Loading... What Could Turnip?

If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up! Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's RSS Feed . Enjoy!

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 Guild Wars Atlantica Online (UP 5) EVE Online (UP 3) Stargate Worlds (down 2) Tabula Rasa (UP 3) Lord of the Rings Online (down 3) Guild Wars 2 (down 3)

Biggest Sinkers and Floaters in the Top 20

Rohan: Blood Feud (down 4 to no. 17) EVE Online (UP 3 to no. 6) Tabula Rasa (UP 3 to no. 8)

Daily Column

Loading... second only to gluttony and the gridiron as a Thanksgiving tradition.

Issue 1 of the Ten Ton Turnip (our MMO gaming news answer to The Onion) hit newsstands today, and by newsstands I mean this page. All the articles I wouldn't let them print, "not in a hundred years," have ended up here, in what's to be our weekly tabloid publication. A Hamburglar class for Warhammer Online? A Wrath of the Lich King recall announcement? DC Universe losing the license to make reference to DC comic book heroes? It's all in the first edition of Ten Ton Turnip, the perfect way to start your Thanksgiving holiday off with a laugh. Meanwhile, I'll put palm to forehead and await the calls and cease and desist letters from PR folks and lawyers.

Kidding aside, it's a good time of the year to be thankful (what time of the year isn't?), and I'm as thankful for your avid readership. Everyone here will tell you that your notes and comments in the forums - positive, negative, or somewhere in between - make our day, and a special word of thanks to our Premium Members who have taken their support to the next level. Without you and our advertisers, we'd be packing up this circus and leaving town.

I'm equally thankful for all the hardworking writers, graphics designers, and tech staff - both the contributors that come home from their day jobs and put a few more hours of gaming (it's not quite as fun when you have a job to do or guides to write week after week) and writing work into the site. A big thank you also to the full-time pioneers who passed up lucrative mainstream journalism positions and not-so-lucrative (but much more alluring) entry-level jobs in the games industry to make this network work.

Before I thank the Academy too, let's get to a quick rundown of the latest news. SOE has yet another MMOG-based Trading Card Game to add to its stable with the Free Realms TCG. The TCG will be released in Spring 2009 (presumably alongside the eponymous kids through teens-focused MMORPG) and will be playable online or offline through a physical product produced and distributed through a partnership with The Topps Company, whose suffering from baseball strikes and controversies probably surpasses Barry Bonds'. SOE also announced a new expansion for their Star Wars Galaxies TCG due next month

Interestingly, SOE is going full-bore into the TCG market at a time when at least one other developer is bailing out. The EVE Online CCG was discontinued after the Exiled expansion, and comments from CCP CFO Ryan Dancey at FanFest 2008 were extremely pessimistic about the future of TCGs. Dancey, as a former VP at Magic TCG-publisher Wizards of the Coast, should know. On the bright side, SOE might have what remains of the digital TCG market cornered, with 5 digital TCGs released or to be released inside of two and a half years.

Stargate Worlds has a new beta application process in place, probably thanks in no small part to the headache our SGW beta devolved into (almost all of you - certainly those who applied through our Premium Member giveaway on or before November 6th - should have your keys). Also in the news, gaming joins gambling and cheap liquor distillers as a good bet in a down economy, the BBC draws more attention to the mostly untaxed status of virtual transactions as ToS-friendly virtual reseller PlaySpan announces a $17M investment package, and Mythic outlines Open RvR changes in Warhammer Online. Read all about those on the Ten Ton Hammer news page.

No Loading... tomorrow - have a happy Thanksgiving! - but our forums and my Loading... inbox are open 24/7.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our WoW:
Wrath of the Lich King Discussion Forum




Is
it just Laziness?



9 out of 10 World of Warcrack addicts agree--the new expansion, Wrath
of the Lich King, is cooler than an ice troll's package. (Hey!
I was thinking of the kind of package
wrapped in paper and tied with a pretty bow. What were you thinking?) But
our community member, Raknor, has noticed a few things missing (Not
from the ice trolls, from the expansion.
Stay with me here.) Like, what happened to the new dances Blizzard was
supposed to implement? And why can't a player's Death Knight have facial
markings like NPC DKs?



"Whats up with every quest reward in Northrend looking the exact same
and only being within a few points of each other?" Raknor asks. "I know
it would be
alot of work to have every reward be unique, but so far every item for
my class that I've picked up is virtually identical in not only
appearance but also stats."



Do you agree with Raknor's grumbling? Do you have some answers, or some
gripes of your own? Check in on our Wrath of the Lich King discussion
forum and make
yourself heard.



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

Awesome Quote from the
Epic Thread:



"Interesting that with all the new content and great stuff in the
expansion so many people focus on things like dances and hairstyles.
When WoWInsider was running their 'Ask a Beta Tester' column, it seemed
like 75% of the questions were about barbershops, dances, emotes and
achievements. Far fewer seemed to be of the 'What will my shammy be
like at 80?' variety."



- jeffo20

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



Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let
us know!

7 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 162 in November! 2960 in 2008!

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

Op/Eds

Tabula Rasa: Big Names, Big Games, Big Letdowns? Warhammer Online: Public Quests - Hey, Where Is Everybody?

Community

Ten Ton Turnip - Issue #1 Geeked: "Worst. Luck. Ever." Warhammer Online: WAR Journal - Heavy Metal, Day 8-10

Guides

Warhammer Online: The Witch Elf RvR Guide - Part 3 Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria - Guide to Echad Dunann

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

Ten Ton Turnip - Issue #1 Geeked: "Worst. Luck. Ever." Tabula Rasa: Big Names, Big Games, Big Letdowns? Warhammer Online: Public Quests - Hey, Where Is Everybody? Rohan: Blood Feud Warstorm: Combining Card Games and MMOGs EVE Online: Post-Expansion Video Q&A with Aren Stuhrmann Lord of the Rings Online: Consoles, Horses and Middle-Earth with Jeffrey Steefel Warhammer Online: WAR-Torn - "Everyone's a Critic" Warhammer Online: 7-Day WAR Report

Real World News

Burglar bakes puppy in oven

Police profiler suspects addiction to hot dogs The modern-day attention span is just 5 minutes

Experts predict that this causes... hey, American Idol is on, cool Man arrested while decapitating a body in his front yard

Says he was just trying to get ahead in life; police stop him in the neck of time

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

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