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is the premiere daily MMOG newsletter, only from Ten
Ton Hammer!
Welcome
to the 1,435th
edition
of Loading...
We still have a few months to
go before the end of the year when gaming sites traditionally begin
rolling out their predictions about the future of the industry. But
that hasn’t stopped one blogger from adding three of the top
names in the wide world of MMOGs to their shortsighted list of game
companies that are supposedly doomed. A closer look at this and a whole
lot more will be blasting its way through your optic nerves today in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/oct/7">Loading…
Dark Horses.
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
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/88">Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning (UP 3) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/99">Lord
of the Rings Online (down 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43">EVE
Online (down 1) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">
Biggest
movers today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift:
Planes of Telara
- down 7
to
#18 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234">Runes
of Magic
- UP 3
to
#13 style="text-decoration: underline;"> -
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/117">Star
Trek Online
- UP 3
to
#15
-
size="-1">7/27
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2" target="_blank">StarCraft
II: Wings of Liberty
(release) -
size="-1">8/17
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
of Heroes: Going Rogue (release) -
size="-1">8/18
- href="http://everquest2.com/free_to_play">EverQuest
II Extended (release) -
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;">December
7, 2010
- World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
(expansion)
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Early 2011
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online (release)
size="-1">Upcoming
Events
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/5 -
10/8 - href="http://www.gdconline.com/">GDC
Online -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/8 -
10/10 - href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/">New
York Comic Con -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y" target="_blank">BlizzCon -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
-
3/26 (2011) - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/" target="_blank">CCP
FanFest
- 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_100710.jpg">
What's
your PlayerScore? World of
Warcraft players, find out at
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">playerscore.com.
Loading... now presented in
vivid Technicolor!
I have a long history of rooting for the underdog, stretching as far
back as my childhood when I quite literally did so every time I plopped
my butt down to watch the
style="font-style: italic;">Underdog
cartoon. Even during the height of my comic book collecting days in the
late 80s and throughout the 1990s I was just as likely to seek out
lesser known publications as I was to pick up the latest issues of
perennial favorites from Marvel and DC, a trend that continues to this
day.
Once the year 2000 rolled around and we all realized that the world
wasn’t ending, it seemed as good a time as any to pull up
roots
from Chicago and replant myself in Portland, OR. While there were any
number of factors that went into that decision, that lengthy list also
included the random geek factoid that the Portland area was also home
to Dark
Horse Comics.
At the time I was fairly obsessed with the art in Mike
Mignola’s
style="font-style: italic;">Hellboy,
Frank Miller’s
style="font-style: italic;">Sin City,
and the awesome
adventures of Uncle Gabby and Mr. Crow in Tony Millionaire’s
style="font-style: italic;">Sock Monkey
comics. In fact, a
replica figure of Drinky Crow is currently passed out on the corner of
my desk here in the Chantry of Secrets aka my makeshift office.
You may be asking yourself, “Who got their comic books in my
MMOG
newsletter?” but perhaps a better question might be,
“Who
got their MMOGs in my comic book convention?”
That’s right,
New York Comic Con is set to kick off tomorrow and while
there’s
not necessarily a massive MMOG presence at the con this year, there are
still a number of high caliber titles that will be making the trek to
the big apple for the event. While none of them are based on Dark Horse
titles, it’s also the perfect venue for SOE to showcase its
upcoming
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">
style="font-style: italic;">DC Universe Online
among others.
If today’s Loading… were an M. Night Shyamalan
film, this
is the point where the thrilling (read: predictable) plot twist would
be shoehorned in.
While scampering around ye olde internet late last night to come up
with a fitting topic to ramble about for today’s newsletter,
I
came across a random blog post titled
href="http://www.gamesbrief.com/2010/10/ten-games-businesse-that-are-doomed/">Ten
Games Businesses that are
Doomed. Once I finished singing
a few rounds of
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqcn_TPu4qQ">The
Doom Song, I
discovered that a handful of MMOG developers had managed to land a
place on the list.
While I’ll readily admit that I’m a fan of
seemingly random
game-related top ten lists, I also take the kinds of statements found
in the Gamesbrief blog post with a grain of salt so big it would easily
engulf my entire neighborhood. This was doubly the case here, as the
originating site clearly is more interested in predicting and reporting
on doom and gloom than it is at taking the business analysis side of
the industry as seriously as it claims to, regardless of the blog
author’s past as an investment banker.
The biggest red flag here is prominently positioned on the
site’s
About page, encouraging visitors to “Tell us about downsizing
or
closures in the games industry.” While there’s
certainly
value in analyzing what went wrong with past business ventures in the
gaming world, it still speaks volumes that the blog is seemly
uninterested in industry successes unless your name is
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">
style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft
or
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/322">
style="font-style: italic;">RuneScape,
the two points of
reference sprinkled throughout the top ten list.
Without rehashing the whole nutty affair of the blog post in question,
the following statements about three of the MMOG developers that were
(dis)honored by making the List of Doom made me snicker:
Trion Worlds – “But I fear, like a First World War
general,
you are fighting the battles of a previous century. And you are about
to get bogged down in the Somme.”
CCP’s
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2216">DUST
514 –
“It’s wildly ambitious but
also, in my view, totally pointless.”
38 Studios – “The odds of being a success in
launching a
traditional MMO are stacked against you. Far more likely is that you
will lose your shirt.”
While it’s entirely true that MMOGs are a relatively high
risk
venture in the gaming world, so is attempting to recreate the gameplay
wheel simply because it’s already driven the success of past
titles. In fact, just about every established genre in gaming stems
from a refinement of gameplay mechanics rather than throwing them out
the window because it’s been done before.
My analysis of the above could easily go on for quite some time, but
instead I’ll close by saying that I’d certainly bet
on the
three “dark horses” listed here for any number of
reasons.
Then again, perhaps that’s just my general enthusiasm for the
industry’s future shining through.
What’s your take? Are three of the biggest names in the
industry
barking up the wrong tree with titles like
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/883">
style="font-style: italic;">Copernicus,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">
style="font-style: italic;">Rift,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2503">
style="font-style: italic;">End of Nations
or DUST
514? Are the hugely
recognizable names attached to these projects just dazzle camouflage?
Hop on your virtual dark horse and ride it over to the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53972">Loading…
forum to have your say!
Shayalyn's
Epic Thread of the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=724">Guild
Wars 2 General Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53124">
style="font-weight: bold;">Request
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53124">:
Your Feedback on GW2 Forums!
Every
time Ten Ton Hammer publishes a new
href="http://tentonhammer.com/gw2">
style="font-style: italic;">Guild
Wars 2
article, gamers flock to read it, so it should be no surprise that
we're doing some major tweaking to the theme and style of our GW2
forums. We've rolled out the most recent updates, and now we're looking
for your feedback. Is there anything you'd like to see added to the
forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53124">Tell
us!
=====================================
Awesome
Quotes from the Epic Thread
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53124">Make
one!
=====================================
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
4 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 23 Ten Ton
Hammer features in September! 1083 in 2010!
PODCAST
Exclusive
WAR RvR Info on Ten Ton Hammer Live Episode 22
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/22">http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/22
LADIES
AND GENTLEMEEEEEEN! STEP RIGHT UP AND WITNESS CARRIE GOUSKOS VS JESSE
COX IN AN RVR BATTLE TO THE DEATH! Yes, that's right! In this episode
Producer of Warhammer Online Carrie Gouskos returns to discuss the new
RvR details AND dispense some previously unheard information about the
future of Warhammer.
THEN - Jesse, Ben, and Carrie embark on a
rockified master looter about "White Snake" which takes a turn for the
weird when Ben and Carrie have a magical moment of complete
syncronicity that can only be heard to be believed.
Also, in the news - the boys talk Vindictus, free to play (yet again),
and World of Warcraft release dates.
All this and more in this weeks episode of Ten Ton Hammer Live!
MEDIA
Trion
Worlds Unveils Meridian, Home of the Defiants in Rift: Planes of Telara
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/videos/meridian">http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/videos/meridian
With the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift:
Planes of Telara
beta drawing ever closer, Trion Worlds decided it was time to tease us
with a few more details. The team recently revealed the capital city of
the Defiant, Meridian, and we've got a new video, several screenshots
and some descriptive lore about the new city. Join us for a peek inside
the fortified walls of Meridian.
DC
Universe Online Beta Videos Highlight Combat and Metropolis
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/videos/beta">http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/videos/beta
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407">DC
Universe Online
may have suffered a slight delay but Sony Online Entertainment (SOE)
wants players to know that the game is still coming along quite well.
In fact, SOE recently released two new videos showcasing beta combat
and offering a Superman style fly-through of one of DC's most popular
cities, Metropolis. So dust off your cape and join us for a look at DC
Universe Online.
FEATURES
& GUIDES
WoW:
Cataclysm - Introduction to the Twin Peaks Battleground
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/twin_peaks">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/twin_peaks
Twin
Peaks is the new 10 player battleground in Cataclysm. The objective is
Capture the Flag. Get the goods in Ten Ton Hammer's new
href="http://tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm">World of
Warcraft: Cataclysm guide.
Today's
Top 10
-
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/rift/interviews/reader-submitted-questions-part1">Reader
Submitted Rift
Q&A, Part 1 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warlock">
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
Warlock Guide Updated - 4.0 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/lego-universe-preview">
style="font-weight: bold;">LEGO Universe
Preview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/twin_peaks">
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW:
Cataclysm - Introduction to the Twin Peaks Battleground -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/combat/elite-equipment">An
Overview of Elite Equipment In style="font-weight: bold;">EVE
Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/mastery">
style="font-weight: bold;">WoW
- Introduction to the Mastery System -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live/22">Exclusive
WAR
RvR Info on Ten Ton Hammer Live Episode 22 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/final-fantasy-xiv">
style="font-weight: bold;">Final Fantasy XIV
Review at Ten Ton Hammer -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/videos/beta">
style="font-weight: bold;">DC Universe Online
Beta Videos Highlight Combat and Metropolis
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten Ton Hammer
team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our DUST 514 Game Page.
