by Jeff Woleslagle on Oct 23, 2008
Welcome to the 939th Edition of Loading...
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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. Warhammer Online is back on top of the Pulse, barely edging out World of Warcraft, only a week and a half to overcome a glut of BlizzCon content.
Warhammer Online- 200 BPM World of Warcraft - 198 BPM Age of Conan - 52 BPM Dungeons & Dragons Online - 39 BPM Star Wars: The Old Republic - 32 BPM Stargate Worlds - 19 BPM Lord of the Rings Online - 15 BPM Tabula Rasa - 13 BPM EVE Online - 12 BPM Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - 11 BPMIf 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?)
Daily Column
Loading... MMOG news and commentary days ahead of the other sites and months ahead of the print magazines.
WAR vs. WoW. McCain vs. Obama. Mac guy vs. PC guy. Ninjas vs. pirates. David Duchovny vs. David Duchovny. Everywhere you look these days, there's a heated rivalry of some sort. Let Loading... be your oasis of calm cool collectedness as we discuss soothing topics like: the a rapidly spreading zombie plague and some extra special encouragement to kill other WAR players.
First up, the open RvR experience bonus for taking down other players in Warhammer Online is up. Way up. In hotfix notes released yesterday, Mythic doubled Open RvR experience:
"With the addition of the new region-wide and RvR-wide chat channels we have seen a marked increase in Open RvR participation. In order to encourage this trend even further, we have made an additional adjustment to the experience awarded for killing enemy players in an Open RvR area. Previously we increased this amount by 50%. As of today, that bonus has been raised to 100%. With this change players killed in Open RvR will now be worth double the experience than those killed in scenarios!"
Asked for comment about the extra incentive last night on WAR's Skull Throne server, the singularly single-minded Grumbolg had this to say (caps and orc kept in for flavor and authenticity): "OI GITZ, I GOT ME A WARBAND TO TAKE BACK DA KEEP AN' U 'OWARDZ BETTER JOIN UP OR I'LL CUT OFF YER JIBBLIES AN' FEED 'EM TO MY SQUIGS." It seems that the RvR bonus did the trick last night, as keeps in the two areas I was fighting in last night changed sides twice during the time I was playing.
To counter the excitement surrounding WAR, Blizzard has infected WoW players with a zombie plague. You have ten minutes to cure the Stratholme strain before you're zombified and made hostile to all factions except other zombies. If you become infected, my advice is to go to the nearest mall (the one where the locals are holed up with high-powered rifles) and walk around the parking lot mindlessly. It's something to do while you wait for your class abilities to come back.
Richard Garriott in space update... doot da doot doot da doot yea, I've about had my limit too. Today marks Lord British's 11th day in space, and Major Tom has really made the grade. He and the Soyuz spacecraft crew will say goodbye to the brittle-boned crew of the International Space Station today before riding the steep sandpaper sliding board down through layers of atmo and resuming life on good ol' terra over the weekend. In all seriousness, we wish Lord British a safe return and happy landings.
Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum or, as always, feel free to email me with your thoughts.
Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 236 in October! 2736 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Images/Video
Wonderland Online: Exclusive Workshop ScreenshotsInterviews
Star Wars - The Old Republic: Lightsabers, The Force, & Space Combat Star Wars - The Old Republic: Q&A with Daniel EricksonOp/Eds
World of Warcraft: Raiding Post-Patch 3.0.2Guides
Warhammer Online: Empire Public Quests - Chap 2 Warhammer Online: Dwarf Public Quests - Chap 5 World of Warcraft: Siege Weapon Combat Overview Age of Conan: Barbarian Feats Updated Age of Conan: Ranger Feats Updated Age of Conan: Classes FAQ UpdatedHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Star Wars - The Old Republic: Lightsabers, The Force, & Space Combat Star Wars - The Old Republic: Q&A with Daniel Erickson World of Warcraft: Raiding Post-Patch 3.0.2 Star Wars - The Old Republic: A New Hope for Star Wars Fans Warhammer Online: Wouldn't It Be Cool... Warhammer Online: State of the Game with Mark Jacobs - Part 2 Runes of Magic: Closed Beta Giveaway #2 BlizzCon 2008 Warhammer Online: State of the Game with Mark JacobsReal World News
Dead goldfish gets voter registration [Courtesy of Matt N.!]Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team