Welcome to the 1,224th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Among other things, expansions are an important part of a MMOG's
lifespan. If there's not enough new content coming in, the game will
inevitably wither away. But when is it a good time to expand a game,
and how can a developing company keep their players happy and busy so
they don't get bored? We take a look at this today in Loading...
Expansion Appeal.
The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here are today's top 5 Pulse results:
World
of Warcraft
EverQuest
2
Lord of the Rings
Online (Up 1)
Dungeons
and Dragons Online (Down 1)
Age of
Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Biggest movers today:
EverQuest
(UP 5 to #14)
Star
Trek Online (UP 3 to #11)
style="text-decoration: underline;">Champions Online (down
2 to #15)
Recent Releases
9/22 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date)
9/22
-
Aion
(release date)
10/8
-
Cities
XL (release date)
11/3
-
Dragon Age:
Origins (release date)
11/10
-
Final Fantasy
XI Ultimate
Collection (release date)
12/1
-
LotRO:
Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
12/1
-
EVE
Online: Dominion (expansion)
12/2
-
DOFUS 2.0
(upgrade)
Upcoming
Releases
12/15
-
EverQuest:
Underfoot (expansion)
2/2
-
Star Trek Online
(release date)
2/16 -
href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
Early 2010 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
Q1 2010
-
Global Agenda
(release date)
Loading... Daily
Life of a MMOG begins at its launch and ends when there are 300 people
left playing. Some say it's not how you come into the world, or even
how you leave it, but how you live your life. The same can be said
about the games we play. Unlike single player games, you never "beat"
the game. And if you do, the developing company has given up on it.
It's a constant tug-of-war between players and developers as players
rip through content often faster than new content can be developed.
So when's the proper time to launch a full-blown expansion? It really
needs to be carefully weighed. How many people are playing your game,
and of those, how many have already gone through the existing content?
There is always going to be the amazing group of players that will
finish content that took years to develop in nine days. (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/63995">Bill Roper, Cryptic
Studios, Champions Online Panel, New York ComicCon '09 - 38m30s)
Mostly, though, it's important to consider the bulk of your active
player base. Waiting until even 10 percent of the active population are
level capped before you start working on an expansion is too late.
Plans need to be in the works from launch day, or shortly thereafter.
The sooner a devco starts the development process, the sooner it can be
packaged and ready to go when it's needed.
Expansions can't be hack jobs either. There has to be a significant
amount added to the game to make it viable. As much as players may
complain about a "grind," time sinks are extremely important to a game.
It's just not humanly possible (at least not with a realistic budget)
to launch new solo, group, and raid content as fast as players can blow
through it. Not only does the content need to provide enough of a
challenge that it will take a good while for players to master, but
there needs to be other forms of advancement to keep players busy.
Achievements are a good example, but perhaps the best example can be
taken from a much older game, EverQuest. In Classic EQ the Alternate
Advancement system ensures your players will always have ways to
improve their character. With literally thousands of AA options
available only the elite few will ever have them capped.
Crafting can be another part of the time sink. The rewards should be
good, but the easier you make the crafting aspect of the game, the
faster players will advance through it. It's a challenge to make
crafting enjoyable, rewarding and time-consuming but it can be done.
SOE also hit a home run with their crafting system, this time in
EverQuest 2. Advancing to become a level 80 crafter is no small feat.
It takes weeks, or more realistically, months to reach maximum level.
And it's not a boring "Create All" button. Tradeskill group instances
offer quests in which you can bring a group into a private instance and
craft for a goal. For instance, a giant robot may have short-circuited
and is killing the city's inhabitants, and it's up to the crafters to
build a new mega-bot to defeat the evil machine. You'll craft various
components to build the bot, and will be able to actually see the new
mega-bot slowly being constructed into a fully functional champion
droid. The fun part comes at the end of the quest when the robot is
complete and the two bots battle to the death. All the while, you'll
earn valuable crafting experience and item rewards.
Epic quests are becoming a thing of the past too, and it's a shame to
see. There was a time that if you were committed enough you'd be able
to progress through a quest that would often take months to complete to
earn the best weapons/armor/mounts in the game. More and more games are
taking the easy route of simply having all of these items drop in
raids, or purchasable through a token merchant who'll take tokens you
earn through group content or even solo quests.
With all of these time-sinks ignored it's little wonder players are
getting more bored than ever. It takes so little time now to rush
through an expansion that they're almost not worth the time investment
it takes to create them. That is, unless you're a mega-corp whose fans
will buy anything you tell them to.
So, the simple answer to expansions? It all depends on how much
gameplay you put into the game previously. If you've rushed out
content, don't be surprised to see players attacking your forums
demanding more content. If you've thought it through, dangled some
carrots appropriately and given players enough optional content to keep
them busy for months, then you may have bought yourself enough time to
properly develop a new expansion.
Disagree? Tell me
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=48311">in the
forums.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142">WoW News
Discussion
style="font-weight: normal;">3.3 to go live tomorrow
Ten Ton Hammer's favorite volunteer WoW moderator, Maegwynn, shared an
unofficial report from
href="http://www.wow.com/2009/12/07/patch-3-3-goes-live-tomorrow/">WoW.com
saying that patch 3.3 will "go live tomorrow," which, by the time you
read this, will be today. If you're deep in the throes of World of
Warcrack withdrawals because the servers are down for patching, then
you're not alone--you can congregate in this thread to
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=48284">share
your misery with your fellow addicts.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"
Also looks like an extra long
maintenance...1 AM PST/4 AM EST and end at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST. And we
all know 11 AM PST/2 PM EST ain't going to happen.
Ethec, you'd
best bring in some extra Shetland Ponies. Going to be a busy day here
tomorrow. Lots of idle hands going through withdrawals. "
- kitsunegirl
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
9 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG
features today! 29 in December! 2,210 in
2009!
New Exclusives, Features, and Guides today at Ten Ton
Hammer
style="font-weight: bold;">Age of Conan Evolved - A Synopsis of
The Rise of the Godslayer Preview
What do Charles Darwin and Age of Conan have in common? Evolution. We
take a look at Xfire's one-hour live preview of Rise of the Godslayer
and break it all down. New or old to the game, there's a lot going into
the expansion and things are getting exciting.
style="font-weight: bold;">
style="font-weight: bold;">Aion Enchantment Guide
Armor is really the biggest investment you make for your character.
Making
these investments more worthwhile for longer is what enchantments can
do and if you havent tried using them yet then you are not getting the
most you can out of your gear. Learn more about enchantments in our
guide and find out how easily you can get more from your gear.
style="font-weight: bold;">Aion Cleric PvP Guide
The battlefield is a terrible place, but it's not so terrible for us
Clerics. We can outlast anyone if we're not bursted to nothing before
we can react, and having resistance spells and chain mail/shields make
it all the more easier to ensure the onslaught. We are the one class no
PvP squad is complete without, with the very best in group heals and
mass resurrection. We cover how to drop the individual classes and some
oft-forgotten group tactics in our Ten Ton Hammer guide to the holy
man/woman's PvP experience!
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/editorial/midlevelimpressions">
style="font-weight: bold;">Champions Online : Hands On
Impressions Part 2 - Mid Levels
Wondering what the mid-levels game play of Champions Online
is like? Will it rock, making you dream of spandex, or will it suck,
making you
want to become a villain yourself to wreak your vengeance upon the
world? Your
friends at Ten Ton Hammer are here to critically examine that important
mid-level range in this MMOG and give you their honest impression of
the game
as you level from roughly 18 to 32.
style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Wars 2 Races of Tyria Trailer
Q&A with Ree Soesbee - World Designer and Writer
Explore the races of Guild Wars 2 (GW2) with a new video trailer and
Q&A with World Designer and Writer Ree Soesbee. In NCsoft's latest
release of GW2 information, the five playable races are explored and
players gain insight into each race and their respective homelands.
Ten Ton Hammer's
Gifts for Gamers 2009
It's the holiday season, and once again we have fun gifts for the
gamer in your life, ranging from the practical to the fashionable
to
the utterly ridiculous but über cool. Since times are tight this
year,
we have gifts under $20 dominate our list this year. Enjoy the
list,
and happy holidays from the Ten Ton Hammer team!
style="font-weight: bold;">The Overpull - "D&D, WoW, and
Grues"
The Overpull is here again this week bringing you all of last week's
news, an interesting editorial on D&D vs. WoW, and a nice look at
Pandas and WoW in our lore corner. How is it even possible to say
D&D vs. WoW? I don't know, but The Overpull has done it and you're
going to have to read it to find out. So while you're waiting for the
servers to come up on this Tuesday have a look at The Overpull.
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW: Are you an Overachiever?
In a free flowing game like the World of Warcraft there is room for a
lot of things going on. Different people play the game
differently, some people PvP, some people raid, some people craft, and
it seems like there are about a million other things that people can do
in the game. One that has taken off with what seems like a life
of its own since its launch is the achievement system. With so
many players spending so much time and effort on achievements Byron
Messiah Mudry had to check it out and weigh in with his own opinion.
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW: Paladin Equipment
Paladins, more than most classes, have a lot of gear to choose from.
This is due to the fact that they can pretty much do whatever they
would like. After all the only role they can not fill in a group
is ranged DPS. However, with all these choices come
complications. Which gear is best, which stats are best, how about
glyphs and enchants? Which is best for each of the three talent
specs? Have no fear, Byron Messiah Mudry steps in to keep it
nice and simple for everyone. Read on and find out all about
Paladin Equipment.
Today's Hottest Content
Building a Fleet
- A Star Trek Online Q&A with Lead Programmer
Stephen D'Angelo
Ten Ton Hammer's
Gifts for Gamers 2009
State of the
Republic - A Q&A with Star Wars:The Old Republic
Producer Jake Neri
Star
Wars: The Old Republic - Press Tour and Gameplay Preview
EverQuest:
Underfoot Expansion Preview
Global Agenda
Robotics Class Q&A with Todd Harris
style="font-weight: bold;">Age of Conan Evolved - A Synopsis of
The Rise of the Godslayer Preview
Dragon Age:
Origins
- Creating Your
Own Adventures
Gearing
Up in Star
Trek Online - An Exclusive Interview with Cryptic Studios
Guild
Wars 2 Races of Tyria Trailer
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!
- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer team