Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Gordon Walton is a name that has been around the gaming industry for a long time. He has worked for several major game developers and been involved in GDC Austin regularly. Ten Ton Hammer recently caught up to Gordon Walton prior to this year's GDC to get his views on online gaming, the MMOG game space, and how he feels the GDC Austin can benefit developers and the industry.

Every year there’s always a series of sessions I have to attend because I’m going to learn something in them and that’s why I go to the conference whether I’m involved with it or not. There’s always stuff to learn and that’s what the conference is about, sharing best practices so that the whole industry can move forward. What it does for us is help our people learn more and get better. I can’t point and say our title got better because so and so went to this session, but we like our people to get the most experience vicariously that they can so that they don’t have to do it the hard way on our title. 

• Read the full interview here.
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Nexon America announced today that its multiplayer online first-person-shooter (FPS), Combat Arms has surpassed 3 million registered users. Nexon attributes contributes the growth of Combat Arms to its growing profits for August. Combat Arms features a variety of features that have helped make it popular like Quarantine Mode and the ever so popular NutShot feature. You heard me right, you can kill your male opponent with a critical shot to the groin.

Combat Arms, which was launched in July of 2008, added large chunks of new content this past year, including the NutShot game feature, Quarantine Mode and Fireteam Mode. NutShot gave players a chance for a critical hit with a shot in the groin of male opponents, much like a head shot in all FPS games. Quarantine Mode gives players the opportunity to play as and against infected, zombie-like soldiers. Fireteam Mode allows teams of players to take on terrorists in a player-versus-environment setting.

• Read the full press release here.
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CrimeCraft has launched and Vogster is changing its resource focus to support the launched title. This means restructuring of the launch strategy. Restructuring usually means a change of plans in how a product moves forward and often times is accompanied by layoffs. This inevitably happens in the industry and we wish those impacted the best.

“Vogster has seen a number of releases this year. As an independent developer, we need to be very strategic in our use of available resources and shift from already launched titles to support the ongoing development and growth of CrimeCraft,” stated Daniel Prousline, vice president of development at Vogster. “We regret the necessary staffing changes and the talented employees that this impacts, but it is an unavoidable step in moving to the operational stage of CrimeCraft and optimizing for the development of yet to be announced titles.”

• Read the full press release here.
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Ankama Games will be releasing the new Dofus 2.0 update for their massively popular MMORPG Dofus on December 2nd, 2009. The new update will bring a significant update to the game enhancing the graphics engine, the server and client code has been re-written to offer new detail and a better gaming experience.

Available at the beginning of October in closed beta for the press and players in possession of an access key, DOFUS 2.0 promises to renew existing players’ love for the game, and also satisfy the exacting requirements of all videogame players around the world.

• Read the full press release here.
• Discuss this and more on our forums.