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is the premiere daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!

Welcome
to the 1,423rd
edition
of Loading...

style="font-style: italic;">Head
start programs have
become a standard practice for  the launch of MMOGs over the
past
several years. Find out what Executive Editor, Ben, thinks of early
access. He also reveals his true feelings about digital downloads vs.
boxed copies today in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/sep/21">Loading...
Jumping the Gun.

cellspacing="0" width="100%">

The
Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">What
is The Pulse?).

Today's
top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
   of the Rings Online (UP 1)
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">Everquest 2
   (down 1)
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild
   Wars 2 (UP 7)
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/">EVE Online
   (down 1)

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
   and Dragons Online
   
   - down 2
   to
   #7
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2">StarCraft
   II
   
   - down 2
   to
   #12 style="text-decoration: underline;">
3. style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv">Final
   Fantasy XIV
   
   - UP 2
   to
   #15

size="-1">Recent Releases

• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2461"
  target="_blank">Need
  for Speed World
  (release)
• size="-1">7/27
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
  II: Wings of Liberty
  (release)
• size="-1">8/17
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
  of Heroes: Going Rogue (release)
• size="-1">8/18
  - href="http://everquest2.com/free_to_play">EverQuest
  II Extended (release)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/7
  - size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
  Assault on Balaurea (free
  expansion)

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

• size="-1">September
  30, 2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv" target="_blank">Final
  Fantasy XIV size="-1">
  (release)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">October
  26, 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/170">LEGO
  Universe (release)
  
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">November
  2, 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
  Universe Online (release)
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Events

• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/5 -
  10/8 - href="http://www.gdconline.com/">GDC
  Online
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/8 -
  10/10 - href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/">New
  York Comic Con
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
  10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y" target="_blank">BlizzCon
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
  -
  3/26 (2011) - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/" target="_blank">CCP
  FanFest
  

style="font-weight: bold;">World of Warcraft:
Brewfest Tankard O' Terror Contest

October is just around the corner, so you know what that means.
It’s that festive time once again when we get to raise or
virtual tankards in World of Warcraft in celebration of the annual
in-game Brewfest event! To help get you into the spirit (or should that
be spirits?) of the event, we’ll be giving away not just one,
but two signed Tankard O’ Terror’s from href="http://www.taverncraft.com/">Taverncraft.
For full contest details be sure to race your ram over to our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/wow/brewfest">Brewfest
Tankard O’ Terror Contest page!




Enter now as the contest ends on Monday, September 27th at midnight!

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Loading... Wishing we lived in
a Mad Max world so we could have a .50 cal machinegun on the hood of
our car.

Final
Fantasy XIV head start kicks
off today. Players who have preordered the Collector's Edition will be
taking the day off work, skipping class, and/or breaking up with their
secondary others to get some time to dive into the world and get their
game on.



Head starts are fun. I like to check them out when I can. For me it's
not because it gives me a leg up on a lot of the competition. It's not
really about super anticipation (though this is sometimes the case).
No, for me, I like head starts because I get a feel for the community.
The head starters tend to be some of the most dedicated fans and this
group of people have a different flare in every game.



There are the sages, who have been playing the game since inception and
have 28,000 posts on the official forums. There are the competitors who
pull 22 hours a day until they reach max level. There are the veterans
who form their guilds early and start recruiting out of the gate. There
are the cheaters who have either found an exploit in beta or look
around to find one as soon as they can to capitalize off it before it's
discovered. There are the socialites who spend all day in public chat
channels talking and befriending others. There are the instructors who,
like the socialites, spend the day in public chat, but they only reply
to newbie questions. There are the newbs who have never before played
an MMOG but for one reason or another have enough interest in this
particular title that they got into the head start. There are the
fanbois who have sold all their earthly possessions to buy a great
computer to run the game, and a build-it-yourself shed kit from the
hardware depot to live in for the next eight months.



All of these people and more you will find in the head start programs.
It's a whacky, zany adventure during head start, and it's a lot of fun.
You get a feel for the server community early on and it's easy to be
able to determine the tone of the experience you'll be having for the
next few months as you play the game.



Even then, head starts do have down sides. Often the community can be
separated between early access and standard access. Sometimes, too,
redeemable items may not be able to be claimed during the head start,
which can be frustrating, particularly if an item is designed to be of
most use during the first few levels. Worse yet, sometimes some glaring
bugs may still be present in some head start programs as the experience
can be treated as a sort of final beta test before launch, depending on
the devco's approach.



I won't be in the style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XIV
head start today. It's not because I don't want to be, but it's simply
a matter of logistics. I buy all my games in digital format nowadays
and the fact that there's no digital version available yet is a big
turn off for me. A game needs to have wowed me to the extreme if I'm
going to make a special trip to go downtown, preorder the game, and go
back a few weeks or months later to pick it up. Call me lazy, but when
I can buy almost every other PC game I could ever want through an
online store of some sort, I feel a little more than inconvenienced if
I have to set aside time out of my day to make a special trip to pick
up the game.



So FF
XIV early starters, have a
great time today. I do wish I was there with you and all the other
sages, competitors, veterans, cheaters, socialites, instructors, newbs
and fanbois, but I won't be. There is an EB Games by my gym though, so
I will make a point to stop by and pick up a copy come standard launch.
But I still won't make a special trip just for that. Call me lazy, call
me undedicated. I call it living in 2010.



Are you playing style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XIV
today? Which category of head-starter do you fit into? Want to tell me
to swallow my pride and go buy the damn game already? Tell it all in
the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53639">forums.

---

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the
Day

From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3">Tavern
of the Ten Ton Hammer forum



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53636"> style="font-weight: bold;">Plan href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53636">et
Michael: The true death blow to MMOs



What
does the world need even more than a Hello Kitty MMOG? Obviously, we've
been in dire need of a Michael Jackson MMOG; we just didn't know it
yet. But href="http://www.seeglobalentertainment.com/experiences/virtual-worlds/planet-michael.html">SEE
Global Entertainment has peered
into our souls and determined our deepest desires. And I foresee your
desire to href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53636">talk
about it.



=====================================

Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread



"Ooooooh!
I bet the only gear that drops in this game is Jesus juice and your
pants!"



- href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=442290&postcount=2">Annatar

=====================================

---

New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

9 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 71 Ten Ton
Hammer features in September! 1026 in 2010!

style="font-weight: bold;">CONTESTS



HOT!
World of Warcraft: Brewfest Tankard O' Terror Contest

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/wow/brewfest">http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/wow/brewfest



October
is just around the corner, so you know what that means. It’s
that
festive time once again when we get to raise or virtual tankards in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World of
Warcraft in celebration of the
annual in-game Brewfest event!



Running
through October 5th, Brewfest is all about kicking back and enjoying a
few ales, testing your skills at ram racing and having an all-around
good time with your friends in the game. To learn what’s
changed for
the event this year and how you can snag yourself some awesome event
loot, be sure to take a gander at our complete href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/brewfest">Brewfest
Guide.



To
help get you into the spirit (or should that be spirits?) of the event,
we’ll be giving away not just one, but two signed Tankard
O’ Terror’s
from Taverncraft.
For full contest details be sure to race your ram over to our Brewfest
Tankard O’ Terror Contest page!



INTERVIEWS



style="color: red;">HOT!
Core Gameplay in Guild Wars 2 - A Ten Ton Hammer Exclusive Community
Interview

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/interviews/core-gameplay">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/interviews/core-gameplay



As
much as many of us here at Ten Ton Hammer enjoy getting the opportunity
to speak with AreanNet about the development of Guild Wars 2, we also
realize that our community members are equally curious to learn more
details about the upcoming game. In fact, for our latest exclusive
interview we gave our readers the opportunity to submit their Guild
Wars 2 questions which we made sure to ask during our recent discussion
with Game Designer Izzy Cartwright.



While certain aspects of the
game remain under wraps for the time being, we presented as many of our
readers’ questions as time would allow, with a few of our own
thrown in
for good measure. Will customizable party hats be the new guild capes?
Will underwater gameplay alter the way our skills function in any way?
Read on to find out the answers to these and many more questions in our
exclusive community interview for Guild Wars 2!



REVIEWS



SOE
Strikes Back - A Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Review

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/clone-wars-adventures">http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/clone-wars-adventures

 

When
Star Wars and SOE are mentioned in the same breath the reaction from
some gamers is downright scary. Undaunted by any lingering anger over
the past, these two have once again partenered up to create a
multiplayer world. This time using the Clone Wars era and a browser
based delivery method, the new game looks to capture a younger market,
similar to that of FreeRealms. Can they capture the magic of the Star
Wars universe and can a browser based game deliver the level of gaming
goodness that Star Wars fans demand? Join Jason "Medawky" Bolton this
week as he progresses from Padwan to Jedi in our review of Star Wars:
Clone Wars Adventures.





BETA PREVIEWS



War of 2012: Flames of Open Beta Burning

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war-of-2012/feature/beta-preview">http://www.tentonhammer.com/war-of-2012/feature/beta-preview



War
of 2012 recently kicked off its open beta and players are waging war in
the browser-based war game that fuels its conflict with the ancient
Mayan Doomsday Prophecy. But what does this game have to offer players
in a market full of free-to-play games? Check out the latest href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war-of-2012/feature/beta-preview">open
beta feature from Playful Games
Holdings to find out style="font-weight: bold;">



REGULAR FEATURES



WoW Weekly Report - An in-depth look at Deepholm, PVP, and Guild
preparedness

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue85">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue85



The
WoW Weekly Report is our newsletter dedicated to giving you a
wrap-up
of the previous week in news, stories, and more. This week we look at
some great World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Previews including a look at
the changes coming to Durotar, and the new zone of Deepholm. We also
covered the new rated battlegrounds and how your guild can get ready
for Cataclysm. In addition to all that great onsite content, check out
all the news regarding World of Warcraft so you don't miss a thing. All
this and more in our WoW Weekly Report every Tuesday. style="font-weight: bold;">



MEDIA



Mythos Unveils Second Class with the Gadgeteer

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/mythos/screenshots/gadgeteer">http://www.tentonhammer.com/mythos/screenshots/gadgeteer



Frogster
has unveiled the second class for their upcoming Hack'n'Slash MMORPG,
Mythos. The newest class revealed is the Gadgeteer, a class gifted in
the art of making things go boom. Armed with traps, bombs and other
mechanical devices, the Gadgeteer is adept at dealing damage from a
distance and can expand into three fields of specialization: Marksman,
Grenadiers, and Tinkerers. Each new class offers its own unique set of
skills and you can check them all out complete with screenshots in the
latest reveal. style="font-weight: bold;">



FEATURES & GUIDES



Making ISK By Inventing Missiles In EVE Online (Part 2)

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/business/scourge-invention-2">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/business/scourge-invention-2



Ten
Ton Hammer Contributing Writer, Space Junkie, loves making tech two
missiles. He loves it so much that he writes guides about it so that
other EVE Online players can share his joy. That doing so will make the
reader gobs and gobs of ISK is purely secondary to this unusual
fascination with missiles and missile-shaped objects.



The
LotRO Store Arrives in Middle-Earth

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/features/lotro-store">http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/features/lotro-store



The
Lord of the Rings Online free-to-play has been up and running on all
servers for about a week. With free-to-play games come
microtransactions, and with microtransactions come online stores. The
LotRO store offers everything from style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">character
slots to
expansion packs to cosmetic items. Ten Ton Hammer has the
goods on how to purchase your virtual goods.



Editorial
- Lore Continuity Breakdown in WoW Cataclysm

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/continuity-breakdown">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/continuity-breakdown



The
Lich King has been defeated and in a few short (or long depending on
how impatient you happen to be) months the world of Azeroth will
reflect this change as Cataclysm is released for the WoW fans across
the world to enjoy. Quests are being tweaked, talents revamped,
professions overhauled, all in an effort to make the initial play
experience go off without a hitch. However despite all their careful
planning and the huge amount of time Blizzard has invested in the
Cataclysm project they seem to have overlooked one major problem; once
players hit 70 and venture into wintery Northrend the Lich King kind
of, sort of, isn’t dead anymore.

Today's
Top 10

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/wow/brewfest"> style="font-weight: bold;">World of Warcraft:
   Brewfest Tankard O' Terror Contest href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/interviews/core-gameplay">Core
   Gameplay in Guild
   Wars 2 - A Ten Ton Hammer
   Exclusive Community Interview href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">LEGO Universe
   Preview
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/tera/interviews/scott-hartsman-9.14.10">Deeper
   into the Rift – A Q&A with style="font-weight: bold;">Rift:
   Planes of
   Telara’s Scott
   Hartsman
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/brewfest"> style="font-weight: bold;">WoW:
   Brewfest Guide
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/interviews/story-and-progression">The
   Heart of Tyria - An Exclusive Interview on Personal Story and
   Progression in style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Wars 2
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv/interviews/pax-2010-sage-sundi">Reconstructing
   a Classic - A Candid Interview with SquareEnix's Sage Sundi href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/zones/deepholm-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/features/lotro-store">The
   LotRO
   Store Arrives in Middle-Earth href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/zones/deepholm-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/zones/deepholm-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
   Cataclysm – Deepholm Zone Preview
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorials/gamecrush-editorial">GameCrush:
    Capitalizing On
    Your Girl Gamer Fetish

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Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer team