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

While the news that Turbine is in the process of creating a console massively multiplayer online game may not be entirely novel, up to this point the gaming community has heard very little about the actual development of said title and how Turbine is handling the relatively new frontier in massive gaming. At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody “Micajah” Bye sat down with Henrik Strandberg, Executive Director of Product Development for Turbine, to first discuss his company's achievements with revitalizing the Dungeons and Dragons Online franchise and then exploring the hurdles and advantages when creating an MMO for the console market. The discussion is frank and genuine, so if you're interested in learning more about the future of DDO and Turbine's console MMO, keep reading.

Ten Ton Hammer: So you’re not stopping with the PC stuff, you’re expanding your horizons a little bit? Strandberg: Exactly. We love our PC MMOs as much as everyone else. Ten Ton Hammer: It’s certainly a different sort of style and different sort of experience for sure. Strandberg: Those are the two obvious things. It’s a challenge for the designers and engineers to migrate our design philosophy and our code architecture from the PC to console. Then a lot the things I have been working on is… everything else. A lot more goes into launching and operating an MMO. Maybe a lot of people don’t see this because mostly they just look at the gameplay, but on top of that there is the whole service aspect, what we call online operations.

• To read the rest of this in-depth interview with Turbine, click here!

Over the last few years, the web has blossomed with streaming content. No longer is the television the only way to get your laughs or your drama, and their isn't any better example of the booming web TV market than the success of The Guild. Focused on the hi-jinx of an MMO playing troupe known as The Knights of Good, The Guild strives to softly parody the lives of MMO gamers, because everyone knows someone that acts just like Codex, Vork, or Bladezz. While Ten Ton Hammer was at Comic-Con '09, we ran into Sean Becker, the director of The Guild, and asked him a number of questions regarding his work with the online series. Keep reading to get an in-depth look at what it's like to work on one of the most popular web series on the Internet!

Ten Ton Hammer: How is Season Three different from the previous seasons? Sean: Basically, we venture out a lot into the "real world." In Season Two we were starting to go out of the rooms and have the characters hang out, but in this season we do that even more. I can't give you the really big details, but I can tell you that we introduce an entire rival guild in this season. They're named..."The Axis of Anarchy." The Knights of Good are now going to have to deal with the Axis of Anarchy, as you will all find out as the season rolls out.

• To read the rest of The Guild interview, click here!

Since the birth of the massively multiplayer online game, developers across the globe have explored different variations on that theme. While some continue to strive towards that classic “massive” model, others are doing things a bit differently, introducing player-filled hubs but allowing players to experience the content in their game through instances and in much smaller groups. This is the case in Mytheon, an upcoming online action game where thousands of players can congregate in centralized hubs, but only a small group can actually be in the same dungeon. This upcoming fantasy-based action title is being published by True Games Interactive, which many Ten Ton Hammer readers may be familiar with thanks to titles like Warrior Epic. Recently, the crew at Ten Ton Hammer sat down with Mytheon’s lead designer, Chris Rubyor, to talk about his feature title.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you talk in-depth about the power stone gaming? How does that work with the online gaming portion? Rubyor: We believe Mytheon will offer a very unique experience as it combines action, strategy and RPG with a highly addictive collectability element. (Power stones) There will be hundreds of different types of these stones in game, and collecting them will be paramount to your struggle. Power stones contain the essence of many powerful beings and earthly elements. From our perspective Mytheon isn't a classic MMORPG. We see Mytheon as an online action game where thousands of players can group up and adventure. Our world is not open like WoW.

• To read the rest of the Mytheon interview, click here!

In the past, BioWare has been heralded for creating games with epic stories that were comparable to what you'd read in a fantasy novel, except the protagonist was your character and the narrative was derived from your decisions. But much of that narrative, depending on how you played, would be very similar to your friend's play through of the same game, albeit with subtle differences. Dragon Age: Origins, however, looks to change that mold. At GamesCom 2009, the BioWare team pulled out all the stops and sat journalists down for what they described as "storytelling 2.0." They showed the gathered press two different versions of the same event, each of which had huge repercussions on that person's gameplay. Ten Ton Hammer was there, recording every detail.

“Contrary to what David felt at this point,” Laidlaw states, “my character is feeling that he’s staring down at what the Wardens represent in the world. They’re not just ridiculous butt kickers that can kill thousands of darkspawn. Yes they can do that, but is that the important part to the people?” “No!” Laidlaw continues. “The important part of the Wardens is that they represent hope. The chance that they [might get through the Blight]. We’re not thinking, let’s destroy it. On the contrary, people need hope as badly as anything, and that’s what this represents.”

• You can read the rest of the Dragon Age preview by clicking here!