MMO news, guides, reviews, features, interviews and more at Ten Ton Hammer

You will accept my God or I will kill you, because he is a kind and caring God. And so begins the crusade.
ComputerAndVideoGames, the site with the longest name in MMOG circles has posted a preview of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusades.

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There is a life beyond the world as you know it. I know because I've just been there. But right now I'm sitting in an office in Irvine, California, and sitting opposite me is Blizzard's creative director Chris Metzen, the man whose mind provides the motivation every time an orc raises an axe in anger. Every major nugget of Warcraft lore has passed through his hands - Frozen Thrones, Dark Portals, you name it. He's the man who gives meaning to your daily grind. He's also a full-on rock star: wide grin, muscular build, dazzling necklace, chunky rings and Bono sunglasses. He's the closest man to Henry Rollins the games industry has. And I'm here to hear him talk Orc. "

You can read the entire World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusades Preview at ComputerAndVideoGames.
And there's more!

• TenTonHammer World of Warcraft - Guides, Forums, Dancing Girls.
• World of Warcraft Uber Search - Searches all the big sites in one click
• More World of Warcraft News.

Question: How would Scooby Doo pronounce Raph?
OGaming has posted an interview with Raph Koster of Sony Online Entertainment, focusing on the future of the games we love.

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As the author and illustrator of Paraglyph Press’ upcoming novel A Theory of Fun, you could say Sony Online Entertainment chief creative officer Raph Koster wrote the book on gaming. It’s not necessarily far from the truth: As the former creative lead and lead designer on the award-winning Ultima Online – a legend in the massively multiplayer industry – he’s certainly been a driving force in MMO's. Seriously; just look at the guy’s resume, which includes everything from a turn as creative director on Star Wars Galaxies to stints performing keynote speeches at the Austin Game Conference. "

You can read the entire Raph Koster Interview at OGaming.
Still yearning for more?

• More Interviews

Fed Ex and Kill Tasks on the High Seas
Bert Harvey, developer for Flying Labs' Pirates of the Burning Sea, the 1800s Man o'War MMO, shares why the action in PotBS won't get stale.

" If you’ve ever played a game and gotten frustrated because every mission seemed to be “same old, same old”, then you probably ran into a mission design team hampered with a limited or difficult mission tool. They could be the most amazingly brilliant folks on earth, but if they don’t have a tool that lets them actually be creative, they’re stuck. The mission team on Pirates is fortunate in that we have great tools to work with while creating our missions for your enjoyment. "

Follow the treasure map to Bert's Dev Blog at the Pirates of the Burning Sea site.
Other links you might enjoy:

• Other Pirates of the Burning Sea News - Becalmed, in the doldrums.
  

Everybody wants kickass, lightning-fast combat
And I, for one, miss the days where I could turn on auto-attack and drive down the to Fast Mart for a Big Slurp. Nah, just kidding, that sucked too. Here's John Smedley on Slashdot to discuss the SWG revamp. You've seen it all before, well, except for the /. wiener attitude.

" Q: Was there a single game element, piece of feedback, or event that prompted this re-envisioning? This is a very dramatic decision, and the reasons behind the changes seem almost as important as the changes themselves. What prompted you to give this plan the go-ahead?

John Smedley:

There are millions of Star Wars fans out there. SWG should be the game those players have always hoped for, a game that finally allows them to live inside the worlds and settings they know so well from the movies, the books, the comics.
Our main goal with SWG for the last nine months has been to make the game more "Star Wars-y," for lack of a better term. Our two latest expansions, Rage of the Wookiees and the new Trials of Obi-Wan have delivered players the kind of directed, hand-crafted content that they would find in our other titles, as opposed to just having open-ended "sandbox" style of gameplay.
The redesign comes about after hearing desires from our own players on forums and in person at the SWG Fan Fests, multiple focus groups, and our own design team's desire to create something much more grand and sweeping with the game. We have big plans for SWG in the months and years ahead, and we needed this new platform to use as a foundation for creating the vast Galactic Civil War that our players want."

If you want to see more, go for it: Slashdot talks to Smed about Star Wars Galaxies.
Other links you might enjoy:

• Past Star Wars Galaxies News - Lost in space.