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Are you looking for the latest industry headlines? Look no further.
Daily Column
New MMOG Articles at TenTonHammer Today
Hot Content
Real World News - You Can't Make This Up
1. Daily Column
They take their MMOGs seriously in China.
"A promoter for The9's (Nasdaq: NCTY) licensed MMORPG Soul of the Ultimate Nation (SUN) was recently attacked by a player of The9's World of Warcraft (WoW), according to a post on TGBus.com. The WoW player became angry when the SUN promoter pushed him to play SUN in an Internet Cafe. According to a friend of the angry WoW player, the angry gamer has waited a long time for WoW's expansion pack "The Burning Crusade", but The9 has delayed the release in favor of SUN. Other players in the cafe were dissatisfied with The Burning Crusade's delay as well, and applauded after the assault."
Talk about crazy. We are much more civilized in North America. We play our multiplayer games alone, in our homes, with the lights off talking into a microphone to a female character who has a strangely deep and masculine voice. When a new game or expansion comes out we line-up for hours to pay $60 for a game that we could pick up 9-hours later without any wait at all for exactly the same price.
We certainly don't beat up game promoters, who I suppose we call public relations specialists. Instead we hide behind the anonymity of "teh intawebz" sniping away at CMs. We're too cowardly to walk up to a game promoter in public and tell him that his Kung Fu is weak before laying the smack down on him or her. [Exhibit A], [Exhibit B]
North American games fans can rarely deliver in an anonymous forum. Can you imagine putting one of them in the same room as an attractive female PR person? They would be agreeing to game changes that they previously ripped in the forums faster than Paris Hilton can serve a jail sentence. This I believe to be true and yet TTH still hasn't hired me a sexy temp. Loading... could break records!
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A number of readers sent me the link to the Electronic Arts Reorganizes Company story at Yahoo. In a rather large nutshell the release says that EA will be broken down into four labels, EA Games, EA Casual Entertainment, The Sims and EA Sports.
Where is the EA MMO label? Are we to expect games like Ultima Online and Warhammer Online to live under the same roof as The Godfather: The Game, The Harry Potter games and Timesplitters?
Comment in the blog (now with direct link goodness) or email me directly.
2. New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Blog Update: The Life of a Gold Farmer
"As the New York Times article depicting the life of a Chinese gold farmer circulates the Internet, Cody "Micajah" Bye found the article to be startling and surprising, rather than totally expected. He weighs in on the contents of the piece and asserts his own opinions in today's blog."
Editorial: Clone or Stepping Stone?
"In a recently published article on a prominent MMOG site, being a "clone" of World of Warcraft was equated to the reason why the game failed. Cody "Micajah" Bye takes a stand against this myopic view of the MMOG marketplace and gives his reasons why certain MMOG standards are needed within current massively multiplayer games."
EverQuest 2: Class Overview
"Not quite sure which class is for you? Need an overview of each class to decide? Well we have one now! Get the brief in-game description of each class (all 24!), and the link to their class guide, just in case you need more info.
Gods and Heroes: Nomad Preview
"It's the final class preview on Search for Rare and Wondrous Creatures of the Gaming World! Today, Charabis tackles the Nomad! Then he apologizes for the rough-housing and goes on with studying them."
Lord of the Rings Online: Evendim Screenshot Gallery
"We have ten brand-new screenshots of the Shores of Evendim for you all today, and a new gallery to view all of the Evendim screenshots released so far (with commentary)!
Lord of the Rings Online: Hats And Hair Editorial
"Aelryn examines hats and hair in Middle Earth."
Lord of the Rings Online: Guide To Virtues
"If you are having flashbacks of playing the Ultima series, then you probably already understand Virtues. Ten Ton Hammer provides information on each of these unique skills and what they provide you. Charity, Fidelity, Patience, the list is lengthy so be sure to check it out.
Vanguard: Ask the Devs: Trial Island Question Answered
"Based on feedback from the Ten Ton Hammer community, Shayalyn asked Director of Development, Dave "Hasium" Gilbertson, about SOE's plans for creating a trial island demo of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Find out what he had to say in Ask the Devs."
Vanguard Blog: Finally, Something Positive
"Ralsu sometimes gets swept up in all of the negativity that abounds surrounding his favorite MMO, but today he tries to break out of the gloom and focus on the positive."
Wiki: Release Dates and AO Expansion: The Shadowlands
"The Release Date Calendar received a small update, with an expansion to be released tomorrow. A page for the Anarchy Online expansion The Shadowlands was added as well."
World of Warcraft: Topic Of The Week - How Long Is Too Long?
"This weeks âTopic of the Weekâ is a little different than past topics, since it really was started already, last week by Maegwynn. That thread was started by the comment from a comment in an article that states: Blizz expects that WoW is going to have a nice, long life cycle. By long, we mean 10 years or more. At first, this struck us as a bit odd, but remember: Starcraft I is 10 years old and is selling well. And UO is now 10 years old, and that MMO is going strong."
3. Hot Content
Sword of the New World: Unique Player Character Q&A
Gods and Heroes: Exclusive Screenshot
EVE Online: Interview With Magnus Bergsson
Dungeon Runners: Review
Sword of the New World: Preview
Free Realms: Preview Straight From SOE Gamer Day
The Agency: Preview From SOE Gamer Day
Interview With Brian "Psychochild" Green, Founder of Near Death Studios
4. Real World News
Trekkie Travels Galaxy For Home Theater [Thanks Matt]
Jim, I'm a movie critic, not a magician!
World of Warcraft Movie In Development [Thanks Matt] **Sound**
I eagerly await the critics commentary, "lrn2direct"
Map of Nations That Have Not Adopted Metric System
Modern day Rome needs a meter stick.
Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
John "Boomjack" Hoskin
