Loading... The Starbucks Effect

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The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Hammer Pulse (What is Pulse?). Here are the daily rankings:

Here are the biggest movers in the Top 20 today:

Exteel (UP 22 to 19)
Dream of Mirror Online (UP 14 to 16)
Magic World Online (UP 8 to 11)

Loading... Daily

Loading... more full of win than the Fonz on ritalin.

Here's hoping you had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to another short holiday work week. Mine was spent travelling a fair amount and visiting friends and relations. I think spending time away from the computer screen and focusing on far away things is messing with my eyes, because I see that late last week Blizzard announced that Wrath of the Lich King has pushed WoW subscriber numbers over 11.5 million.

Numerous writers around the Internet and I have been trying to figure out the WoW phenomenon for years, and we'd like to welcome our next round of contestants at the Ten Ton Hammer WoW site and forums. You can find them in a thread subsequent to Xerin's nicely done opinion piece titled What Drives 11.5 Million Players to WoW? I'll maintain it's accessibility and the mystical tipping point (somewhere around a million subscriptions?) where an online community starts to multiply itself. Then, before you know it, Ozzy Osbourne's agent and the South Park writers want in.

More impressive to me than the sheer numbers is how WoW changed the player demographic. Before Molten Core, the understanding was that only about 10-15% of the player population would experience endgame content, i.e. top tier raids, epic gear quests, and the like. This was a problem; since the force majeur of design time, assets, and coding on expansions and was going into a comparatively ill-trafficked side of the game.

Now, if Death Knight numbers are any indication, at least half of the WoW population (and probably much more - that first wave was just the folks smart enough to reserve their DK name) was level-capped when Wrath of the Lich King went live. Whether these level 70s were doing raids, arenas, daily quests, or were simply on hiatus waiting for the expansion to pop is irrelevant, we're now seeing a hefty percentage of WoW's player population - probably a majority percentage - gearing up for a shot at Arthas when the Lich King makes himself and Frostmourne available for an appointment in 2009.

Without a doubt, it's open season on purples, and with so many eyes on Naxx and WoW's next raid cum national pastime, I wonder how impossible the Arthas encounter will have to be. With allegations long swirling that Wrath was way too easy, Blizzard has to thin the herd somehow. The truly elite must feel truly elite, or the achiever premise collapses.

And if anyone can figure it out, Blizzard can, but the accessible high-end approach is increasingly tricky. Look at the Starbucks effect, or how upscale coffee became cliché - cliché with the cherry of a few too many pseudo-Italian descriptors on top. The cheap little luxuries are always the first to go in tough times, and though I will treat myself to a Fivebucks Americano quad grande or a Peppermint Mocha in season, the Folgers drip is increasingly good enough when I can get it.

Should Blizzard continue the Wrath trend in making the next content patch a breeze, or should Arthas make the Illadan encounter seem like a cakewalk? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or as always feel free to email me directly.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Tavern of the Ten Ton Hammer Forum

Jumped the shark?

Jumping the shark, nuking the fridge...both
buzz phrases describe desperate attempts, usually by TV shows or movie
franchises, to retain their audience. A TV show that has jumped the
shark is considered past its prime. Demonyx, Ten Ton Hammer's
self-proclaimed "public enemy numah one" noticed a drop off in forum
participation and wondered if our network--doom doom DOOM!--had jumped
the shark.

Demonyx expected defensive flames and instead got the Fonz,
explanations, trends, blonds, redheads, a hippopotamus, logic (and the
lack thereof), Groo, Zork, and even a few posts that made pretty good
sense. So, strap on your water skis and slip into your leather jacket,
give the crowd a big thumbs up and a timelessly cool, "Aaaayyy!" and
come shark jumping. The water's fine if you don't mind a few fins.

==============================
Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread

"I think this community is still finding itself and I plan to stick
around. So posters like Demonyx and Ottis, all I have to say is I know
where you are coming from and I agree with you but only YOU can change
this community. So get active."

- Spare
==============================

8 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 172 in December! 3146 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

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Man shoots talker during Christmas screening of Benjamin Button

Prosecutors will be seeking a reverse life prison sentence.
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There's no point in wining about it now.

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

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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