by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 06, 2009
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
We promised that August would be the month of beta and prize giveaways, as many MMos in development head into the home stretch, we're starting to deliver. Read about our latest beta giveaways and our thoughts on why we make beta keys a priority in today's Loading... Beta Giveaway-o-rama.
Coyote's daily column explores all things geek with Coyote's trademark wit in It's All Geek to Me. Read it daily at Ten Ton Hammer! Today's topic: 4 Siege Weapons that STILL kick ye olde ass
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
World of Warcraft Aion (UP 1) Champions Online (UP 1) EVE Online (UP 5) EverQuest 2Biggest Movers this week :
Jade Dynasty (UP 9 to #19) Dungeons & Dragons Online (down 2 to #10) City of Heroes (UP 2 to #15) Recent MMO Releases 7/7 - Darkfall Player Housing Expansion 7/13 - Darkfall NA launch 7/21- FFXI "Moogle Kupo d'Etat" Addon (release date)Important Dates
8/19 - 8/23 - Gamescom Cologne 8/21 - 8/22 - BlizzCon '09 9/4 - 9/6 - Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 9/15 - 9/18 - GDC Austin Upcoming Releases 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) 9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Eberron Unlimited (release date) 9/9 - Fallen Earth (release date) 9/22 - Aion (release date) Early 2010 - APBI was all set to exclaim the gloriousness of the Champions Online beta keys we have for you today. I posted the giveaway at around 7PM last night, went for a jog, and when I came back an hour later over half the keys had been assigned. By 2 AM all public keys were gone. We held onto a small number for our premium members (sign up!), and some of these keys still remain, but not many. If you want yours, better hurry! They'll be gone after today's premium newsletter goes out, for sure.
The last few giveaways have gone just like this, so I think it's safe to say that people are looking for a new MMO experience. Keys for our last DDO Unlimited giveaway went in just a few days, but thanks to the release date push Turbine offered us another batch of keys (get your DDO key here!). Players never abandoned the MMO category, but for a time a lot of good developers did. Blame WoW's dominance, blame the increasing demands of venture capitalists and the decreasing number of "angel" investors in this economic climate, we've been going through something of a dry spell through much of 2009. As the "Upcoming Releases" list above indicates, that's all starting to change this fall, with a host of good MMO games launching in September, with a few above-average MMOs slated for a spring release as well.
I like doing beta giveaways for a lot of reasons, some obvious, some not so obvious. Sure it's fun to get an influx of new forum posters every time we get our beta on, but I really do think that our rank-and-file readers make better testers than the horde of beta jumpers that are just out for a free fix. Better testers help make better games, and I don't necessary want a bunch of mercenary moochers spamming the "beta signups" box on the official site influencing games development. Thankfully, the games that have gone into beta have been much smarter as to who they let in when.
While you might not be as endlessly analytical as communities like Elitist Jerks or shamelessly critical as Fires of Heaven, Ten Ton Hammer viewers represent gamers that have lives outside of these games but enjoy them as a hobby and have played more than a few in your day. So we work to get beta keys through the constant stream of rejection emails and awkward cold calls, working into the wee hours on everyone else's timeline, for a fairly selfish reason: we want our type of gamer - the pure MMO enthusiast just out for a good time and never taking things way too seriously - well-represented in beta.
So DDO Unlimited and Champions Online beta keys next week, but that's just the start of our August giveaways. Look for two more mammoth giveaways next week! Do you agree that game developers have gotten much smarter about beta testing this year, with focused testing and measured doses of the right type of gamer at different times in the beta process?Your thoughts and opinions welcome in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me.
Shayalyn's Ethec's Epic Thread of the Day
(Shay's on a well deserved mini-vacation)
From the Contest Announcements forum
Champions Online beta keys now available from Ten Ton Hammer!
A super-sized response to a superhero MMOG!
It turns out that all you really need to do to trigger an epic-sized thread is give the wrong key entry URL. (I sent out 520 contrite emails with the correct URL last night when the error was discovered - sorry about that!)
But after some initial confusion about where to enter the key and how not to copy leading and trailing spaces when entering your key, we've now surreptiously planted thousands of Ten Ton Hammer agents in the Champions Online beta starting with tomorrow's playtest. Our people are now getting their feet wet in the preview forums and downloading the client as we speak - muhaha!
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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"Thanks and I do mean Thanks a TON ::dancing banana man:: " - RangerRic
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!
6 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 16 in August! 876 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Champions Online Beta Keys Available for Premium MembersHottest Content:
Champions Online Beta Keys Available for Premium Members The Guild In-Depth Interview with Director Sean Becker World of Warcraft - Trial of the Champion Instance Guide Bringing MMOs to Consoles - A Discussion with Turbine A New Saga Begins - A Fresh Look at Vanguard Age of Conan - A Year Later Aion Prologue Videos Aion Class Guide - The Spiritmaster New Champions Online Comic: Zeroes - "Nothingman" EVE Online - Sins of a Solar Spymaster #22 - The Seven Types of SpyThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team