by John Hoskin on May 01, 2008
Welcome to the 820th Edition of Loading...
If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's news syndication program. Enjoy!
Daily Column
Loading... the reason the Mars rover mission was such a success.
First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.
If the Top 10 isn't enough, we now show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)
Age of Conan - 200 BPM World of Warcraft - 51 BPM Lord of the Rings Online - 32 BPM EverQuest 2 - 16 BPM Lineage 2 - 15 BPM Warhammer Online - 13 BPM EVE Online - 12 BPM Dungeons and Dragons Online - 12 BPM Guild Wars - 10 BPM Vanguard - 9 BPMThe Age of Conan Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) has been lifted and that means that our AoC team can open up the gates to the largest Age of Conan information portal on the planet. That's right, the embargo is over. The guards have been pulled from their posts and you are free to openly gaze upon the Age of Conan information that until this point has been for testers only.
Age of Conan Community Site at TenTonHammer.com Age of Conan Guides Age of Conan ForumsThe idea of having a TenTonHammer.com guild in Age of Conan has been thrown around a few times. The original response was less than expected (about 40 people) and given that new guilds tend to lose many players who don't find the game to their liking I put the formation of a Ten Ton guild on hold, but the last few days have seen dozens of emails wing their way to my inbox asking if we were having a guild or not. The answer is, yes.
To better gauge the response and see who is serious about taking part Karen has opened up a message forum for the guild. If you would like to be part of the Ten Ton Hammer AoC Guild then this is your chance. Put your name in the hat (it's a huge black top-hat that rabbits jump out of) and we'll see how many people are going to get this party started. If everyone who reads Loading... signs up then we'll need 400 guilds. How cool would that be? We could name them stuff like, Ten Ton Hammer 1st Legion, Ten Ton Hammer 2nd Army, Ten Ton Bag of Hammers, etc.
If decapitation and nudity aren't your thing then not only is the Ten Ton AoC guild not for you, but you don't want to be around for one of our office parties. Instead, I suggest that you enter our Wonderland $1100 Giveaway.
Ten Ton Hammer recently teamed with Skyunion Co, Ltd to bring you Closed Beta keys for Wonderland Online. Now the Wonderland Team wants to thank you for helping test their game. They're offering a chance for Ten Ton Hammer faithful who tested the game to win $1100 in prizes.
Turbine, who coincidentally were the first company that I ever wrote a MMOG article about (Ah, Asheron's Call. I'm dating myself) put on a great show at the New York Comic Con. We have the video evidence of Kate Paiz and Craig Alexander giving presentations and answering fan questions about Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. It became public yesterday that Turbine had obtained another USD $40 million in venture capital. More money for the company is a good thing, however venture capital money usually comes with a requirement that the VC company have a say in company decisions. The installation of Hani Nada of Granite Global (a VC company) on the board seems to justify that this is indeed the case with Turbine.
If you are part of the Age of Conan open beta I would love to read your impressions of the games. The Loading Forums await you. Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.
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14 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 14 in May! 1033 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Images/Video
Interviews
Champions Online: Dev Profile of Content Designer Nellie HughesReviews
2Moons: First ImpressionsContests
Wonderland $100 GiveawayFree-to-Play
Top 10 F2P Games - Week 2Op/Eds
Warhammer Online: 5 Things to Worry AboutGuides
Age of Conan: NDA Lifted! World of Warcraft: Avoiding Death Lord of the Rings Online: Tier 2 Auction House Price Guide EverQuest 2: Ranger Class Update Vanguard: Trickster's Haven Guide #9Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to
Age of Conan: Game Designer Jason Stone Game Over: Episode 17 - Geektopia Bounty Bay Online Client @ Ten Ton Hammer 38 Studios Presentation World of Warcraft: Is the Arena PvP Tournament Worth Your Money? Age of Conan: Joe 'Adus' Hegarty, AI Designer Warhammer Online: Presentation Video (Extended for Premium Members)Real World News
Nelson Mandela is on the U.S.'s Terrorist Watch ListResemblance to building in Mecca accidental, or an iMac-ulate conception?
Texas police think person lived with skeleton on couchThanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com. Thanks to Phil Comeau for doing the heavy lifting with the links, headlines and taglines!
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team