by Jeff Woleslagle on Jan 21, 2009
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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:
World of Warcraft Warhammer Online Age of Conan Lord of the Rings Online Champions OnlineBiggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Earthrise (UP 27 to #16) Huxley (UP 19 to # 18) Ultima Online (UP 14 to # 19)Loading... Daily
Loading... like a high five for the hamburger helper guy.
Tuesday brought the 3.0.8 patch to World of Warcraft, bringing fewer nerfs to the Death Knight class and a number of "improvements" to Hunters (speaking of which, do yourself a favor and catch Geeked: A Sad Day), Druids, and Shamans . Maybe the weirdest item on the patch notes list: WoW now supports Nvidia's 3D Vision initiative, as if WoW needs to suck up any more of your reality.
But has stereoscopic vision progressed beyond 60s horror flick suckage? I'm as tech horny as any of you - my crowning face palm purchase was a $3500 energy hoggish furnace of a machine to play Vanguard (oops). But supposing you have the a pricey Nvidia 8800+ (9800 highly recommended), the $200 3D Vision kit, and Windows Vista installed, reviews like this one at ExtremeTech suggest that the effect in first- or third- person games (i.e. 99% of MMORPGs) that support the tech quickly lose novelty value, and the 3D effect works best in isometric perspective games like RTSs. And even then you'll need to spend some time messing with graphics and monitor brightness settings any time you want to play in 3D and, in the process, often lose many post-processing effects that make these games eye-popping in the first place.
Like any brand new technology, this one's got a way to go, but hey - it only took four decades to move from the red-blue glasses to second gen, shutter-integrated steroscopic vision technology. If chipsets progressed on the same timeline we'd all be gaming on the Commodore 64 instead of the Commodore XX. In the meantime, for 3D hoke nostalgia value, there's always My Bloody Valentine 3-D.
Issue five of the Ten Ton Turnip is out, and if you thought Steve Jobs' medical leave was the biggest news to come out of Macworld this year, you need to see the iMO. Three other satire articles from Everyone Can Be Conan to America's Salvation Army make up what may be the last issue of the Turnip. I think they're hilarious, but you have the final say with your comments and views. In any case, it was a noble ignoble experiment.
Would 3-D enhance your MMO gaming experience? Should we keep cranking out the Ten Ton Hammer Turnip? As always, your comments are welcome in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me directly if you like.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day9 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 86 in January! 86 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Interviews
Aion: Exclusive Flight and Archetype InterviewReviews
LuniaFeatures
Ten Ton Turnip: Issue #5 - Apple Enters MMO Market! Tabula Rasa: A Chronicle of the Rise and FallCommunity
Geeked: "A Sad Day"Guides
World of Warcraft: Gearing up the Paladin World of Warcraft: Gearing up the Priest Warhammer Online: Dwarven Leveling Guide - Chap 7-8 Age of Conan: Gemcrafter Recipes - Tier 4Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Aion: Exclusive Flight and Archetype Interview Ten Ton Turnip: Issue #5 - Apple Enters MMO Market! Tabula Rasa: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall Geeked: "A Sad Day" Review of Lunia World of Warcraft Polar Madness Geeked: "The Good 'Ol Days" Top Ten Free-to-Play Games: FusionFall poised to clean up The Elder Scrolls Online: The Next Great Fantasy MMO? Forever Fantasy: The Future of FantasyReal World News
Errant football leads to shots firedThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team