by Chris Ware on Dec 12, 2010
Nothing says the end of the year to me like stale fruitcake and wild
predictions. While I can do without the sugary brick in the tin, I
couldnt live without reading and making some educated guesses as to
what the next 12 months might bring. This year we decided that we
should take a more in-depth gander at what we pulled out of our
collective crystal balls in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78707">last year's
predictions for 2010 and see what we got right and, more
to the point, what we got hilariously wrong. What better way to do that
than to make it competitive! The scoring system will be, of course,
completely subjective and the winner will receive nothing except the
love and adoration of their dozens of fans.
2010 was certainly an eventful year, and now that we have the benefit
of 20/20 hindsight, maybe there were some predictions we should have
made.....
Without further ado,
lets take a look at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78707">last years
picks and pans and tabulate them into
the amazing Predict-o-Meter:
A+ Prediction here -- were off to a great start! I give this one 12
out of a possible 10 points.
Well, it looks like we may have just undone our goodwill. I suppose
Aion still has respectable numbers of players gathering in its
cities, but those are all spamming gold ads, unfortunately. I give this
prediction a 2 out of 10. Hey, Im being charitable! Tis the season,
after all.
If Savanjas referring to one being a colossal disappointment then this
predication is half right. I think, however, that next year we may see
some sort of gaming double rainbow and SWTOR may be in that
mix; it just didnt come to pass this year. 1 out of 10.
Savanja gets a final tally of 15 points -- not bad, but definitely
bolstered by hitting it out of the park on that first one.
Early numbers refute the first part of this prediction, and poor Xerin
got no love from Blizzard in the form of an announcement of their next
MMOG, but he is spot on about WoWs dominance. 5 out of 10.
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Our second home run! Xerin certainly nailed this one and kudos to him.
So, now that the pressure is on, what will he follow it up with in this
years version? Check back next week to find out. 10 out of 10
Free-to-play games actually improved quite a bit over the past year and
we saw the flood of nameless games slow to a trickle as bigger budgets
stepped in. There are still way more of them than there should be, so I
will concede a partial hit here. 5 out of 10.
2 mostly correct predictions and one kick ass piece of prognostication
give our X man a total score of 20. Not bad work at all.
I hate to give zero points here-- its a solid prediction but just a
year too early it seems. 3 out of 10 on the strength of the force
choking line alone.
Once again Martuk makes a little piece inside of me die with
predictions that I want to come true. For reminding me of this I am
forced to give 0 out of 10. The greater the risk, the greater the
reward, I suppose.
Vindication! Martuk is redeemed! 10 out of 10.
13 points for our ever vigilant master of the newsreel. However, had
the calendar been extended another 6 months, he would easily be at 30.
Wednesday July 14th Aion servers merged. 10 of 10!
While it has been out less than a week at the time of this writing,
server load is at an all-time high and Blizzard execs were recently
spotted zooming away from Southern California Ferrari dealerships in
shiny new epics. 8 out of 10 due to lack of sales reports but you
know Im right.
I am on fire this year--another spot on pick! Maybe I should give up
this writing gig and make my way to Vegas, or at least open up a sports
betting tip line. 8 of 10 because nice resurgence is vague and
flimsy.
26 out of 30 is a pretty solid score, but I may end up removing myself
from the final results since it would look a little suspect if I won
the article I penned.
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Probably an accurate prediction
for next year. The more I think about
it, the more I think DCUO will probably have a pretty impressive
launch, dip and then rebound. 5 out of 10 for a solid thought process
nonetheless.
A very solid prediction, if we keep this percentage up you may be
logging in to Ten Ton Hammer Sports Book. I suspect Mem may have had
a bit of help from his better half on this one, however, since she has
the brains and
beauty in that house. 10 points!
I am going to score this one high as well, even though it isnt likely
to happen before the New Year. If Cataclysm had launched earlier they
would have made the announcement at Blizzcon this year. 7 out of 10
points.
22 total points for Americas favorite WoW couple ( or at least for my
favorite WoW couple).
A pretty accurate prediction in terms of the simplification of the
target="_blank">stats and gear, however most
players didnt seem to notice or care
they were too busy standing in the epic welfare line. Hardcore players
are pretty excited about the changes Cataclysm has brought, however, so
there is much rejoicing among the Yay, difficulty! crowd. 8 out of
10.
This was more a statement of fact as opposed to a prediction, but its
true none the less. 7 out of 10 for cynicism and bitterness.
Messiah is a victim of only doing the bare minimum. We would like to
see more pieces of flair next time..mmmkay? 15 out of 20 is great
percentage-wise, but I am grading for total effort here.
Ohhh, so close! If only he had said EQ2. I will give this high marks
though because I equate this to hand shoes and horse grenades close
counts. 7 out of 10 for almost nailing what could have been a 12
pointer.
Maybe in Japan. 4 out of 10 for the first babble about what it did
right. Ill take your word for it, though, because like the rest of the
world
I didnt play it.
Blizzard essentially did this by dropping the box prices on the
previous three expansions. Server queues on formerly dead realms
validate the second part of this prediction. Seems most of us knew
Cataclysm would be popular, but thats like picking the Yankees to win
the World Series. 10 out of 10 for mind numbing accuracy
style="font-weight: bold;">.
Stow clocks in with 21 points, a solid performance for his first year
here at the Hammer.
I would like to spotlight some of the more memorable predictions from
former staffers and our beloved readers before we move on to our staff
results :
Dalmarus
Mattlow -
Medeor -
ZeroMerc -
Ralsu -
Darke -
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Predict-O-Meter Results!
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/92944">
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alt="graph!"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/92944/preview">
style="font-style: italic;">Team Mem 4TW!
The predictions of our current staff who participated last year had
some fairly close results. Mem and Stow were neck and neck with Mem
coming out ahead by a nose. Check in next week for our look ahead at
what 2011 will bring us ( I predict lots of free-to-play and SW:TOR
predictions see what I did there?) And, of course, from all of us at
Ten Ton Hammer, have a safe and happy holiday season.