Welcome
to the 1,270th
edition
of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

This
weekend many earthlings will be partaking in peculiar ritualistic
behaviors that involve things like going out for expensive dinners,
buying jewelry or maybe even scampering off to the nearest gas station
to pick up a "fresh" rose for the love of their
life. Nothing says you truly care quite like a rose that's
been airbrushed, wrapped in plastic and stuffed into a cooler door
right next to the Pabst Blue Ribbon!

This bizarre ritual I speak of
is none other than Valentine's
Day, and it's happening this Sunday on an Earth near you.
Many of the virtual worlds we inhabit are joining in on the festivities
this weekend as well, though some of them with a much more morbid twist
than is commonly seen with the Hallmark holiday version many of us
experience here in the real world. We've rounded up the info
on many of these events to help you decide which says
"love" the best today in Loading...
Nothing says Love like...

cellspacing="0" width="100%">

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/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
   Dragons Online (Up 2)
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest II
   (Down
   1)
   
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto">Star Trek
   Online (Up 2)
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
   (Up 2)
   

Biggest
movers today:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/140">City
   of Heroes (Up 9 to #19)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287">Free
   Realms (Up 6 to #12)
   
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/117">Fallen
   Earth (Down 5 to #17)
   

size="-1">Recent Releases

• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/464-answer-the-call-of-war">LotRO:
  Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.eveonline.com/Dominion/">EVE
  Online: Dominion (expansion)
• size="-1">12/15
  - href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/everquest.vm">EverQuest:
  Underfoot (expansion) 
• size="-1">1/26
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2389">Mass
  Effect 2
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
  Agenda (release date)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
  Online (release date)
• size="-1">2/2 size="-1">
  - Star
  Trek Online (release date)
• size="-1">2/10
  - href="http://www.stargateresistance.com/">Stargate
  Resistance (expansion)
  
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

• size="-1">2/16
  - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
  2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
• size="-1">March
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon
• size="-1">TBA
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
  Fantasy XIV
  
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
  The Old
  Republic
  
  

Loading... Daily

I think AngryBeaver from the
Ten Ton Hammer forums
put it best: "Nothing says love like killing stuff for
loot." For those of us whose first true love is
online gaming, this weekend promises to be full of more sappy virtual
romance than you can shake a +10 Stick of the Creepy Cupid at.
We've put together a full rundown of Valentine's
Day inspired events going on this weekend in a virtual world near you.
Don't think it's all flowers and candy though, as
some of these events are all about the death and decapitation!

World
of Warcraft: href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/love">Love
is in the Air
- The festivities for
this in-game event have been revamped quite a bit this year to cut down
on the frustrating inventory micro-management from previous years, and
add more of what makes a holiday about showing that special someone you
care so awesome. By that I naturally mean killing bosses for loot! Be
sure to check out our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/seasonal/love">complete
guide to the revamped Love is in
the Air
event if you plan on spending this weekend in Azeroth.

Aion
- While Aion
doesn't necessarily have a full-blown event
for Valentine's Day, players will still be gifted with a
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80809">double
experience weekend as well as
two new holiday themed items in
the NCsoft Store: the href="https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl?dnv=3486411789&action=viewItem&item_id=175"
target="_blank">True Love Valentine Pack
and the
href="https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl?dnv=3486411789&action=viewItem&item_id=177"
target="_blank">Chocolate Valentine Pack.
According to the recent newsletter
sent out to Aion players, "Nothing says I love you like a
full experience bar!" And of course nothing says I love Aion
like
spending $10 on limited edition virtual dyes, headbands, emotes and
candies.

The double experience weekend
begins today and lasts until Monday,
February 15th, and the limited edition holiday items are available to
Aion players until February 28th.

Earth
Eternal: href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80904">Harts
Fest - Already
underway and wrapping up
on the 14th, this event involves plenty of holiday themed fun as
players collect various ingredients to create gifts, which seemingly
reward players with... you guessed it, other gifts! While no
bold statements were made as to the meaning of love, the official
announcement for Harts Fest does boldly claim that "the
spirit of love only lasts for about 4 days". While this is no
doubt in reference to the duration of the event, that's also
the average time most relationships will last beyond Sunday if the
holiday is accidently forgotten.

Secret
of the Solstice - Where to begin
on this one?
First up, players will be able to help save Valentine's Day
by heading to Blackheart's dungeon to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80901">find
Cupid's
lost arrow. But perhaps more
importantly, according to the href="http://solstice.outspark.com/news/view/?id=zbn.10016"
target="_blank">official
announcement for the event, "The
Valentine's Day Lucky Ball
or Cupid Lucky Ball will be available in the Lucky Balls tab of the
Solstice store on February 1st."

That's right folks, you too
could find yourself playing a
game of "find the lost arrow" with your lucky balls
from now until February 24th in Secret
of
the Solstice.

Fallen
Earth: href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80797">Get a
Valentine from a
Dev Poem Contest and Special Sale
- Fancy yourself a poet? Come up with your best poem that
ties into the theme of Valentine's Day and the apocalypse and
post it in the official Fallen Earth forums by 11:59pm EST this Sunday
for a chance to win a Fallen Earth t-shirt and personalized Valentine
created and signed by the devs. Or, if that gas station rose simply
won't cut it as an awesome gift for that special someone this
weekend, you have until the 15th to purchase the game directly from the
target="_blank">Fallen
Earth
online store at a special
discounted rate.

Warhammer
Online: href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80794">The
Night of Murder -
From now until the
16th, players in Warhammer Online can earn themselves such awesome
rewards as a Well-Mounted Skull which allows you
to mount the heads of your enemies on pikes for all to see. Forget the
roses and candies, bloody heads on sticks is where it's at!

And there you have it folks.
Will you be spending your
Valentine's Day weekend in a virtual world killing things for
loot? Let us know right here in the Loading... forums, and in
the meantime don't forget that the roses are in the cooler
right next to the PBR!

---

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=668">WoW:
Cataclysm Discussion Forum



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49545">GameStop
said 11/2/10 for launch. Must be true



If
a guy at GameStop says World of Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm,
is going to launch on November 2, 2010...who are we to question him?
Well, intelligent gamers, for one. And yet somehow GameStop still gets
our preorders, because, as Medeor so aptly said in today's Epic Thread,
"...you know that I'll put down $5. I mean, I'm gonna buy it anyway.
Damn them!?!?"



So, for your Friday enjoyment, I give you one of those small joys in a
gamer's life--slagging the guys at GameStop. href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49545">Join
us!



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

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread



" A guy at gamestop told me
that Starcraft 2 was going to come out next week and I could get out if
I said otherwise."



- Xerin



"A guy at gamestop told me that
Starcraft: Ghost was finished and ready
to ship and he didn't know why Blizzard never released the game. This
was
2 years ago."



- AngryBeaver

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



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!

---

New and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

4 new Ten Ton Hammer
features today! 56 in February! 171
in 2010!

BETA GIVEAWAY



Craft of Gods Beta Key Giveaway

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/landing/50">http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/landing/50



Craft
of Gods, from Russion developer CyberBemon, is a MMOG based on
Slavic mythology. The game features two cities, one of light and one of
dark. Players can choose from 6 races: Humans, Hyperborean, Velet,
Werewolf, and Dyagv Volkolaki.. The game uses a skill system rather
than a class-based system, but players still level their characters
to 100. There are 14 schools of skills for players to choose
from:
melee, archery, magic, defense and many others. PvP takes place between
two realms and is modeled to be an RvR (Realm vs Realm) experience and
players will be able to reach Demigod status by excelling on the PvP
battlefield.



Check out Craft of Gods today by href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/landing/50">picking
up your beta key from Ten Ton
Hammer.



FEATURES & GUIDES



Understanding The Mission Grind
In EVE Online

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80837">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80837



EVE
Online's mission grind is the most readily available, inexhaustible
resource, especially for players that aren't part of one of the
mega-alliances. Ten Ton Hammer Contributing Writer, Space Junkie,
explains the benefits and methods, here.



RoM content: - Runes of Magic:
Micro Transactions and you

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom/guides/diamonds">http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom/guides/diamonds



There are lots of myths surrounding microtransactions. (For example:
You must
use them to even play the game; those who use microtransactions have an
unfair advantage do to the items, and lots and lots of other things.)
Truth is, microtransactions can
cause all of those problems,
but when done right they can really enhance the game. Join ZeroMerc as
he explores what microtransactions mean in the land of Runes of Magic.



Star Trek Online: The
Traveler's Guide - Episode 2

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/the_traveler_episode2">http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/the_traveler_episode2



The
universe is an awfully big place and it would take more than a human
lifetime to see it all. Realizations like that make the idea of a
personal tour guide sound pretty good, don't they? Today's your lucky
day then, because we (allegedly) smuggled none other than The Traveler
onto a Federation ship to bring us weekly images from every quadrant of
the galaxy and beyond just for you!

Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80680">EVE
   Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80680">
   Sins of a Solar Spymaster #38: Self-Immolation for Fun and Profit
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80808">Top 10
   PvP MMOGs
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80771">Top
   5 Single-Player Games That Need To Be MMOGs href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80771">
   
   
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80275">Daring
   to Dev -
   The Journey from Fan to Game Designer
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/captains_blog">Star
   Trek Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/captains_blog">Captain's
   Blog #2 - Decisions and Directions
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80678">Allods
   Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80678">
   Archetype
   Interview
   Series Part 1 - The Warrior
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/editorials/klingonfirstdays">Star
   Trek Online href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/features/editorials/klingonfirstdays">:
   Your First Days in the Klingon Empire
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80183">Mass
   Effect 2 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80183"> (PC)
   Review
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/editorials/betaimpressions"> style="font-weight: bold;">Global Agenda
   Beta
   Impressions
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/advanced_combat_tactics">Star
    Trek Online Advanced Combat
    Tactics
    
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80266">
    
    

---

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!

- Reuben "Sardu" Waters
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team