Welcome to your Wednesday Loading... If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign Up

The 508th edition of Loading... is brought to you by freight train.

Would you like to sponsor Loading... and reduce the number of lame "brought to you by" cliches Click here.

Loading... and Ten Ton Hammer readers gobbled up 700 Scions of Fate beta keys in minutes. It brought a tear to my eye and angry e-mails to my inbox. I don't like tears. Feel free to keep sending the angry e-mails. Especially the ones in Swedish. Hans or Frans or Sven or whatever your name was, you need to send those nasty-grams in English or I don't get the full effect. As it stands I just picture you as the Swedish Chef from The Muppets trying to put an IKEA computer together with an allen key.

Now that you have that picture lodged firmly in your mind, please "Bork Bork Bork" your way over to our Beta Key Giveaway page where you can get one of 2,000 Scions of Fate beta keys. That's right folks 2,000! It sounds like a lot, but believe me when I tell you that they won't last very long. Don't get "Borked"! [Get Your Key Here!]

When it comes to a new MMOG there is always a lot of analysis of game mechanics, graphics, game enviroment and the like, but rarely is there a discussion about game community. We (Ten Ton Hammer) have been pushing for a more sybiotic relationship between the game and the community that plays it. Apparently, and not surprisingly, Turbine Inc. is listening. Games Radar had this to say about that...

"More interesting is that the game is going to support extensive and complex community functions that twine with the actual gameplay. A Google Maps version of Middle-earth will be accessible to subscribers. Each character you create will get his or her own page on the game's official website, and you'll be able to blog it. Minigames on the website will affect your real progression in (currently unspecified) ways. The site will also feature an online Wiki encyclopedia of info about the LOTR Online universe. All in all, it sounds like a very robust package of community tools."

Ten Ton Hammer has been approaching developers for some time in an attempt to integrate our community tools with their games. As is the case with a "new" company on the scene, many developers were cautious about working directly with us. This was completely understandable.

Now that we have been covering the industry for two-years and have surpassed all of our competitors in numbers of visitors the tide may be turning.

It has become clear that there are two sides in the MMOG news and content delivery industry; those that cater to gold farming companies and those that do not. The gold farming sites do not play by the rules. They ignore EULAs and they ignore the developers requests to stop data mining, gold selling and player harassment through in-game spam advertising.

Ten Ton Hammer does play by the rules, and that has significantly affected both our revenue and our ability to compete in the delivery of fresh content. There are things that we cannot report on that the gold farming sites do. It is time that more companies stood up, like Turbine has done, and supported the sites that support them.

We have found a way to deliver more exclusive MMOG content than any other site on the planet. In fact, I would bet that we deliver more new content than our top five competitors combined. That said, there is no way for us to play by the rules and compete in the MMOG database market. To compete we must either break the rules and resort to data mining or work with the developers to deliver the information. If you are a publisher or developer who yearns to keep your players away from the gold farming websites then you finally have a solution.

Would you prefer a database solution that works with the development studio over a third-party solution?

Our crack team of technicians have installed some social networking tools for you on the web version of this column. You can now share the blog with others on sites like Digg, Delicious, Fark, Yahoo and numerous others. The more you share, the longer I'll keep my job. Now get in there and click or you'll have me living in your basement. [Web Version of Loading... vote, rank, share, comment!]
--
Guild Management has never been easier! Not sure what GuildPortal is, or what it can do for your Guild? Click here to read about what GuildPortal is, why it's the most imitated, and why people have been using GP since October of 2001 to host their Guild web sites!

Exclusive TenTonHammer.com Content!
01.31.2007

• Dungeons and Dragons Online: Guide - Pulling It Fast
  "Now, Here Is The Plan" Are these some of your famous last words? If so, check out Nuitaran's guide to pulling part II, and change the way your party views pulling! "
• EverQuest 2: Crypt of Valdoon - Undead Smorgasbord
  "Undead, undead, and MORE undead! What more could you ask for from a high level instance. Awesome loot, that's what! Join RadarX as he walks you through the strategies you'll need to tackle this zone and the creatures that await!"
• Scions of Fate: 2,000 Beta Keys To Give Away
  "After much ado and anticipation, MGame USA is FINALLY just about to announce of the release of Scions of Fate!! But Wait! It gets better! Before actually releasing the game, they need help from a few good players to test aspects of the game to ensure quality of stability. So what does that mean for you? It means that you can get a speak peek into the world of Scions of Fate and help them finalize the development of the game if you get one of the 2000 Beta Keys that we have to give away! So hurry up and get a key as soon as you can (because they are limited in supply), and come see for yourself what’s got over 35 million players worldwide hooked on Scions of Fate!!!"
• StarGate Worlds: Developer Diary - Archetypes Defined
  "In this dev diary, CME describes its plans for the complete Stargate Worlds archetype system in detail for the very first time!"
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Quick Guide To Starting Statistics
  "Andelin has tracked down the many changes Sigil made to racial attribute bonuses between the end of Beta 5 and launch and has updated his impressive charts."
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Druid Creation Guide
  "Our Druid Creation Guide is now updated to include extensive details about the racial abilities for Adventuring, Crafting, and Harvesting!"
• World of Warcraft: Bag Guide Update
  "With all the changes to bags with the Burning Crusade we thought it was time for an update. Not sure what changed? For starters bigger bags and more profession bags are available. Check it all out in the guide."

Hot Content

• StarGate Worlds: Developer Diary - Archetypes Defined
• Scions of Fate: 2,000 Beta Keys To Give Away
• EA Mythic / Warhammer Press Event Writeup
• Warhammer Online: Interview With Jeff Hickman
• Vanguard: Advanced Newbie Guide
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Ten Ton Dev Tracker
• StarGate Worlds: Kevin Balentine Q&A
• World of Warcraft: U.I. Mods Updated
• Lord of the Rings Online: Presale And Release Information

Real World News - You Can't Make This Up

• Why Can't A Person Tickle Himself? [Thanks Matt]
  Better question, why would you want to?
• 2,500-year-old Mirror Dropped On TV [Thanks Matt]
  The TV was unharmed.
• Viagra-spiked Wine Nearly Kills Husband [Thanks Matt]
  It was a win-win situation claims the wife.
• 94% Of All E-mail In December Was Spam [Thanks Matt]
  Other 6% were legitimate e-mails from Nigerian prince.

Vin Diesel Fact: Vin Diesel can delete the recycling bin.

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin

You can read previously enjoyed editions of Loading... in the blog archive.