Loading.... GCDC, Shook You All Night Long

Welcome to the 896th Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

Loading... putting the 'Mo' in MMOG.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 155 BPM
Age of Conan - 53 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 15 BPM
EVE Online - 14 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 11 BPM
EverQuest II - 11 BPM
Champions Online - 10 BPM
Dungeons and Dragons - 9 BPM
Vanguard - 6 BPM

Day 1 of the Leipzig Game Convention is in the books. Today was actually part of GCDC (Games Convention Developers Conference) which unlike the raucous floor shows and exhibits of the GC proper is a series of very civilized development related panels.

Today was a light day for me, but an entertaining one. I sat in on a panel being hosted by Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson (Dr. EyjóG), the economist working to keep EVE Online's economy in top shape. It was extremely interesting to see how this virtual economy reacted to change precisely as the real world economy would. Inevitably after viewing a presentation by the EVE Online team I get the urge to play the game again and now that there is a Mac client I have another reason to give it another try.

Tomorrow is another relatively light day for our team, though it is likely that most press would consider our schedule heavy. First up is a panel by Don Daglow, the gentleman behind the original Neverwinter Nights, a title that was published by AOL, SSI and TSR, before anyone knew what a MMOG was. Mr. Daglow's panel will take a look at the future of MMO gaming.

Next, is a panel that includes Bobby Stein of ArenaNET, which will cover game achievement systems.

In the afternoon, Randy Strude of Intel will delve into PC gaming followed by David Perry's keynote speech. Our team will then chat with Matt Firor of Zenimax Studios about their plans.
Last and certainly not least we'll talk to Trion Studios, the folks who have teamed up with the Sci Fi Channel to build an MMOG.

More tomorrow when sleep deprivation has truly kicked in.

The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Thanks Karen Hertzberg]

Sometimes
they're funny; sometimes they're flaming;
sometimes they're clever. Whatever this one happens to be, it's
our Epic Thread of the Day.

====================
From our Age of Conan Community Forum

"Tortage - Blessing or Bane?"

Martuk
and the other community managers in our Age of Conan forum want to know
what you think of Tortage--is it the coolest zone in Hyboria, or a
one-hit wonder that you never want to run another character through
again? This thread comes complete with a handy dandy opinion poll.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"

Because of Beta days, every time I have to play through Tortage again another part of my soul dies."
- Koshira
====================

Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!

[A big thanks to Phil Comeau for putting together the links and Real World News.]

9 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 90 in August! 2074 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

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