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is the premiere daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,442nd
edition
of Loading...
Call it a road map, a Vision (tm), or a five year plan, MMORPG developers owe it to their fans to have an overarching plan for their games. Today we'll look at the stated long-term plans of two soon-to-release MMOGs and ask whether you're on-board with their plans in Loading... The Five Year Plan.
The
Pulse
You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/">What
is The Pulse?).
Today's
top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest 2
(UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
of the Rings Online (UP 1) - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/183">Guild Wars 2
Biggest
movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Atlantica Online
- UP 4
to
#13 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2">StarCraft
II
- down 3
to
#17 style="text-decoration: underline;"> -
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
-
UP 2
to
#16
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/7
- size="-1"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion:
Assault on Balaurea (free
expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/29
- Everquest
2 Extended
(release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">9/30
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv">Final
Fantasy XIV (release)
Releases
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">October
26, 2010
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/170">LEGO
Universe (release) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">October,
2010
- Champions
Online: Demonflame (expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">November,
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online:
Incursion (expansion)
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">December
7, 2010
- World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
(expansion)
- size="-1">January 2011 - size="-1">Test Drive Unlimited 2
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Early 2011
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online (release) size="-1">
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">
- Ask the Devs!
Have you got a question about style="font-style: italic;">Rift:
Planes of Telera?
Well, you have a chance to ask the devs at Trion Worlds directly. Just
submit your questions href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53660">in
our forums.
alt="World of Warcraft PlayerScore"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/misc/PlayerScore/2010/PlayerScore_101810.jpg" />
What's
your PlayerScore? World of
Warcraft players, find out at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.
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Four years ago, there was a great deal of talk about Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Brad McQuaid's "Vision" for the game. The "Vision" turned out to be fairly buggy and short-sighted and next to nothing has been said of the future of the game since the infamous Sigil parking lot firing at Sigil and various unsubstantiated reports of evildoing. In short, if the game wasn't entirely a disaster, the baggage surrounding it certainly looked like one.
Perhaps the worst casualty of it all was that the "Vision" became synonymous with unrealized hype, rather than understood as a vital part of games development. Plans are important, but not just for their own sake. To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower, plans tend to be useless, but the planning process itself usually proves to be invaluable.
With that in mind, I've been hearing more developers talk about their long-term plans in guarded, hush-hush tones. One of whom was LEGO Universe Creative Director Ryan Seabury who, during a dev chat last week, disclosed that NetDevil has a "five year road map" for the game. The plan includes all the usual good stuff: monthly updates, seasonal events, and major content expansions twice a year. The outlook on PvP seems good, but Ryan explained that they wanted players to focus on the cooperative gameplay, story, and building for the initial launch.
Of course, anyone can say that I tend to believe Ryan, not only because the project is backed by one of the world's biggest toy companies, but because LEGO Universe has much more imaginative potential than most genre setting games - i.e. castles, pirate ships, and space ships co-exist very comfortably. And, not to mention that LEGO U's core demographic probably has a below-average attention span, so they'll need a constant flow of content to keep the kiddies interested.
DC Universe Online also has a challenging audience to work with: the console crowd. DCUO takes more than its share of consoleer criticism over its $14.99 monthly subscription and Creative Director Chris Cao responded to common concerns by noting that DCUO will also have new content every month. In today's DCUO interview, he said the following: "The way we look at it is, the subscription fee is a lot like DLC. We're charging you a subscription fee because we're going to dedicate developers to bringing you new content every month. We're going to have a team that's going to give you something new every month, even with the expansion coming."
As for that coming expansion, it seems likely that it will have something to do with the Green Lantern. A major motion picture is coming next year that ties in nicely, for sure, and one bit we were able to glean from the DCUO devs is that the Green Lantern content is a huge body of work - too huge for the initial launch. Jim Lee explained that "it's almost a whole other game" - that the game world would have to expand to take in much more of the universe to do justice to the Green Lantern lore. Chris added that the rings seek out potential Green Lanterns, not the other way around, and the team has to figure out a reasonable way to do that. In any case, a Green Lantern expansion seems to have moved beyond the hypothetical.
MMORPGs represent a major commitment of time and energy for players as well as devs, so it's important to know where the game is going design-wise. Players trust some developers solely based on past performance and reputation - i.e. knowing that they're not going to rush something out to mess with their game (/cough 4.0.1).
Other developers, like NetDevil and SOE, have some rebuilding to do. What's your outlook on the future of our next two big new releases - LEGO U and DCUO - past launch? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our WoW Paladins forum
Song I made about my ret pally woes
Elkripper's
song, set to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies, is nothing if
not clever. And, thanks to Elkripper, I'll probably have this damn song
stuck in my head all day. But I digress. Elkripper vents frustrations
about the newly revamped Retribution Paladin with classic style and
humor. Check it out and share a comment!
=====================================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"Now, listen to a story about a class so good,
Its Retribution Paladin, I played it like I should.
First come worked well, I could help out in a fight,
My DPS was high, I could run instances all night.
But Blizzard said:
Faceroll.
Too easy."
- Elkripper
=====================================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
5 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 58 original features in October! 1113 in 2010!
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
DCUO's Jim Lee and Chris Cao Talk Green Lantern, a Moon Mission, & more!
http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/interviews/2010/jim-lee-and-chris-cao
Ten Ton Hammer recently met with legendary comic book artist, writer, publisher, and DC Universe Executive Creative Director Jim Lee and Game Director Chris Cao. Read on as DCUO's dynamic duo addresses questions ranging from the size, scope, and origin of the DC Universe in DCUO, to the potential for a Green Lantern expansion, to whether DCUO owes more to console action games or traditional MMORPGs, and much, much more!
FEATURES & GUIDES
BlizzCon 2010 Expectations
http://tentonhammer/com/wow/blizzcon/2010/expectations
BlizzCon is
taking place this coming weekend! For many it means this is a travel
week as you make your way south to the event. For some it means
anguishing over the fact that you didn’t get tickets to go, or couldn’t
get the time off work. For everyone, it means a lot of time thinking
and pondering over what will be announced at the event. That’s where
Byron “Messiah” Mudry steps in and voices his expectations for BlizzCon
2010.
WoW 2010 Hallow's End Guide
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/hallows-end
Hallow's
End, the Halloween-themed holiday in World of Warcraft, just went live
on the servers and we have a guide just for you. Get every achievement,
all of the loot, and learn what's new this year as the Headless
Horseman terrorizes the denizens of Azeroth. We've got everything you
need to complete this spooky crazy holiday here at Ten Ton Hammer.
MEDIA
From New York Comic-Con - Ten Ton Hammer Live Podcast Episode 23
http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/23
This
week on Ten Ton Hammer Live the boys are minus Ben, but up a ReuBEN
(waaah waaaah!) and a Jeff, reporting from Comic-Con in New York. Also
Jesse starts off the show with "Delusions of Blizzcon Grandeur" and a
ton of news about everything from DCUO to WoW, where he continues to
uncover clues to what may in fact be the greatest conspiracy of all
time. If he ends up missing, you'll know why.
All this and more on this weeks Ten Ton Hammer Live!
DCUO Screenshots - Combat in the Bat Cave
http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/screenshots/oct/15/10
Today's
Top 10
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/interviews/2010/jim-lee-and-chris-cao">DCUO's Jim Lee and Chris Cao Talk Green Lantern, a Moon Mission, & more!
- WoW 2010 Hallow's End Guide
-
href="http://tentonhammer/com/wow/blizzcon/2010/expectations">BlizzCon 2010 Expectations
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/patch401-resources">
style="font-weight: bold;">World of Warcraft's
Patch 4.0.1 Resources
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/previews/update-7">
style="font-weight: bold;">Dungeons & Dragons
Online Update 7 Hands-On
Preview - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/previews/charr-arena-event">An Exclusive First Look at the Charr Arena Event in style="font-weight: bold;">Guild Wars 2
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/cataclysm-pvp-gearing">Gearing
up for WoW
Cataclysm PvP style="font-weight: bold;">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part2">The
Rift System - style="font-weight: bold;">Rift: Planes of Telara
Reader Submitted Q&A #2 style="font-weight: bold;">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war/interviews/carrie-gouskos-skaven-10.5.10">Skaven
Exclusives! A style="font-weight: bold;">WAR
Q&A with Carrie Gouskos -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/main/reviews/Medal-of-Honor">
style="font-weight: bold;">Medal of Honor
Review
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten
Ton Hammer
team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our LEGO Universe Game Page.
