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is the premiere daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,449th
edition
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style="font-style: italic;">Yet
another formerly AAA MMOG is joining the ranks of the free-to-play
converts in what can only be described as a growing trend.
We’ve seen what free-to-play conversions have done to bring
new life to successful older titles like
style="font-style: italic;" href="http://tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons
& Dragons Online, but
how will they affect the future of a game that never quite took off in
the first place? Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg asks
this question in today’s
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/oct/27">Loading…
Champions of Free-to-play.
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/eq2">EverQuest 2
(UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online (down 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
of the Rings Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/vanguard">Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes (UP 3)
Biggest
movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift:
Planes of Telara
- Up 12
to
#10 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2">StarCraft
II
- down 6
to
#19 style="text-decoration: underline;"> -
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest
-
UP 5
to
#9
-
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) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/20
- Champions
Online: Demonflame
(expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/20
- Dungeons
and Dragons
Online: Update 7 (expansion) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/26
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/170">LEGO
Universe (release)
Releases
-
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">
style="font-weight: bold;">January
2011
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2539">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_102610.jpg">
What's
your PlayerScore? World of
Warcraft players, find out at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.
Loading... transmitting from
our secret volcano lair.
If you haven’t heard by now, let me be the one to break the
news—another pay-to-play game formerly thought of as a
triple-A title is joining the ranks of
href="http://tentonhammer.com/ddo">
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons &
Dragons Online,
style="font-style: italic;">The Lord of the Rings
Online
and
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest II.
In early 2011, Cryptic’s superhero send up,
href="http://tentonhammer.com/co">
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online,
will become free to the masses, monetized by a premium subscription
option and microtransactions. Ten Ton Hammer’s newshound
extraordinaire, Martuk, provided
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/91205">details
about the free-to-play conversion
yesterday.
Most gamers seem to view
style="font-style: italic;">DDO,
LotRO
and EQ2
as solid but aging titles with plenty of content to offer. For these
games, a free-to-play conversion brought fresh new player life to the
servers and invigorated what was becoming a lonely player experience. I
haven’t enjoyed
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest II
as much as I’m enjoying its free-to-play iteration,
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest II Extended,
since launch. The thing that makes the game enjoyable again is its
community—there are plenty of virtual people populating
style="font-style: italic;">EQ2X
now where once the player population was sparse at best. The same can
be said for
style="font-style: italic;">DDO
and LotRO.
Launched in September 2009,
style="font-style: italic;">Champions
is a younger game than most of its contemporaries in the
pay-to-play-gone-free-to-play market. It’s not a
game that took off at launch and aged to a point where making it
free-to-play could revitalize it; it’s a game that, for all
appearances, never took off at all. I’m curious to see
whether Champions
will succeed in the style of
style="font-style: italic;">DDO
and friends or continue to fall flat. Cryptic undoubtedly sees a chance
to score, if belatedly, with
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online,
but can making it free-to-play save a game that few seem to have liked
to begin with?
It certainly can’t hurt. The
style="font-style: italic;">Champions
free-to-play conversion will appeal to a couple of different types of
gamers—those who liked the game but didn’t find it
worthy of a monthly subscription fee, and those who are curious about
it but weren’t curious enough to buy the box. How long
semi-like and semi-curiosity will sustain the free version of
style="font-style: italic;">Champions
remains to be seen.
These are certainly interesting times for the gaming industry. As we
watch formerly AAA titles convert to free-to-play we have to
wonder—who’s next? If
style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online
succeeds, for instance, will
style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek Online,
another Cryptic title, follow in its footsteps in the same way that
Turbine’s
style="font-style: italic;">The Lord of the Rings
Online followed
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons &
Dragons Online? Will we see
promising games that never quite reached their potential, such as
style="font-style: italic;">Warhammer Online
and Age
of Conan, adopt a new revenue
model? And, if free-to-play is the key to success that recent
conversions have painted it to be, will we see more upcoming titles opt
out of the subscription-based revenue model and into a
microtransaction-based one?
Western gamers are still wary of microtransactions, and we still view
free-to-play games as inferior to the ones that require a monthly
subscription, but I have to wonder how long it will take before a
much-hyped title launches free-to-play and sets a precedent. I believe
it’s still a perception issue—we’re
trained from an early age that “you get what you pay
for.” The AAA conversion trend isn’t doing much to
remedy that mindset, either. We’re coming to see these
conversions as a last resort for games whose subscription numbers were
starting to flat-line rather than a viable option that upcoming games
could successfully adopt.
I believe that free-to-play or subscriptionless MMOGs represent the
future. All that’s required is for one big name MMOG to
succeed at launching with a revenue model other than the tired
buy-the-box and pay-the-monthly-fee standard.
What’s your take on the free-to-play conversion trend? Will
it help free-to-play MMOGs become more mainstream in the West?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54365">Discuss!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the
Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3">Tavern
of the Ten Ton Hammer forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54340">Did
Blizzard phone it in?
Our
community member, Anacche, thinks that Blizzard "phoned it in" with
this year's BlizzCon, revealing very little new information. "I'm all
for fan conventions," he says, "but if it's going to be a dev-specific
show, such as Blizzcon, there's gotta be something news-worthy to come
from it." Do you agree?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=54340">Discuss!
=====================================
Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread
"I
think the lure of Blizzcon is the community. With only three games,
it's hard for a company to have a lot of cool new things to show off
every year. That being said, the tickets still sell out, so Blizzard
fans must be having fun."
-
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=444735&postcount=2">B.
de la Durantaye
=====================================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
3 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 96 original features in October! 1156
in 2010!
FEATURED
STORY
What
Happened To... (Part 4)
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorials/what-happened-to-part4">http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorials/what-happened-to-part4
In
the fourth and final installment of “What Happened
To...” we’ll take a
look at a perpetually re-launching phenomenon, and a game-changing
up-and-comer. But first we'll dig into the details of a game that just
might be considered the perfect example of how to fail at launching an
MMOG.
FEATURES
& GUIDES
Ten
Reasons To Be Caldari In EVE Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/why-caldari">http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/why-caldari
Each
of the races in EVE Online has something going for it. In this guide,
Ten Ton Hammer Contributing Writer, Space Junkie, gives us neat ten
reasons to play as a Caldari.
MEDIA
Exclusive!
DC Universe Online Screenshots – Dr. Fate’s Lair
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/images/dr-fate-lair">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/images/dr-fate-lair
Today's
Top 10
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part4">Combat
and Abilities - style="font-weight: bold;">Rift: Planes of Telara
Reader Submitted Q&A #4 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/diablo3/classes/preview/demonhunter">Hands-on
with the Diablo
III Demon
Hunter -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon/2010/raid-dungeons-panel">BlizzCon
2010: World
of Warcraft
Dungeons and Raids Panel Overview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/images/dr-fate-lair">Exclusive!
DC
Universe Online Screenshots
– Dr. Fate’s Lair -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/politics/why-caldari">Ten
Reasons To Be Caldari In style="font-weight: bold;">EVE Online -
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! -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/hallows-end">WoW
2010 Hallow's End Guide -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/business/newbie-professions">Five
Newbie-Friendly Professions In style="font-weight: bold;">EVE
Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/burg/overview">All-New
Burglar Class Guide for style="font-weight: bold;">Lord of the
Rings Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/everquest2-extended">Extended
Forecast: An style="font-weight: bold;">Everquest II Extended
Review
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg and the Ten
Ton Hammer
team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Game Page.
