Welcome
to the 1,179th
edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily
MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Crafting systems have become a
staple of MMOG gameplay over the years, only playing second fiddle to
the mighty overlord of combat mechanics. Yet when compared to all of
the emphasis that’s been placed on changing up the static
nature of auto-attack combat to keep players more engaged during each
and every skirmish with skeletal minions and monstrous madmen, crafting
remains in the realm of being a monumental effort of resource gathering
only to be a one click process that more often than not
doesn’t pay off for all the effort involved. Reuben
“Sardu” Waters takes a closer look at this aspect
of the current state of crafting in MMOGs in Loading…
Happiness is a Warm Sword.
cellspacing="0" 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.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's
today's top 5 Pulse results:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
& Dragons Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
2
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online
Biggest
movers this past week:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
Agenda (up 9 to #17)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Runes
of Magic (up 2 to #14)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
Online (down 4 to #10)
size="-1">Recent
MMO Releases
size="-1">
8/25
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1012">CrimeCraft
(release date)
size="-1">
size="-1">
9/1
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co">Champions
Online (release date)
size="-1">
9/9
-
Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited
(release date)
size="-1">9/15
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Runes
of Magic "The Elven Prophecy"
(expansion)
size="-1">
9/22
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date)
size="-1">
9/22
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
(release date)
size="-1">Upcoming
Releases
size="-1">
10/9
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2129">Cities
XL (release date)
size="-1">
12/1
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro" target="_blank">Lord
of the Rings Online - "Siege of
Mirkwood" (release date)
size="-1">12/2
-
DOFUS
2.0
(release date)
size="-1">
Early
2010
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
size="-1">Important
Dates
size="-1">
10/1
-
10/3 -
href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE Online
FanFest
size="-1">10/23
- 10/24
-
href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/herocon/index.html">Hero-Con
href="http://affiliate.account.frogster-america.com/tentonhammerus/ROM-US/en/">Click
here to explore the best
free-to-play MMORPG - Runes of Magic
The Elven Prophecy. Join now and create the ultimate fantasy hero.
Loading...
Daily
After spending the last few
hours scampering around to gather crafting
components from harvesting nodes, Dirty Hair Monsters or even some
awkwardly placed floating green rocks, you’re finally ready
to head back to the city to make yourself a shiny new sword. Bellying
up to the <Giant Pile of Smoldering Rocks> that serves as
your gateway to blacksmithing bliss, you double check your recipe list
to make sure that all systems are go. Realizing you forgot the crucial
step of crafting a handful of required subcomponents, you scurry
across the room and pay a visit to your friendly neighborhood vendor
who, curiously, never runs out of a single item no matter how many
thousands you demand in exchange for your coin.
Finally you have all the
essentials stuffed neatly in your bags where
the <Giant Pile of Smoldering Rocks> will magically
detect and swallow them up like a hungry, billowing
Electrolux. The tension mounts as you move your mouse hand slowly
across your desk, savoring the sweet seconds just before clicking on
the glistening “Combine” button.
Knowing that the <Giant
Pile of Smoldering Rocks> has
been kind enough to place your new creation directly into your bags you
eagerly open them up to claim your prize. Well, that plus placing hot
metal fresh from the forge directly into a leather bag tends to create
this awful burning odor, so a hasty removal is the practical thing to
do at this point.
Your moment of triumph has
finally arrived!
Or has it? Before you can truly
savor your hard-won victory over
randomized loot tables, you realize something must have gone horribly
wrong. The level of your new sword is higher than your old one which
dropped off of some wandering trash mob, yet the stats are far lower.
Not only that, but your new sword doesn’t look
“new” at all, but rather a dull approximation of
what a sword might look like if you created one out of cardboard and
spray painted it silver.
How could this be? Has your
tradeskill trainer tricked you into
purchasing the wrong recipe? Storming off in his direction you shake an
angry fist towards the ceiling, demanding an explanation for this
atrocity. His monotone dialog window assures you that everything is in
order, and that if you don’t believe him you can scan over
the full list of recipes available for your trade. As you do so, your
skin pales as you realize you’ve just been hornswoggled into
wasting your valuable online time engaging in yet another tacked on
crafting catastrophe.
*****
If you’ve ever spent
time advancing tradeskill professions in
an MMOG, then elements of the above anecdote may sound eerily familiar.
It seems like an unwritten rule of MMOG design that not only should any
newly released title have a crafting system in place, but that it
should also take an excessive
amount of time and resources to create items that fall a few rungs
below commonly dropped items in the grand scheme of itemization. Of
course there are indeed exceptions to this rule (typically of the
Alchemical nature) but on the whole the magical “persistence
+ effort = reward” formula of combat rarely crosses over into
the land of crafting, regardless of how much time or effort it involves.
Like all fables with no moral,
so too must this one come to a close.
But before I scurry off into the Loading… netherworld
I’d like to hear your thoughts on the current state of MMOG
crafting systems. Should they be more rewarding for the effort
involved, or simply a complex mini-game to be pursued during your
downtime?
Your thoughts welcome in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46887"
target="_blank">Loading... forum
style="font-weight: bold;">
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=137">WoW
General Discussion Forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46864">WoW
comes to the big screen in Zombieland
I
figured I'd kick off Monday with something light and amusing--zombies!
Martuk pointed out yesterday that World of Warcraft played a role in the
new movie,
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW3RHnJzHjY&feature=channel">Zombieland."In
the movie, Eisenberg's character (Columbus) is a self-proclaimed WoW
junky and is enjoying his adventure through Azeroth just before the
zombie apocalypse begins," he says. "I got to see this movie over the
weekend and it was one funny flick."
Have you checked out Zombieland? Talk about it here in today's
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46864">epic
thread.
==============================
Awesome
Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"
OMG
that trailer was hilarious!"
- Khalus
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
14 new Ten Ton Hammer
MMOG features today! 20
in October! 1,068 in
2009!
Ten Ton Hammer at EVE FanFest 2009
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75120" target="_blank">EVE
Online Dominion Expansion Screens
The details of Dominion were covered - in painfully
stream-of-consciousness style - in our live blog from yesterday's
panel. While there wasn't too much in Torfi's presentation that we
didn't know, it was more than worth the while to see the kind of planet
improvements you'll glimpse in these screenshots.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75142" target="_blank">Goonswarm's
Darius Johnson at the EVE
FanFest 2009 Alliance Panel
Former GoonSwarm CEO Darius Johnson stole the show again this year at
the EVE FanFest 2009 Alliance leaders panel. Arriving 30 minutes late
and dressed in full "aeronaut" attire, Johnson did his yearly review of
propaganda and fan mail from CCP censors, offered his artistic take on
the Delve war, showed off some disturbing images from Goon gatherings,
and did the Goons proud by answering audience questions to the best of
his visibly intoxicated ability.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75119" target="_blank">EVE
Online Incarna Teaser
Trailer
EVE Online's more hardcore element has long questioned the time and
effort CCP's putting into the newly renamed Incarna project, which will
allow players to step out of their pods and into stations for the first
time. While this year's FanFest lacked last year's Walking in Stations
playable demo, Senior Producer Torfi Ólafsson hinted at a
new and more serious "twist" to Incarna and offered us this teaser
video.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75130" target="_blank">CCP
Reveals More Details about DUST
514 at EVE FanFest 2009
DUST 514 (pronounced five-fourteen) is the newly announced MMO
first-person shooter currently in development at CCP Asia. This new
MMOG that shares a world with EVE Online was announced at EVE Fanfest
2009 and Ten Ton Hammer Editor-in-Chief, Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle, was
there to catch all the info.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75184" target="_blank">EVE
Online's Economics and "Unholy
Rage" Video
For this year's EVE Online economics panel, Dr. Eyjólfur
"EyjóG" Guðundsson, EVE Online's Lead Economist,
schooled us on market info and much more. The focus of the panel was on
the positive economic and performance effects of the ongoing "Unholy
Rage" initiative. Unholy Rage has led to the banning of over 18,000
accounts for illicit RMT (Real Money Trade), a more balanced economy,
and (most surprisingly) 15% less server-side CPU usage per user.
Today's New MMO Coverage
and Features
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/general/asmoaether_pt1"
target="_blank">Aion:Asmodian
Aether Gathering Guide 1-100
If you're dabbling in any trade skills, Aether Powder will find its way
into your recipes. It's that lovely stuff from the gathering points
in the sky that we all dread the thought of starting. With money being
tight throughout the majority of your career in this game though, it
just might be a necessary evil. Look here to get your Aether Extraction
career started as a warrior of Pandaemonium!
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75148" target="_blank">Video:
The Classes of Dragon Oath,
a Game of Ancient Chinese Lore
Set in ancient China, Dragon Oath is teeming with lore and stories of
the Song Dynasty of 960AD. Classes are approached as eight races of
deities described in Buddhism. Here we have a quick sampler of the
classes available in the game. Choose from Shaolin, Beggers Alliance,
Assassin, Voodoo, Taoist, Minstrel, Royalty, Lotus Order, or
Pyromancer.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75155" target="_blank">WoW:
Faction Changes - The Ultimate Cop Out?
Old rivalries have been stirred up, and a bitter war between Horde and
Alliance looms on the horizon. Instead of fanning the flames, Blizzard
has instead asked us to hold hands and sing Kumbaya with the
introduction of faction changes. Is this a huge mistake, or will it
breathe new life into the game for players?
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75170" target="_blank">WoW
Guide - Azjol-Nerub/Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom
Azjol-Nerub and Old Kingdom are together a vast underground kingdom
once home to the Nerubians. With the rise of the Lich King the
Nerubians were all but wiped out and the halls of Azjol-Nerub were
filled with Scourge, those who work for the Lich King. Small pockets of
rebel Nerubians remain here waiting for the time when they can claim
their homeland back. This guide will help you and your fellow
adventurers defeat your many foes in Azjol-Nerub and Old Kingdom and
help you unlock the many achievements that can be found there.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/southwestdesertzone"
target="_blank">Champions
Online: Southwest
Desert Leveling Guide
Have you just put down the Qularr Invasion and headed to the atomic
goodness of the Southwest Desert, but are confused on where to go and
when? Then sit back and relax as your friends at Ten Ton Hammer provide
an overview of the fallout-laden zone.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/features/previews/bloodmoonrising"
target="_blank">Blood Moon Rising - A Closer
Look at the First Champions
Online Content Update
Big things are coming for Champions Online players in October. Not only
are some much needed improvements to how missions are shared between
group members in the works, but later in the month the Blood Moon event
is set to go live on the 27th. To help keep you up to date on all of
the superpowered details, we've put together a short preview of what is
sure to be an exciting month of updates to the world the Champions call
home.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75182" target="_blank">Fallen
Earth - First Impressions
What do you do when the world's population has been decimated,
governments have fallen, and the world lies in ruin? Grab a gun, choose
your allies, and join the fight for survival. This is the theme of
Fallen Earth, a new post-apocalyptic MMOG brought to you by Fallen
Earth LLC and Icarus Studios.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75189" target="_blank">Phasers
Set to Beta - A Star Trek
Online Q&A with Craig
Zinkievich
The course is set, and it’s time to engage with Star Trek
Online. Cryptic is turning up the volume as the closed beta phase of
the game approaches, set to begin at the end of this year. So how is
the game coming along, and how can you get into beta? And what are some
of the challenges the development team has faced? Craig Zinkievich,
Star Trek Online’s Executive Producer was gracious enough to
tell us about how to get into beta, ground combat, and some of the
challenges Cryptic has dealt with.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75191" target="_blank">Aion
Exclusive Heiron Zone Tour Video
The landscapes and environments in the recently released Aion are
easily some of the most visually stunning in the wide world of MMOGs.
For those of you curious to see what some of the higher level regions
in Aion are all about, Ten Ton Hammer has an exclusive first look video
that you won’t want to miss. In it you’ll get a
sweeping tour of a zone called Heiron which is located on the sunny
side of the great divide in the lands of Elysea.
Hottest
Content:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75184" target="_blank">EVE
Online's Economics and "Unholy
Rage" Video
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75130" target="_blank">CCP
Unveils DUST 514
at EVE FanFest 2009
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75191" target="_blank">Aion
Exclusive Heiron Zone
Tour Video
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75189" target="_blank">Phasers
Set to Beta - A Star Trek
Online Q&A
with Craig
Zinkievich
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75182" target="_blank">Fallen
Earth - First Impressions
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75057/" target="_blank">Aion
Newsletter - The Daeva Weekly #3
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75032" target="_blank">Dungeons
& Dragons Online: An
Overview of the Favored Soul and Monk
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75007" target="_blank">Runes
of Magic Class Overview
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/southwestdesertzone"
target="_blank">Champions
Online: Southwest Desert
Leveling Guide
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/general/asmoaether_pt1"
target="_blank">Aion
Asmodian Aether Gathering Guide 1-100
Thanks for visiting the
Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the Ten Ton Hammer
team