Welcome to the 926th Edition of Loading...

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Daily Column

It was a typically busy Monday in the news, and I’m not just talking about the failed bank bailout bill here in the US. This from a federal government that allocated the $1.5 billion, (the GDP of Zimbabwe), to help buy everyone a digital TV tuner. I can’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, if we’d spent that budget on ads urging a little financial responsibility, we wouldn’t be in this election year-hyped, highly depressing mess.

One company that’s never felt a financial crunch since its office-in-the-one-car-garage days is Google, and after hooking me on their search engine, free email service, and maps, Google is after not just my phone, but my online game engine as well.

Shacknews had the scoop as Kevin Hanna, director of the Google’s Lively social networking engine, couldn’t discuss whether Google had an actual online games in development, but an extensible platform is definitely in the works. He also had this to say about corporate mandates meant to generate mass market appeal: "It's sucking the life out of what should be the most creative and innovative medium out there."

One creative and innovative game developer took Hanna’s disdain of corporate mandates to heart. Spellborn, developers of Ten Ton Hammer’s pick for Most Innovative at the year’s biggest show, announced Monday that The Chronicles of Spellborn would not be “free2play” - which seemed to run counter to North American publisher Acclaim Games’ announcement that “as with all of Acclaim’s games, Spellborn will be free to download and play once players have registered for an account. But those players who want to access advanced features and unlock extra game content will have the option to purchase a premium service that will offer several payment options. ”

Spellborn clarified that only the opening zone would be a freebie in lieu of something like a free trial, with the parameters of said zone still under development. Perhaps this will be the last word and we’ll have CoS with our turkey leftovers this Thanksgiving weekend, but we know Acclaim’s Dave Perry is a true believer in F2P. Hopefully Spellborn’s free offering will be enough.

Our sharp newsies picked up on a thread in the Lord of the Rings Online forums noted that Turbine is head-hunting a senior-level engineer to help Turbine unify “the best of massively multiplayer online games, virtual worlds and social networks on and across both PC and Console platforms.” I’m with Boom in saying that to me, playing a traditional MMORPG like LotRO on a console would be about as much fun as grinding pumice with a cheese grater, but a console port of the more active combat-oriented Dungeons & Dragons Online might warrant a second look.

Not to be left out, one of SOE’s published MMORPGs announced freebies. Pirates of the Burning Sea is one of those polarizing, slow-boil games in the vein of EVE Online that you have to play to form a respectable opinion of. There’s never been a better time to do so, since Flying Lab just announced a 14-day free trial - its first in 9 months of operation.

It’s already a busy week in MMORPG news, but tomorrow we’re going to blow the lid off two of the more exciting projects in development with a host of exclusives.

Have something to say? Like or dislike the new format? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forums.


Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day

Sometimes they're funny; sometimes they're foolish; sometimes they're flaming;
sometimes they're cool. Whatever this one happens to be, it's
our Epic Thread of the Day.

====================
From our WAR: General Discussion

Convince Me! - A thread for the unsure

LiquidAppo
was uncertain whether to shell out hard earned gamer money on Warhammer
Online. Instead of asking the usual "Is this game worth it?" LiquidAppo
challenged our forum members to convince unsure gamers to give WAR a
whirl by posting "poems, pictures, videos, articles, stories" and
"anything fun you can think of about the game to show how great it is."

Are you unsure about WAR? Or do you have a great story to tell? This thread's for you.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Warhammer Online is perhaps the best PvP-centric MMORPG to be released since Ultima Online.



Additionally it is by far the most epic MMORPG since... probably... ever.



And I don't mean epic like:



'Zomg We are Fighting Illidan!'



Because that's not epic. That's scripted and boring." - Barbarious


====================

Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!


13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 292 in September! 2496 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Images/Video

Reviews

Comics

Community

Op/Eds

Guides

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

  1. Warhammer Online: First Impressions
  2. World of Warcraft: Are Heirloom Items a Good Thing for the Game?
  3. Wizard 101 Beginner Combat Video Guide
  4. WAR-Torn #6: The Uniformity of Good
  5. Warhammer Online: Exclusive Post-Launch with Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher
  6. City of Heroes: Issue 13 with Matt Miller and Brain Clayton
  7. Warhammer Online: Post-Launch with Mark Jacobs
  8. EVE Online Editorial - Starting Anew with the Power of Two
  9. World of Warcraft: How Will Raid Changes Affect Guilds in WotLK?
  10. Atlantica Online Exclusive Shaman Guide

Real World News

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Pirates of the Burning Sea Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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