Welcome
to the 1,177th
edition of Loading...

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

Why is it that certain games draw us in while others leave us
cold? Why
do games that are strikingly similar in their mechanics and level of
polish either hit or miss with us, seemingly with no rhyme or reason?
Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg steps in to explore this issue, and
suggests that there's an important yet perhaps overlooked element to
MMOGs in today's Loading... "Epicness" Matters.

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. Dungeons
   & Dragons Online
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion 
4. EverQuest
   2
5. Lord
   of the
   Rings Online 

Biggest
movers today:

1. Global Agenda (Up 19 to #12)
2. Runes
   of Magic (Up 6 to #14)
3. Fallen Earth (Down 3 to #16)

• 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)
• style="font-weight: bold;">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)
• 12/1 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro" target="_blank">Lord
  of the Rings Online - Siege of
  Mirkwood (expansion)
  
• 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
  - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/herocon/index.html">Hero-Con
  

Loading...
Daily

I’m playing Aion, and my level 15 Gladiator is kicking some kobold ass.
My age 15 son (no matter how compelling the urge to measure his age in
levels might be, I still can’t bring myself to do it) is watching over
my shoulder.

“What’s cool about this game,” he says, “is that even at lower levels
you look epic.”

I agree with him. My level 15 gladiator has some fancy plate armor, and
swings a decidedly kick ass greatsword. She moves with grace and
fluidity as she confronts her foes. She charges and then leaps,
swinging her greatsword over her head crying, “Hyaaaaah!” The
greatsword crashes down, knocking her opponent flat on its posterior,
where it struggles for a few seconds to climb to its feet and resume
combat. Before she can even run two full sets of combos, the kobold is
dead and she's looting its already cooling corpse. Now, that’s epic.

I didn’t realize how important feeling epic was to me until my friend
Danny asked me what it was that found me addicted to Aion. I rambled
for a bit about polish, a large world, and the presence of a thriving
community, and then realized that what I was saying about Aion could
apply to just about any MMO, some of which, World of Warcraft included,
left me cold before my free 30 day subscription expired.  If
Aion is, as Ten Ton Hammer’s John “Boomjack” Hoskin once put
it, “WoW with wings,” then what about this game connected with me in a
way that didn’t connect with WoW or any of the other games I opted to
shelve early on?

As I was musing about the virtues of Aion I realized there was nothing
particularly new about this MMO, but it did give me something I needed
nonetheless: the opportunity to feel powerful--epic!--early in the
game. And that, for me, has made a world of difference.

Reuben “Sardu” Waters proposed in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75018">yesterday’s
Loading… that there are three camps gamers fall into when it
comes to what keeps them playing games: character-driven players, class
patriots, and carrot chasers. I can say for certain that class loyalty
and carrot-chasing haven’t been enough to keep me playing a MMOG; I’m
fickle when it comes to classes, and carrots only feed my gaming hunger
for so long. By process of elimination, that would mean I’m a
character-driven player, and that sounds about right to me.

But I’d propose that there are two kinds of character driven players:
those who are attached to the idea of having the best of everything and
making their character elite, and those who are attached to their
character’s personas. I fall into the second group. While every MMO
player is concerned with stats, they’re not an all-consuming obsession
with me. I’m attached to my Aion character because she’s cool. She
attacks fiercely, dresses sharply, and looks amazing. Although stats
help her kill quickly and crit like a maniac, I wouldn’t be happy with
them if she didn’t look and feel so damn epic doing what she does best,
being a killing machine.

Does being attached to a character’s look and her “epicness” in combat
sound superficial to you? As little as one week ago, I might have
agreed. But after this revelation that “epicness matters” I suddenly
have a very different outlook. Just a few days ago, I couldn’t put my
finger on what fueled my addiction to Aion. I thought that perhaps it
was just that Aion is new and shiny, and that the community seems to be
flocking there (flight pun intended) in droves. But WoW had that same
dynamic at launch--newness, polish, and community--and it was a
complete miss for me. I can only conclude that, after working 60 levels
to finally look and feel epic in early games like EverQuest, I have a
low tolerance for running around virtual worlds in rags and slowly
working my way to riches.

Aion delivered riches instantly on all kinds of levels. You begin with
a robust character creation system that pretty much assures you’ll
never encounter your doppelganger in game. Starting gear looks decent,
and the full set of armor and the new weapon players earn by level 10
looks rich and visually appealing, nothing compared to the decidedly
ghetto low-level gear of games past. The skills acquired by level 10
make your character execute combos that not only look impressive, but
are impressively effective against enemies. The drops I picked up, if
not obvious vendor trash like claws and carapces that I could sell to
NPC merchants for cash, were all decent gear that players would likely
want. The virtual currency of Atreia, kinah, flows freely, and while
the economy’s pricing structure makes up for it, it still seems
impressive to have 30,000 kinah or so (depending on your
thriftiness, luck with drops, and success as a virtual
salesperson) in hand by the time you reach ascension at level 10.

My first few play sessions in Aion, I reached level 10 and ascended,
learning I was an immortal Daeva. This in itself is pretty epic. But
even after I'd earned my wings, and the status to go with them, I was
thrust out into the world to kill crabs, turtles, and water birds. My
first thought upon learning that I’d be killing more of the same types
of mobs I’d killed from the moment I'd stepped foot in Atreia was, style="font-style: italic;">What the…? I just got wings! Why
am I killing crabs? But I felt cool killing those
crabs, nonetheless. And when I stopped by the broker after my killing
spree to sell the nice item drop I’d picked up, and the little
weasel-like Shugo merchant stammered in awe, “A Daeva!
Ke-ke-ke-ke-ke!”…it all seemed worth it, and still does. After all, as
epic as I already seem, there's still no place to go but up.

Does looking and feeling epic matter to you like it does to me? Talk
about it in the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46752">Loading...
forum.

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

href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46731">Why
is my character glowing?

Does your Aion character have a glow about them? Assuming your
character isn't pregnant, that can only mean one thing--your DP bar is
full and you're ready to open a can o' whoopass. Uninformed about DP?
It's your Divine Power, and a special skill you receive at level 10
grants you the ability to lay a serious hurtin' on your enemy, just
once, before you need to slay more enemies to fill the meter again.
What's your favorite DP skill and animation? How do you use DP? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46731">Tell
us about it!

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

"So far my favorite is
the crazy Gladiator skill that lets you pick mobs up and swirl them
around above your head with your polearm before smacking 'em down on
the ground. Good stuff indeed, especially when you use it on mobs twice
as big as your character."

- Sardu
==============================

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

• href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/editorials/factionsystem"> style="font-weight: bold;">Aion: Good versus
  Evil – The Two Sides of Aion’s Faction System
  What
  matters most- what faction system games use for PvP or how it is
  done? 
  Aion’s player versus player combat uses the same old two faction system
  making use of a tried and true method, but in this day of gaming
  couldn’t PvP stand a bit more sophistication?  In this
  editorial,
  Savanja discusses PvP factions and why sometimes just sticking with
  what you know is better.
• style="font-weight: bold;">Dungeons & Dragons
  Online: An Overview of the Favored Soul and Monk
  Dungeons
  and Dragons Online went to a free to play model earlier this month,
  re-titling itself as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron
  Unlimited
  and if the crowds of players are any indication, the move was a good
  one. One of the more interesting aspects of this new DDO version are
  the two classes available for purchase, the Favored Soul and the Monk.
  See what has Dalmarus so excited about them both.

Hottest
Content:

1. 
   Dragon Age: Origins
   - An Overview of Classes and Specializations
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/sellingguide"> style="font-weight: bold;">Aion - Fodder
   Into Kinah - A Guide to Selling
3. 
   World of Warcraft
   Editorial - The Will to Raid
4. 
   style="font-weight: bold;">Dungeons & Dragons
   Online- An Overview of the Favored Soul and Monk
5. 
   Global Agenda:
   Recon Class Q&A with Todd Harris
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/PvPbasics">
   Intro to PvP in Aion
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/currencymain">
   Onyxia Guide
   - How to Slay Dragons
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/editorials/factionsystem"> style="font-weight: bold;">Good versus
   Evil – The Two Sides of Aion’s
   Faction System
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/currencymain">Champions
   Online:
   Currency Overview
10. Gamers
    Gone Wild - Are Women
    Objectified in MMOGs? href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74714">

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