Welcome to the 1,085th Edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Today's newsletter pays tribute to Tony "RadarX" Jones on his final day here at Ten Ton Hammer, who's leaving to take a Community Manager position at SOE Tuscon. Coyote and the Ten Ton Hammer team have already found nice ways of saying goodbye, so Loading... will pay tribute by looking at what a Community Manager really does and why Tony's perfect for it. That plus six new articles and guides fill out today's Loading... Radar Love.
Coyote is back in a big way at Ten Ton Hammer, and his daily column explores all things geek with Coyote's trademark wit in It's All Geek to Me. Read it daily at Ten Ton Hammer! Today's topic:
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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 today:
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Recent MMO Releases
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Upcoming Releases
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Important Dates
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Loading... Daily
Today we say goodbye to one of the longest serving members of the Ten Ton Hammer team: Tony "RadarX" Jones, who's taking a Community Manager position at SOE Tuscon. After I got over the initial shock... not that Tony's leaving but that there's an SOE Tuscon (apparently that's where the Pox Nora live team is, along with perhaps a super secret project given all the latest staff moves at SOE), I realized what a great guy we're losing.
Tony's always taken all the tough assignments in his almost 4 years here (a lifetime in Internet years): the EverQuest 2 community site as the WoW rivalry began to fade, Tabula Rasa post-launch and in full decline, WAR when we were trying to ramp it up in a hurry. He was our community site utility guy because Coyote was right: he has a love for the MMORPG, not just a game. You have to if you're going to write about games professionally (or semi-professionally? prosumer-ly? ...whatever we do here). In retrospect, I think I was just subconsciously trying to keep him out of SOE's clutches.
But Tony escaped in the end, and he's perfect for the job. Few players really realize what a tough job Community Manager is. CMs are between a rock - player expectations - and a hard place - what the designers and execs want to do and what the coders, system engineers, and the like say is possible. Everyone else can hide in their cubicles and offices most of the time, it's your job to play arbiter on the front lines between the customers and decision makers on an hourly basis. You usually can't fix the many problems you run into daily yourself; you stall, appease, depend on those who can, and eat crow when they can't. Worst of all, you can't get drawn into a battle of words - you can kick or ban, but like all forms of Internet power, you're wise to use the extreme option moderately before you grow an unwanted reputation that you can never really shed.
CMs are often mercilessly attacked by the community they're trying to please, not because they're necessarily at fault, but simply because they're the most accessible. More than a few CMs I've talked to have drawn flak from the other side too - villified in their own offices for taking the player's position too strongly when the corner office-dwellers disagree. For all that trouble, you're on the suck end of the payscale in talent-magnet parts of the world where the cost of living is typically astronomical.
In the end, you have to have a passion for the game and its community and icewater in your veins. Luckily, Tony has all the requisite abilities. Just run those forum posts and memos through a spell checker first, Tony, and you'll be golden. If you had your own jersey number, we'd retire it (our jerseys do have numbers, actually, but they're all 10 and , so consider 11 yours), but if you ever want to make your post-retirement comeback, if Tuscon is a little dry for your tastes or maybe the cicadas and coyotes (no pun intended) are too loud at night, you'll always have a home here a Ten Ton Hammer. Boomjack said it, so it must be so.
We've got two "Goodbye Tony!" threads (one two) going at present, so I'd like to make today's thread in the Loading... forums a tribute to some of the best CMs you've come across. And enjoy the holiday weekend, or just the weekend if you're outside the US.
No Loading... on Memorial Day Monday, we'll be back on Tuesday.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our Darkfall Forum
There is Seamen in the water!
Alert the Grammar Police!
It's
Friday, folks, and you know what that means. Yep, it's time for
a video of some hackers in Darkfall stealing a boat during the
middle of a flight and then flying off in it. Annatar posted this
priceless gem (warning: the audio is NSFW, and yet it's what makes the
video) in our Darkfall forum. I hope it will make your Friday workday just a little bit brighter.
Click this link. (Please, won't you think of the seamen?)
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"I
suppose correcting your grammar and reminding you that it should be,
'There are seamen in the water' takes all the fun out of it, huh?"
- Shayalyn
"Say it like a pirate: 'Yar! There be seamen in them thar waters!'"
- AngryBeaver
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!
6 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 73 in May! 599 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
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Premium Content: Gamers Behaving Badly - Hacks, Griefs and Cheats
Put enough people in one place and sooner or later someone will test the boundaries. MMORPGs are no exception. Ranging from the hilariously frivolous to the monetarily disastrous, here are five entertaining stories of player-fueled negativity that have made an indelible mark on massively multiplayer gaming, plus a bonus interview of gamers taking extraordinary steps to restore one MMORPG to its former glory.
Our latest feature article is chock full of eyewitness accounts and developer commentary, so check out Gamers Behaving Badly, only at Ten Ton Hammer, and for Premium Members only until next week! -
Disciple Launch Interview with CEO Toby Batton
A new browser based MMOG is on the market, and it's called Disciple. This Free to Play game with optional microtransactions takes place in the violent world of Aphelion as players pit their skills against other players and fight for fame and power. Ten Ton Hammer caught up with Resistor Productions CEO, Toby Batton, and he was more than happy to tell us more about the game. -
Staff Farewell Tribute to Tony 'RadarX' Jones
After spending four years with the Ten Ton Hammer network, Tony "RadarX" Jones is moving on. His destination is Tucson, Ariz., where he's taking over the Community Manager position at Sony Online Entertainment's studio, the same studio that released the well-received Pox Nora online miniatures game. In this article, the Ten Ton Hammer staff looks back at Radar's many years with the team, and the many lives he influenced in the process. -
geeked: Puttin' On The Ritz
Ten Ton Hammer's very own satirical webcomic on all things geek-related is back with a sort of undead Queer-Eye issue? It confuses me, and I'm the writer/artist. So it's probably best not to ask, and just take a gander. Be sure to catch up on any issues of Geeked you've missed by visiting our Comics Portal. Don't forget to rate your favorites while you're at it! -
EVE Online: Level 1 Mission Guide
Adding to the EVE Online Mission Guide lineup, we've posted several more mission walk-throughs to assist players through even the most confusing of missions. Get tips, tricks, and occasional heads up that will save you precious in-game time and quite possibly a ship or two! -
World of Warcraft: Priest Raiding Gear
It's time to start raiding! But do you know what gear is best for a priest? What stats are best suited? How should they be balanced? Good questions that should be running through your mind as you first step into a raid. Here's my guide on Priest Raiding Gear, to know what gear you should pick when raiding as your priest.
Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
- Champions Online: Exclusive Powers and Customization Interview
- EVE Online: Sins of a Solar Spymaster #12 - Proxy Wars - The Fall of ISS
- Silkroad Online: Legend IV Tour
- geeked: Could Hell Be Any Worse?
- World of Warcraft: Multiboxing Guide
- Warhammer Online: Premium Member Q&A at Baltimore Games Day 2009
- Lord of the Rings Online Interview with Jeffrey Steefel - Book 8 and Don Guldur
- Comic: Geeked - "A New Old Friend"
- Alganon Class Interview #4 - The Healer
- Exclusive Interview with R.A. Salvatore
Real World News
- 'Bazooka Joe' movie deal in the works
Not to burst the writers’ bubble or anything, but I find this one a little hard to chew. Gum. - Teenage girl auctions off her virginity, German government demands half for taxes
I always get screwed on my taxes, too. - Mayor of San Francisco to impose Butt Tax [Link Courtesy of Matt N.!]
The city’s male gay community plan massive protests in response
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
