MMOG Webified

Welcome to the 788th Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

Loading... it's like getting into a closed beta.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we now show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Age of Conan - 200 BPM World of Warcraft - 91 BPM EverQuest 2 - 32 BPM Dungeons and Dragons Online - 32 BPM Lord of the Rings Online - 30 BPM Warhammer Online - 28 BPM EVE Online - 25 BPM Vanguard - 22 BPM Lineage 2 - 19 BPM Guild Wars - 16 BPM

A little bird told me that today was Starr Long's birthday. Starr is currently the Producer for Tabula Rasa. Happy Birthday Starr! Here is a video of Starr (He's the holding the can) opening a beer with a rocket. The gentleman with the witty comment about balls is General British.

We have a special gift for you today--5 passes to Connect08 (March 14 & 15) hosted by Codemasters Online in Birmingham, UK! We are giving out these 5 passes on a first come, first served basis. Our own Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle will be in attendance. Here's what you need to know:

Codemasters Online and Ten Ton Hammer provide:
* 1 pass for 5 different winners to Connect08
* a major worldwide unveiling for The Lord of the Rings Online
* an awesome 2-day schedule, including a chance to play some of the games

You provide:
* Travel costs to include airfare
* Lodging expenses
* Your own meals

First come, first served - E-mail me!

My cliff dive into free MMOGs has taken me deeper into this strangely intriguing niche. I was fortunate to see Mabinogi while at GDC this year and though the game has some aspects that have made me wish that Nexon had rethought the localization, it has been an addictive and pleasant experience. I was unnerved during character creation when I was allowed to create a character that is a child. This is relatively common practice in Asia, but the skin-crawling, creepy factor of pretending to be a child isn't the norm in North America. I ratcheted up the age to as high as it would go, 17 and away I went. Mabinogi is in open beta and is worth the download in my opinion. It has many game mechanics that I could live without, like click-to-move, but being able to create a random dungeon seeded by the quality of an item you drop on the dungeon's altar is a blast. It's nothing like WoW or EQ2, but it's worth the price of admission.

Next, World of Kung Fu. Let the download begin and my ramblings continue.

A developer friend asked me to check out a unique little MMOG called PMOG, which stands for Passively Multiplayer Online Game. The short of it is that you install a Firefox toolbar that allows players to create quests across the web. If you happen upon a page that is part of a quest you get a little box that asks if you want to take the mission. If you go for it, then you are whisked away on a browsing experience created by the quest designer. So far, it hasn't impressed me and I'm averse to having toolbars tracking my steps through the MMOG realms, but your mileage may vary. It's an interesting concept and I'm sure that many Ten Ton Hammer members could create interesting missions that showed visitors to the site the coolest information that we have. All the same, at this point it isn't for me.

I rambled, so it's only fair that you get the chance as well. The Loading... forums await you.

Do you feel the need to contact me personally with naughty pictures or derogatory comments? Here's my E-mail.

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9 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 85 in March! 598 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Age of Conan: Know Your Role - The Soldier Age of Conan: Art Book Preview - Tortage Blog: A Boy, Gaming, and the Great Frontier - Bye's Blog Champions Online: Three New Facial Animation Screenshots Dreamlords: Video Interview With Lockpick CEO David Rosén Tabula Rasa: Guide To Alia Das Vanguard: Trickster's Haven Quest Guide - Part IV World of Kung Fu: Interview With Producer, Dave Clarke World of Warcraft: Weekly Report - Patch 2.4 Mayhem

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to

World of Kung Fu: Interview With Producer, Dave Clarke Dreamlords: Video Interview With Lockpick CEO David Rosén Age of Conan: Priest of Mitra Screenshots Dungeon and Dragons Online: Module 7 and 4th Edition Interview With Kate Paiz FusionFall: Video Interview With Game Director, Sam Lewis Chronicles of Spellborn: Preview Red 5 Studios: Hints and Latest Information Revealed By CEO Mark Kern Jumpgate Evolution: Combat and Controls Interview - Part Two Renaissance: Chronicles of Chronia - Exclusive New Artwork Tabula Rasa: Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) and You

Real World News (Headlines and Taglines compliments Phil "Ralphedelominius" Comeau)

Iowa city mayor offers bounty on stray cats
Offer only good for animals without collars or tags, so registered pets are safe. Yep, no potential for abuse here. NY Republicans to force bitter pill of impeachment on Governor
Public curious to know if Spitzer swallows. Indian Man has World's Longest Ear Hair
Was told as an adolescent that hair would grow in funny places

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team