Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Participants:

From the staff at Ten Ton Hammer:

Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle - (Jeff) – Executive Editor
Ben “Machail” De La Durantaye– (Ben) – Managing Editor, Community Sites
Garrett Fuller – (Garrett) – Industry Relations
Reuben “Sardu” Waters – (Reuben) – Staff Writer

And very special guest from Cryptic Studios:

Craig Zinkievich – (Craig) - Executive Producer for Star Trek Online

Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer for Star Trek Online.

Jeff - Welcome everyone, to episode six of the Loading… Live weekly Vooncast from Ten Ton Hammer. I’m your host, Jeff “Ethec” Woleslagle, and I’m joined by Ben “Machail” De La Durantaye…

Ben – Greetings!

Jeff – Reuben “Sardu” Waters…

Reuben – Hey everybody!

Jeff – And Garrett Fuller…

Garrett – Hi everyone!

Jeff – But our very special guest for today is Executive Producer of Star Trek Online, Mr. Craig Zinkievich.

Craig – Hi everyone, it’s cool to be here.

Jeff – We can’t thank Craig enough. We had a small problem getting BioWare on the program, and because our session time was a little bit curtailed from New York Comic-Con 2009 where we had a Star Trek Online panel, we weren’t able to get any audience questions in for the game. So this was a perfect way to look at you guys in here to ask Craig some questions, and also have a pretty awesome podcast as well.

So, without taking more time than we need to, I just want to bounce this to Ben for the “Machail Report”, our week in MMO news portion of the podcast.

Ben – Thanks Jeff. This week in MMO news:

SOE may move their customer support from India. We haven’t yet been able to get a confirmation from SOE, but we did catch wind of talk that this may be the case. Ultimately this is a great choice for SOE, and probably not one that was made lightly. While a lot of companies turn to India for their call centers, game support is unlike most other industries. This kind of move could bring SOE service up some to the top performers, as communication for game support is paramount to a resolution of reported problems.

So I’ve gotta give my hats off to SOE if they go through with this, especially considering the cost factor a move like this would have in today’s economy.

What did you do for Valentine’s Day? Well, you could have been spending it in Hello Kitty Online. Sanrio Digital opened up the game for a public viewing and stress test from February 14th to the 17th. The event was named “Happy Hearts”.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, I’ve heard that the game’s quite good – I’m not denying that at all. But what I am saying is that it would take one hell of a special gal to talk me into spending Valentine’s Day weekend playing with fluffy kitties and happy hearts!

*laughter*

Delays in the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion for World of Warcraft in China may be attributed to disagreements between Blizzard and the Chinese licensed operator, The9. According to the market news site, Trading Markets, it is believed that Blizzard will not hand over the expansion rights unless The9 is willing to offer a higher purchase price. Meanwhile, The9 is reported to be holding off in an effort to force Blizzard to renew their contract.

In either case, I’m curious as to the fringe benefits having the expansion delayed in China would have. Less gold farming for a while maybe? Doubtful, but one can dream!

That’s all I’ve got, going back to you Jeff!

Jeff – Yea, we just don’t want to make the Chinese mad, not with the state of the economy.

*laughter*

Ben – Good point!