Loading... Rated M for Marketing

Welcome to the 1,056th Edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

In this issue, we look at what's behind the impetus to get an increasing number of MMOs an ESRB-Mature rating now that Fallen Earth has joined the M-rated with Age of Conan and a few others. Plus, more ads surrounding your World of Warcraft experience? It could happen. That, plus links to an exclusive Atlantica Online state-of-the-game interview, a new Ether Saga Online dev diary, a new The Mittani EVE Online piece, a new Spellborn giveaway, and guides for WoW and Chronicles of Spellborn. It's all in Loading... Rated M for Marketing.

Need more newsletter? Play World of Warcraft? Jay "Medeor" Johnson's weekly WoW newsletter "The Overpull" comes out every Tuesday and keeps you entertained and informed on all the latest developments in WoW. Sign up!

The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Hammer Pulse (What is Pulse?). Here's the top 5 MMOGs today:

And here are the biggest movers in the Top 20 today:

The Secret World (down 6 to #16)
Ether Saga Online (UP 5 to #19)
Runes of Magic (UP 2 to #10)

Loading... Daily

Game ratings, like car insurance and daytime television, are a necessary evil. I've never gone to a PTA meeting and heard a parent say, "Thank heavens LEGO Batman was rated Everyone 10+, this comic mischief is pretty intense." I've never been to a PTA meeting period, but that's beside the point. The point is, the ESRB is a government-mandated marketing milestone that fails on all accounts.

ESRB is especially fail for MMORPGs. What's appears before the splash screen of every multiplayer online game you've every played? "Online interactions not rated by the ESRB" - yet an MMO is an online interaction start to finish. Though ESRB is primarily made for parents that have no interest in gaming and a foul rating is only likely to make the kiddies sneak a play session all the more, it has real financial consequences for developers and publishers. A rating of Adults Only (AO) means Walmart, Target, and all the big box retailers won't carry your game (and the digi-distribution sites will probably think twice too). That's a big reason why it was a big deal for Funcom when Age of Conan got its M-rating, even though that meant the grave disappointment of no nipples at launch. Even on Conan, though you couldn't ever tell through his flowing Fabio shirt.

Now Icarus has posted that Fallen Earth has got its M-rating, making it the third M-rated MMORPG (by my unofficial count) after AoC and Requiem: Bloodymare. More power to them, but I think I'd go for T for Teen if I were calling the shots. The reason is simple. Mature level gore, violence, and language might be ok for the short time you're playing a console game or in a multiplayer session. But for the hours and hours you'll be playing an MMO and the pace of the gameplay, it seems like there's plenty of opportunity for an awkward moment when your five year old niece comes walking into the room as your character yells obscenities and decapitates his target. That and any ridiculous level of violence doesn't improve with repetition; for me, once the shock value is gone, it just grates like the cheese it is.

Speaking of marketing, whether you're a little weirded out by the ads on the Blizzard's WoW and Battle.new sites or are so accustomed to the Internet that you overlook them, stay tuned for more. Via Gamasutra, ads company Massive is wooing Blizzard to get ads into the launcher as well. For Battle.net, okay, if we can D3 for free. In the WoW launcher, hopefully not. The torrent-based patcher takes long enough without tacking on ad load time to the mix, and beyond that, subscriptions and ads just don't mix. That's why we're in the process of removing ads for our premium members, or at least getting it to the point where you can choose an ad-free viewing experience if you choose.

Rated M for Marketing and around game ads? Do you care about ratings and ads, or have you become desensitized? Let us know in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our /OOC (Off Topic) forum

What's the point of Gmail?

It's the Monday after Easter, so I took a moment to consider Spare's Happy Zombie Jesus Day
thread in all it's epicicity* as I prepared today's Epic Thread. But
then I recalled the amount of hate mail Boomjack once received for his respawning Jesus comments in a Good Friday edition of Loading... 3 years ago and figured I'd better take the high road.**

And
so...I'm featuring a thread that alternately loves and hates on Gmail.
"I have no clue why Google is like 120 bucks a share and yahoo hovers
around 10," says the starter, Whitgar. "I had a Yahoo email for years.
I figured I'd try Gmail about
a year ago. To date, my experience is that it is either extremely slow
or, as often as not, unavailable at this time...try again
later.... What a horrible service."

Reavi disagrees: "I will say the exact opposite. In my experience Yahoo has been
slow, cluttered with crap, and unresponsive. I have used Gmail for 3
years now, and would never pick something else. It is quick,
uncluttered with random crap like Yahoo has, and emails pop up
instantly for me the moment they get there."

The battle lines have been drawn. It's Gmail versus Yahoo! in a fight to the death. Go voice your opinion!

* Shut up. It's a word.

** Yes,
I know I just worked in Zombie Jesus and respawn Jesus anyhow. Don't
blame Ethec. You can send the hate mail to shayalyn AT tentonhammer.com.

==============================
Epic Quotes from the Epic Thread

"Yahoo has it's merits for sure. It's not my cup of tea, but everyone has their own things.

I
have about 5 e-mail accounts I check at least once a week, if not every
day. (During closed beta e-mails, every 5 minutes.) All with different
hosts, for different reasons."

- gnomer1010
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 64 in April! 451 in 2009!

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

Atlantica Online - State of the Game Interview

Consistent game updates are an integral part of any MMO experience. As players, we are constantly looking to the future and aching for expanded content. We always wants more: classes, dungeons, events, instances, and more. For NDOORS, they're certainly pushing the upper limit of updates for free-to-play games. In fact, at this year's GDC, Atlantica Online announced that they would be pursuing some new major upgrades in the near future. During the conference, Ten Ton Hammer's Danny "Ralsu" Gourley asked a few questions of Peter Kang, CEO of NDOORS Interactive, and found out what he's planning with Atlantica!
Ether Saga Dev Diary #4: Reputation and Crafting

Crafting and reputation are two areas of massively multiplayer online games that are often considered "fluff" by many development teams. Thankfully, the folks at Ether Saga Online are taking their reputation and crafting seriously and have devoted plenty of time to these endeavors. Don't believe me? Just check out our exclusive ESO dev diary!
EVE Online - Sins of a Solar Spymaster: Creating a Spaceholding Alliance

In MMOs, hardcore players are always focusing on "endgame content." Standard MMOs typically focus on raiding to entertain their highest level players, but EVE Online features endgame content of a different sort. In EVE, the taking and holding of conquerable space by alliances in 0.0 is the closest thing to "endgame content" players can find. But, until now, creating a spaceholding alliance was something that few players truly knew how to do. In this week's Sins of a Solar Spymaster, the Mittani gives players a step-by-step guide to creating a spaceholding alliance, so if you've ever wanted to try your hand at creating a universe spanning empire, here's your chance. Enjoy!
Spellborn Subscriptions Giveaway

Ten Ton Hammer and Acclaim have partnered to bring gamers an offer they can't refuse. In the Ten Ton Hammer Spellborn Subs Giveaway, readers enter for a chance to win one of one hundred one-month premium subscriptions to The Chronicles of Spellborn! Supplies are limited, so Premium Members get 24 hours to stake their claim to one of the prizes. After that, everyone with a valid Ten Ton Hammer account can enter.
Pioneer Spirit

Danny "Ralsu" Gourley continues to hunt for quality free MMOs, but sometimes he has a hard time stopping playing his favorites long enough to try something new. This week, he examines the factor that makes Pioneers of Iria, the expansion to Mabinogi, so appealing.
World of Warcraft: PvP Basics for Death Knights

Death Knights and PvP go together like peanut butter and jelly, and for many players PvP is the reason they started a Death Knight. On the battlefield of player versus player combat Death Knights become nigh unstoppable Tasmanian devil like killing machines as they scythe down opponent after opponent. Join Byron "Messiah" Mudry as he runs you through all the basics of playing this PvP centric class.
World of Warcraft: Hunter PvP Basics

Player vs player (PvP) combat is a popular medium in World of Warcraft and if you are just getting into it for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming. This week Ten Ton Hammer takes a look at PvP hunting with the hunter. Learn what you need to know before stepping into the chaotic battlegrounds or Wintergrasp and what kind of phat lewt you can walk away with.
World of Warcraft: Getting Ready to Raid - Warrior Style

Upon hitting 80, you're not going to do much in Naxx 10 let alone contribute much to the demise of Malygos. It's time to revise that gear, purge those greens, and fit yourself with the finest steel and magic enhancements. You've got some charts to top, fellow Warrior!
Wrath of the Lich King: Reputation Guide for the Priest

With the introduction of Northrend came new factions and daily quests that can provide the Priest with really great gear. In addition, WotLK also introduced new ways of gaining reputation never seen in WoW before through the use of tabards. Tabards use your tabard slot and allow you to gain faction reputation while running level 80 dungeons. This is a great way to grind out faction rep while going after other great loot.
The Chronicles of Spellborn: Guide to Warrior Disciplines

In The Chronicles of Spellborn, players will start their adventures as one of three main archetypes: Rogue, Spellcaster or Warrior. Upon reaching level 5, new Disciplines become available for each archetype - think of these as Spellborn's version of subclasses. While each individual Discipline will focus on a set of unique abilities and skills, elements of the core archetype will remain throughout the leveling experience. To help players new to the world of Spellborn with their initial Discipline selections, we've put together a series of handy guides detailing the strengths and unique abilities of each potential path.
The third guide to Discipline selection in The Chronicles of Spellborn focuses on the Warrior archetype's three unique paths; Adept, Bloodwarrior or Wrathguard. Much like Rogues and Spellcasters, the Warrior Disciplines each offer a distinct way of playing within the archetype, allowing players to build a Warrior best suited to their individual playstyle.

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

Real World News

Woman dies after intervening in sword fight

It was totally due to a lack of communication amongst all concerned, a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the main gauche was doing.
One killed in pie factory explosion

Factory owner distraught, but is happy to be making a fresh tart in a rebuilt facility.
Obama may block sun's rays to end Global Warming

Scientists continue to try to convince the President that there are still other options to consider, but Obama can't hear them over the sound of how awesome he is.

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

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

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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