by John Hoskin on Jan 07, 2008
Welcome to the 740th Edition of Loading...
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Daily Column
Personally, I prefer ninjas, but pirate lovers have something to raise the mast about. We are giving away three copies of Pirates of the Burning Sea.
"Prizes are pre-order copies of PotBS x3 courtesy of Ten Ton Hammer. This allows players to start playing and level to 20 before launch on 1/22, gives them an in-game parrot pet, and allows access to a special sword. As usual, Premium Members have a better chance to win."
What are you waiting for, a treasure chest to fall in your lap? Enter the Pirates of the Burning Sea Giveaway.
As treasure chests go, our Age of Conan class interviews are golden and #5 takes a gander at the most anticipated class in the game, The Barbarian. Ahnold, will be reading
"The Barbarian is really an aggressive class, which makes it very enjoyable to play for those who like being up front and in the fray. Unlike the Assassin and Ranger, which have to worry more about positioning and being a bit careful, Barbarians are a bit more on the reckless side, jumping into action and causing as much havoc as possible in a short period of time. Anyone who likes a very fast-paced, damage oriented class will probably feel at home with the Barbarian class as a whole."
It's Monday and I should have a column that flows like syrup across a pancake, sweet and sticky good, but the industry news today is more like a dog's breakfast. Especially messy is a rant written by a former Vanguard employee, Vince Napoli which evacuates a pantload of material regarding the development and launch of Vanguard. Here are some snippets.
"You know, as much as I hate having to carefully craft (AKA, lie through my teeth) an answer to "What was Vanguard's biggest failing?" in job interviews, I realized after reading that rather disappointing article how proud I am of it.Know why? Because I can honestly say with 100% validity: I'm a big reason for Vanguard's failure. Not Brad Mcquaid - not Microsoft. Me. And Guess what? I'm really kind of proud of it.
Brad Mcquaid didn't do shit. (News Flash?) He's had an opiate addiction for years now, which only got progressively worse as the project failed. His cumulative face time with sigil designers in the most crucial final years of development? Approx: 15 minutes. And some of the time was spent begging for legitimately acquired narcotics (Or in times of desperation, jacking them from people's desk)."
I guess those fables in job interviews are kind of debunked huh? The article that Mr. Napoli is referring to is the GameSpy award for Most Disappointing Game of 2007. My question, why did so many devs have narcotics and does that explain why at launch when I recalled home to the Gnome city I ended up the solid rock of a moutain? Bones was right, those transporters meddle with our atoms!
"Anyway, enough of my blabbering. The most shocking reality that I don't think anyone really ever understood is that Vanguard was made (exclusively the design staff, I should say) COMPLETELY by amateurs. People who had been hired less than a week with 0 prior experience were tasked with designing entire newbie areas that shipped. People who had never produced a game in their life were asked to fix a 40 million dollar f**k up. People with no experience were asked to fix the item, diplomacy, ability, content, quest and pretty much every system in the game.
The game that exists now was designed in a single year by people with 0 experience. If that sounds too vague think of it like this: about 1 year from release we had 0 quests in the DB because the tool didn't exist yet. When I decided to split the team there was over 30,000 quest object entries. Yeah, explains a lot doesn't it?"
We already knew this. What is astonishing is that a team of newcomers could build something so good in so little time. Vanguard for all of its problems is marvelous given that it was built in a year by neophytes. You can read the entire rant at Fires of Heaven.
MMOG players should comment in the Loading... forums.
Do you feel the need to contact me? Your wish is my command. Forums or E-mail - The choice is yours!
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10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 51 so far in January! 51 so far in 2008!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Age of Conan: Class Interview #5 - The Barbarian Contest: Pirates of the Burning Sea Giveaway Lord of the Rings Online: Epic Guide - Book Nine - Shores of Evendim Lord of the Rings Online: Under Siege - Guide to Ost Guruth Quests Tabula Rasa: Overview of Torden Mines Tabula Rasa: Guide to Engineers Part 2 - Pets Vanguard: Gulgrethor Fortress #5 - Assault on Vilonis Vanguard: Let the Games Begin Vanguard: Understanding Vanguard's Swamp Armour World of Warcraft: Travel Guide UpdatedHot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to
Age of Conan: Class Interview #5 - The Barbarian Contest: Pirates of the Burning Sea GiveawayMMOG News And Improved
New Evidence That ZeniMax's Project Isn't A Fallout MMOGNeed More? Look no further.
Real World News
Disney Restaurant Bans Children [Thanks Karen]Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team