by Jeff Woleslagle on Dec 01, 2008
Welcome to the 965th Edition of Loading...
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The Pulse
First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).
World of Warcraft Warhammer Online Age of Conan Atlantica Online (UP 1) Guild Wars (down 1) EVE Online Guild Wars 2 Stargate Worlds (down 2) Tabula Rasa (UP 3) Lineage 2 (UP 6)Biggest Sinkers and Floaters in the Top 20
Lineage 2 (UP 6 to no. 10) Runes of Magic (down 4 to no. 15) Tabula Rasa (UP 3 to no. 9)Daily Column
Loading... served daily, like your Thanksgiving leftovers.
I hope you had a great holiday weekend, or at least a great weekend if you live outside the US. But if your country doesn't celebrate the American variant of Thanksgiving, I highly recommend it. A day of feasting and football, followed by a day of shopping, a day of Christmas decorating, and a Sunday to recover before the work week is the perfect antidote for an otherwise cold and ugly month.
My family altered our routine a bit this year. Instead of an early morning walk through the mall, Friday saw me slogging through Penn's woods looking for the perfect tree. Our victim was a perfectly shaped 6 foot concolor that smells like oranges and pumpkin spice. It appears happy to be out of the cold, drinking almost a gallon of water so far. If slaying a tree for holiday revelry seems brutish to you, know that this years tree is next summer's compost and next fall's firewood, so nothing will go to waste. Think of it as giving a humble, farm-raised conifer a big sendoff.
Today is December 1st, the start of the winter blahs for news in the games industry as publishers weigh the profits from the 20% of games that succeed against the 80% that don't, developers shore up their latest releases, and gamers settle in and enjoy the glut of quality games and expansions that came to market in the last few months. I'll save most of my reflections on 2008 until later in the month, but it's been quite of a year for the PvPers. Both of this year's major MMOG releases promised heady player-on-player violence and by most accounts, both (eventually?) succeeded.
These PvP-oriented games came at an interesting time, as World of Warcraft (itself responsible for introducing many players to the MMORPG PvP craze, even though it was hardly a pioneer in MMO PvP) had evened up its PvP and Normal (each including RP) server counts in late 2007 after tipping the balance solidly in favor of PvP for two years. I'll have to dig up the exact counts, but it's curious to think that WoW grew the PvP niche then filled it, leaving little in the way of scraps for future competitors. More interesting still is that WoW's biggest opponents are usually veteran PvE gamers, whose roots usually extend to EverQuest rather than the more PvP-oriented Ultima Online. Vanguard seems to have represented the last great hope for a completely PvE-oriented high fantasy MMOG, as every single developer I talk to seems to have elaborate plans for the player-competitive side of the game.
The problem with this be-everything-to-everyone approach is that the class design and balancing associated with PvP takes an immense amount of time, perhaps more than anything else except raid design. Even with 180+ developers working on a game, something has to give. Unless the MMORPG industry caters more to the vast array of niches within itself rather than mass appeal (and reviewers can stop comparing every MMOG to WoW, which is probably a loftier goal), we're likely to have a number of games that do everything with mediocrity. And that will probably ensure the lopsided dominance of WoW for many years to come.
Share your thoughts in the Loading forum or, as always, feel free to write to me directly.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 13 in December! 2987 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Interviews
38 Studios: Audio with Aubrey HodgesCommunity
Warhammer Online: 7-Day WAR Report Warhammer Online: WAR-Torn - "Of Iron Maidens and Holy Divers"Reviews
City of Heroes, RevisitedGuides
World of Warcraft: Death Knight Talent Build Update World of Warcraft: Mage Class Portal Update World of Warcraft: Mage Talent Build Update World of Warcraft: Warlock Class Portal Update World of Warcraft: Warlock Talent Build Update World of Warcraft: Rogue Class Portal Update World of Warcraft: Rogue Talent Build Update Warhammer Online: A Guide to Praag Age of Conan: Ymir's Pass Quest Guide - Mercenary EncampmentHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
38 Studios: Audio with Aubrey Hodges Warhammer Online: 7-Day WAR Report Warhammer Online: WAR-Torn - "Of Iron Maidens and Holy Divers" City of Heroes, Revisited Ten Ton Hammer's Holiday Hootenanny - An Interview with Creative Labs Warhammer Online: Over The Horizon Warhammer Online: WAR Players Give Thanks World of Warcraft: Goob & Begud - "Desperate Measures" Ten Ton Turnip - Issue #1Real World News
Ugandan women robbing bar patrons with chloroform-covered breastsThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network and enjoy the holiday weekend!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team