by Reuben Waters on Mar 04, 2010
Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Imagine the volumes
of lore that must get written early on in the development process of a
typical triple A MMOG. In many cases, the lore of a given setting
permeates nearly all aspects of gameplay, from the weapons or armor of
a given culture all the way up to the epic raid encounters that have
become synonymous with level capped gameplay. Now imagine writing a
novel that not only stays true to established lore of the IP, but then
also helps expand or advance it in meaningful ways. We’ll
take a look at two current examples of MMOG novelizations that attempt
to do exactly that along with links to an exclusive interview with CCP
on the upcoming Tyrannis expansion for EVE Online and much more today
in Loading… Once Upon a Time
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
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Here
in the sunny world of games media, we typically find ourselves playing
and analyzing
multiple MMOGs at once, and then one of our many roles is to process
that information into a readable form for our readers. While that alone
can mean a fair amount to juggle on any given week, it
doesn’t seem nearly as daunting when compared to the work
that many of the industry’s fictional authors are able to
produce on a fairly consistent basis.
A perfect example here would be
the recently announced
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
Wars 2
novel,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81401">Ghosts
of Ascalon,
which is due out this summer.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild
Wars
fans
have been aware for quite some time that the proposed trilogy of novels
would be on the way to help bridge the storyline between the original
game and GW2, only now we finally have a much more solid timeframe for
when we can expect the first novel to drop.
Co-author Matt Forbeck has written numerous video game novelizations
over the years – just a quick glance at his
href="http://www.forbeck.com/" target="_blank">website
should
give you some idea of how many different worlds he’s penned
fiction for. He’s obviously no stranger to the process of
learning the sometimes intricate details of a given title’s
background lore and then somehow managing to weave that into a tale
that’s not only entertaining in its own right, but can
potentially even add to the ever evolving official canon of the setting
in question. I’m sure the task becomes somewhat daunting,
however, when the work is based on a game that’s still deep
in the development process. Then again, with
Ghosts of Ascalon it no doubt helps that Matt worked on the novel with
ArenaNet’s
href="http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jeff
Grubb who helped create much of
the
setting’s lore, and describes the upcoming novel as "The
Canterbury Tales with more
explosions".
Regardless of whether you’re a lover or a hater of some of
the design decisions that helped the Guild
Wars series become a
juggernaut in online gaming over the years, I still find the
characters, setting and lore to be among the best original fantasy IPs
to be created in a very long time. Or maybe I’ve simply never
gotten over my not-so-secret obsession with my favorite mini-game of
all time, Rollerbeetle Racing. While it may have absolutely zero impact
on the storyline leading up to Guild
Wars 2, I’m genuinely
hoping its one mechanic that’s managed to survive the
nuttiness of the resurfaced Orr.
Speaking of official canon and novelizations, be sure to check out
Xerin’s
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81590">review
of the latest
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft
novel,
Stormrage.
While not tailored to be a direct expansion lead-in as
Ghosts of Ascalon
will be, Stormrage
does sound like it might
be worth checking out for those of you who enjoy the lore behind
Blizzard’s rampaging MMOG beast.
Do you consider yourself a fan of novels based on video game IPs? If
so, be sure to share some of your favorites in the Loading…
forums.
3 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 23 in March! 253
in 2010!
INTERVIEW
CCP Interview About The
Tyrannis Expansion For EVE Online
http://tentonhammer.com/node/81709
Torfi
Frans Ólafsson is Senior Producer at CCP Games, the makers
of EVE
Online. He was kind enough to say a few words about the upcoming
Tyrannis expansion, which features the development and control of
entire planets.
FEATURED EDITORIAL
PvP - A Comparison of Old
School vs Next Generation MMOGs
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81695">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81695
Have
you ever wondered if MMOGs are better now than they were in the years
ago? Mattlow has, and brings his perspective to the topic in this first
part of his Comparison of Old School vs Next Generation MMOGs.
GUIDES
Star Trek Online: Ten Ton
Hammer's Galactic Map Archives
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/federation/maps">http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/federation/maps
While
the process of warping between local systems in Star Trek Online has
been made relatively easy, sometimes traversing the vastness of space
can still be a difficult endeavor. To help get you pointed in the right
direction, Ten Ton Hammer is pleased to bring you detailed maps for
each sector in Federation space and beyond.
Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team