by Jeff Woleslagle on Jul 29, 2009
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Today CCP released a video titled "The Butterfly Effect" - noting how small actions often lead to big things for players of MMORPGs such as EVE Online. The interconnectedness of MMOs is one of the most compelling reasons to play, and I'll share my own "butterfly effect" story in hopes that you'll share yours too in today's Loading... The Butterfly Effect.
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You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
World of Warcraft Aion (UP 7) EverQuest 2 (down 3) Champions Online (UP 3 to #7) EVE Online (UP 7)Biggest Movers this month :
EverQuest (UP 13 to #14) Star Wars: The Old Republic (down 4 to #8) Lineage 2 (down 3 to #18) Recent MMO Releases 6/30 - City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary 6/30 - Lord of the Rings Online Book 8 7/7 - Darkfall Player Housing Expansion 7/13 - Darkfall NA launch 7/21- FFXI "Moogle Kupo d'Etat" Addon (release date)Important Dates
7/31 - 8/3 - Aion Beta Weekend 8/21 - 8/22 - BlizzCon '09 9/4 - 9/6 - Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Upcoming Releases 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) 9/9 - Fallen Earth (release date) 9/22 - Aion (release date) Early 2010 - APBThe excellent interviews from Comic Con continue to trickle in. Not to take away from these good eggs (scroll down to see what we have for SWTOR and City of Heroes), but it was a an non-SDCC video today that got me to thinking. CCP is debuting their EVE Online Butterfly Effect video today, which shows how small actions in the best MMORPGs have a way of catching individual players up into bigger things . And by the "best MMORPGs" I mean the ones that directly or indirectly encourage you to make the game a social experience, not to mention facilitate interaction with a good assortment of player organization and communication tools.
I'll always argue that EVE does a better job of facilitating the social side of the game than any other MMO, and for one reason only: it drops every newbie into a new player corporation. You can't not be in a guild in EVE Online. Since it's a single shard game with nearly six years under its belt, there are always a few veterans hanging out to answer your questions. That is, provided you make a conscientious effort to figure out basic answers for yourself by playing the tutorial, googling the forums and websites as appropriate, and keeping an eye on the new player corp chat so that you're not asking questions someone else just asked. EVE voice is the best - or at least the most massive - implementation of voicechat I've ever encountered. And the level of player organization (using in-game or more impervious out-of-game unofficial tools) is hard to believe.
It takes that kind of scale and focus to deliver a truly massive experience, and that's perhaps why EVE continues to grow and improve as it ages. That massive experience leads to the kind of personalized butterfly effects that become the stories we tell our friends about that one night of EQ2 raiding where everything went horribly, comically wrong, or when a pick-up group led to some long-term guild associations and friendships.
There's a hunger among media types and publicists and publicity-oriented developers - at least those that were or are (closet) hardcore gamers - that find themselves on the more unpleasant side of some veil, a veil that prevents us from expressing much of our passion about games or committing to games for fear of becoming attached or biased or fanboyish. For my part, I use my scanty vacation time each year to search out some of that old sense of MMO bonhomie at places like GenCon or The Syndicate's annual conference. Knowing that it's still there makes it easier to put in the long hours working on projects that may or may not bear fruit, working for less pay than we might make in other facets of journalism or media, because our work with community sites and news might in some small way perpetuate that old-timey sense of community.
My own butterfly effect story is one of almost epic proportions and dates back to many an evening in late 1999 peering jealously over mounds of study notesat a college roommate that played EverQuest entirely too much. I vowed not to start until Spring semester finals were over and kept my promise, but by the beginning of the summer I was hooked. Fast forward to a chilly gray November evening, disappointed with a romance that was over before it began, feeling especially far from home and finding a copy of EverQuest 2 on the shelves of a Muncie, Indiana Walmart. A few days later I found myself jawing and joking in a pickup group with one Boomjack, who told me about a site called Ten Ton Hammer that he and a few friends were starting up. I wrote for their EverQuest 2 site a bit, then over the course of four and a half years my responsibilities grew as my gaming time unfortunately shrank, and suddenly I find myself on the executive level of one of North America's premier MMO gaming networks.
I have a feeling that many of you have a butterfly effect story that maybe didn't lead to a plumb job and an untold wealth of gaming experience, but is no less profound and significant. Why not share it in the Loading... forum, or send it my way via email?
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day7 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 84 in July! 849 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
City of Heroes: Power Spectrum and Going Rogue Interview from Comic-Con '09Hottest Content:
City of Heroes: Power Spectrum and Going Rogue Interview from Comic-Con '09 Champions Online: Nemesis and Omega Interview with Bill Roper DC Universe Online Hands-On PvP Preview from Comic-Con '09 Bait and Switch? Ethics & Values in MMO Marketing Star Wars: The Old Republic Comic-Con Interview - Exploring the Expanded Universe Picking Up Cool Perks in Champions Online World of Warcraft: The Ultimate Guide to Ulduar's Bosses: Razorscale Aion Class Interview - The Sorceror Aion: PvP Q&A with Brian Knox World of Warcraft - Current State of End Game RaidingThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team