What Makes Good Sense?

Welcome to the 801st Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

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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 - 169 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 53 BPM
EverQuest 2 - 52 BPM
Warhammer Online - 43 BPM
Vanguard - 41 BPM
Guild Wars - 40 BPM
EVE Online - 39 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 33 BPM
Lineage 2 - 25 BPM

It was another huge day in the industry with near record levels of traffic. You are really eager to get the news!

Las Vegas contines to roll along as it always does with scantily clad women serving drinks in smoky casinos to people who probably shouldn't be drinking them. We weren't done meetings and dinner until 10:00pm yesterday, which left little time for me to admire the angels that Coyote so aptly describes in his column each day. Perhaps today I'll have more time.

As I enjoyed our exclusive content today, perusing the new Jumpgate Evolution screenshots I ruminated on the fact that screenshots are not the proper method to show off an explosion. Before those of you who act like the NetDevil hounds of war start foaming at the mouth and rattling your chains let me explain.

Explosions are all about the sound, the movement, the shock and awe of seeing something enormous get blown into tiny pieces and scattered across the cosmos. A screenshot, no matter how well taken cannot capture an explosion. I think we need to ask for 15 second video clips of those same explosions. Now that will make you situp and notice the game.

The Warhammer preview of the Sorceress is a great example of how developers can get in front of the public and give the game a personal touch. The information about the class itself is fantastic, but what's more important is that the developers show how truly passionate they are for the game and their face becomes recognizable to the community.

The Sorceress is an interesting class because you have both safe and not-so-safe spells. As you use dangerous spells you build up extra damage and extra critical hit chance, but you also boost the possibility that you will blow yourself up. You have "walk a fine line" to get the most damage per second out of the class. Cool! Watch the video right to the end and you'll see where a feature that was left on unintentinally in testing was so loved by the players that it is now part of the game. It's the little things that make chatting with the developers so much fun.

Those of you looking to try out another game, or help with testing, or both can grab one of our Wonderland Closed Beta Keys. I haven't seen, heard or played the game, so I can't tell you anything other than try it out for yourself.

EverQuest II players will be thrilled to know that the former Senior Producer, Scott Hartsman took some time to talk about this new project with Cam at IMGDC last week. I understand where he is coming from with regards to Flash, but perception is sometimes more important than substance. I'm not sure that as a consumer I would even check out a Flash based game. As a person who covers the industry I'm forced past my prejudices on a daily basis, trying out new games and new gameplay ideas. As a consumer, I play what I like, what I trust and what I know. What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear Flash game?

Are you flashy? The 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.

13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 34 in April! 786 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

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