by Jeff Woleslagle on Apr 22, 2009
Welcome to the 1,063rd Edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Loading... relays some bad news from the Shadowbane team and good news on the recent updates to Star Wars Galaxies. We'll also share the latest from Bioware, makers of Star Wars: The Old Republic, on their beta testing philosophy in today's variety grab bag Loading... We'll also link you in on a hilarious porn-stache inspired epic thread, some shockingly funny Real World News, and two Ten Ton Hammer articles, two guides, and a comic you won't want to miss in Loading... Good News, Bad News.
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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 2) Vanguard: Saga of HeroesBiggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Asheron's Call (UP 102 to #16) Lego Universe (UP 74 to #13) Ultima Online (UP 54 to #14)Loading... Daily
After a six year run, Shadowbane is calling it quits. From an official announcement made yesterday: "As of May 1, 2009 the Shadowbane servers will be powered down once and for all." If you feel like you've read this story before, you have, sort of. In a cruel twist of fate, three years ago almost to the day Wolfpack Sudios closed its doors. Shadowbane reemerged in free-to-play form from new developer Stray Bullet Studios, but item imbalances associated with moving from subscription to free-to-play along with a host of other issues forced a top-down server reset in early 2008. The game limped on with a small but extremely devoted fanbase until yesterday's announcement.
Any time an MMO shuts down it's viewed as a failure. Let's not forget the fact that people were playing and buying into this game for six years - six years - at a time when the lifespan of the typical console game is, what, a month? If that. MMO games have always been in it for the long haul, though even some AAA titles don't see their second birthday. Kudos to Stray Bullet neé Wolfpack for keeping the doors open and the players happy for as long as they did.
Another longstanding title that sends a shiver up the collective spine of the gaming community with every update is Star Wars Galaxies, and in an exclusive SWG dev diary released today, we find out that Update 8 is nothing to worry about at all. This one shuns combat and major motion picture characters to offer some long anticipated improvements to housing and player cities. SWG's James ‘Millbarge’ Michener also tells us a little about Update 9 as well, which will have even more housing goodness, and how good it is to be talking about SWG in a positive light again. This is one game that had at least as much potential in the social / "worldy" category as in combat / adventure category, and it's nice to see SOE developing that side of things again.
It's a Star Wars kind of day. Rich Vogel of Bioware (makers of Star Wars: The Old Republic) stopped by to offer his answers to our standing beta question: how much, when, and why? He agreed with many of the devs in our Beta: Past, Present, and Future article, stating "[open beta] is more of a 'try before you buy' marketing push as well as a soft launch. You really don’t get much data from 'open' tests. It is really just making sure everything holds under stress and allows us to get people in the game early... We feel that limiting the [number of] beta testers is a good thing. We get better data with fewer, more dedicated players and we are able to focus test specific areas of the game. "
That's the how much and why, how about the when? "About 4 weeks before launch is a good time to open the game up to consumers. If you have done your job right, you will know if the game is ready before you open beta. If not, you don’t open it until it is." Good stuff from the folks behind what's sure to be an earthrending beta and launch, and you can read the rest of Rich Vogel's comments right here.
I never played, but maybe you have some Shadowbane memories to share? Does SOE do well to work on housing and cities in Star Wars Galaxies? How cool is it to hear at least a little something about the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or send me an email!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 109 in April! 496 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Star Wars Galaxies: The Making of Update 8 - Extreme Make-Over Hits Player CitiesReal World News
Woman sends stripper in her place to High School reunionThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team