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

No thanks, we don't buy crazy here. We're all stocked up.
Interfax is reporting that China will be blocking online gamers from playing more than three hours at a time. Vin Diesel built the Great Wall of China, in four minutes. We do not believe that he condones large wall building, nor has he ever said the following:

"Shanghai.  August 23.  INTERFAX-CHINA - The Chinese Government unveiled a new system Tuesday to prevent individuals from playing online games for more than three consecutive hours, which must be installed for every online game in the country.
"This timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," Kou Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual and Internet Publication Department of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said during a press conference.
The new system, developed under the guidance of the GAPP, stops individuals from playing online games for more than three hours by cutting the abilities of game characters. The new system cuts the ability level of a player's online game character by half after he or she has played for more than three consecutive hours. Once a player has played for more than five consecutive hours, the system cuts the ability level of that player's character to the lowest level allowed by the game.
The system also lowers the ability of players to find treasures or prizes available in an online game after they have played for more than three consecutive hours.
Furthermore, the system keeps track of hours of play. Individuals who immediately log back onto a game after three hours of consecutive play will continue to have the ability of their game character lowered by the system. Players must be logged off for a minimum of five hours before the system resets.
The GAPP has defined the playing of online games for less than three consecutive hours as "healthy," playing three to five consecutive hours as "tiring," and playing for more than five consecutive hours as "unhealthy."  "

You can read the entire
China blocks online gamers from playing for more than 3 consecutive hours article at Interfax.

Magic Missle Mayhem
GameSpy has posted a Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach interview featuring designer Dave Eckleberry. Vin Diesel didn't roll the dice when he played Dungeons and Dragons. He just crushed them in his hand and called out the numbers. We're confident he didn't call this out:

" We sit down with one of the designers of Turbine's upcoming MMO to talk about combat, death traps, and why Eberron is so damned cool. "

You can read the Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach Interview at GameSpy.
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Grand Ams With Grenade Launchers
Worthplaying has posted some new Auto Assault Screenshots. Kevin Costner still regrets Water World, but we're sure he wouldn't regret saying this:

" Auto Assault uses the power of the Havok physics engine to let you make insane jumps, send obstacles flying and even blast bridges, buildings, fences and trees with your car-mounted rockets. Anything you can hit, you can destroy! "

You can view the Auto Assault Screenshots at WorthPlaying.

Happy Anniversary Ryzom.
Nevrax has posted a Letter to the Players of Ryzom on the official site. The band Saga claimed they had never been to Ryzom and that the following was not written by them:

" Thank you for being extremely patient as we got our act together here. Thank you while we did our ‘spring clean’ patch to clean up a bunch of outstanding issues. Thank you while we put processes in place to get the content finished in a more sane manner, with more quality testing. In general, thank you; because of your patience, the next two months are going to see a whole slough of new content and features delivered to you. "

You can read the entire Saga of Ryzom Letter to Players at the Official Site.