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Daily Column

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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 - 118 BPM
Age of Conan - 33 BPM
Hello Kitty - 21 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 11 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 8 BPM
Everquest II - 8 BPM
EVE Online - 7 BPM
Vanguard - 5 BPM
Stargate Worlds - 5 BPM

On a normal day Phil builds that enormous list of links that goes into Loading... I give him a teeny, tiny credit tag and revel in the kudos that people flood me with. Phil is unable to deliver the links today, but we have a backup plan.

It's like Miss America. Picture if you will, Phil as Miss America. In the event that Phil could not complete his duties as Miss America the first-runner-up would become Miss America. Unfortunately, Karen is that person and she is also unable to complete the duties. That leaves me, and quite frankly I'm incapable of doing the work, so today you get no links. As a show of goodwill I am not charging anything for the column today as the only portion of the column with any value isn't included. You will be billed $0.00 for today's schtick rather than the normal $0.00. You get what you pay for.

Yesterday was Warhammer Online Launch Day for those that did not pre-order. Those of you who bought the Collector's Edition or pre-ordered the regular edition were already mashing your enemies, leveling up and making friends.

We haven't seen such a glut of potential MMOG gold since EverQuest 2 and World of Warcraft launched head-to-head in 2004. The release of Age of Conan and now the launch of Warhammer Online have changed the industry. We now have more choices than ever before.

Blizzard will release Wrath of the Lich King on November 13th, attempting to reintroduce players who have left for other titles and to perhaps draw in some new blood through the hype created by the expansion.

EverQuest 2, perhaps the best game you have never played also has an expansion coming out. The game that was to be king, never reached the subscriber numbers that were hoped for. That said, it was and is a success, but the road has been long and arduous. The SOE team recently announced an experience curve change.

"Everquest 2 has announced some major changes to it's XP curve for the upcoming Game Update 49. What's being affected the most are levels 20-70 (the middle of the span). What took an approximate 176 hours to grind through will now take roughly 100, on average. Other adjustments include an account-wide 10% xp bonus for EACH character at the level cap you have. " [read more]

Trying to keep MMOGs alive is perhaps even more difficult than building them. The longer they live the more time developers must spend not only brining in new players, but in allowing those new players to catch up to and compete with the veterans.

Sometimes the changes are empirical ones, like the change to the EverQuest 2 experience curve. Sometimes the changes are on a more human level. Gaute Godager's decision to step down as Game Director for Age of Conan was a surprising one in some respects and completely natural in others.

"Many gamers since April have expressed their dissatisfaction with Age of Conan, and it seems now they are not alone. Game Director and Lead Producer Gaute Godager thinks he and his team have made a wonderful game, but there are still some aspects it he is dissatisfied with. It's also been said (by European Product Manager Erling Ellingsen) that Godager wanted to take those consequences with him when he left." - [read more]

Whatever the changes may be, they are almost always good for the players. Competition breeds success, as World of Warcraft continues to prove,

"Since it's launch in 2004, World of Warcraft has cost Blizzard $200 million. That includes everything from coding, to server maintenance to customer service and billing." [read more]

That seems like a large expense, but with 10 million subscribers total, approximately four million of them paying $14.99 per month it doesn't seem so daunting.

I'm excited for the industry. Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Wrath of the Lich King, Stargate Worlds, Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria, Chronicles of Spellborn and more are within our grasp. The future looks bright!

The future is so bright in fact, that we have announced our GCDC award winners. Congratulations to the winners!

[Late Note: Cody came through with some links... enjoy!]

What game are you most excited about? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

32 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 201 in September! 2405 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Cody Bye for links and Phil Comeau Real World News]

Awards

Ten Ton Hammer Presents GCDC 2008 Awards

Images/Video

Launch Blog!

Interviews

Guides

Beta Journals

Wrath of the Lich King: Messiah's Beta Journal - Level 80 Pre-Mades

Features

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to

Real World News

Cow tries to jump over old woman

Dish and spoon spotted fleeing the scene
Israel missing from Ikea maps sold in Abu Dhabi

Assembly instructions for the map are to blame
Former U.S. Rep. Foley will not face charges

He's reportedly happy to hear everyone is finally on the same page

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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