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Daily Column

14 new MMOG articles today! 163 so far in November!

The good folks at Bounty Bay Online have offered a 14-day Free Trial to all Loading... and TenTonHammer.com readers. I sat in on a private demonstration of the game at the Leipzig show this year and though I did not get to play hands-on, it looked fantastic. If you are itching to get into Pirates of the Burning Sea then this might be a game you should take a look at. With a Free Trial you have nothing to lose. You can nab your Bounty Bay Online Free Trial right here.

I have a few more hours into my EverQuest 2 reintroduction. Colour me impressed. The game is thus far (level 13) much more solo friendly than at launch. The gameplay is also much faster than when I played two years ago. I banged into a couple of bugs that were annoying, but not game stoppers. I will continue my journey back through Norrath for the next 20 or so days. So far. So great!

I have been spending a lot of time mulling over death penalties lately. Dead, departed, expired, perished, slain, lifeless... No matter how you say it, death is a part of MMOGs.

Players and subsequently developers look upon death penalties in varied ways. To some players a death penalty is a wearisome, frustrating nuisance that gets in the way of their fun. Other players yearn for the fear precipitated by a heavy death penalty.

I was never a hard-core Ultima Online (UO) player, but it defined the heavy death penalty. UO was a player versus player (PvP) game in which the new, the weak and the dumb were regularly sacrificed at the altar of the elite. More experience players mopped the floors, literally with the new. After killing them, dancing on their corpses and looting every item that they owned they waited for the next new player to lather, rinse and repeat. Many players like myself tried the game, were ganked dozens of times and left. I was unable to enjoy the game because I was never given an opportunity to play it. It was a fine game, a ground-breaker in fact, but it wasn't for me. I like to experience the content in a game and a PvP environment doesn't give me the latitude that I require. I don't play on a World of Warcraft PvP server for this same reason. For some of you "the kill is the thrill". I'm not some of you.

The heavy death penalty in UO was akin to having your pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons GM kick you in the crotch and then ask you to pay him to do it again. A heavy death penalty appeals to the "hardcore". This is all fine and good until you start to count the number of hardcore players that exist. There are ample numbers of that talk a big game, truly believing that they are hardcore PvP types who will lay waste to all that have the misfortune of standing before them, but when push comes to gank, that number becomes very small indeed.

It's one thing to brag to your comrades that you are going to player-kill (PK) the masses and loot everything that they own and quite another to have it done to you. How many players left UO because the penalty for dying was so harsh? How did it work out for Shadowbane? Darkfall are you reading this?

Perhaps I'm a little harsh and perhaps there is a large enough group of players who want the hardcore experience to allow a game to make a go of it, but so far, nobody has proven that to be the case.

Now it's your turn to voice an opinion.

Comments, questions or naughty pictures? Hit the forum or hit my mailbox. --Boomjack

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

• Fury: Images From The Free Trial
• Lineage 2: Kamael Gameplay Video
• Lord of the Rings Online: Video Developer Diary - Housing
• Lord of the Rings Online: Guide To Bree-Town
• Lord of the Rings Online: Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky Interview
• Lord of the Rings Online: Thorin's Hall Reputation Rewards
• MMOG Wiki: Jumpgate: Evolution, Mythos and Myth War Online
• Tabula Rasa: Interview With The Tabula Cast
• Tabula Rasa: Weapon Damage Table
• Vanguard: Choices
• Vanguard: Swamp Armour - Impervious Chitin Set
• Warhammer Online: Shadow Warrior Overview Video
• World of Warcraft: U.I. Mods - Auctioneer Update
• World of Warcraft: Guild Banks

Hot Content - What I enjoyed over the weekend.

1. Lineage 2: Kamael Gameplay Video
2. Lord of the Rings Online: Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky Interview

Real World News

• Man Spit Roasts 550kg Camel [Thanks Mikes]
  Spitting camel gets his due.
• FDA Slaps Dairy for Not Putting Eggs on Ingredient List of Egg Nog
  Apparently calling it "Egg Nog" isn't enough.
• Bed Bugs Found in Fox News Channel Newsroom
  I didn't even know they had beds at Fox News

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team