by Jeff Woleslagle on Dec 04, 2008
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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 Stargate Worlds (UP 1) Star Wars: The Old Republic (down 1) Jumpgate Evolution Star Trek Online EVE Online EverQuest 2 (UP 7!) Atlantica OnlineBiggest Sinkers and Floaters in the Top 20
EverQuest 2 (UP 4 to no. 16) City of Heroes (UP 3 to no. 15) Guild Wars 2 (down 3 to no. 18)Daily Column
Loading... like a sumo master that can do a sit-up.
It's hard to imagine a Ten Ton Hammer without Coyote's daily blogs, but next month that'll be our unfortunate reality. My talks (read: after-work IMs) with his agent (read: RadarX) revealed that he didn't sign a multi-million dollar contract with a glamorous Hollywood media firm as I'd hoped (we could then take up a collection around the office and make a counter-offer), but simply enough wanted some time to relax and recharge. Being funny daily is hard - I know because I'm not funny daily and that's hard too - so we certainly, whole-heartedly wish Coyote well. Happily we'll have blogs from Coyote through the holidays, making this time of year that much more special.
So if you can work scantily clad boob pics, MMOGs, and wit into a daily blog for years on end, please email your resume and letter of interest to... nah we can't replace Coyote. Maybe he'll come write a guest piece from time to time if we ask him prettily.
Switching gears, the post-TSO EverQuest 2 interview with Bruce Ferguson and Noel Walling made a few waves in our forums, which I'm actually glad to see. Moderately informed dissenting voices make life much more interesting. My thoughts on expansions geared solely to level cap players are well documented, or maybe I'm just jealous of their /played time.
But I will say this, if there's any game that's earned the right to make whatever kind of retail expansion that they want to, it's the EQ2 team. Four years have brought us five EQ2 expansions, a handful of adventure packs, and an event schedule only rivalled among fantasy MMOs by WoW (and without a single zombie-pocalypse - say it: zombie-pocalypse, it's fun), and that kind of hectic release post-release schedule earns the EQ2 folks a lot of well-earned respect around the industry.
Also continuing to make waves in Ralsu's MMO Space Race editorial, with our special guest star, an especially livid SGW community. I'll not come to Danny's rescue; he's done a more than adequate job of defending his views in the forums. But he was at the center of the storm (or whereever the storm is at its suckiest) involving the now-discontinued SGW beta giveaway, which I've already vowed will be the last beta giveaway we do without the actual keys in hand. We've done more than a dozen beta giveaways this year for premium members and given away thousands of dollars of prizes (shameless plug: sign up for Premium access!) and SGW was the only one that went a little awry.
That said, about 95% of the beta requests went through and the rest will be added when closed beta starts again in January. I know CME is anxious to not repeat a beta giveaway scenario like this again too, and James Delaney and the CM team have I believe made the best of a situation that wasn't exactly their making or ours.
I do believe that 2009 will also be the year of the comic book MMOG as much as the space MMOG, with Champions Online (for sure) and DC Universe (for probably) set to take the stage during next year as well. The chickens of WoW's fantasy MMOG dominance are coming home to roost. Bad news for elves and orcs, good news for those of us that sorely need a change of scenery.
Share your thoughts in the Loading forum, or my inbox is always open for comments and, of course, naughty pictures.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 34 in December! 3008 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Interviews
Red 5 Studios: Mark Kern on the Industry, SciFi, and ConsolesCommunity
Great Gifts for Gamers - Savanja's Holiday Wish ListImages/Video
City of Heroes: Issue #13 Day Jobs VideoGuides
Warhammer Online: Secrets to Ultimate Pwnage! Warhammer Online: Quick Guide to Dark Elf Black Guard Warhammer Online: Black Guard Abilities - Lvl 1-20 Warhammer Online: Knight of the Blazing Sun Abilities - Lvl 1-20 World of Warcraft: Paladin Talent Build Updates World of Warcraft: Hunter Talent Build Updates Age of Conan: Treasury of the Ancients WalkthroughHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Warhammer Online: Secrets to Ultimate Pwnage! Red 5 Studios: Mark Kern on the Industry, SciFi, and Consoles City of Heroes: Issue #13 Day Jobs Video Great Gifts for Gamers - Savanja's Holiday Wish List EverQuest 2: Post-'Shadow Odyssey' with Bruce Ferguson and Noel Wellen The Madness of Crafting Ten Ton Comics: Geeked - "Hindsight is 20/20" The New Space Race: Four MMOGs Taking Gamers into Outer Space in 2009 Red 5 Studios: Exclusive with Chief Creative Officer Mark Kern Ten Ton Turnip - Issue #1Real World News
Man shoots wife during sexThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team