Welcome
to the 1,284th
edition
of Loading...

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

Imagine the volumes
of lore that must get written early on in the development process of a
typical triple A MMOG. In many cases, the lore of a given setting
permeates nearly all aspects of gameplay, from the weapons or armor of
a given culture all the way up to the epic raid encounters that have
become synonymous with level capped gameplay. Now imagine writing a
novel that not only stays true to established lore of the IP, but then
also helps expand or advance it in meaningful ways. We’ll
take a look at two current examples of MMOG novelizations that attempt
to do exactly that along with links to an exclusive interview with CCP
on the upcoming Tyrannis expansion for EVE Online and much more today
in Loading… Once Upon a Time

cellspacing="0" width="100%">

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 over the
last week:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
   II
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">Lord of the
   Rings Online (UP 2)
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
   Dragons Online
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
   Online (Down 2)
   

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/34">City
   of Villains (UP 11 to #14)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
   The Old Republic (UP 3 to #12)
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
   (Down 4 to #19)
   

size="-1">Recent Releases

• 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">12/15
  - href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/everquest.vm">EverQuest:
  Underfoot (expansion) 
• size="-1">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
  Agenda
  (release date)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
  Online (release date)
• 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">2/16
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479"> LotRO:
  Oath of the
  Rangers (content update)
  
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

• size="-1">March
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
• size="-1">April
  2010
  - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
  of Heroes: Issue href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">17
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon
• size="-1">TBA
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
  Fantasy XIV
  
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
  The Old
  Republic size="-1">
  
  
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Events

• size="-1">3/9
  - 3/13
  - Game
  Developers
  Conference 2010
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">3/26 - 3/28
  - href="http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/index.php">PAX
  East 2010
  
  
  

Loading... Daily

Here
in the sunny world of games media, we typically find ourselves playing
and analyzing
multiple MMOGs at once, and then one of our many roles is to process
that information into a readable form for our readers. While that alone
can mean a fair amount to juggle on any given week, it
doesn’t seem nearly as daunting when compared to the work
that many of the industry’s fictional authors are able to
produce on a fairly consistent basis.

A perfect example here would be
the recently announced href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
Wars 2
novel, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81401">Ghosts
of Ascalon,
which is due out this summer. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild
Wars
fans
have been aware for quite some time that the proposed trilogy of novels
would be on the way to help bridge the storyline between the original
game and GW2, only now we finally have a much more solid timeframe for
when we can expect the first novel to drop.

Co-author Matt Forbeck has written numerous video game novelizations
over the years – just a quick glance at his href="http://www.forbeck.com/" target="_blank">website
should
give you some idea of how many different worlds he’s penned
fiction for. He’s obviously no stranger to the process of
learning the sometimes intricate details of a given title’s
background lore and then somehow managing to weave that into a tale
that’s not only entertaining in its own right, but can
potentially even add to the ever evolving official canon of the setting
in question. I’m sure the task becomes somewhat daunting,
however, when the work is based on a game that’s still deep
in the development process. Then again, with
Ghosts of Ascalon it no doubt helps that Matt worked on the novel with
ArenaNet’s href="http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jeff
Grubb who helped create much of
the
setting’s lore, and describes the upcoming novel as "The
Canterbury Tales with more
explosions".

Regardless of whether you’re a lover or a hater of some of
the design decisions that helped the Guild
Wars series become a
juggernaut in online gaming over the years, I still find the
characters, setting and lore to be among the best original fantasy IPs
to be created in a very long time. Or maybe I’ve simply never
gotten over my not-so-secret obsession with my favorite mini-game of
all time, Rollerbeetle Racing. While it may have absolutely zero impact
on the storyline leading up to Guild
Wars 2, I’m genuinely
hoping its one mechanic that’s managed to survive the
nuttiness of the resurfaced Orr.

Speaking of official canon and novelizations, be sure to check out
Xerin’s href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81590">review
of the latest href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft
novel,
Stormrage.
While not tailored to be a direct expansion lead-in as
Ghosts of Ascalon
will be, Stormrage
does sound like it might
be worth checking out for those of you who enjoy the lore behind
Blizzard’s rampaging MMOG beast.

Do you consider yourself a fan of novels based on video game IPs? If
so, be sure to share some of your favorites in the Loading…
forums.

---

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139">WoW
General Discussion forum



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49934">Account
Hacked



So,
you're World of Warcraft account has been stolen. Twice. And the last
time the thieves broke into it, they added an authenticator, so you
can't get back in. Our community member, Farowyn, asks, "Are the
hackers just getting better or is the security on battle.net less
rigorous?" What do you think? Have hacking and account-jacking attempts
increased? What's the best method for preventing them? We're talking
about it in href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49934">this
thread.



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

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread



"At this point, if you dont
have an authenticator, as simple and
realitively inexpensive as blizzard has made it [to get], you dont
deserve your account back.



Its been widely noted here and on
other sites that blizzard has been thinking about requiring an
authenticator for some time and that due to this and other things the
'hacking community' (aka goldsellers) are getting desperate and are in
overdrive. "



- ZeroMerc

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



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

---

New and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

3 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 23 in March! 253
in 2010!

INTERVIEW



CCP Interview About The
Tyrannis Expansion For EVE Online

http://tentonhammer.com/node/81709



Torfi
Frans Ólafsson is Senior Producer at CCP Games, the makers
of EVE
Online. He was kind enough to say a few words about the upcoming
Tyrannis expansion, which features the development and control of
entire planets.



FEATURED EDITORIAL



PvP - A Comparison of Old
School vs Next Generation MMOGs

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81695">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81695



Have
you ever wondered if MMOGs are better now than they were in the years
ago? Mattlow has, and brings his perspective to the topic in this first
part of his Comparison of Old School vs Next Generation MMOGs.



GUIDES



Star Trek Online: Ten Ton
Hammer's Galactic Map Archives

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/federation/maps">http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/federation/maps



While
the process of warping between local systems in Star Trek Online has
been made relatively easy, sometimes traversing the vastness of space
can still be a difficult endeavor. To help get you pointed in the right
direction, Ten Ton Hammer is pleased to bring you detailed maps for
each sector in Federation space and beyond.



Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81501">An
   Exclusive
   Interview
   with Video Game
   Composer Matt
   Uelmen
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81640">Aika
   Class Interview Series Part
   2 - The Cleric href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81640">
   
   
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/combat/calling_targets">Calling
   Targets As A Newbie Fleet Commander In style="font-weight: bold;">
   EVE Online
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81551"> style="font-weight: bold;">EQ2 "Digging
   in the
   Dirt" Heritage
   Quest Guide
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479">A
   Sneak Peek at href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479">LotRO href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479"> Volume
   3 Book
   1
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81345">A
   New Dawn with
   Gods
   & Heroes - Q&A
   with Tim Schubert style="font-weight: bold;">
   
   
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81234">Going
   Rogue with City of Heroes
   - A Q&A with Melissa
   Bianco
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81605"> style="font-weight: bold;">Microcosms Issue #7 -
   The Duel is
   Epic
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/editorials/fleetactions">Star
   Trek Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/editorials/fleetactions">:
   Putting the ‘Fleet' Back In Fleet Action
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/mytheon/video/introQA_pt2">Mytheon href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/mytheon/video/introQA_pt2">
    Video
    Q&A Part 2: Sound, Loot, Launch Plans, and Microtransactions

---

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network

- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team