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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?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
Biggest Movers in the Top 20 this week :
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (UP 37 to # 9)
- Fiesta (UP 20 to #18)
- Dungeons and Dragons Online (UP 16 to # 8)
Loading... Daily
Loading... because the Internet doesn't have enough words.
Grats to opinion writer and professional get-off-my-lawn, damn-kids-er Dalmarus, whose nifty article on Learning Curves in modern MMOs got picked up by Slashdot Games. For online media, getting your article slashdotted is akin (and as close as we'll get) to winning a Pulitzer , though we get 4 pages of verbalicious nerd-nexus comments instead of a cash prize. More's the pity, but we'll take it. In fact, about once a month lately. Thanks /.
If you're a latecomer to a conversion with words like "learning curve" and "MMORPG", you'll probably assume people are talking about EVE Online, and you'd be largely correct with regard to Dalmarus's article. Though learning "curve" is a bit of an understatement - EVE Online Senior Technical Producer Torfi Frans led off his FanFest talk about the coming expansion with "so we all know that EVE has a bit of a steep learning cliff." That got a laugh, a very palpable laugh out of the audience despite Olafsen's distinctive Icelandic accent, which can roll an R faster than a 14 year-old introvert can roll a DK.
Still, CCP's out to change our perceptions of EVE's erudition, and because making one big huge announcement about the upcoming retail expansion at EVE FanFest didn't quite do the trick, CCP welcomed us into the new year with a press release that drove the point home, this time with a real title: Apocrypha. Apocrypha. Say it slowly with some moody eurotechno turned way up and try not to shudder. We're a little less than two months away, as Apocrypha launches on 3/10, hopefully the major NPE / new areas & wormholes / epic mission arcs / modular ships / everything else expansion will be worth CCP's decision to termporarily suspend development on World of Darkness, shifting the bulk of its 300-person workforce in Shanghai, Atlanta, and what's left of Reykjavik to the project.
One game that has more of a slip 'n slide than a learning curve is City of Heroes, whose character creation has earned the seal of approval from the Internet yet no one can really recall what happens after level 20. Jimmy Hoffa might be alive and well in Arachnos headquarters for all we know. You can find out whether you have a PC or (from now on) a Mac, as CoH has now launched for the hippest and most trendy among us. To leave you with a laugh, the new City of Heroes Mac vs. PC video is well worth a watch.
Proceed directly to the Loading... forum and interact with whoever you find there, or email me directly if you like. In any case, have a great weekend!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our Vanguard: General Discussion Forum
Why Not WoW?
Okay,
I confess--I have a soft spot for Vanguard. Despite my bitter
disappointment in Brad McQuaid and his management cronies, I like the
game he (and others on the original team for the now defunct Sigil
Games Online) envisioned. I like the people who slaved away trying to
pull it together for a rushed launch. I wish launch had gone better,
because I believe that a less-than-stellar (and that's an
understatement) launch destroyed any chance for Vanguard to be the
triple-A MMOG it really should have been.
ArcaneBomb55 stepped
right on my tender heart when he started this dismissive thread saying
of Vanguard: "The basic game mechanics are still: target MOB, press
numbers to
execute cast sequence.
WoW's interface/graphics are just less
confusing
(IMO), and lag is worse in Vanguard. So, what keeps you in Vanguard,
rather than switching to WoW, which drastically overshadows it?"
Maybe
you agree with ArcaneBomb55. Or maybe you're like me and believe he
failed to make his case. Regardless of whether you're a Vanguard hater
or a Vanguard fan or anything in between, this thread awaits your input.
=================================
Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread:
"This is like the guy who came to the WoW forums saying how Vanguard was
better than WoW and everyone there tore him up (of course Arcane is not
the troll that guy was) - if you don't care for Vanguard that's cool
but coming here and comparing it to WoW is just asking for a fight."
- Miralyn
=================================
Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let
us know!
5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 32 in January! 32 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Op/Eds
Community
Guides
Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
- Ten Ton Hammer's MMO Gaming Predictions for 2009
- Warhammer Online: What to Expect in 2009
- Age of Conan: Border Kingdom Cryer - The End of the Road
- Goob & Begud: "For PETA's sake"
- Champions Online: Cryptic, Champions and the Console MMOG
- World of Warcraft Celebrities - NFL Punter Chris 'Warcraft' Kluwe
- Aion: Fantasy Forever - Capturing the Feel of Flight
- Warhammer Online: New Year's WAAAGH-solutions
- Finding the Right Free-to-Play MMOG
- Geeked: "Competitive Strategies"
Real World News
-
Man in hospital with stroke dies of starvation
They didn't install a feeding tube, since it was impossible to get grey peas and jello into it. -
"I lost half my brain but found true love"
Apparently love isn't blind, it's brain damaged. -
Man charged over human head and bones found in IKEA bag
Positive ID could take weeks, as the bones in question look nothing like the pictures on the instructions.
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EVE Online Game Page.
