometimes they're funny; sometimes they're foolish; sometimes they're flaming;
sometimes they're cool. Whatever this one happens to be, it's
our Epic Thread of the Day.
====================
From our WoW: The Water Cooler
Name the Movie
This
thread's been popular in our WoW off-topic forum for quite a while. The
challenge? Read a quote and name the movie it came from. 282
replies to this thread prove there are plenty of movie aficionado on
the Ten Ton Hammer forums. Either that, or a lot of people who
have cable TV and no lives.
Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:
"Here's a classic:
[Ty]: I like you, Betty.
[Danny]: It's Danny, sir.
[Ty]: Danny." - Rasztra
====================
Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!
--
13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 117 in September! 2311 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Images/Video
Previews
Reviews
Interviews
Dev Diary
Guides
- Age of Conan: Herald of Xotli Spell List, Lvl 60-80
- Warhammer Online: Dark Elves Public Quests - Chapter 1
- World of Warcraft: Messiah's WotLK Beta Journal - Drak'Tharon Keep and Dalaran
- World of Warcraft: Interacting with Other Players
- Vanguard: Monster Project - Asak the Flameweaver
- Vanguard: Monster Project - Harozda the Sadist
- Vanguard: Kekvar the Reaver
Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to
- World of Warcraft: WotLK PvP - Stats and Damage
- Emerald Island's Scott Matthews
- Lord of the Rings Online: The Rune Keeper
- WAR Comic: LOL Lions!
- Warhammer Online: WAR-Torn - "A New Face"
- Star Trek Online: Meet Al Rivera
- Vanguard: Dalmarus' Chronicles - Death by Sparkles
- Editorial: Melee or Magic?
Real World News
-
Wisconsin man has eaten 23,000 Big Macs since 1972 [Courtesy of Matt N.!]
Just the thought of this makes me Grimace.
- The Legend of Hairy Trout
Amazingly enough, this story has nothing to do with what's in my pants. - Blogger claims 'Spore' is Evolutionist propaganda machine, demon-creating game
More likely, he's purposefully cashing in on Google Ad traffic with inflammatory rhetoric.
Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team
