Loading... Lever B

Welcome to the 1,052nd Edition of Loading...

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

Tuesday is traditionally patch day, and while WoW gamers probably won't see dual spec and Ulduar with 3.1 today, this Loading is all about patches that shouldn't have been. Learn about our favorite "Lever B" updates and share a few of your own. We also have links to an exclusive class interview to the surprisingly unique fantasy MMO Alganon, the latest TheMittani EVE Online column, a look at the classes of Star Wars: The Old Republic, a look at a WoW paid leveling guide, and a new LotRO Monster Play guide. All this and more in Loading... Lever B!

Play World of Warcraft? Jay "Medeor" Johnson's weekly WoW newsletter "The Overpull" keeps you entertained and informed on all the latest developments in WoW. Sign up!

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:

World of Warcraft EVE Online (UP 6) EverQuest 2 (down 1) Age of Conan (down 1) Warhammer Online (down 1)

Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :

Alganon (UP 92 to #18) Free Realms (UP 39 to #12) Wizard101 (UP 17 to #11)

Loading... Daily

In my high school years I worked as a maintainance guy at a summer camp. I had an overly inquistive coworker fresh out of the Philadelphia barrio named Alfredo who didn't know a wrench from a pair of pliers, but he learned quickly. Still, sometimes he had a habit of "experimenting" with switches and controls on the tractor, air compressor, etc. When we'd accomplished the potentially lifesaving step of having him ask before he switched anything on, there were days when all we'd hear was "Whatzis button do?" "Whatzis switch?" It was like having a five year-old where my coworker should be, but his fascination and ever-present smile was genuine, so it was hard to get angry at him. I'd try to explain, but my boss took a different tack. "Whatzis lever?" His countrified, poker-faced reply: "Lever B." As in "leave her be, " as in focus on your task.

Every time a patch comes out (and WoW dual talent spec devotees, it looks like this isn't the week for 3.1) I wonder if someone pulled Lever B, that the patch fixed or altered what simply wasn't broken. I don't envy the designers; for everything that's obviously broken there's three or more things that are iffy - potentially requiring hours of setup and controlled testing to duplicate the problem in a multiplayer environment then finding the appropriate person to fix. The closer the fix to the core of the game experience - the more established gamers the fix affects - the greater the potential discontent.

The most hotly criticized Lever B moment came four years ago with Star Wars Galaxies Combat Upgrade (CU - April 2005) and subsequent New Game Experience (NGE - Nov. 2005). Many SWG gamers will still speak with visible anger about these changes even today - upset that these changes went well beyond fixing well-known armor exploits and into the Lever B realm. CU, to these gamers, shoehorned a wide-open existence in the Star Wars universe into the narrow-visioned cinematic jedi-rife they'd always feared. SWG remains the only game that spun an open-source emulator community committed not to shirking monthly dues, but preserving the pre-CU game.

We pick on SWG, but every game has its Lever B patch to some gamers at some point. World of Warcraft's zombie plague last October and even the Corrupted Blood plague stretching back to 1.7 stirred a fair amount of discontent. Turbine's efforts to auto-balance PvMP with Mines of Moria spawned comments that the changes swung the odds from the freeps to the creeps favor overmuch and in fact unbalanced the classes itself. With every patch you'll find plenty of naysayers looking for a reason. More often than not, patches are just the most convenient, looming focal point for long festering complaints, like how you might cuss at the fast-braking semi in front of you, rather than the car that cut it off, hidden from your view.

Have a Lever B patch in mind? Get if off your chest in the Loading... forum, or send me an email!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our WoW: News Discussion

When will World of Warcraft's patch 3.1 go live? A new dual spec feature for max level players is among the many changes this patch
brings, and players are eager for its arrival. There's plenty of
speculation circulating about the release date, and our WoW forums are
not immune. Maegwynn, our volunteer moderator, believes he (yes, he's a
dude) has a valid guess.

"This is pure speculation," he says, "but considering recent announcements--the one
on the equipment manager not making it to release in particular, and
the following post by Aratil--it's a very good possibility that we'll see 3.1 on..."

You're going to have to click this link
to find out more and see if you agree. You can also join the developing
discussion about why WoW needs this patch to retain increasingly
restless level capped players.

==============================
Epic Quotes from the Epic Thread

"I
do hope it is soon. A lot of my friends and guildies, myself included,
are really starting to find very little to do. We can clear the 'raid'
content in two nights...if everyone shows up. Many of my friends
have leveled 2 or 3 alts and are just kind of getting bored with the
game."

- Miralyn
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 30 in April! 417 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Exclusive - Iconic Classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic

When BioWare announced the Bounty Hunter as the first playable class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, there was a great commotion in the Force, as if hundreds of thousands of Star Wars fans breathed a sigh of relief. With one of the most talked about classes finally confirmed, speculation remains at an all time high as to which classes will be revealed next, though many suspect signs of a Smuggler class are already written on the wall. In the newest episode of MMOs, the Final Frontier, Reuben “Sardu” Waters takes a closer look at the potential class lineup in TOR based on the most recent announcements from BioWare. Sins of a Solar Spymaster #6 - The Propaganda War

Whether you like it or not, propaganda is part of our modern way of life. Every where you look, companies are doing their best to spin their marketing schemes and ingrain them into your brain. These sort of guerrilla campaigns are actively waged in EVE Online as well, and this week's "Sins of a Solar Spymaster" article focuses squarely on propaganda warfare. Check it out! Exclusive Alganon Class Interview #1 - The Soldier

Over the last few years, the implementation of time-based advancement has become more than just a novelty. The success of EVE Online has occurred, in no small part, thanks to their reliance on time-based skill training. Now the developers working on Alganon are going to take a crack at time-based advancement. Along with the interview we recently did with them a few weeks ago, Ten Ton Hammer has nabbed a number of exclusive class interviews, so sit back and enjoy our exclusive discussion with Lead Data Designer Hue Henry on Alganon's Soldier! World of Warcraft: Team iDemise Leveling Guide Review

Over the next few weeks, Ten Ton Hammer will be taking a look at several leveling guides. We'll be covering in-game paid leveling guides, as well as some free guides available for use on the internet. Every guide claims to be the fastest and the best, but which one really IS the best, and which ones are just cheap scams? We intend to find out. After we've reviewed them all, we'll have a comparison to see exactly which leveling guide reigns supreme.
Today Jeff Francis takes a look at the paid leveling guide by Team iDemise. Lord of the Rings Online: Your Guide to Playing Sauron's Minion -The Spider

With the ability to inflict the Heebie-Jeebies just on sight, few denizens of the Ettenmoors can instill fear in your opponent like the spider. Masters of damage over time and crowd control, the spider is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Join Dalmarus as he explores the strengths and weaknesses of this eight-legged monstrosity.

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

Ether Saga Dev Diary #3 - Events and Instances geeked: Dirty Deeds What *is* a Free MMOG? CrimeCraft: Exclusive Interview with Vogster's Matt McEnerney World of Warcraft Comic: Goob & Begud - Happy Ending Exclusive Interview with Nexon's Min Kim Can Aion Take North America by Storm? Loading... Live #10 Podcast: Post-Book 7 Dev Chat with LotRO's Jeffrey Steefel The Symbiosis of Ship, Captain and Crew in Star Trek Online geeked: Patience is a Virtue

Real World News

Toddler shoots himself in foot

Guns don’t kill people, people who leave their guns loaded and under a bed where their small children can find them kill people. 43-yr old father arrested for reading porn to his 2-yr old.

In a park. While dressed in fishnet stockings and a bra. And then it gets weird. Man's body pulled from river near Climax

“He came out of nowhere,” a bystander ejaculated, “and was definitely not happy to see us.”

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

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