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Daily Column

Loading... putting the 'Mo' in MMOG.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 157 BPM
Age of Conan - 52 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 14 BPM
EVE Online - 13 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 9 BPM
Star Trek Online - 7 BPM
EverQuest II - 7 BPM
Atlantica - 6 BPM
Vanguard - 6 BPM

Not currently in our Top 10 Pulse list, but likely to be soon, Aion: The Tower of Eternity is one of the upcoming titles in the NCSoft stable.

"During last summer’s conference season, the Ten Ton Hammer team had the opportunity to view Aion: The Tower of Eternity at a number of shows, including E3 and the Leipzig Games Convention. Visually, it blew our socks off. Literally. However, it’s been nearly a year since those initial offerings, and we’ve been lusting for more info to be divulged from NCsoft. With the hiring of their latest Community Relations Manager, Chares ‘kieron’ Dane, NCsoft has finally broken their silence and are eager to chat with the general media about the future of Aion. Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody “Micajah” Bye recently sat down with Charles and had a nice conversation about Aion, its features, and what to expect from the title when it’s released!"

The art direction is unique and compelling, but when I last viewed this game over a year ago that was all that the development team would comment on. Times have changed. The Ten Ton Hammer Exclusive Aion Interview With Charles Dane is now live.

From the 'deals I didn't think I'd ever see department' comes, AMD and Blizzard Entertainment Join Forces in Strategic Global Agreement.

"AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment® that will allow AMD to bundle Blizzard’s best games across all ATI Radeon™ graphics products, to deliver a superior gaming experience. As the exclusive graphics sponsor for BlizzCon™ 2008 in Anaheim, Oct. 10-11, AMD will treat gamers to the unparalleled graphics capabilities of the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series in all PCs for game play at BlizzCon™.

“Blizzard Entertainment is responsible for the hottest titles in PC gaming and AMD is excited to be working closely with one of the top development teams in the industry to deliver exceptional gaming experiences for players around the world,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products, AMD. “Gamers have a variety of choices when it comes to graphics cards, and those who choose ATI Radeon solutions can be confident their purchase will give them the visually rich, high-performance experience they expect.”

“Our collaboration with AMD is especially important to us because it provides us with early access to some of the latest graphics technology,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “Delivering a polished game experience is one of our top priorities, and this relationship helps us achieve that goal for Blizzard gamers who choose AMD graphics cards.”"

I am admittedly not a 'hardware guy', but didn't NVIDIA's purchase of Ageia, the developers of PhysX give their cards an advantage that AMD/ATi will have trouble competing with? Is this just as sponsorship/branding/lip service deal or is there more to it?

Rumours continue to swirl around NCSoft's Austin complex. Kotaku, the site with the tagline Gossip, News and Leaks for Obsessive Gamers has posted that NCSoft is planning to lay-off 140-160 employees. If you see Brad McQuaid in the parking lot, start emptying your desks folks. I hear he's a master of the tarmac termination.

If that isn't wacky enough for you, how about a 17.5 hour boss fight? Apparently the guild Beyond The Limitation battled a FFXI mob named Pandemonium for 17.5 hours before giving up. I've owned single-player games that I didn't play for that long.

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Phil is in the air, so no links today, double the linkage tomorrow.

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Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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