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Biggest Sinkers and Floaters in the Top 20

Star Wars: The Old Republic (UP 5 to no. 7)
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Daily Column

Loading... bigger than Elvis, and now with twice the pelvic thrusts.

Some mornings I sit down to write Loading... with a topic half written up in my head, and then I read something that sticks in my craw so much so that I have to write about it. Today's Epic Thread (below) was that something, and since I'm ultimately responsible for the quality of our reviews here at Ten Ton Hammer, I felt that I'd better skip my lively commentary on Fusion Fall's just-announced release date and the proposed Dungeon Keeper MMORPG and respond.

First and foremost, I can say it till I'm blue in the face and the cynical among you would never believe me, but advertising has absolutely zero to do with reviews. Never has, never will. The guy who does the bulk of our ad sales doesn't write a thing and never comes to us asking for a positive review or anything like that. I do know for a fact that we've turned down advertisers who have attempted shenanigans like that, despite the fact that we could always use the money to expand our coverage.

Second, I'm timid about reviews because we take reviews much more seriously than your average drive-by reviews site. Shake a developer's hand, look them in the eye, listen to them explain their passion for what they're doing, then see if you can do a hatchet job on their game with a clear conscience. That doesn't mean that we can't be objective, it just means that we'll be very sure about the reasoning behind our negative opinions before we throw a game under the bus. And a good portion of the reviews audience is looking for extremely good or extremely bad reviews. The middle of the pack review scores don't get much traffic.

I've never seen an MMORPG review that covered the game adequately, and I read just about everything I can get my hands on. The reason is simple enough. Take a game like EVE Online, that's been around for five years and has plans, if we can believe CCP, for at least ten more. At what point on that timeline is it fair to deliver the final word on whether or not you should buy the game and put up with the months of training before you can be effective in PvP combat. Other sites review the fact that you have to train for several months to be effective versus other players, but we take that as a given. If we're reviewing a game, we're reviewing a game, not certain industry standards.

Or take a more traditional MMORPG, where time played to level cap is usually around 250 hours (this was Funcom's figure for AoC, and is close enough to the SOE's 260 hours figure for the EQ2 pre-GU 49). That's for one character, one class, and probably includes little in the way of PvP combat, tradeskilling, harvesting, and other ancillary activities like housing improvements, let alone level cap content such as raid dungeons and instances.

The standard for most honest review sites is 20 hours of playtime before you write the review, and even then they'll typically fudge in some little known high level insights usually from long term beta testers just to make things more credible.

In MMORPGs that might let you see, what? A fifth of the content with one character if you play like a leveling fool? That's probably enough time to deliver an opinion on what kind of player will enjoy or hate the new player experience and a little of the mid-game, but not much more. In my opinion, that's not nearly enough time or scope to deliver an informed opinion about whether your audience should or should not buy the game. MMORPGs just don't fit the consumerist rapid fire publish and review strategy that mainstream publishers, sites, and magazines want to shoehorned them into.

What's the solution? I'm not sure. I'll admit to reading and enjoying reviews, mostly to be informed (with more than a grain of salt) rather than to be persuaded one way or the other. I've flirted with the idea of MMOG state of the game reviews done at intervals throughout a game's lifespan, but you're still getting an extremely limited view of a game, especially since expansions are catering more and more to specialized or endgame players.

At the very least, I think it's up to you the reader to try to get a number of opinions (reviews, forums, word of mouth) about an MMOG before you decide to jump in with abandon. I always respect it when someone comes onto our forums and tries to feel out a game and its community before buying. This isn't a console game that you'll play for two weeks and then watch it collect dust on a shelf. MMOGs are a major investment of your most precious resource: time, and you owe it to yourself to gather as much feedback as you can and invest in a community larger than any one game to help you decide what's right for you. Like, say, Ten Ton Hammer :)

Share your thoughts in the Loading forum or, as always, feel free to write to me directly.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our Tavern of the Ten Ton Hammer Forum

More Reviews When?

Our friend, Demonyx is dissatisfied with the state of our reviews
herr at Ten Ton Hammer and suggests that we're neither timely nor
objective. "...is it [that] TTH doesn't want to knock its advertisers
in the mouth?" he asks. Some Ten Ton Hammer staffers and community
members stepped in to answer Demonyx's charges, but alas, he's
apparently still not satisfied. At any rate, opinions are like...well,
you know the drill.

Would you like to see something different
in Ten Ton Hammer's MMOG reviews? How long should a journalist play a
game before reviewing it? Can a MMOG reviewer really be objective? Step into our forum and have your say. As a bonus, you get to see Demonyx call me clueless, and Savanja try to "give it to me." No one says we don't have fun here at Ten Ton Hammer!

=================================

Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread:

"I for one am glad readers like Demonyx question what they read. Just
wanted to throw that in there. I know Demonyx won't cry if this turns
into a riot against him. But I wanted to make it known that I'd rather
have readers who think."

- Ralsu

=================================

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

7 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 20 in December! 2994 in 2008!

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

Interviews

Red 5 Studios: Exclusive with Chief Creative Officer Mark Kern

Op/Eds

The New Space Race: Four MMOGs Taking Gamers into Outer Space in 2009

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Ten Ton Hamster Exclusive - Cartoon Network To Launch Fusion Fall in January

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Teacher sells adspace on test papers

Could not a Ford class supplies, thanks Chrysler for assistance.
Son attacks father with Christmas Tree

Claims no motive; he did it fir no good reason.
Reward offered for stolen hair extensions

Police have a good lead and hope to catch the thieves red-headed.

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- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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