Welcome to the 1,193rd edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Ah,
fall. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing, and the evil
undead are rising up to eat our brains. Halloween is always a popular
season for
MMO holiday events, and there's no shortage of werewolves, demons, and
ghouls in your favorite MMOs this year. (The most fearful apparition of
all, Zombie Cthulhu Boy Band, remains to be discovered. Maybe next
year.) We'll list all the Halloween events for your favorite MMOs and
demonstrate why the Halloween event is important (perhaps
indispensable) to the gamer psyche in Loading... Halloweenery.


width="100%">

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse ( href="http://www.gunnars.com/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results: href="http://www.gunnars.com/">

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
    target="_blank">World of Warcraft
  2. Dungeons
    & Dragons Online
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254"> 
  4. EverQuest
    2
     
  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
    Conan

Biggest movers this week:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
    Agenda (UP 18 to #18)
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
    Earth (down 4 to #16)
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/265">The
    Secret World (UP 3 to #15)
Recent
MMO Releases

Upcoming
Releases

Important
Dates

Loading... Daily

Interesting news of the day: 38 Studios is hiring a href="http://www.38studios.com/jobs/show/29">Senior PS3
Programmer for its Big Huge Games studio in Maryland. Is
Copernicus the latest MMO striving for next-gen consoleness or is this
for an unrelated, unannounced project? Only time will tell.



TV fall syndication runs and
countless horror movies have conspired to make Halloween the second
biggest holiday in the entertainment industry. We like to see the odds
supernaturally stacked against the protagonists and watch them gorily
succomb or impossibly prevail. That's just our nature; gamers in
particular exhibit what psychologists would call "sensation
seeking behavior."(What's so DSM-IV about sensation, anyway? Who
doesn't like sensation?)
That, and given our competitive nature and statistical masculinity,
like to show we can tolerate a particularly gruesome scene even if we
don't exactly enjoy the ludicrous gibs.



But males and females
alike among MMO gamers, being a particularly social breed, like to
discuss entertainment that produces strong emotions. Zombies, robots,
and supernatural horrors are all textbook, over-the-top, certifiably
strong emotion-producing villains in gaming and movies. So it only
makes sense that every MMO that has seasonal events (I'm looking at
you, MMOs-that-are-not-EVE Online) will do a Halloween event.



Whether
you think holiday events are a grievous waste of developer time or some
much needed relief to the everyday hoohah, Halloween events are one of
those ubiquitous things (like fast travel and gender bending potions),
that if one MMO has it, given enough time just about all of
them will. It remains to be seen what would happen if one big-time MMO
jumped
off a cliff, or was that Star Wars Galaxies?



Anyway, we'll just say Halloween events are fun stuff, and here's a big
list of events in your favorite MMOs:

  • World of Warcraft's href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/hallowsend/">Hallow's
    End
    is back, running from October 18th to October 31st. Adventurers can get
    tricks and treats courtesy of the local Innkeeper and work toward "The
    Hallowed" title achievement. Need a hand to be hallowed? Check out the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/hallows-end">Ten
    Ton Hammer Hallow's End guide!


  • Fallen Earth, besides being the perfect
    place for a zombie
    uprising, is now offering a free 15-day trial to coincide with the Days
    of the Dead event. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/daysofthedead">Grab
    a key right here at Ten Ton Hammer, and go knock some zombie
    heads! Event runs weeklong from 10/23.
  • href="http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=3016&table=CONTENT">Nights
    of Lost Souls doesn't just describe your last trip to Vegas,
    it's Age of Conan's
    Halloween event this year. Track down the lost souls and defeat them to
    get some cool rewards - the "Unholy Backscratcher" being the absolute
    coolest. Event ends 10/31.


  • href="http://www.warhammeronline.com/pressreleases/20091015.php">Daemon
    Moon
    will have players collecting evil masks to defeat the demons trapped
    within, along with a new public quest and special RvR scenario in Warhammer
    Online
    from October 23rd through November 2nd.


  • Aion's href="http://na.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=130&page=">Harvest
    Revel
    is about to begin, which will see the Asmodeans hunting up a delicious
    feast while Elyos frantically hunt down invading bands of undead. It's
    good to be Asmod!  Event runs 10/25 through 10/31.


  • While not an in-game event, Turbine has put together a href="http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=206960">pumpkin
    carving contest for LotRO and DDO
    players, winner gets 500 Turbine points.


  • EverQuest 2's fan-favorite annual event href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=3306&section=News&locale=en_US">Nights
    of the Dead
    is in full effect this weekend, with events Friday - Sunday nights. If
    you're in need of a surprising costume for the Sunday night masquerade
    ball, the href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=3308&section=News&locale=en_US&cid=EM1427&_mid=1427&_rid=1427.1410.11326">race
    change potion was just rolled out on the marketplace.
    EverQuest has a few new href="http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/news_article.vm?id=51674">Halloween
    marketplace items of its own, too.


  • Champions Online's href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/features/previews/bloodmoonrising">Blood
    Moon event is on the horizon (get it?) and coming your way on
    October 27th, but Cryptic pointed out yesterday that the href="http://www.champions-online.com/node/594620">Zombie
    Apocalypse PvP scenario is available now for those jonesing
    for some zombie headhunting action.


  • City of Heroes href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/news_archive/the_deadly_apocalypse_is_upon.html">The
    Deadly Apocalypse is nigh, running from October 20th -
    November 3rd. Also, href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/herocon/index.html">Hero-Con
    is this weekend, and even though there's nothing explicitly Halloweeny
    about this, seeing gamers like myself decked out in full cosplay tights
    and codpieces would be extremely scary.

Know of more events? Dressing up as a Ten Ton Hammer this Halloween?
Share your frightful comments in the Loading...
forum and have yourself a ghoulishly good time this weekend! (insert
evil laugh here)


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day




From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=663">STO
News and Articles Discussion forum



Its finally here folks!



If
you've been waiting for Star Trek Online to go into beta, your wait
appears to be over. Time to start checking your inbox obsessively! Our
forum community is talking about the STO beta, and you can join in href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47324">right
here.



==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread




No epic quotes yet. href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47324">Make
one!

==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!


3 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 103
in October! 2,051 in
2009!



Today's New Features & Guides

  • 15-day Trial
    Key Giveaway for Fallen Earth 'Days of the Dead' Event
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/daysofthedead">

    http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/daysofthedead



    It's
    that special time of the year again. You know, the leaves are changing,
    there's a chill in the air, and the undead are rising up to make a
    snack of the living. Accordingly, the makers of the
    post-apoc themed, story-driven MMORPG Fallen Earth have crafted a "Days
    of the Dead" event so momentous, they're offering a special 15-day
    trial starting
    today, October 23rd. Grab a free key, then grab a cricket bat and do
    some undead head hunting before the zombies overwhelm what's left of
    civilization!
  • Aion
    Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #6


    http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75829



    Does
    the game you play decide how you play, or does your gaming style
    dictate the direction of your gaming experience? Whether you level
    slowly or quickly in Aion, every player should have a voice in the
    community and should have some say in how the game evolves, right? Read
    more on this topic and get the week's Aion news from Ten Ton Hammer and
    around the 'net!


  • WoW: Mage
    Guide

    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage



    Our
    World of Warcraft Mage Guide relaunches better than ever. We've got a
    lot of new and updated content. It's like a full Arcane library. We've
    got a new basics and combat page along with an updated list of
    trainers, Mage quests, and a lot more. If you're a Mage, old or new,
    then this guide is for you. So head on over and take a look at our new
    Mage guide!

Hottest Content:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/daysofthedead">15-day
    Trial Key Giveaway for Fallen Earth 'Days of the Dead' Event href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/daysofthedead">

    style="font-weight: bold;"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/editorials"> style="font-weight: bold;">
  2. Global
    Agenda:
    Conquest and Pricing Options Interview
  3. Recession
    Proof Gaming - A Look at Free-to-Play Games
  4. Mix
    It Up: A Guide to Synergies in Champions Online
  5. Which
    World of Warcraft Class makes the best Tank?
  6. Exploring
    the Lore of Star Trek Online Interview
  7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/MC_overview">Champions
    Online: Millenium City Overview
  8. Gated
    Communities: Finding the Right Gaming Home
  9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/world/abyssguide">Aion
    Beginner's Guide to the Abyss
  10. Can
    Aion overcome the resubscription blues?

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network! 

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer
team



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

Comments