Welcome
to the 1,325th
edition
of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

For all the talk of MMOG market saturation, one thing's for certain: there's a gigantic auto racing-shaped hole in the MMOG category that several titles are hoping to fill this fall. We'll look back at the brief history of MMO racers and what we can expect to see soon, along with links to another great edition of the Ten Ton Hammer Live podcast and seven new articles in Loading... Start Your Engines.

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/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
    of Warcraft
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
    II (down 1)
  3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age
    of Conan (UP 1)
  4. The Lord of the Rings Online (down 1)
  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
    and
    Dragons Online (UP 2)

Biggest
movers this weekend
:

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild Wars
    (UP 18 to #15)
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">The Lord of the Rings Online
    (down 6 to #15)
  3. Warhammer Online (UP 2 to #6)
size="-1">Recent Releases
  • size="-1">2/16
    - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
    2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
  • size="-1">2/16
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479"> LotRO:
    Oath of the
    Rangers (content update)
  • size="-1">4/5
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83086">Pocket
    Legends (iMMOG - release date) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">
  • size="-1">5/1 - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
    of Heroes - Issue 17: Dark Mirror size="-1">(content update)

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

  • size="-1">May 11,
    2010
    - Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer size="-1"> (expansion)
  • size="-1">May 18,
    2010
    - EVE Online: Tyrannis (expansion)
  • size="-1">June 30,
    2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB (US - July 2nd in EU)
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Q2 2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon
  • size="-1">TBA
    2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
    Fantasy XIV size="-1">




size="-1">Upcoming
Events

  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">6/15 -
    6/17 - href="http://www.e3expo.com/">E3
    Expo
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">6/25 -
    6/27 - href="http://www.lfgexpo.com/">Looking
    for Group
    Expo
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">7/22 -
    7/25 - href="http://www.comic-con.org/">Comic-Con
    International
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">8/5 -
    8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/">SOE
    Fan Faire 2010
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
    9/6 - href="http://www.dragoncon.org/">DragonCon
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
    10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y">BlizzCon
  • size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
    -
    3/26 (2011)- href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">CCP
    FanFest




Loading... Daily

Since I missed out on Motor City Online - most of us did, including those that actually played it (thanks to lag and shoddy gameplay)- Test Drive Unlimited was my first MMOG racing experience. I reveled in it, and if a press release is to be believed, over a million other players created accounts. Not shabby at all for a romp around Maui, collecting dozens of high-end Audis, Porsches, Maseratis, and the like, buying posh homes and closets full of fashionable clothing, competing in single player and multiplayer races, and creating impromptu PvP matches simply by flashing your headlights at a potential opponent. If they accept, off you went to a special race instance. It was al a part of what Atari and Eden Games called M.O.O.R. - massively open online racing. TDU's other talking points, like any high-end car commercial, were performance and luxury, and for me it mostly delivered.

But TDU, while ambitious, came up dry in some areas, particularly in multiplayer. For one, very little if anything was done to categorize players by skill level - in staged multiplayer races, you mostly competed against whoever was online and willing, whether they were a novice, a driving ace, playing on PC, PS3, X360, using a keyboard, or a fancy driving interface complete with steering wheel, shifter, and pedals. Worse, due to rampant cheats and exploits, the multiplayer challenges were unrewarding since all the records were not just untouchable, but ridiculous. TDU also made very little accommodation for gearheads in the way of car tweaks, better parts, etc.. The single-player narrative was unforgivably stunted, and TDU suffered from the perpetual scourge of car games that use real-life cars - since car makers don't want you to see their cars in less than pristine shape, there's no damage model. But much could be forgiven since TDU was free-to-play (before anyone knew what that meant), and the gameplay center of gravity was heavily tilted away from multiplayer and toward living the dream in single-player.

Four years later, we're still waiting for the next high quality MMO racer. PC Gamer's Evan Lahti noted in his preview of Need for Speed: World Online (June 2010), that free-to-play MMOGs have mostly missed out on the special opportunities afforded by the racing genre. Cars, he notes, are vast collections of interlocking parts - parts which can be purchased and upgraded with real or virtual currency. If I could add to his point - hell, if we wanted to get outrageous, make cars or even gasoline a microtransaction item - sort of a sneaky way of charging a subscription fee and, generally speaking, the better the car, the more gas you'll use. That would at least put everyone on equal footing - meaning better purchasable parts wouldn't necessarily make better players. At the very least, MMO racers should heed the F2P precept of making every MT-purchasable part available for purchase with in-game currency.

The MMO racing gap is one of the bigger mysteries of the Western games industry, despite solid first efforts by games like Project Torque and TDU. Elsewhere in the world, Crazyracing Kartrider might still be the world's biggest sorta-kinda MMOGs, eclipsing even Habbo Hotel and MapleStory. If you've never heard of Kartrider, that's because, like FIFA Online, it was never published in North America or most of Europe and lacks even an English version at present. Why? My guess is that the game couldn't compete graphically, and poor graphics are one thing gamers can't stomach in the post-Gran Turismo West.

At Ten Ton Hammer, we're still waiting for our turn at Need for Speed: World Online (why we're not on the preview a-list when ... not to pick on PC Gamer, but they measures their readers in the tens of thousands and we measure ours in the millions), but a few other MMO racers are creeping towards completion. One is Victory: The Age of Racing is inspired by the Speed Racer-esque 1960s racing scene and, being designed by an Italian developer in conjunction with GamersFirst, you know it's going to win plenty of style points.

Personally, I'm holding out for Test Drive Unlimited 2 this Fall, which will have players racing around the European party paradise of Ibiza. Promising more car customization, a revamped single player narrative, rally courses, weather, "new revenue streams" for Atari (translation: an item store, and I feel this is a welcome addition since it's an incentive to maintain and grow the game), and the same seamless online / offline open-world experience of the original.

Would you play an MMO racer if a quality one hit the market? Will a microtransaction-driven model damage the quality perception needed to pull off a great racing game? Does paying the $50 - $60 box price of a game influence your item-store decisions? Answer these questions (or ask a few of your own) in the Loading... forum.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day




From our Articles, News & Events Discussion

Black Prophecy Closed Beta Begins

Beta is always epic, so for your Monday pleasure I announce that Black Prophecy entered closed beta officially last week. If you want to get in line to blast your enemies to space dust, here's the queue. Many will apply, few will be chosen...for now. Will you be among them? Only one way to find out!

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

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread


Make one!
==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us
!


New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

5 new Ten Ton Hammer
articles! 5 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in May! 476 in 2010!

REVIEW

DDO- Sentinels of Stormreach Review
http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/ddo/sentinels_of_stormreach

Turbine
has recently released Update 4 for Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Included in the update is a new Adventure Pack, Sentinels of
Stormreach. Mattlow reviews the new Adventure Pack and lets us know
what we can look forward to.

Become an Overachiever with Overachiever- A WoW U.I. Mod Review
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/uimods/reviews/overachiever

Avid
achievement seekers everywhere should sit up and take notice.
Overachiever is a mod that claims to make achievement seeking a little
easier, by adding extra frames to the standard Blizzard achievement
menu, as well as various other options all aimed at making obtaining
achievements more doable. Do these features really make seeking
achievements easier, or do they just add unneeded clutter?

SPECIAL FEATURES

Ten Ton Hammer Live Ep. 5 - Developer Guests for Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 and City of Heroes
http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/5

In
this episode of Ten Ton Hammer Live! we are jam packed with guests.
Jesse, Ben, and Davlen are joined by Guild Wars Live Lead Designer
Linsey Murdock, Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer Eric Flannum, and Chris Lye
"The Marketing Guy." But that's not all! Then City of Heroes Lead
Master of Everything Melissa Bianco is coming on the show to talk about
Going Rogue AND to stick around for another exciting edition of "Master
Looter." Also, the boys talk about the WoW movie, the free-to-play game
Vindictus, and a taste test of the 3 new Mt. Dews.


FEATURES & GUIDES

StarCraft II - Units of the Zerg
http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides/zergunits

Everyone's
favorite rushers are back! Whether you like to amass a mixed force of
the new Roaches and Hydralisks, raid your opponent into submission with
Mutalisks, or bum rush them with Zerglings, the Zerg are back and will
meet your every expectation in the sequel. We cover all of the units
that you'll run into, both new and old, and what each one is capable of
in our overview of the Zerg army.

The Best Tech One Ships In EVE Online
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/ships/best_t1

What
EVE Online space ships are best is a subject of constant, fractious
debate. In this guide Space Junkie weighs in with regard to the major
tech one ship types.


Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

  1. Ten Ton Hammer Live Ep. 5 - Developer Guests for Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and City of Heroes
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/eq_underfoot">EverQuest
    Underfoot All-In-One Giveaway - 20 Copies Available!
  3. Dungeons and Dragons Online - Sentinels of Stormreach Review
  4. The Best Tech One Ships In EVE Online
  5. D-Mail #2: Knee Jerk Reactions
  6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83781">Microcosms:
    Reinventing The Wheel – An
    Alganon
    Re-Launch Sneak
    Peak
  7. href="http://tentonhammer.com/rift/first_look">A
    First Look at Rift:
    Planes of Telara
  8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/end_of_nations/reveal">Command
    & Conquer Creators Unveil Massively Military MMORTS: End
    of Nations
  9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/heavens_devils_audiobook">StarCraft
    II: Heaven's Devils Audiobook Review
  10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83664">Final
    Fantasy XIV
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83664">
    Playable
    Races Overview

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Need for Speed World Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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