Welcome
to the 1,260th
edition
of Loading...

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

It's a big weekend leading up to a big week for two MMOGs. In today's newsletter, we'll list the schedule of festivities leading up to Star Trek Online's and Global Agenda's launch date next week, plus offer a rundown of all the e-tailer and retailer exclusive offers. It's all in Loading... Head Start Weekend.

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
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE
   Online
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest 2
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
   Dragons Online
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto">Star Trek
   Online
   

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/34">Global Agenda (UP 6 to #14)
2. Star Wars: The Old Republic (UP 4 to #17)
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
   (down 3 to #12)

• size="-1">10/8
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2129">Cities
  XL (release date)
• size="-1">11/3
  - Dragon
  Age:
  Origins (release date)
• size="-1">11/10
  - Final
  Fantasy
  XI Ultimate
  Collection (release date)
• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/464-answer-the-call-of-war">LotRO:
  Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.eveonline.com/Dominion/">EVE
  Online: Dominion (expansion)
• size="-1">12/2
  - DOFUS
  2.0
  (update)
• size="-1">12/15
  - href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/everquest.vm">EverQuest:
  Underfoot (expansion) 
• size="-1">1/26
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2389">Mass
  Effect 2
  (release date)

• size="-1">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
  Agenda
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/1 - Mortal Online (open beta begins)
• size="-1">2/2 size="-1">
  - Star
  Trek Online
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/16
  - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
  2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
• size="-1">March
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
  The Old
  Republic
  
  

Loading... Daily

It's a big weekend leading into a big week for MMOGs next week. First, the pre-lauch festivities. No one's blaming you if you can't keep everything planned for this weekend and next week straight . Here's a short schedule, and check the Loading... forum for updates:

Friday, January 29th

• ~1pm ET (10am PT / 1800 GMT) - Star Trek Online headstart begins for pre-order purchasers, runs through Feb. 1st
• ~3pm ET (Noon PT / 2000 GMT) - Global Agenda Level 1-10 event begins for preorder purchasers

Monday, February 1st

• Global Agenda is released
• Mortal Online open beta begins, pre-orderers can continue to play.
• 8am to 5pm ET- SyFy channel airs original Star Trek marathon

Tuesday, Feb. 2nd

• Star Trek Online is released
• Global Agenda Conquest zones unlocked
• 8AM (5 AM PT) to 5pm ET - SyFy channel airs Star Trek: TNG marathon

So, assuming you haven't already purchased the game or games you're going to, what's the best pre-order deal?

For Global Agenda, you really only have two choices from one source: Steam. Pick up a single copy, or purchase a four pack for roughly the price of three. If you opt for the four pack, here's how it works: if you don't already own the game, one copy will be permanently assigned to your account, and you'll have three copies to give away to friends. There are no same-household restrictions, etc., you can give the game to anyone you wish.

Star Trek Online, on the other hand, offer a wide variety of exclusive items, but the only option for a lot of players is the US Collector's Edition, which includes a beautiful communicator badge (yellow shirts not included) and a host of in-game goodies. The digital deluxe edition, available through the Atari store and e-tailers like Steam. offers a couple original series uniforms, an NX registry prefix for your ship, a joined trill (skill bonus), Khaan! and Klingon blood toast emotes, and a ship item that works a little like a smart bomb from EVE Online (short range AoE). Direct2Drive is offering a personal ground combat shield as a bonus, Amazon.com has a Borg bridge officer, and Syfy is offering a neodynium deflector dish & a 15% off coupon for the Syfy store with their Atari.com store bundle purchase.

If you prefer to do your shopping in the kind of store that requires leaving the house, Best Buy is offering tribble (Fed) and targ (Klingon) pets, Gamestop offers a Constitution Class starship, and Walmart's no-nonsense exclusive is 500 skill points. You can find more international retail deals here, and note that just about every edition comes with 500 Cryptic points. Note also that should you find yourself on the US west coast, you can stack up to four codes from Del Taco macho size collector's cups to get free game time and access to a runabout shuttle craft. (Ten Ton Hammer is not responsible for indigestion).

So what's the best value? My grouchy gamer side is showing here, because I personally went with a digitally delivered standard edition. I'm not much for paying nearly twice as much to crowd up my scanty living space with collector's editions, and the deluxe / retailer exclusive edition tschotchkes just aren't part of the game I'm interested in. I don't spend much on cosmetic items in microtransaction driven games either - the whole Barbie doll dress-up thing never really appealed to me.

Which edition did you or would you pick, and why? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, and have a great pre-launch weekend!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our /OOC (Off-topic) forum


Call me crazy...

I
could hardly let this week pass without talking about the Apple iPad,
could I? Fortunately, Darke did all the hard work for me by starting
today's epic thread to say that he isn't quite buying into all the
hype. "I thought this was Apple's response to the Kindle and Nook," he
says. "If it's not
meant to be an electronic reader of books then what is it? A successor
to the iPhone? A next gen laptop?"

I've heard plenty of
comments about the iPad in the past 24 hours, and 99% of them have been
along the lines of, "Meh! Whatever." (Although $10 says Jeff "Ethec"
Woleslagle, Apple fanboy and gizmo guru, will have one as soon as
humanly possible.) What are your feelings on the iPad? Tell us here!


==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread


"Its perfect for people who want an expensive and oversized iPod
Touch that's larger than the iTouch and smaller than a laptop, and who
like siphoning off their money when they see the little i before any
word."

- Anacche

==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us!

New and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

1 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 115 in January! 115
in 2010!

• Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer - Grasslands Preview Video Unveiled
  Has it been too long since your last brutalizing romp through the bloodied lands of Hyboria? Do you need a fix of new information to satisfy your bloodthirsty desires? Ten Ton Hammer has the cure and it comes in the form of a new teaser video for the Grasslands area that is included in the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion.
  

Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79985">Conquest
   Agenda - A Global Agenda
   Q&A with Todd
   Harris href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79985">
   
   
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79844">Getting
   Ready
   for Earthrise
   - A Q&A with
   Atanas Atanasov
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/space_combat_guide">Star
   Trek Online Space Combat Guide
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79897">Another
   Leap
   Forward - A Preview of style="font-weight: bold;">DDO
   Update
   3
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79840">The
   Rise of
   Free-to-Play - Industry Insiders on the Future of MMOGs
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79841">Gamer
   Rehab - An Interview with
   the Founder of a Video Game
   Addicition Clinic
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/uimods/reviews/WIM">WoW href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/uimods/reviews/WIM">:
   UI Mod
   Review - WoW Instant Messenger
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79964">Top
   10 Improvements the Next Great MMO Needs to Have href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79964">
   
   
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79308">Avoiding
   the
   Progress Trap - An MMOG Retrospective
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/space_ui_guide">Star
    Trek Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/space_ui_guide">
    Space
    UI Guide

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!

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