by Karen Hertzberg on Jul 14, 2010
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is the premier daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,375th
edition
of Loading...
The game you've been waiting for is launching soon and
preorder details have been announced. Preorder, or cough up the cash
for a collector's edition, and you get into your game's headstart.
Wait, and you'll miss out on the pre-launch fun. Buying early (or, in
the case of collector's editions, more expensively) seems like a
no-brainer, but do headstarts really deliver what they promise? We'll
talk about it today in
href="http://tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/jul/14">Loading...
Headstart Headaches.
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (What
is The Pulse?).
Today's
top 5 Pulse results this week:
Biggest
movers over the past 24 hours:
Upcoming
Events
Before I get started here, one of our dedicated premium members, Metal,
informed me of a bit of
href="http://www.frogster.de/en/news,id238,frogster_interactive_acquires_european_license_mmo_game_with_this_one_most_spectacular_new_generation_mmo_game_projects.html#news238">news
this morning. Frogster Interactive has secured the European publishing
rights to
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2339">TERA,
the upcoming fantasy MMOG developed by Bluehole Studio (and published
by En Masse Entertainment in North America.) You may recall that
Frogster recently snapped
up the European publishing rights to
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/329">Mythos.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom">Runes of Magic
and The
Chronicles of Spellborn are also in their roundup. TERA
arguably represents the company's biggest publishing score to date.
Onward...
While I was scanning the news for a topic for Loading... this morning,
my friend Danny (aka - the Topic Fairy) brought up the subject of
preordering games, often in the form of expensive
collector's editions, for the purpose of getting into early release
gameplay. (After all, he's already ponied up the cash for the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/86375">Final Fantasy
XIV collector's edition.) Headstarts are indeed popular, but
are they really worth the early (or extra) investment? Will you get
what you're after--the thrill of getting the jump on the rest of the
gaming community--or will you end up disappointed with nothing to show
for your enthusiasm but a cloth map, some in-game fluff items and maybe
a soundtrack?
The chink in the shiny armor that is headstart is that we most
often don't get exactly what we think we're paying for. Those of us
buying collector's editions or preordering for the soul purpose of
diving into our game of choice before everyone else floods in are often
met with the reality that quite a few other players had the same idea.
Queues can be long. (Remember me,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion? I
was one of the many who sat for 2 plus hours waiting to create
my character.) Servers are often unstable, and developers
inadvertently end up using the headstart as a time to work out server
load kinks before the real rush of players crashes the gates. And, of
course, you'll encounter all this only
style="font-style: italic;">after you've likely
spent a fair amount of time patching. (And there's no guarantee you
won't have to patch again before headstart comes to a close.)
Given all the issues inherent with headstarts you'd think that none of
us would fall for them. Clearly they're a gimmick, right?
I can tell you that, when it comes to any of the games that are hot on
my radar right now, I'll probably go the extra distance to secure
headstart gameplay, whether that means preordering or preordering a
collector's edition. Why? Because, despite the frustrations, I still
want to be playing the game before the rest of the masses, and I want
to be playing it with a bunch of enthusiastic like-minded gamers. I
want to be answering questions for the newbies when they finally make
it in on launch day. And, most of all, I just want to be playing the
game. Earlier is always better. I'm an impatient woman. To quote Enigo
Montoya, "I hate waiting." I also have faith that developers do all
they can to make headstart an enjoyable time for their eager fans, but
I'm realistic--no launch is without its hiccups. At any rate, just
give me the keys to the kingdom as soon as possible.
Are you one of the many who find headstart nearly irresistible, or are
you patient enough to wait for launch day and avoid the headstart
headaches? Talk it up in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52326">Loading...
forum.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=724">Guild
Wars 2 General Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52252">No
death penalty - yay or nay?
Where do you stand on death mechanics in MMOGs? Do you like death
to sting, so that you care more about avoiding it and strive to play at
your best? Or do you feel that death penalties waste your valuable time
making you recover lost experience, trek back from a waypoint, or
suffer through crippling "rez effects" for a while? Guild Wars 2 game
designer Jon Peters
href="http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/">recently
wrote, "Defeat in Guild Wars 2 is intended to be an
experience, not a punishment." What's your take on the softer death
mechanic?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52252">Tell
us!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I don't think
that
rallies are as common as we might think they are. I would imagine that
the designers are going to make certain that just one member of a party
going down is almost a sure opening to a full party wipe."
- Eledhan
==============================
4 Ten Ton Hammer
feature
today! 41 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in July! 753
in 2010!
style="font-weight: bold;">INTERVIEWS
Vroom! Need for Speed World A Q&A with Senior Producer John
Doyle
http://www.tentonhammer.com/nfsw/interviews/john-doyle
With
the impending launch of Need for Speed World coming closer, Ten Ton
Hammer wanted to get some insight into the game. To that end, we found
John Doyle, Senior Producer, in his massive garage building cars that
arent exactly street legal. After some minor keying of a Porsche, John
Doyle agreed to talk to us.
FEATURED
StarCraft II - Custom Map
Reviews
http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides/custom-1
Those
of you familiar with the world of custom maps in other
Blizzard RTS
games know there's a lot of crap out there--maps that you could make in
an hour. Fortunately there are a few gems out there, too, and we've
sifted through the garbage to deliver the best of the best to you.
FEATURES & GUIDES
Practical Piracy For
Newbies In EVE Online
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/combat/newbie_piracy
Piracy
is not only for advanced players in EVE Online. There are lots of ways
for new players to prey on others, even during their first few days of
playing. Space Junkie outlines four of these piratical
practices in
this guide for newbies looking to get their yarr on.
EQ2 Rogue Sample
Alternate Advancement Specs
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/guides/specs-rogue
EverQuest
II Rogues, the Brigand and the Swashbuckler, are the melee damage
powerhouses of the game making them amazing in both solo and group
gameplay. To make the most of their potential, though, these classes
need a good alternate advancement build and we have created just that!
Each of our sample builds gives a solid general starting point and
focuses on maximizing that damage so your Rogue can do more and be more
in battle.
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg and the Ten Ton Hammer Team.