by Reuben Waters on Jun 24, 2010
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is the premier daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,362nd
edition
of Loading...
Last week nearly the
entire gaming industry stood up at once, and the resulting head rush
became known as
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/e3/2010">E3
2010. Now that the
lightheadedness and visions of
gaming nirvana dancing just over the horizon have begun to subside,
what remains is the age old question that inevitably arrives along with
the afterglow: what’s next? We’ll take a stab at
answering that very question today in Loading… Tomorrow,
Tomorrow.
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">What
is The Pulse?).
Today's
top 5 Pulse results this week:
Biggest
movers today:
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
For those of you unfamiliar
with the music of the late, great Elliott Smith, the title of
today’s Loading… comes from the lead track on his
album titled XO.
In it, the protagonist reflects on how
they’re currently viewed by the world with hopes that
tomorrow will be somehow different or better. Mind you,
that’s just a very surface level take on the song’s
lyrical content, but it’s early and I haven’t had
nearly enough coffee yet this morning, so that will have to do for now!
In a roundabout way, the whole
shebang of a major industry event like
last week’s E3 isn’t all that different than the
protagonist of “Tomorrow, Tomorrow”. It’s
as much a point of reflection about where things stand today for the
gaming
industry as a whole as it is about how amazingly awesome we all hope
it's going to be tomorrow. It’s about building
interest and excitement about the games we’ll all be playing
at random points along an imaginary future timeline, and teasing us
with just enough new information to capture our attention until the
next major outing or gameplay reveal.
As we all know, however, the
MMOG industry is a very different beast.
These aren’t games that you purchase on Tuesday, knock out
the final achievement for on Thursday and then trade in for another
title on Friday. Most MMOGs are designed and built to be played for
much longer periods of time than your standard console game in other
words.
Last week when I was deep in
the E3 trenches, two main things struck
me. The first is that there was very little show floor presence for
established titles. Apart from a smallish portion of the Warner Bros.
booth allotted for Lord of
the Rings Online and a few
fancy fixtures
for EverQuest II
in the SOE booth, there really wasn’t much
there to reinforce the notion that established titles are still out
there kicking ass and taking names.
The second main point that the
show drove home for me is that out of
the massive list of MMOG titles being showcased, perhaps only a handful
of them seemingly have aims at remaining true to the established
gameplay norms that put our favorite pastime on the gaming industry map
to begin with.
Now that we’ve been
given a fairly comprehensive snapshot of
where the MMOG industry is headed over the next year or so, one major
question has stuck with me throughout the majority of the past week
based on those two key points. Namely, is the currently predominant
subscription-based, triple-A MMOG formula inherently flawed in some
major way or are we simply hitting that point where the industry is on
the verge of splintering into numerous subgenres?
For example, if you browse
through our full list of 365 MMOGs,
you’ll notice we have things broken down loosely by genre.
Only those genres are more about the type of setting (fantasy, sci-fi,
super hero) rather than gameplay mechanics like you’d find in
console game categories such as FPS or Action. But with the next wave
of MMOG’s it seems as though all of that is about to change.
Soon we’ll have more clearly defined MMOG genres such as
Racing, Action, Strategy, Third Person Shooter and a whole pile of
others.
So have we finally grown tired
of the same old, same old of
“core” MMO gameplay, or is the industry finally
maturing to the point where more distinct subgenres have begun to
emerge? Let your fingers do the walking (or in this case, clicking)
over to the Loading… forum and let us know what you think!
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=546">SWTOR
General Discussion Forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52057">
Beta Begins This Weekend?
Community member
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/member.php?u=7657">SirRobin
seems to have picked up on an interesting
thread over at the official forums for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star
Wars: The Old Republic.
While
there's no real definitive proof thus far beyond the thread not being
outright locked to new posts, it seems that people have claimed to be
invited to the closed beta beginning as soon as this weekend.
Personally, I'd file this one under the "rumor with a side dish of
rampant speculation" category as I would think an external CBT for TOR
would be hitting the airwaves as a big ticket news item. Still, rabid
fanboys and girls will no doubt be feverishly refreshing their
email
inbox over the next few days just in case it's true!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"*wets her pants*
Dear BioWare,
I know I'm not always a good little girl, but if you could
maybe..perhaps..graciously see that I get into beta, I'd be the bestest
fangirl EVER!
Love,
Savanja
XOXOXOXOXOXO" -
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/member.php?u=17">Savanja
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
3 Ten Ton Hammer
features
today! 109 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in June! 699
in 2010!
FEATURED EDITORIALS AND
GUIDES
Top Five Guild Wars 2
Gameplay Wish List Items
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/top-5-gameplay-wishlist">http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/top-5-gameplay-wishlist
Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to
become one of the greatest MMOGs we have ever seen. Yet, we ask the
question: what would make the game really awesome? David "Xerin" Piner
takes a look at the top five things he'd like to see in Guild Wars 2.
EverQuest II Guide to
Moonlight Enchantments
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/guides/moonlight-enchantments"
target="_blank">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/guides/moonlight-enchantments
Every month in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest II,
when the moon is just right, hidden realms open throughout Norrath that
allow
adventurers to earn special rewards and engage in limited
quests. The Moonlight Enchantments event is a regularly occurring event
that has hooked many players. Haven't gotten in on it yet? Read up on
what this monthly mini-event is all about and how you can get in on the
fun in our Guide to Moonlight Enchantments.
Buying
& Selling Off the Grid in World of Warcraft
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/selling-off-grid">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/selling-off-grid
It's important to know how to
hawk your wares without the assistance of the Auction House. This can
not only be substantially more profitable than using the Auction House,
it can also help you develop relationships with buyers and sellers that
can be useful in the future. Here we'll go over the best ways to sell
items 'off the grid' and the costs and benefits of doing so.
Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team