TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

With Free Realms taking over his household, Danny "Ralsu" Gourley had almost forgotten that NetDevil is hard at work on a LEGO MMO titled LEGO Universe. The building block dynamic has mass market appeal, but SOE's game has a lengthy head start. Ralsu examines some ways NetDevil can succeed by employing the same strategies used by SOE:

Just as Free Realms characters change appearance depending on the job being performed, LEGO Universe characters will need to exhibit the same flair when moving between tasks. While I have run races in LEGO Star Wars, the MMO will need to let me don a special racing outfit to match the feeling of pride I get with Free Realms.

When Danny "Ralsu" Gourley got an urge to compete against another player in a hand of the Free Realms Trading Card Game, he realized that every minigame in Sony Online Entertainment's recently-released title promotes rivalry and competition. As he pondered that design element and the episodic play of the game, he latched onto the idea that SOE may achieved something no one has even tried to do before:

Realizing that every minigame in Free Realms is about winning or losing also forced me to recognize that it is an intentional design element. The concept of “e-sport” and reading In the Trenches came to mind. Clearly, competitive or scoreboard games are very popular on the web. Why wouldn’t someone look to combine the furor over MMOs with the thrill of a good showdown?

Fresh doughnuts. Homemade fudge. An extra beer. Yet another “figurine” for the collection. We all have our guilty pleasures, but MMO gamers are about to acquire a new addiction when Sony...

A magazine advertisement for Pioneers of Iria, the expansion to Nexon’s Mabinogi, might focus on the addition of the new races, Elves and Giants. A banner ad on a website might boast that...

Last week, I promised to examine the trend of hybrid revenue models in MMOGs and what it means for this column. The bottom line up front (BLUF we called it in emails when I worked for the US...

As a member of the media, it's very rewarding when my ideas see the light of day, and it's doubly rewarding when they see success. Of course, Fogster Interactive didn't release retail boxes of...

I joined the Ether Saga Online (ESO) closed beta in mid-February and was very impressed with my early experiences with Perfect World Entertainment’s newest MMOG. In fact, I told readers I...

I made brief mention of the February update to Atlantica Online in my discussion of how wimpy F2P launches hurt games last week. This time, I’ve chosen to focus on the particulars of the...

Last week, Ten Ton Hammer’s Eric “Dalmarus” Campbell suggested that free expansions for P2P games might actually reduce overhead expenses for publishers and headaches for developers. I...

Bob Salvatore doesn’t normally write for MMOGs, but gamers everywhere took notice when he got involved with 38 Studios and Copernicus because the man is a damned good writer. If the notion...

The slumping economy here in the northwestern US has driven down the price of real estate. The market favors buyers right now with more property going for less money. The flailing financial...

Many thanks this week to megaflux for always dropping into my inbox and challenging me in response to last week’s Top Ten to be ready for real action-based games in the future. I...

Marketing analysts know that a product must appeal to parents before they can sell it to kids. Check out these slogans that are copyrighted by their respective holders. "Choosy moms choose

I continue to play Nostale, but I recently got my wife to play some Atlantica with me. NDOORS never ceases to impress me; their latest round of patches has made the game perform smoother...

For nearly a year, I wrote content for Ten Ton Hammer’s Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) hub. I was drawn by the chance to rekindle my relationship with D&D and the promise of a game that...

Back by popular demand, I am including my brief description of each game in this week’s Top Ten. These descriptions will be static, but I hope they give readers a sense of what a game is...

Thirty minutes into playing Dungeon Runners, a F2P gamer loots a health potion that he can use only if he becomes a subscriber. Thirty minutes later, he loots a “Giant Can of Whoop Ass,” a...

If a MMOG were a car, her engine would be the gameplay features, story, and combat system. The graphics for that MMOG would represent her body and paint job. In the case of F2P MMOGs,