Ten Ton Hammer | Loading... EVE FanFest

Welcome to the 953rd Edition of Loading...

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The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse. Here are the daily rankings:

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Daily Column

Loading... it's a little like Robert DeNiro, Hal 9000, and Chuck Norris all wrapped up in a daily newsletter.

First up, Ten Ton Hammer premium members should sure to check out our latest offer to jump into the Fusion Fall closed beta. The offer will only be available for an extremely limited time and our closed beta keys will persist after the next weekend's sneak peek, so be sure to get your key now.

Congrats to NetDevil, developers of Jumpgate Evolution, for scoring their 150k beta signups so far. NetDevil has an extremely small team (by today's standards) working on this complete revamp project, so it must be gratifying to get such a great response. JGE promises MMO joystick combat like we've never seen before

CCP hinted at a joystick combat component of EVE (not in space space, but what looked like Descent-style exploration of asteroid cores and planet-side combat) in Senior Producer Nathan Richardson's Future of EVE presentation at FanFest last weekend. If you watch closely, in the EVE Ecosystem portion he mentions developing the IP on next-gen consoles (PS3 and X360) and in what may or may not be a related note, shows off a prototype EVE first-person shooter.

As for what is and what will continue to be the core of the EVE concept, the strategic space combat game that is pretty much the EVE of today, Richardson hinted at the following:

Focused targeting - to take out ship components like the fighter bar or jumpdrive, weapons systems, etc. independently.
"Winsauceables in Winvironments" - certain fundamental intangibles that add depth to gameplay, most interesting among them: "player owned structures for all player ages" and "introducing attrition by including the populace as a resouce."
The EVElopedia - a wiki where players can write EVE's history with their individual and corporate / alliance endeavors and learn what lore is considered canon
Kosmos - a social networking tool just for EVE gamers, accessible in and out of game, with key features like a corp calandar and other communication tools.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but props to CCP for their willingness to discuss EVE's distant horizons, whether or not all or most of it comes to fruition. No doubt part of CCP's openness is the result of their hard-to-match game concept (hard-to-match with tech, talent, or originality), but larger than that, I think they're genuinely looking for playerbase buy-in for their future ideas. Which is never a bad idea at all, especially for a developer of what is essenially a sandbox MMOG on a grand scale.

Some latebreaking news has just hit my inbox - it appears that Richard Garriott is leaving NCSoft. After flying around in space, it seems as if making virtual game worlds was not enough. Many happy landings, Major Tom... er, General British.

Ten Ton Hammer's Garrett Fuller and I will be live from Times Square in New York City at Midnight tonight for one of the biggest launch parties commemorating the launch of World of Warcraft's "Wrath of the Lich King." We'll hopefully score some big name dev and fan reactions for tomorrow's sleep-deprived edition of Loading..., but in the meantime, be sure to tune into our World of Warcraft "Wrath of the Lich King" portal for the latest on WoW's second expansion.

That Post your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or just email me with your response to the FanFest announcements.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day

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 Members Only Forum

Which game for our next VIP Access Interview?

This
thread comes from our Members Only forum, and, like an exclusive club,
only our premium members can enter. Fortunately, anyone can be a premium member just by supporting Ten Ton Hammer.

Our premium program includes the opportunity to participate in VIP
Access Interviews, where you, the community, get to question
the devs about your favorite games. (See our Stargate Worlds VIP Access Interview for an example.)

We'd like to know which game you'd like to focus on next. While we
can't guarantee that we'll be able to score an interview (lots of
factors, not the least of which include time limitations, play into a
developer's availability), we promise that our Industry
Relations specialist extraordinaire, Garrett Fuller, will work on
getting you access to your favorite.

Want to weigh in on this thread? If you're a premium member, head on over. If not, become a premium member today for your chance to question the developers of your favorite games.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Darkfall for sure!"

- Bansaw
====================

Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!

10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 66 in November! 2863 in 2008!

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

EVE FanFest 2008