by Karen Hertzberg on Apr 07, 2010
Loading... is the premier daily MMOG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Facebook boasts over more than 400 million users and more than
60 million status updates per day, many times what even the dominant
MMOG, World
of Warcraft, maintains.What can MMOGs learn from
Facebook about nurturing social interactivity? We'll explore this topic
in today's Loading...
Socially Acceptable.
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:
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I get the feeling that Matt Lowery's article,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/facebookthewowkiller">Is
Facebook the WoW Slayer?, will stir up some conversation on
our forums. In it, he talks about the addictive qualities of social
interaction in Facebook games like Farmville, and
suggests that the reason World
of Warcraft is reigning MMOG king is not because
it's superior to all others, but simply because it's where the people
are.
Now, early
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50592">comments
on the article to the contrary, I don't believe Matt's suggesting that
WoW and Farmville are in the same league since
they're on completely different platforms. What he is
saying, however, is that the social aspect of MMOGs is about to change,
and that hugely popular social networking games may provide the impetus.
I agree with Matt's assessment that people turn to WoW because they
know they're most likely to find their MMOG-playing friends there. I
also concur that MMOGs are due for a change, and that the Next Big
Thing may not necessarily be the slickest and shiniest new
game. Slick and shiny can certainly attract gamers, but when it comes
to MMOGs it's not enough to retain them.
Recent slick shiny MMOGs like Aion
provide evidence.
Let's take a look at some of the things Facebook does when it
comes to keeping people interacting:
Sites like SOE's Station.com
and Blizzard's Battle.net
have taken strides toward increasing the social aspect of MMOGs. Yet
there are probably many lessons yet to be learned from social
networking sites like Facebook and its peers. It seems the more
in-your-face a social networking community is, with email and mobile
updates constantly reminding you of its existence, the higher the
potential for annoyance (which is why the ability to opt out of such
updates is crucial), yet the higher the degree of interactivity
overall. That's probably why
href="http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics">Facebook
boasts over 400 million active users and more than 60 million
status updates per day--it never lets you forget that its world exists,
and that you have friends there.
How will MMOGs utilize the lessons Facebook has taught to amp
up "socialability?" What connections can we draw between the world's
most
successful social networking platform and successful massively
multiplayer online games? There's plenty more I could say about it, but
I'd rather hear from you. Come talk about it in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50601">Loading...
forum. Let's interact!
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=153">WoW:
Paladins forum
Holy
help?
No,
the title "Holy help?" is not a plea from Robin to Batman, but a
request from Zeep for answers to some questions about his holy spec'd World
of Warcraft Paladin. Can you help a fellow Pally out? I knew
you could. So, go
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50363">answer
his questions already!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Flash of Light spamming is built around pimping your
spellpower, making the most of your smaller mana pool, and making the
spells you can cast a LOT of hit harder."
- Kraelin
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
3 new Ten Ton Hammer
features
today! 30 in April! 389
in 2010!
FEATURED
EDITORIALS
Is Facebook the WoW Slayer?
http://www.tentonhammer.com/facebookthewowkiller
As Facebook continues to grow and add more and more games that play
like MMOGs, what effect does this have on the genre? Mattlow gives his
impression on how Facebook changes everything when it comes to social
gaming.
FEATURES & GUIDES
WoW: Non-Combat Pet Frenzy - WoW Weekly Report
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue61
Our World of Warcraft newsletter, the WoW Weekly Report, is here again
this week with WoW news, lore, and more. This week we take a
look at why David "Xerin" Piner thinks Ulduar is the best instance in
the game and what is so frustrating about the way non-combat pets are
currently handled.
WoW: Semi-Hardcore - The Life of a Not Quite Hardcore Raiding
Tank
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/editorials/semihc/vol1-intro">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/editorials/semihc/vol1-intro
Welcome to Byron "Messiah" Mudry's new column at Ten Ton
Hammer, a place for him to expand on what he
feel is going in his favorite parts of World of Warcraft--tanking,
raiding, and some of the math behind the game. In this first article he
looks at the lack of CC and how tanking is almost all handled with AoE
these days. Come see if you agree that AoE has removed some of the
skill, planning, and tactics from the game.
Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team