Loading...

Loading... October 6, 2008 - Meet the "Press"

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:31:00 GMT


Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle brings you all the latest MMOG news!

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... October 3, 2008 - A One Man Tug-of-WAR

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:01:00 GMT


Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle brings you all the latest MMOG news!

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... October 2, 2008 - Space Oddity

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:27:00 GMT


Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle brings you all the latest MMOG news!

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... - October 1, 2008 - Finding Otherland

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:16:00 GMT


Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle brings you all the latest MMOG news!

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... - September 30, 2008 - Marketing Ups and Downs

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:41:00 GMT


Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle brings you all the latest MMOG news!
	Welcome to the 926th Edition of Loading... If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's RSS feed . Enjoy! 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 Wizard 101 Beginner Combat Video Guide Runes of Magic Dust Devil Canyon Screenshots Zu Online Content Screenshots Reviews A Review of the First EVE Online Novel - EVE: The Empyrean Age Comics New Comic: WAR: Know Your B.O.'s Community Ten Ton Hammer's WAR Guild of the Week 9/28/08- 10/4/08 Dalmarus� Vanguard Chronicles: No Need For Mourning Just Yet Op/Eds EVE Online Editorial - Starting Anew with the Power of Two Guides WAR: Ironbreaker Masteries WAR: Marauder Masteries WAR: Witch Elf Masteries Atlantica Online Exclusive Shaman Guide Vanguard Armor Project: Biochitinous Armor Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to: Warhammer Online: First Impressions World of Warcraft: Are Heirloom Items a Good Thing for the Game? Wizard 101 Beginner Combat Video Guide WAR-Torn #6: The Uniformity of Good Warhammer Online: Exclusive Post-Launch with Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher City of Heroes: Issue 13 with Matt Miller and Brain Clayton Warhammer Online: Post-Launch with Mark Jacobs EVE Online Editorial - Starting Anew with the Power of Two World of Warcraft: How Will Raid Changes Affect Guilds in WotLK? Atlantica Online Exclusive Shaman Guide Real World News Egyptian prisoners allowed to order our restaurant food Some chicken curry with your torture by proxy? Police chief fired for stealing beer from firefighters' fridge Why does the FD have beer in their fridge, again? Four dead in shootout at OK Corral That's two more than at the original gunfight, if you're counting. Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com. - Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... - September 26, 2008 - Loading: The Next Generation

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:18:00 GMT

Welcome to the 925th Edition of Loading...

If you aren't reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten Ton Hammer's news syndication program. Enjoy!

Daily Column

Loading... out-leveling the competition daily.

First, at Ten Ton Hammer, you vote with what you view. The outcome is The Pulse.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

1. Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
2. World of Warcraft - 164 BPM
3. Age of Conan - 40 BPM
4. Tabula Rasa - 14 BPM
5. Atlantica - 12 BPM
6. Lord of the Rings Online - 11 BPM
7. EverQuest 2 - 10 BPM
8. EVE Online - 9 BPM
9. Dungeon Runners - 9 BPM
10. Mabinogi - 9 BPM

It was with a mixture of joy and sheer terror that I accepted John “Boomjack” Hoskin’s offer to take over his daily column daily, starting today. This will always be the newsletter that John built, and we’ll be sure to get him back for a guest column occasionally, along with other great guest columnists.

That said, the introductions and hazing are complete, so let’s start Loading…

Football - and I don’t mean soccer - is our weekend obsession in the fall here in the US, and if you like to see the underdog prevail against all odds, it was a great weekend to be a football fan. Four of the top ten ranked college teams fell to lower-ranked or unranked teams, and the trend continued in the pros on Sunday with KC and Washington pulling out upset victories against previously unbeaten opponents.

At Ten Ton Hammer, the success we’ve enjoyed has been something of an upset. Over the four years I’ve been with the network - something like a lifetime in Internet years - I’ve watched promising games come and go, we’ve surpassed competing sites that seemed at first unbeatable, and in all that time we’ve kept our core team intact and steadily improved our site, forums, and content consist. Likewise, many of the active folks in our community and forums have been with us for years, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t first thank all of you - writers, contributors, and longtime community members - for teaming up with us for the long haul.

Whether or not you consider Warhammer Online’s 500k subs in the first week an upset victory as well, WAR players have enjoyed a very smooth launch and a game that emphatically delivered on all its gameplay promises. Server imbalances and queues, however, continue to be a problem. In an exclusive Mark Jacobs interview last week, we learned that in addition to cloned servers, Mythic would allow free character transfers if server populations don’t level out.

Continuing on, Mark said that as advantage in numbers doesn't necessarily equal victory:

In terms of ongoing balance, it's important for people to understand that just because you're outnumbered on a server, doesn't mean that the other guys are going to win. That's the beauty of this; you can have Destruction have 20% more people than you, but in scenarios you can still kick their butt. Even in open RvR; if you go back to the Camelot days, how many times did the underpowered realm - in terms of numbers - win? It was all the time.

It remains to be seen how the numbers game plays out in higher level keep and siege RvR play, but one thing about PvP remains true in every game, an organized, experienced force will beat out a disorganized one every single time. If the Order underdogs can start overcoming the numbers gap with grit and saavy, upsets will be the order of the day, and numbers won’t be a problem for long.

Did all this upsetting talk upset you? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

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 Forum

So, what are we all hoping for in the first content patches?

Warhammer Online has been unleashed on the MMOG gaming world, and Barbarious thought it a good time to ask what WAR players are hoping for in the early (and inevitable) content patches. Are you in the "fix what's broken" crowd; or do you have some slicker ideas for what should lie ahead as WAR goes from work-in-development to ongoing work-in-progress?

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Realistic wishes: a bit more variety in the armor and more plentiful tokens." - Swayne
====================

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

19 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 279 in September! 2483 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Images/Video

Reviews

Warhammer Online: First Impressions

Op/Eds

World of Warcraft: Are Heirloom Items a Good Thing for the Game?

Community

WAR-Torn #6: The Uniformity of Good

Guides

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

Real World News

Game Consoles stored in GameStop restroom
XBox's and PS3's covered in bathroom germs? No Wii! Ya Rly!
Ft Lauderdale mayoral candidate running on 'Sit On My Face' slogan
Rejected slogans reportedly included, "For a good time, vote for me" and "I want you inside me."
Jesus seen in coffee cup stains
Sorta looks more like a pirate, to me. Yarr, surrender your java!

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

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

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... TenTonHammer.com's MMOG Newsletter

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:26:00 GMT

Welcome to the 924th Edition of Loading...

Daily Column

Loading... your first 'ding' of the day.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 118 BPM
Age of Conan - 39 BPM
Atlantica - 14 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 12 BPM
Dungeon Runners - 12 BPM
EverQuest II - 12 BPM
Runes of Magic - 11 BPM
Mabinogi - 10 BPM
Dream of Mirror Online - 10 BPM

It is with great pride that I announce that starting this coming Monday, Jeff Woleslagle will be the new 'voice' behind this column. Jeff has been our resident rodeo clown for ages. He also happens to be our Editor-in-Chief, which is why it makes nothing but sense to have him penning the daily column.

You would have to look long and hard to find a person more in tune with the MMOG industry than Jeff. His writing style will leave you wondering how you ever put up with my column for 924 editions. I often boasted about being unshackled by facts or grammar. Jeff somehow takes those elements and makes them work. Don't ask me how. I think it's voodoo, or perhaps some Crocodile Dundee / rodeo clown hybrid ability. Whatever the case, he does it incredibly well and I'm honored that he is the one taking the reins.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this column while I was at the helm. I appreciated each and every one of your emails, even if I couldn't respond to them all. I'll still be around the network, writing some features, posting in the forums and working on some fancy projects that are going to take Ten Ton Hammer to a whole new level. I can't tell you what they are just yet, but rest assured you will read about them in Loading...

You've been a great crowd, now put your hands together for the next act, Mr. Jeff Woleslagle.

Facts Schmacts! Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Thanks Karen Hertzberg]

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 Forum

Need Roll or Greed Roll?

Yilelien has had some bad pick-up group looting experiences in Warhammer Online, and made a simple request: "Please please please; only roll NEED if you really need [the item]." Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Well, this thread got a bit heated. It seems not everybody believes in the virtues of NBG--Need Before Greed.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Rolling need because a guildie/alt/friend/family pet is clown shoes and is unacceptable. If it's for somebody else or some other character you roll greed and let fate play its part." - Inhocmark
====================

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

8 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 260 in September! 2464 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Images/Video

Sho Online: New Screenshots

Interviews

Reviews

Club Penguin: A Day at Fall Fair

Community

Guides

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

Real World News

Sunbathing topless not recommended for fatty and not pretty women
But Russian hotties should continue to bare all, says Pravda
Talking toilet orders men to sit down
Attachment to remove testicles is still patent pending
Man claims penis was amputated without consent
Attitude change was immediate, says wife, as he used to feel cocky all the time

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... TenTonHammer.com's MMOG Newsletter

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:26:00 GMT

Welcome to the 923rd Edition of Loading...

Daily Column

Loading... your first 'ding' of the day.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 138 BPM
Age of Conan - 56 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 12 BPM
Runes of Magic - 11 BPM
Atlantica - 11 BPM
Dungeon Runners - 10 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 9 BPM
EVE Online - 9 BPM
Mabinogi - 9 BPM

With the exception of Warhammer Online, the industry is disturbingly quiet. It's almost pleasant. We spend so much time dissecting the minutiae that the brief respites that allow us to view the broader scene are refreshing.

I'm not much of a console game player. I own a Wii. I have a PS2 and an XBox sitting around collecting dust and waiting to make their final journey to the local landfill or hazardous waste site. I have no inclination to ever play a MMOG on a console. That might change, but for now I'm quite content tapping away on my PC. Could a revolutionary Wii title change my mind? Perhaps, but sitting on a couch with a controller tapping A,B R,L isn't my idea of fun, so I suppose it's really how I enjoy playing games and not the games themselves that are the issue. I love first-person-shooter games. I don't like Halo. I find the controller cumbersome compared to the mouse and keyboard. It's a personal preference and obviously one that isn't shared by many gamers, but I'm sure that it is shared by some.

Final Fantasy XI is already a console game, DC Universe and Age of Conan are both poised to be played on stand alone boxes. It would be ridiculous to think that the number of console MMOGs wasn't going to grow. The number doesn't have anywhere to go but up at the moment.

Would you play a MMOG on a console? Why or why not? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Thanks Karen Hertzberg]

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 WoW: Rant Forum
Submitted by Mikes

What are your WoW pet peeves?

WoW pet peeves--you know you've got 'em. Rasztra has invited you to share them in our WoW Rants Forum. Do you hate twinks? Drive-by group or guild invites? Folks who join pick-up groups and leave suddenly without notice? We've got a place to voice your frustrations. Let it all out, bunky! Venting is good for the soul. And the evidence of that is clearly displayed in this thread's 900 plus posts and 50,000 plus views.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"My wow pet peeve...2 words: 'Heal Me!'" - Culpavore
====================

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

12 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 252 in September! 2456 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Images/Video

EverQuest 2: Shadow Odyssey Screenshots

Interviews

Op/Eds

World of Warcraft: How Will Raid Changes Affect Guilds in WotLK?

Community

Guides

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

Real World News

Argentine Tourist bound for Sydney, Australia ends up in Nova Scotia
Confusion explains why Nazis could hide so well there
Avoid Mating Moose
Well, yeah. Unless you're into that sort of thing.
Chinese space mission set for launch this week
Planned EVA to be their nation's first ever space wok

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... TenTonHammer.com's Daily MMOG Mailing List

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Welcome to the 922nd Edition of Loading...

Daily Column

Loading... your first 'ding' of the day.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 135 BPM
Age of Conan - 50 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 9 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 8 BPM
EVE Online - 7 BPM
Everquest II - 6 BPM
Vanguard - 6 BPM
Runes of Magic - 6 BPM
Atlantica - 5 BPM

Everyone seems to love to love to speculate about subscriber numbers. Not be left out, Edge-Online talked to Arvind Bhatia of Stern Agee and came away with this,

"EA said it shipped 1.5 million copies of WAR to retail last week.

Arvind Bhatia at Stern Agee told Edge on Tuesday he came to the 250,000 subscriptions figure based on EA's goal to break even on the game.

"Over time, subscribers will drop off and level off at 250,000- 300,000," he said in a phone interview." [read the entire article]

250,000 is an interesting number for a variety of reasons. First, it's a nice round number; a quarter of a million people. It sounds large, but not too large as to make an analyst seem out of touch if the game bombs and only scrapes up 100,000 subscribers.

If the numbers above become reality, 1.5 million copies shipped with only 250,000 people enjoying the game enough to stick around past 30 days then Warhammer Online will have been a colossal marketing success and an enormous gameplay failure. It would mean that only one in six people who were willing to fork out the $50 for the game enjoyed it enough to pay another $15 a month for it. Maybe it is just me, but I don't see that much complaining in the message forums where 'those that must be heard' congregate to protest, grumble, whine or otherwise bellyache about anything that doesn't satisfy them completely and unabashedly.

If only one in three players sticks around that leaves the title with 500,000 players even if Mythic never sells another box of Warhammer Online. Personally, I think the estimate is low and I'm not convinced that basing it on what EA considers a break even mark is relevant.

Time will tell. What is your best guess at Warhammer Online subscriber numbers? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Thanks to Karen Hertzberg]

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 Members Only Forum
Submitted by subgenius5150

Betty White and Pecan Pie

There's not much we can say about this epic thread--it's a visual--except that Ten Ton Hammer's resident rodeo clown (well, he's actually editor-in-chief, but we don't want that to go to his head), Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle, has a knack for entertaining the community.

You'll have to be a premium member to view the sheer awesomeness of this epic thread. The membership is totally worth the investment. (The thread...not so much.) Without further ado, we give you Betty White and Pecan Pie!

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Jeff...no! Bad boy! Put the photoshop away before someone gets hurt!"
- Savanja
====================

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

14 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 240 in September! 2444 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Images/Video

Previews

Red Stone: First Impressions

Guides

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

Real World News

Man arrested for stuffing dead animals in lockers
People for the Ethical Treatment of Dead Animals Stuffed in Lockers plan protest
Clay Aiken announces that he is gay
The two people on Earth that hadn't previously guessed this are shocked
101 Signs that you've encountered a ghost
#102 - Seek professional help!

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... TenTonHammer's MMOG Mailing List

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:58:00 GMT

Welcome to the 921st Edition of Loading...

Daily Column

Loading... your first 'ding' of the day.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 125 BPM
Age of Conan - 35 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 12 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 9 BPM
EVE Online - 9 BPM
Everquest II - 8 BPM
Vanguard - 6 BPM
Stargate Worlds - 5 BPM
Guild Wars - 4 BPM

Warhammer Online is in your face no matter where you go. Many of you have played it and as I noted yesterday, first impressions are very relevant at this point. Does the game have a hook or is it simply another MMOG churned out of the game mills to march across your wallet and monitor like so many hammers from Pink Floyd's The Wall?

Jay Johnson posted his educational and entertaining Warhammer Online: Five Favourite Things today. Jay touches upon many of the aspects that I enjoy about WAR. Here are a few more with a sprinkling of what I don't like. If you haven't purchased the game yet, perhaps this will help you make your decision.

The Good

PvP is one size fits all - If you enjoy battlegrounds in WoW then the scenarios are made for you. Better yet, when they are over you are sent back to where you were before the scenario took place. You can finish the quest that you were on without making a huge run from a city. If you prefer world PvP then the Realm versus Realm battles are literally never ending. Perhaps best of all, you can level while you PvP.
You don't need a $5,000 computer to run WAR - I haven't had a true desktop gaming machine in about six months. My Voodoo machine packed it in and became the second boutique machine (Alienware I'm looking at you) to disappoint me and become a very expensive doorstop. I play WAR in bootcamp on a Mac Pro. Sure, I'd prefer that WAR was native to Macs like WoW and Spore are, but I can't have my cake and eat it too.
Play With Friends Right Away - Travel between starting zones is easy and available within the first hour of gameplay. If you don't like the look of Elves then play a Dwarf and join your poncy Elf buddies to quest, PvP, etc.
Community Is Key - From the moment you start playing you feel like you are part of something larger than your character. The War is in your face. You can't miss it. Everything that you do seems to affect the status of the war (shown by a huge coloured bar on your U.I.).
Quest Helper - Quest objectives are all shown on your map by a red circle. You know that somewhere within that circle is the item, mob, place, etc. that you need to find, kill, talk to. There is no need to jump out to a quest database for answers. They are all right there in front of you.
Public Quests - As you travel you are naturally directed to areas where everyone is working together toward a common goal. When you complete the goal everyone is thrown into a lottery for what can end up being exceptional loot. Simply filling your influence bar (another mini-leveling method) will grant your character access to loot that is better than the regular quest rewards.

The Bad

Population Imbalance - Destruction seems to outnumber Order everywhere that I go. This is fine in scenarios where the teams are always built from even numbers, but in the world PvP this makes it very difficult for Order to succeed. The design team has implemented ways to help alleviate this problem, but so far it seems easier for players to simply jump ship to the winning side which escalates the problem.
Auction House - Why can't auctions be available in more than just the capital cities? Most things in the game are convenient. Auction Houses are not. It's a minor gripe, but this aspect of the game seems to be out of sync with the rest of the design philosophy. In fact, it is so much so that I feel I must just be missing something.
Queues - See population imbalance. I wish I knew how to fix this. I really dislike waiting to play a game that I paid for.

What do you like and dislike about the game that you play? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Compliments of Karen Hertzberg]

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 Forum

WAR is to WoW what DAoC was to EQ

TehPr0 started something when he stated that Warhammer Online was an alternative to World of Warcraft, not competition. Do you agree? Is WAR poised to be a WoW killer, or is the Next Big Thing still on the horizon somewhere? Is TehPr0 just another WoW fanboi, or do his comments make sense? Check out the thread and add your own opinions.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Okay, I read the entire thread, but I'm mainly responding to the original post because at this point it might be headed for a flame war. In Psychology, there's a little principle called "Hindsight Bias." The fact that you've played WoW for a long time and know everything about it clearly influences your perspective a whole lot ("I knew WoW was good the whole time!") while WAR doesn't have that advantage."
- Lafkak
====================

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

12 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 226 in September! 2430 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks to Phil Comeau for the links and Real World News]

Images/Video

World of Warcraft: WotLK Preview Video of Drak'Tharon Keep

Interviews

Contests

Caption Winners: Kralle and Gizmo3k

Op/Eds

Warhammer Online: Top 5

Guides

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

Real World News

Boy recovering in fatal Scottsdale crash
Obituary to run alongside Steve Jobs'
David Blaine hangs upside down over New York
People ask for follow up trick of David Blaine just hanging, preferably by the neck
Presidential candidates fight for the heart and mind of Morans
Not sure if they've yet been told to 'Get a Brain', make placard

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below:

Loading... TenTonHammer.com's Daily MMOG Mailing List

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:22:00 GMT

Welcome to the 920th Edition of Loading...

Daily Column

Loading... your first 'ding' of the day.

First, the Ten Ton Pulse, your finger on the beating heart of the MMOG industry.

If the Top 10 isn't enough, we also show the Top 20 and Top 50 lists as well, available to everyone on our homepage. (What is Pulse?)

Warhammer Online - 200 BPM
World of Warcraft - 125 BPM
Age of Conan - 35 BPM
Tabula Rasa - 12 BPM
Lord of the Rings Online - 9 BPM
EVE Online - 9 BPM
Everquest II - 8 BPM
Vanguard - 6 BPM
Stargate Worlds - 5 BPM
Guild Wars - 4 BPM

You knew that it would happen. Somebody would 'review' Warhammer Online mere days after its launch. That somebody is Gameplanet. Reviewing an MMOG that has been officially released for three days is wrong on so many levels. It's not that the reviewer doesn't hit on some excellent points, but rather that you can't put a numerical score on a MMOG if you haven't played through it to the meat of the game.

Mythic has held fast to the line that the endgame Realm versus Realm combat is what this title is all about. In fact, they have gone so far as to state that leveling is intentional fast to get you there. I have played WAR quite a bit, but there is no chance that I could review it. There is simply too much to experience.

I prefer articles that give a 'First Impressions' of a MMOG. If you read that review and consider it a first impression, then it is an especially good one. New players and veteran alike should find something in there that hits home.

Is it even possible to truly review a MMOG even after 100 hundred hours of play? It's a moving target. World of Warcraft today is almost a different game from what we experienced at launch.

Do you read MMOG reviews? Can MMOGs even be reviewed properly? Hit the Loading... forums and have your say.

Ten Ton Hammer Epic Thread of the Day [Compliments of Karen Hertzberg]

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 /OOC (Off Topic) Forum

New Lara Croft model is out!

Is Angelina Jolie the only Lara Croft for you? Do you wish you could be among her adopted children? Then you may be in for some disappointment when the next Tomb Raider movie hits theaters, since our community member, ThePunisher, has informed us that Jolie's replacement as the new (and improved?) Lara is "Alison Carroll, a 23 year-old gymnast with the looks, boobs, the British accent and personality (did I forget to mention cleavage?) to play the real-life action gal (and sex symbol) that will help market the Tomb Raider franchise by Eidos Games."

Does the new Lara Croft fill the bill? The gamer geek debate is in full swing in our /OOC forum. And if you're not up for the debate, at least don't miss the photos, including a truly epic and less-than-flattering pose.

Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Honey, I'll be back later this afternoon; I gotta get in a bikini wax before we go target shooting."
- Savanja
====================

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

13 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 214 in September! 2418 in 2008!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Links and Real World News courtesy of Phil Comeau]

Interviews

JACT's President, Jimmy Yang

Giveaways

Runes of Magic: Closed Beta Giveaway

Community

Guides

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

Real World News

Children who use cell phones are 5 times more likely to develop brain cancer
In related news, fetuses that come preloaded with cell phone minutes are only 3 times more likely to get it
Sweet smells may lead to sweet dreams
This may finally show us why pulling the covers over our wive's heads at night may lead to less than pleasant dreams
Glitch in cooling delays full operation of the Large Hadron Collider
End of the world as we know it delayed until 2009

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com.

- John "Boomjack" Hoskin and the Ten Ton Hammer Team

Subscribe to Loading... via email by entering your email address below: