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Welcome to the 1,031st Edition of Loading...

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The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:

Biggest Movers in the Top 20 over the past month :

Star Trek Online (UP 14 to #12)
Jumpgate Evolution (UP 10 to #11)
City of Heroes (UP 9 to #16)

Loading... Daily

Loading... aluminum foil in the MMO microwave.

In the past five years, EVE has been the only MMO gaming constant. I've dabbled in other games plenty, stuck to some for months and years, but EVE has burnt a hole in my checkbook every month since 2004. Offline training, despite its tradeoffs (namely that you'll never catch me in training if you start today), just makes it too easy to keep my subscription(s) going.

So natually I'm excited that we're T-minus one day until EVE Online's tenth expansion, Apocrypha, hit the servers. Apocrypha is a big deal not only because it adds wormhole exploration (check out the Sleepers in the very well done Apoc trailer), modular ships, an all-new "new player experience", epic mission arcs and a lot more to the game, but because, after five years and thanks to a distribution deal with Atari, EVE will be found at a store near you tomorrow. Supposedly.

Leafing through the Sunday newspaper sales flyers, an EVE retail box with that "Available Tuesday after 2 PM" call-out was conspicuous by its absence. Resident Evil 16 (now with more zombies), Mariokart, and My Japanese Coach, yes - EVE no. Maybe a distro deal with EA would have been more favorable, Warhammer Online was prominently featured just last week in the Best Buy ads.

Curious, I called the local GameStopped, whose employees didn't have a clue about PC games as usual. After convincing them I have enough crappy Wii games to make my next yard sale worthwhile, I asked if I could at least pre-order my copy of EVE Online: Apocrypha (I want the manual). Pre-orders have become a staple since GameStopped decided to deal with the emergence of digital distribution by slashing PC games inventories, thereby giving gamers more reason to spend their money online. Anyway, I was disappointed yet again: EVE wasn't on the money-sucking pre-order list. Not a big deal to me; as I've said before I'm not a fan

Striking out among the brick-and-mortar retailers, maybe I'd have more luck among online retailers. Direct2Drive, Steam, and even the Atari store turned up nothing, but I did (finally) find the game at Amazon, complete with pre-order goodness ($39.99 or £24.99 on the UK site - and no we don't get a cut, for ref. only). That said, I don't think you could call a page you have to search for on Amazon much of a well-hyped pre-order initiative. Either someone (likely Atari) gets a critical fail with regards to retail channel advertising or I'm not in the target market.

I should stress that aside from the manual and fancy Interbus Shuttle in-game ship (which offers a cargo capacity bonus over the speedy throwaway shuttles all EVE players have occasion to use), there's no reason for existing EVE players to buy the box. Apocrypha, like all EVE expansions, is free with your subscription. Given CCP's warp drive ramp-up to Apoc, I'd be willing to bet that the DVD-ROM (no CD-ROM version available) contains the game client that you can download today and retail box purchasers will be downloading the expansion patch along with everyone else tomorrow.

The sole reason CCP went retail was to get the game in front of eyes that probably wouldn't come in contact with the EVE community or website otherwise, and that's what makes the complete lack of retail marketing a mystery. This shouldn't take away from the promise of Apocrypha, but its more evidence that the industry is becoming increasingly clueless about the distribution (physical or DD) of PC games - fuddling the process with obscene DRM requirements, poor delivery and installation support (as noted in Loading... Steamed last week), and now piss-poor marketing efforts.

If you could care less about how MMOs are marketed, just keep in mind that with MMOs, larger populations typically means better gameplay. Or, at the very least in today's PvP-focused MMOs, either more easy targets for your kill sheet collection or more cannon fodder for your guild/corp.

Does marketing matter? Are games' ta-da launch moments being wasted on sloppy execution? Comments welcome in the Loading... forum or feel free to email me.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our Ten Ton Torched Forum

It's YOUR thread...

I
gave the denizens of the Ten Ton Hammer forums a thread of their very
own and told them it was their duty--nay, their privilege!--to make it
epic. It's Mad Monday, time for a thread from our Ten Ton Torched
forum, so I decided to check in on their progress. To my chagrin (and Coyote's delight), I arrived to find a thread about boobs. But not just boobs--boobs and Bob Ross! And not just boobs and Bob Ross, but boobs, Bob Ross and booty.

If
you're into boobs, Bob Ross and booty, then I have a thread just for
you. If you're not, then I challenge you to head over and add your own special brand of epic.

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

Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread:

"If there is only one thread given, then by defination it should have boobs.

And yes, I'm proud. DAMN proud.

*wipes a tear* "

- Coyote

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

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

9 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 160 in February! 296 in 2009!

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

Interviews

Lord of the Rings Online: Lothlorien with Aaron Campbell

Features

Community

geeked: "Rorschach's Psyche"

Video

Guides

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

Real World News

Conn. man charged with larceny for stealing packs of Orbit gum

Prosecutors say he will be successfully Trident convicted, defence maintains the charges will not stick.
Man dies in Viagra-fueled orgy

Interred in an unmarked family crypt, big-brand cologne manufacturers offer reward to any that can find his tomb essence.
OctoMom's latest publicist quits because she is 'greedy and crazy'

Ms Suleman now seeking representation from local Circus Promoters, given that they have more experience with Clown Cars.

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network! Have a great weekend!

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

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

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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