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/">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft
Dungeons
& Dragons Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">
EverQuest
2
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan
Biggest movers this week:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
Agenda (UP 18 to #18)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (down 4 to #16)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/265">The
Secret World (UP 3 to #15)
Recent
MMO Releases
8/25
-
CrimeCraft
(release date)
9/1 -
Champions
Online (release date)
9/9
-
Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15
-
Runes
of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 -
Fallen
Earth (release date)
9/22
-
Aion
(release date)
10/8
-
Cities
XL (release date)
Upcoming
Releases
11/3
-
Dragon Age:
Origins (release date)
12/1
-
LotRO:
Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
12/1
-
EVE
Online: Dominion (release date)
12/2
-
DOFUS 2.0
(release date)
Early 2010
-
APB
Important
Dates
10/23 - 10/24
-
Hero-Con
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§ion=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§ion=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:
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;">
Global
Agenda:
Conquest and Pricing Options Interview
Recession
Proof Gaming - A Look at Free-to-Play Games
Mix
It Up: A Guide to Synergies in Champions Online
Which
World of Warcraft Class makes the best Tank?
Exploring
the Lore of Star Trek Online Interview
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/MC_overview">Champions
Online: Millenium City Overview
Gated
Communities: Finding the Right Gaming Home
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/world/abyssguide">Aion
Beginner's Guide to the Abyss
Can
Aion overcome the resubscription blues?
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer
team