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to the 1,191st edition
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Loading... is the premier daily
MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Today caps the end of the first month for Aion here in the western
market. Historically speaking tomorrow will be one of the most
important landmark dates for the game, as players stop to analyze the
question of whether or not to continue their subscriptions. Join Reuben
“Sardu” Waters as he takes a closer look at what
the future might hold for the newest MMOG on the block today in
Loading… Shadows and Sparks.
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/">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 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
& Dragons Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age
of
Conan
Biggest
movers today:
- Global Agenda (Up 28
to #12) - Runes of Magic (Up 5
to #11) - Star Trek Online (Up
13 to #14)
MMO Releases
-
size="-1">8/25
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1012">CrimeCraft
(release date) size="-1"> -
size="-1">9/1
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
Online (release date) -
size="-1">9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited
(release date) -
size="-1">9/15
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Runes
of Magic "The Elven Prophecy"
(expansion) -
size="-1">9/22
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date) -
size="-1">9/22
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
(release date) size="-1"> -
size="-1">10/8
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2129">Cities
XL (release date)
Releases
-
size="-1">11/3
- Dragon
Age:
Origins (release date) -
size="-1">12/1
- href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/464-answer-the-call-of-war">LotRO:
Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
-
size="-1">12/2
- DOFUS
2.0
(release date)
-
size="-1">Early
2010
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
size="-1">Important
Dates
Loading...
Daily
My very first forays into this
nutty world of games media saw me
playing a fairly large amount of Age of Conan around the time of its
release. Like many other gamers at the time, I’ll admit that
I was swept up by some of the hype surrounding the launch, and
genuinely hoped that the title would prove to live up to its full
potential as the critical mass of players swiftly chewed through the
content awaiting beyond the sunny shores of Tortage, marching headlong
into the end game. All things considered, the critical mass was bumping
its head against the level cap far quicker than I’d initially
imagined. What they found there was an end game thrice
removed from the solo friendly leveling experience, as players were
thrust into large scale keep sieges that required a given guild to
harvest thousands of components before they could even join in on the
action.
Long story short, the keep
sieges were a pretty broken and battered
beast when the first few guilds took a crack at them which spiraled
into the ensuing chaos of angry forum rants, splintered guilds and most
importantly a sharp decline in subscribers heading into the second
month. When all is said and done all we can do is speculate about what
AoC could have been had there been a smoother sense of progression and
a rock solid end game concept at launch.
Soon after the mass exodus from
AoC, MMO gamers began hammering at the
gates of WAR. While Mythic’s newest iteration of the RvR
concept was a solid offering, again, many players felt the game lacked
that certain spark that keeps them hooked and wanting to continue
playing after their free month of game time ran out. As a result, 2008
became the year of strong initial box sales followed by the major MMOG
releases quickly fading into the shadows.
In the months since, countless
hours have no doubt been spent analyzing
what went wrong with those two launches, or perhaps more specifically,
what went wrong with player retention. Any publisher or developer
hoping to overcome that hurdle with a new launch moving forward would
be pretty crazy not to be concerned that their own title might suffer
the same fate. Overzealous marketing and pre-launch hype can
be an awesome way to insure a quick turnaround on investment as
retailers snatch up mountains of box copies, but nothing spells doom
for a new MMOG quite like seeing that same mountain collecting dust on
the third month with a bright red Clearance tag slapped unceremoniously
on the front.
We’re standing on the
verge of seeing whether yet another
MMOG will be consumed by the shadows of unfulfilled potential, or if it
has enough of that magical spark to keep the critical mass of players
entertained into the second month. For all of the vast westernization
efforts that have gone into the North American and European launch of
Aion, a few incomprehensible punch lines in quest dialogs will pale in
comparison to the issues it will cause if players reach the end game
and find the content lacking.
According to the most recent
href="http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/"
target="_blank">server statistics,
we may still be another
month or two out from seeing that critical mass begin bumping their
heads on the level cap ceiling, but Aion also has a built in midlevel
milestone that will play an equally important role in player retention
moving into next month. Currently most servers are just now seeing a
larger percentage of players hitting the 21-30 range, and smack in the
middle is when they’ll first gain access to the Abyss. Not
only does the robust PvE game get an extra vP tagged on the end at
level 25, but suddenly aerial combat will also be thrown into the mix
in a big way. With roughly a quarter of the game’s overall
population hitting that important mark, it will be interesting to see
what those same server numbers look like in a week’s time.
Will we see a shift in server
numbers back down to the lower level
ranges, or will that critical mass of players steamroll ahead into the
still mostly uncharted waters of the end game? Are you an Aion player
weighing the pros and cons of continuing your subscription into the
second month?
Share your thoughts right here
in our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47291"
target="_blank">Loading… forums!
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of
the Day
From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46990">Tavern
of the Ten Ton Hammer forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46990">Sometimes
it IS the player
I
always marvel at how most people think they're really good drivers, and
yet they think most other drivers suck. I mean, we can't all be good
drivers, right? If we were all good drivers, that jackass wouldn't have
cut me off this morning, or that biatch wouldn't have raced me to the
prime parking space at Walmart. As George Carlin once mused, "Have you
ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and
anyone driving faster is a maniac?" There are plenty of idiots and
maniacs on the road.
And there are plenty of idiots and maniacs in MMOGs, too. Let's face
it--we can't style="font-style: italic;">all
be good. And that's the topic of today's epic thread. Sometimes the
problems people have with MMOGs are their own fault, or so this
thread's creator, blehack33, suggests. "Why does everyone believe
they're the best at, well, every game in existence?" he asks.
Do you think you're the best? How's your driving? Head over to our
forums to href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46990">talk
about it.
==============================
Awesome
Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"The
customer is never right, we just allow them to think so, because it
saves time and energy."
- Kitsunegirl
==============================
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! 94
in October! 2,042 in
2009!
Today's
New Features & Guides
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75772">Global
Agenda: Conquest and Pricing Options Q&A with Todd Harris
Hi-Rez Studios performed a magic trick on Global Agenda late Tuesday,
turning this highly anticipated 2010 title into two games: a
subscription-free persistent world shooter and a fee-driven
fully-featured MMO. The distinction is courtesy of Global Agenda:
Conquest, the optional subscription plan that will transform the
award-winning online shooter gameplay (yours for the price of the box)
into a massively involved land grab. That, and add many of the features
MMO players know and love.
Intrigued? So were we, and Executive Producer Todd Harris was kind
enough to answer a few of our questions about Global Agenda: Conquest
and the new pricing info. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/editorial/crafting">Champions
Online: Crafting - Worthwhile or Worthless?
Crafting has become an integral part of MMOGs in the last few years.
Hated and beloved, Crafting is here to stay. Some games do it better
than others. Our question is how does crafting in Champions Online
stack up? Is it worthwhile or worthless? -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/general/elyosgathering1-99">Aion
Elyos Gathering: Skill Levels 1-99
Whether you are determined to keep up with your Aion gathering skills
from the very beginning, or one of the many players who have found that
gathering is essential to character progression further into your
career, at some point you will need to know where and what to gather.
This easy to read chart shows you exactly what you want to gather at
each level range, and where the nodes can be found so you can blow
through those skill levels quickly. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75779">Torchlight
Level Editor Tutorial with Patrick Blank
Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a level for an online
game? Torchlight's Lead Level Designer Patrick Blank, has created a
three part video series to show just what it takes to design a level
for an online RPG using Torchlight's level editing tools. If you've
been wondering what it takes to be a level designer, this video series
will give you some insight into the creation process and tools involved
in Torchlight's development.
Hottest
Content:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75772">Global
Agenda: Conquest and Pricing Options Q&A with Todd Harris -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75710">Which
World of Warcraft Class makes the best Tank? -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75371">Exploring
the Lore of Star Trek Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/MC_overview">Champions
Online: Millenium City Overview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75682">Gated
Communities: Finding the Right Gaming Home -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/hallows-end">WoW:
Hallow's End Guide -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/resubscription">Can
Aion overcome the re-subscription blues? -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75526">Runes
of Magic: New Player Introduction -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75392">The
Rift Between Us - A Guide to Rifting in Aion -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom/guides/beginner_mage_guide">Runes
of Magic - The Mage: A Beginner's Guide
Thanks
for
visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the Ten Ton Hammer
team
