by Jeff Woleslagle on May 14, 2009
Welcome to the 1,079th Edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
In today's Loading..., we'll discuss The Mittani's report from EVE Vegas and a compelling idea for the next EVE expansion, a sweeping interview with bestselling author R.A. Salvatore on his creative process for 38 Studios' Copernicus, and a look at the granddaddy sandbox of them all, Ultima Online, and its upcoming Stygian Abys. That and more in Loading... Something Old, Something New.
Coyote is back in a big way at Ten Ton Hammer, and his daily column explores all things geek with Coyote's trademark wit and humor in It's All Geek to Me, fresh daily at Ten Ton Hammer. Today's topic: It's all in your MIND... - Is telekinesis REAL?
Recent MMO Releases
4/28 - Free Realms (release date) 5/11 - Chronicles of Spellborn 1.0.4 - "Scrolls of Keys and Courage" (content patch)Upcoming Releases
5/19 - Warrior Epic (launch date) 5/22 - Dragonica (CBT key giveaway) 6/23 - Jumpgate Evolution (release date) 7/14- Champions Online (release date)Important Dates
5/16 - BlizzCon 2009 tickets on sale 6/2 - 6/4 - E3 2009The 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 for today:
World of Warcraft Warhammer Online Aion: The Tower of Eternity (UP 1) EverQuest 2 Age of Conan
Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
Perfect World Intl. (UP 19 to #10) Tabula Rasa (UP 5 to #14) Lineage 2 (UP 3 to #17)Loading... Daily
Jumpgate Evolution dev chat tonight at 7pm US Eastern in Voon room Ten Ton Events. Bring your JGE questions!
So news has slowed down quite a bit after a frantic push at the start of the week, but fortunately today's Ten Ton Hammer articles make a little news of their own.
The Mittani's report from EVE Vegas contains much of what you'd expect from sending the leading voice of EVE's most infamous corp to Earth's most tastefully debauched city. Yet Vegas itself inspired a pretty unique idea for an expansion to jazz up the incredibly underutilized lowsec space surrounding the empire strongholds. Smuggling and contraband are part of any good space game, and cargoholds full of "boosters" and exotic dancers added a nice touch of personality and story-inspired risk to the alternately frigid / absolutely terrifying nature of EVE gameplay.
What could take EVE to the next level of Han Solo-inspired smuggling intrigue greatness? Those in attendance at EVE Vegas figured out how to bring a little bit of Vegas into their game, and I'll let you read our latest Sins of a Solar Spymaster article to learn what came out of a dev prompted brainstorming session for EVE's next expansion.
Ten Ton Hammer's Cody Bye just spoke with bestselling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, who shares a few entertaining stories from his MMO gaming past before addressing how much creative control he has over the 38 Studios project, and how much he wants players to share in the storytelling. He tells how he created a 10,000 year history for the game with his two sons, hinting at a wiki that contains hundreds of pages of lore. There are dozens of thinly veiled insights into how Copernicus is progressing, so if you're a fan of the deep-in-development game or simply believe (as we do) that you can't go wrong with the likes of Todd McFarlane, Salvatore, and the host of MMO development talent 38 Studios has put together, Ten Ton Hammer's latest R.A. Salvatore interview is an excellent read.
Ultima Online holds the Guiness World Record for longest continuously running online game (12 years and counting) as well as the record for first to 100,000 subscribers, according to Lead Designer Tim Cotten. And if there were a record for first MMORPG where you can go out into the woods with a bunch of your friends and build your own city, then ping the GMs for some extra permissions after a few months to make it more city-like, UO would have that one too. The Stygian Abyss expansion might be taking a little longer than expected, it'll fuse Brettonia and the new gargoyle land of Ter Mur in an impressively huge dungeon experience. Garrett's dishes on Stygian Abyss, its inspirations and additions, in a brief Ultima Online preview piece from Baltimore Games Day 2009.
Have a game or expansion you'd like to see us cover in more detail, or maybe a dev team you'd like us to haul in for a vooncast? Comments always welcome in the Loading... forum. Also, again, we're trying out an MMO release calendar above, so if you have anything to add or if you see breaking MMO news, feel free to email me!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day4 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 48 in May! 575 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Exclusive Interview with R.A. SalvatoreReal World News
Man saw wife and best friend together on porn DVD he purchased [Link courtesy of Matt N.!]Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team