Welcome to the 1,173rd edition of Loading...

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

Everyone refers to accessibility like it's some kind of cosmic
mentor on how to make a great MMO. The logic is straight out of a
freshman course: WoW is accessible, accessibility means a broader
audience, therefore it has mind-boggling numbers of subscribers. But
getting an exact definition of accessibility from anyone except Merriam
Webster is a challenge. Does it mean min-spec, soloability, how
compelling the source material is, or all of that and something else?
With your help, we'll work toward a definition today in Loading...
Accessibility Defined as we prepare for a discussion next week on
whether accessibility is necessarily a good thing for games.

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:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
   target="_blank">World of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
   (UP 1)
3. Dungeons
   & Dragons Online (down 1)
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
   Online (down 2)
5. EverQuest
   2 

Biggest movers this past week:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/39">Jade
   Dynasty (UP 5 to #17)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Dragon
   Age Origins (down 5 to #19)
3. The
   Secret World (UP 4 to #12)

• 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)
• 9/22
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
  Earth (release date)
• 9/22
  - Aion
  (release date)

• 10/9
  - Cities
  XL (release date)
• 12/2
  - DOFUS 2.0
  (release date)
  
• Early 2010
  - APB
  

Important
Dates

• 10/1 -
  10/3 -  href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE Online FanFest
• 10/23 - 10/24
  - Hero-Con
  

Loading... Daily

More praise for NCsoft today. In Wednesday's Loading... we joined many
of you in asking NCsoft to enforce inactivity rules regarding AFK
player stores to ease queue times. Players were setting themselves up
as vendors not just to sell stuff, but to camp a server slot in order
to skip the queue on their next play session. With today's early
morning patch,
players in store mode will be logged out after 30 minutes of
inactivity. No doubt the shadier element of the player community are
already working on scripts to circumvent the rule, but it's a big step
in the right direction.

And, though the news is a week old now, I also want to applaud NCsoft's
fan-friendly decision to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74533">jettison
GameGuard, though it undoubtedly makes things a bit tougher
in terms of bot and exploit detection. GameGuard is trouble, both in
terms of the negative interactions it has with Steam and other
gamer-focused applications (including apps geared to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74315">help disabled
gamers), and I've been nothing but impressed with the
decisions NCsoft has made with Aion so far.

The TTH staff has had an interesting ongoing discussion about
accessibility this week. The interesting thing was, though everyone
says that WoW's greatest achievement is its accessibility, all of us
had different definitions of accessibility. For some it was min-spec,
for others it was how much they wanted to play the game before seeing
assets or logging in, and for others it was
soloability and how far they got in the game before hitting that first
frustating roadblock (and whether the game had developed that initial
connection enough to overcome that roadblock).

Thanks mostly to Machail, we arrived at something that seemed like a
serviceable defintion of accessibility in MMOs. He proposed a
three-pronged definition: 1) how low the initial barrier to entry is
(min-spec, simplicity of the early game, and the attractiveness of the
IP), 2) how enjoyable the march to endgame is, discounting the
"level-up pressure" from friends and guildmates, and 3) what's waiting
at the endgame, i.e. how compelling the ultimate prize is, and whether
or not the endgame, like a movie in a good trilogy, leaves room for
what comes next - the theory being that no one wants to spend the
mammoth amount of time it takes for these games if there's little
promise of more good stuff to come.

Accessibility, of course has much broader application than games. Just
about every job starts small and grows in terms of responsibility and
complexity. Military officers command platoons for a long time before
they command companies and battalions. Exercise programs are all about
how you start, too. If you can't do a chin-up to save your life,
starting with an assisted pull-up machine at a local gym to step into
your full body weight will be more productive than simply floundering
under a bar.  There's a huge accessibility component to
travel, too. When I went to Singapore last year, expats referred to the
country as "Asia light" - meaning that the though you were undeniably
not in Kansas anymore, the language and culture was familiar enough the
least adept Western traveler some traction. Something similar could
probably be said of Dubai, that it's "Middle East light" - an
Arabian nights feel without the fear of IEDs.

We haven't addressed the topic of whether or not accessibility is
necessarily a good thing. It sounds like a good thing, especially for
mass commercial appeal, but there's a certain logic to being tossed
into the deep end to learn how to swim, too. This is something we hope
to address in greater detail next week, but what do you think? Are
today's games too accessible? Are we drawing a less sociable, less
loyal kind of audience into our game worlds as a result? As always,
your thoughts are welcome in the  href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46604">Loading...
forum.

From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion forum

style="font-weight: normal;">"Creative" Aion Character Names

Savanja brought up the topic of off-the-wall names in today's
Ten Ton Hammer Aion community newsletter, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74793/">The Daeva
Weekly, and I thought it was a timely one. Savanja's favorite
so far? "Krumbles," she says, "sporting the legion name 'A Gang of
Toast.'  Best name ever, sir!"

I've
spotted a number of oddball names in Atreia. Too bad I wasn't taking
notes. A couple memorable ones are Assbandit and Ohgodwhereami. Surely
you've seen some names that would make a true roleplayer cringe. href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46594">Share
them with us, in the name of fun and mockery.

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

No quotes yet. href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46594">Make
some!
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!

• Final
  Fantasy XIV Online Tokyo Games Show Trailer
  One of the most exciting games coming up in 2010 is Final Fantasy XIV
  Online. It's agreed by many gamers that the Final Fantasy franchise is
  one of the best out there when it comes to RPGs. Happily, in true Final
  Fantasy fashion, this new trailer sticks true to the fantastic CGI
  trailers we've come to expect from the titles. Take a look at the video
  seen at the Tokyo Game Show and judge for yourself.
• A
  Shantotto Ascension: Coming to Final Fantasy XI -
  New Trailer
  Even with Final Fantasy XIV Online on the horizon, Final Fantasy XI
  players aren't getting ignored. Coming in October is the Shatotto
  Ascension, an all new expansion for Final Fantasy XI. Check out the
  trailer to get teased a 'lil.
• Alliance
  of Valiant Arms: Multiplayer FPS Enters Closed Beta - First
  Look Screens
  A new free-to-play multi-player online first-person shooter (MOFPS as
  the folks at ijii.com call it) Alliance of Valiant Arms has entered
  closed beta. To celebrate the new phase of development we were graced
  with access to some screens of in-game footage. The game uses the
  Unreal 3 engine, which is fast becoming a trend in online gaming, and
  features faction based combat that centers around a conflict between
  the European Union and the Neo-Russian Federation.
• Aion
  Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #2 - Long Queues and Short Skirts
  Launch week for Aion has been roller coaster of excitement for some,
  and a long line for others. If you chose one of the less populated
  servers then you've been spared much of the pain, but for those who
  picked more popular servers (darn you Lumiel!) then you know my own
  hell.  In this week's Daeva Weekly, we cover the ups and downs
  of launch, catch you up with all the news, and take a detour down the
  road of avatar hotties.
• World
  of Warcraft is not an Esport - The Problems Facing the
  Arenas
  World of Warcraft is full of fun and exciting PvP, but the big question
  is if that PvP can be considered an esport. You know, like professional
  football except with a mouse and keyboard replacing the pigskin and
  jerseys kicked aside for tabards and epics. David "Xerin" Piner delves
  into the issues facing the arena and how he thinks it isn't esport
  material. After you're done reading his opinion why not join us in our
  forums to share your thoughts on this subject. 
• href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/professions/first-aid">World
  of Warcraft: First Aid Guide
  Our guide to World of Warcraft's First Aid skill is out. Replacing the
  older one, our newer guide goes into every detail you need to know
  about First Aid. It's not just your every day ordinary First Aid guide
  that tells you how to work your spellbook, nope! This guide gives you
  everything you need to be a pro with First Aid including how to use
  them in combat and get some extra free health with bandage healing. So
  get your wounds taped up with our excellent guide to First
  Aid. 
• New
  Voyage Century Online Glory Arena Screenshots
  Voyage Century Online is getting a new dose of content in the form of
  the Glory Arena. This new arena allows for PvP between players that
  records the rankings automatically. To show off this new content IGG
  has sent us four new screenshots of the soon to be blood filled Glory
  Arena.

Hottest Content:

1. Final
   Fantasy XIV Online Tokyo Games Show Trailer
2. Ten
   Ton Hammer's Aion Screenshot Contest
3. Aion
   Launch Video
4. Aion
   New Player Portal
5. Aion
   Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #2 - Long Queues and Short Skirts
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/graphicsguide">Guide
   to Aion Graphic Settings
7. Ten
   Ton Hammer's Aion FAQ
8. Exclusive
   Everquest: Underfoot Screenshots - Pellucid
   Grotto
9. Champions
   Online - First Impressions
10. World
    of Warcraft is not an Esport - The Problems Facing the
    Arenas

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