by Jeff Woleslagle on Apr 10, 2009
Welcome to the 1,055th Edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
In Loading... A Sporting Chance, we give sports "MMOs" a sporting chance with a very timely look at MLB Dugout Heroes and pay tribute to the contribution that athletics have given the modern MMO. That and links to a Jumpgate Evolution exclusive video and a bunch of guides well-suited to this holiday weekend await you, but on a much sadder note, we join with the rest of the gaming world to mourn the passing of Dungeons and Dragons Co-Founder Dave Arneson.
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The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:
World of Warcraft EverQuest 2 Age of Conan Warhammer Online (UP 1) Lord of the Rings Online (UP 1)Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Black Prophecy (UP 17 to #19) The Secret World (UP 9 to #8) Jumpgate Evolution (UP 7 to #11)Loading... Daily
Good Friday greetings. As promised yesterday, we have an exclusive video with Jumpgate Evolution's Hermann Peterscheck on the design philosophy behind Jumpgate Evolution. NetDevil has had nine years to refine what they want their want their first MMO to be, and the result is a complete rewrite in JGE.
We also have something a little more seasonal for you. Ten Ton Hammer CEO Pat Connoy recently attended a San Francisco Giants preseason game to meet up with David Chang of GamesCampus whose latest title, MLB Dugout Heroes, continues their fine tradition of online lobby-styled sports games. While not exactly an MMO (our functional definition of an MMO - more than 92 players pursuing game objectives in a persistent online space), we hope you'll forgive us since spring is in the air this MLB season opening week.
Speaking of good things, sports games, and the definition of an MMO, DC Universe Online's Chris Kao voiced an interesting comment at NY Comic-Con a few months ago. He argued that the biggest MMO isn't World of Warcraft or even one of the gargantuan free-to-play or browser games - it's fantasy football, which reins in from 15 million to 18 million players each year and continues to grow 7 to 10 percent a year (source). In post-GDC terms it's a "freemium" approach that's fundamentally ad-driven - free-to-play with premium bonuses for those who pay, yet all get to look at lucrative targetted ads. I wouldn't be surprised if fantasy football and yahoo mail aren't about the only thing keeping Yahoo in the search engine race at this point.
I'm also not sure that fantasy football meets the standard definition of an MMO - I believe a league could count as a single persistant space, but if your league has 93 team slots, you can be sure I won't be signing up for your draft next year. Nonetheless it's interesting to think about the contribution of sports to MMOs. We rightfully give Dungeons & Dragons a lot of credit for laying the foundation for the digital RPG, and together we mourn the passing of DnD co-founder Dave Arneson. A few members of the Ten Ton Hammer team have even met and played DnD with Mr. Arneson and say that he wasn't only a first class nice guy, but a gamer's gamer.
But as important as DnD was and whether or not you consider yourself a sports fan, the first games, contests, or competitions were sports, and sports existed long before drawing straws, dice, chess, go, or any other board game. Sport is artificial war, war with rules agreed to by all sides and usually without fatal consquences for the loser... unless your playing with Aztecs and Mayans or maybe Scottish soccer hooligans.
No athletic game breaks down into a spreadsheet more beautifully than baseball (hence the reams of statistics produced each game), so it's not surprising that in 1971, Don Daglow's Baseball (actually spelled BASBAL do to the six-character length restriction) was among the first distributed computer games. That's not counting Tennis for Two, which was basically pong on an oscilloscope. Looking at games like MLB Dugout Heroes, it's great to see how far we've come, even if the core of the game has fundamentally stayed the same.
What are your thoughts on sports MMOs? Is it possible to make an MMO out of two teams competing on one field? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or send me an email! And here's hoping you have a very pleasant Easter weekend.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day6 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 54 in April! 441 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Exclusive - The Making of Jumpgate Evolution VideoHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
The Secret World First Interview with Producer Ragnar Tornquist Class vs. Skill: The Battle That Doesn't Have To Be Black Prophecy Gameplay Video World of Warcraft: Novel Giveaway The Secret World: First Trailer Are APB and Crimecraft the MMO Games of the Future? geeked: 'Naughty Vampire' Exclusive - Iconic Classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic Sins of a Solar Spymaster #6 - The Propaganda War Exclusive Alganon Class Interview #1 - The SoldierReal World News
Phil's busy seeking Good Friday atonement for yesterday's Real World News, so RWN will return Monday!Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team