Welcome to the 1,167th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Second Skin made its DVD debut several weeks ago but has
gotten a lukewarm reception from the gaming public. We'll explore the
MMO documentary's successes and shortcomings, announce our
very first Aion news, reveal two new beta giveaways and much more in
today's Loading... Second Skin Review.
The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft - Dungeons
& Dragons Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan (UP 3) -
EverQuest
2
Biggest movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/265"
target="_blank">The
Secret World (UP 8 to #12) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926"
target="_blank">Global
Agenda href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38"
target="_blank"> (down 3 to #15) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306">Lord of
the Rings Online (UP 1 to #6)
MMO Releases
-
8/25
- CrimeCraft
(release date) - 9/1 -
Champions
Online (release date) - 9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date) - 9/15
- Runes
of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
Releases
Important
Dates
- 10/1 -
10/3 - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE Online FanFest - 10/23 - 10/24
- Hero-Con
Loading... Daily
We first met the directors of Second Skin in 2007, and during
a subsequent interview
series we tried to find out just whose side Pure West was on.
Obviously, documentarians aren't supposed to have a side, but even the
best and most objective documentaries examine the evidence and
ultimately take a side. Prior to watching the film, we wanted to know
what editorial tack to take. Was this a documentary championing the
sociable and entertaining nature of moderate MMO play, or another
hit-and-run smear piece highlighting the most extreme examples of lives
disrupted by excessive MMO play?
But perhaps much of what gives Second Skin its power is that, if you
watch the whole movie in a sitting, you won't be sure what side the
film takes. If you leave at any point you'll be sure that the
perspective is slanted towards MMO lovers or MMO haters. Second Skin
tells the story of two starry-eyed romantics who met each other through
EverQuest 2, an MMO addict who hit rock bottom during the path of the
story, a "humane" gold faming operation, some fairly hardcore gaming
roommates and a couple in Indiana, a severely handicapped gamer who
thrives on Second Life, and The Syndicate (the longest continually
running guild in existence, whose annual events it's been my pleasure
to cover over the past few years).
Where things fell off a bit was mid-way through Dan the MMO addict's
story, when the person heading the Online Gamers Anonymous program
(whose son
met tragedy as a result of his gaming addiction) was villainized
somewhat for her naggingly hysterical methods in trying to
pull Dan out of his bad place. Most of us have had run ins with
addictive behavior know that if there's to be a break in the pattern,
it's not going to be pretty. I'm not saying she couldn't have
benefitted from some counselling training, and that there might be a
thread of the matriarch there that may have driven her son deeper into
the game. Dan probably owes more than he realizes to the OGA program.
And I wonder how the Burning Crusade race to 70 would have
played out if the cameras weren't rolling too. But if you read between
the lines, you will find some average types
like, I'd argue, the bulk of our "hardcore" audience, whose lives don't
revolve
around games but find it's a legitimate means of entertainment.
You can view the trailer
here, and the film's available on Netflix if you want to check it out
for yourself. The machinima is first-rate, the presentation is above
average, and the storytelling is pretty balanced, though I would have
liked to see more of people that successfully balanced their family
life and gaming habits, like the Prices and the Syndicate folks. The
prevailing love story was a little quirky, but I think that worked
in its favor, giving the subplot it own sense of authenticity. And the
extremes were matched in a way that showed, I thought, that games can
either grow your social life or destroy lives - MMOs are what you make
of them. But in the final analysis, I think that MMO haters will find
more ammunition to support their cause than MMO gamers will find
validation. It could be a useful tool for allowing outsiders to see a
little bit of the gaming mindset, as long as the outliers are treated
with a grain of salt. As for how the film inspired me, I think I'm
going to go for a jog.
Seen Second Skin? Think its representative of your experiences and
those of your friends? Your thoughts welcome in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46400">Loading...
forum.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion forum
Despite
25 levels of Abyss-free questing, Aion is a PvP game at heart. Our
forum member, Blackhawk, stopped by yesterday to ask the community to
rank the classes in PvP from best to worst. No one has risen to the
best-to-worst challenge just yet (maybe you'll be the first), but
several people have offered opinions and one has offered stats direct
from Aion's Korean servers.
Which class is top dog in Aion PvP? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46367">Discuss!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Any class in a group
> any class not in a group."
- bobfish
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
4 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 43
in
September! 995 in
2009!
Today's New MMO Coverage, Features, and Guides
-
Aion
Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #1
Welcome to the first edition of The Daeva Weekly,
Ten Ton Hammer's weekly Aion newsletter! Even if you don't have the
time to do all the forum crawling and news searching yourself, you can
still stay up-to-date on the community happenings and get it all in one
place. Get community news, Ten Ton Hammer news, and link up with great
forum topics from other fans, all when you have the time to read it. -
World
of Warcraft: Horde Outland Leveling Guide (Terokkar Forest)
Looking for an easy way to level up in World of Warcraft? We continue
our leveling guide series with a walkthrough for the Horde in Terokkar
Forest (levels 64-66) that gets you through this forest in no time.
Instructions and coordinates for given for the quest, so you're never
going to be lost. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/dragonoath">Dragon
Oath Beta Key Giveaway
Dragon
Oath, based on Jin Yong's Chinese novel Tian Long Ba Bu and Buddhist
folklore, claims over thirty million players in Asia and was easily the
best looking locally produced game we saw in China during our trip last
year. Now a localized, culturalized version of the game is coming to
the West, and we have beta keys just for you. Get them while quantities
last! -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/battleswarm">Battleswarm:
Field of Honor Beta Giveaway
Battleswarm
is a genre-fusing mix of real-time strategy and first-person shooter
gameplay in a war-torn online universe, and we have some of the first
beta keys that have been made available to the MMO community just for
you. Join the battle on the side of the Bugs or the Humans today!
Hottest Content:
- RvR
Fixes and Patch 1.32: An Exclusive Interview With Warhammer
Online Producer Josh Drescher - EVE
Online Sins of the Solar Spymaster #27 - The Five Types of
Alliance Leaders - City
of Heroes Going Rogue Q&A with NCsoft's Matt Miller - World
of Warcraft - The myth of the indispensible UI Mod - Aion
Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #1 - 10
Reasons why Aion is your next MMOG - One
Level Too Many: A Look at MMOG Addiction - The
Secret World - Combat System Q&A Video - Star
Wars: The Old Republic VIP Interview from PAX 2009 - Global
Agenda - Two New Maps & Female Character Models Video - World
of Warcraft - Raiding Isn't Everything
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network! Have a
great weekend!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
