by Jeff Woleslagle on Dec 12, 2008
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The Pulse
First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).
World of Warcraft Warhammer Online Age of Conan Star Trek Online (UP 1) Champions Online (down 1) EverQuest 2 Atlantica Online EVE Online City of Heroes (UP 5) Tabula Rasa (UP 6)Biggest Sinkers and Floaters in the Top 20 this week
City of Heroes (down 8 to no. 17) Tabula Rasa (UP 6 to no. 10) Guild Wars (UP 5 to no. 9)Loading... Daily
Loading... like an MMOG news and commentary burrito, without the eventual colon spasms.
News of microtransactions in several SOE titles and Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as the happy rumors swirling around Atari's acquisition of Cryptic Studios kept us fixated this week, but a number of interesting news stories emerged that IMO didn't get enough air time. So welcome to special weekly wrap-up edition of Loading...
EVE Online's Evelopedia Beta Launches - An EVE wiki is a beautiful thing for several reasons. One is that newbies (and perpetual newbies like myself - pubbies if you like) no longer have to dog through the official boards looking for the basic information they need, then inevitably piss off the entire EVE population when they don't look hard enough and start a new thread.Another reason is lore lovers now have a way to determine which lore is canon, meaning now we can get to the bottom of burning questions like "does my battleship contain one crew member (me) or thousands?" It may sound silly, but EVE is in many ways much more of a roleplayer's game than the typical MMORPG (just log in and check out the sheer amount of jargon that's evolved into something like EVE's own language - it requires a skill level to rival talking like a dwarf or orc for sure) and lore is pretty important to even diehard EVE players.
Between missions and militia combat unleashed in July's Empyrean Age expansion, the imperfect but very useful certificate system in Quantum Rise, and this new wiki, EVE Online would earn my nomination for the most improved MMORPG of 2008 in terms of accessibility, mostly because it had the farthest to go. Still, transforming an old dog into a new dog and teaching it plenty of new tricks along the way is no mean feat.
BioWare picks HeroEngine for Star Wars: The Old Republic - There was a reason that many of the outside game developers and engineers that had a chance to look at Bioware's backend for SW:TOR walked away salivating, and it appears that HeroEngine has something to do with it. While Simutronics is better known among players for its MUD presence, they shelved their original MMORPG Hero's Journey several years ago to put the bulk of their team behind the development HeroEngine, and what we've seen of it at trade shows has been plenty impressive in terms of visual appeal, ease of use, and performance. That Bioware will
combining HeroEngine's usability with its own storytelling power and immense game content creation aspirations is very, very good news for SW:TOR fans.
Let's be honest about WoW pseudo-news, if someone let our a raucous fart that sounded like Illidan's disparaging "You are not prepared!" and posted it on YouTube, media of all stripes would flock to it. Take that as a weekend challenge if you like. So while we're at it: a WoW-themed restaurant has opened for business in Beijing. From what I little I know of native Chinese cuisine, they could use a little illicit co-branding help. Mind you, before the hate mail comes I only visited Shanghai, and Shanghai is no Guangzhou (or Canton if you're from the 19th century).
We're coming down to the wire on our CME kids donation drive and have a long ways to go to reach our goal of $1500. At last count, we're at roughly $460. If you were waiting for payday to help out, now's the time! Thanks to everyone that's already given.
Join the discussion Loading forum, or my inbox is always open for comments.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our SWTOR: General Discussion Forum
Ruined the game before it comes out...
By
now anyone with even the slightest interest in BioWare's Star Wars: The
Old Republic has likely heard the rumor that the game will be
micro-transaction based. Notice I said "rumor." An article at Shacknews quotes EA CEO John Riccitiello saying, "We are continuing to stick to the plan relative to building out our
direct-to-consumer models which include microtransactions and
subscriptions." BioWare now claims that the rumors are the result of a misunderstanding and that SW:TOR's business model has not been officially announced yet.
Whatever
the case may be, folks in our forums were quick to talk about it. Are
you expecting SW:TOR to be a subscription-based MMOG? Will
micro-transactions ruin the game for you? Or should BioWare take the
leap and become the first triple-A MMOG to launch with some form of
micro-transactions hardwired into the game's payment structure? Sound off!
=================================
Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread:
"I really don't think thet mirco transactions will be in TOR. EA/BioWare
are going to have to mess up royally to make this game crash: for one
thing, it's Bioware, for another, it's Star Wars--the game has the
potential to be a cash cow for EA the same way WoW is for Blizzard, and
I don't think EA will want to mess with a proven formula. MTs may work
in Asia, but the West isn't Asia and this kind of model is unproven and
a potentially billion dollar revenue stream isn't the game to test it on."
- Mikes
=================================
Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let
us know!
12 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 89 in December! 3063 in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Interviews
Warhammer Online: The Magic in Patch 1.1Reviews
Tritton's AX Pro Gaming Headset Magic World OnlineCommunity
World of Warcraft: Goob & Begud - "Animal Tricks" Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - "Zerging the Market" Age of Conan: Border Kingdom Cryer - "The Art of Immersion"Guides
World of Warcraft: Alliance Northrend Leveling Guide - Part 2 Warhammer Online: Knight of the Blazing Sun RvR Guide - Part 2 Warhammer Online: Secrets to Ultimate Pwnage - The Black Guard and Shadow Warhammer Online: Guide to Warrior Priests Age of Conan: Alchemy Recipes - Tier 4 Ten Ton Hamster: Top 15 Holiday Video Games for KidsHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
Warhammer Online: The Magic in Patch 1.1 Tritton's AX Pro Gaming Headset Magic World Online World of Warcraft: Goob & Begud - "Animal Tricks" Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - "Zerging the Market" SOE: John Smedley on Station Cash - "We aren't going Free-to-Play" SOE: EQ2 Station Cash with Producer Bruce Ferguson Outspark: Exclusive with Victor Wachter Give the Gift of Gaming Ten Ton Turnip #2 - Blizzard Buys Mythic!Real World News
Man arrested for masturbating during real estate agent's tour of houseThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network and have a great weekend!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team