Welcome back!  This is my 95th attempt at this column. 

How many have you read?  I guess in gamespeak I guess it would be “Have you caught them all?”   

M95 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo.  95 was the car number of Lightning McQueen in the Pixar film CarsToy Story was released in ’95. 

I’m John Hoskin and I’ll be your MMOG guide today.   

“A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Everyone can use a feel good moment to start the day.   Let’s go with this…

Thanks for taking some time out of your day to read this column.  I truly appreciate it.    If you happen to use Twitter, you can follow me @BoomjackTTH.   I rarely use Facebook, but I do occasionally post gaming related tidbits on Google+ where you can find me under my real moniker John Hoskin. 
 
25 years is an exceptionally long time no matter how you look at it.   In game terms, it was the year that Might and Magic 1 was released by New World Computing for MS-DOS, the C64 and even on Macs.   Just this week, Might and Magic Heroes VI was released.   For a franchise to last 25 years in this industry is nothing short of incredible, but it pales in comparison to what I’m about to tell you.

Continue reading Reloading... Independent Union at the Ten Ton Hammer website!

25 years ago, I met the young lady who would become my wife.    She has somehow found the inner strength to put up with me since then.  Two and a half decades folks!   It seems like such a long time when we are thinking about games, but in reality it’s just a drop in the bucket. 

Most of the MMOGs that we see launched live somewhat short lives.   There are exceptions like EverQuest, EVE Online and of course World of Warcraft, but many simply burn out and fade away.  The next potential star in our scopes is Star Wars: The Old Republic.    Will Bioware produce something that lasts a decade?  I hope so.

In WoW this week, Hallow’s End has kicked off with plenty of Halloween tricks and treats for players.  The achievements and quests have met with some changes so please take a moment to visit the Headless Horseman Guide and The Hallow’s End Guide before you waste any of your precious gaming time. 

The recent rumour that Turbine may have had their servers hacked appears to be true, or at least there is concern that it is true. 

Greetings, 

Turbine is concerned that a third-party recently may have attempted to access forum account information. There is no indication at this time that your account was modified or compromised. For your protection we suggest you change the password to a unique, hard to guess password not associated with any other sites or services. If you changed your password after October 11th, then you can disregard this message. 

To change your password, please follow these steps: 
1.     Go to https://myaccount.turbine.com/ and click on "Forgot your password?" You may also click this in the game launcher.
2.    Follow the instructions on how to recover your password. A new password will be sent to this e-mail address.
3.    Once you have received the password reset e-mail, change your password. Please remember to use unique, hard-to guess passwords that are not associated with other online services or sites.
Turbine takes your account security seriously. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at https://support.turbine.com/. You may submit a new inquiry to our Customer Service team, and they will be able to assist you further. 

Thank you, 

Turbine Support

If you have a Turbine account please go change your password and if you share that password with any other personal accounts anywhere, change those too.  

Two years before Age of Conan launched the team at Funcom had already started work on the Secret World.  Creative Director Ragnar Tornquist spoke at New York Comic Con about the game, it’s past and its upcoming launch in 2012.

The Mittani is back with with another installment of Sins of a Solar Spymaster.   I don’t play EVE (though I should), but this column is always a must read for me. 
Last, but certainly not least today is the Halloween events announcement for a game that has been around since the new MMOG titles were just twinkles in their designers’ eyes.   Anarchy Online, the game that brought you instanced content is still going strong.

My question for the readership today is:  What independent websites (privately owned and run) do you frequent?  Hats off to the little guys!
That’s it for today.  Thanks again for reading and as always, may your dreams be big and your worries be small. “
 
As always, you can contact me a number of ways:

Until we meet again,

John “Boomjack” Hoskin

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TenTonHammer.com

 
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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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