by Jeff Woleslagle on Mar 20, 2009
Welcome to the 1,040th Edition of Loading...
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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 EVE Online EverQuest 2 Warhammer Online Age of ConanBiggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Lego Universe (UP 46!! to #13) Bounty Bay Online (UP 11 to #6) Darkfall (down 6 to #19)Loading... Daily
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Early yesterday one of our devoted newshounds emailed me a thread on F13.net which related the details of an apparent scheme by Cryptic Studios staff to fish targetted Champions Online beta players from City of Heroes / City of Villains using official forum PMs. Before I go any further, you obviously want the most vocal top gamers from competing games playing your beta, that's a given. It's widely known that Blizzard lured beta EverQuest 2 players into playing WoW beta, but through non-official channels (guild sites, community affiliates, etc.). This is a legitimate marketing aim. But even among media sites like Ten Ton Hammer and our competitors, there are unspoken rules (call it professionalism) that should forbid you from using a competitor's community tools (i.e. forums) for your benefit. As the F13 OP wrote, it's not just about being genteel or honorable either - you don't want to have to deal with someone doing the same to you.
In any case, I didn't let our team out the news because f13 isn't exactly a creditable source - born of jaded types who get their jollies smearing games - and I wanted more proof. In retrospect, we should have called Cryptic then and there for comment. Had I done so, as Wired did, we would have received a sort of "What's it to ya?" explanation from Ivan Sulic:
"So, we're currently running the closed beta test for Champions Online and a few of our employees thought it might be a good idea to contact avid MMO notables and various guild leaders floating about to see if they wanted to test. I'm certain this wasn't meant to be a malicious attack on a competing product, nor did anyone intend to steal players, violate user agreements, kill babies, or knife hardworking farmers in the back."
Not a good time for hyperbole, and I agree with Scott Jennings - this isn't much of an apology. Though in Sulic's defense (as I'm fairly positive he's not having a good day today) he did continue on to this less quoted semblance of a mia culpa: "We'll make sure to stay straight as an arrow from here on. Shills, poaching, bullshotting... No chance, man." Cowabunga, dude. Despite Wired's reputation as being affable, fair, and well-written, rule #1 for PR types: the media is not your friend. Be careful how you chat us up, especially when ethics problems are on the table. I recognize the charismatic posturing, but today I'd be writing your praises if you'd just said, "We effed up, we've apologized to NCSoft and we're apologizing to our loyal fans - good idea, terrible execution."
Maybe I'm making too much of this - a few friends I spoke with didn't seem to see anything wrong with what Cryptic did, especially in light of the history and tangled relationship between Cryptic and NCSoft. I still tend to view it as casual incompetence creeping into games marketing (I've talked about it before) at a time when we - gamers, developers, the economy - could really use a well marketed, high quality MMO.
Yet, not to wax too political, but maybe lack of professionalism and serious discussion of is the spirit of the age. If our president can chat up his NCAA bracket picks on ESPN and make light of the Special Olympics on Leno while the Treasury Department has dozens of vacant positions and the Fed is printing $1 Trillion out of thin air with zero public review or discussion, maybe it's time we stop taking everything so seriously and at least have a few postmodernist giggles.
Happy weekend, nonetheless. Agree or disagree with Cryptic's actions and their tone following the fireworks? Share your opinion in the Loading... forum, or toss me an email.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 82 in March! 342 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Loading... Live #9 - 38 Studios Dev Chat w/ Curt Schilling, Steve DanuserWhile they weren't able to discuss their MMO in particular, Curt and Steve had a number of insights about the MMO industry in general, from working with a new IP compared to an established license, to PvP and storytelling, to a surprisingly simply answer to what made WoW such a success, to Curt's interest in hex gaming and why the success of Copernicus would be good news for war gamers everywhere.
Exclusive Earthrise Update InterviewHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Runes of Magic: Exclusive End of Beta Interview EverQuest at Ten: The Devs Share Their Memories Forever Fantasy: EverQuest III - The Return of the King WoW Celebs: An Interview with Olympic Gold Medalist Matt Grievers Preview: Get your Freakémon on in Freaky Creatures Jumpgate, LEGO Universe, and Gazillion: An Exclusive Interview with Scott Brown geeked: "Call it Karma" EverQuest 2: 10th Anniversary Q&A with Game Designer Ed Hardin Warhammer Online: Call to Arms - The Slayer and The Choppa Preview of Bounty Bay OnlineReal World News
Man who plucked out his only eyeball and ate it at his death sentence hearing deemed 'sane' to be executedThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team