The Top Twenty Influencers of the MMOG Industry in 2007

[Cody Bye]

The staffers at Ten Ton Hammer love the massively multiplayer online game industry, because it’s the only business market that could provide their consumers with such extreme emotional highs and lows. Unlike high-end movies or even lengthy novels, massively multiplayer games take an average of four to five years to conceive, develop, and produce, which keeps an agonized fan waiting for the same amount of time to actually play a studios upcoming game. With that in mind, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye has taken the time to plot out the twenty individuals that really influence the MMOG marketplace, in both the positive and negative sides of the equation. The list is not comprehensive, but it hopefully gives gamers a true feel for the biggest names in the industry.

In general, the year of 2007 was a record-breaking example of how things can go very, very right and very, very wrong. The industry saw a sales record broken with Blizzard’s release of The Burning Crusade, yet they also saw the dismal disappointment that was the initial release of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. NetDevil had its Auto Assault title pulled from store shelves, yet they also announced the biggest intellectual property-based game in years: LEGO Universe. And those are only a couple of examples from a year filled with these types of stories.

To read the entire influencer list, click here!

[lumio]

great list there i have to say.

[Cody Bye]

It must be - no one has any complaints yet!

[Annatar]

Even though he didn't come in at number one, I am sure that Brad can feel the love.

[Cody Bye]

Originally Posted by Annatar

Even though he didn't come in at number one, I am sure that Brad can feel the love.

Maybe he'll come over and comment?

[Annatar]

I wish he would, but he is most probably still under some sort of SOE gag order, that will only be released if Vanguard can get over 60k players again.

[lumio]

I hope hes ok and hasnt taken all of this to hard

[Annatar]

Originally Posted by lumio

I hope hes ok and hasnt taken all of this to hard

I genuinely feel bad for the guy. I mean, you have someone who was revered in some circles as some sort of mmo demigod, and now his name carries with it the stigma of a multi million dollar failure, which saw Sigil close its doors and it's staff abandoned in the parking lot. And that is without all of the rumoured scandalous goings on behind closed doors. It would suck to be Brad.

[Cody Bye]

Yes it would. He was a jerk to me at E3 2005 though. Maybe it's like super-nasty karma.

[Annatar]

Originally Posted by Cody Bye

Yes it would. He was a jerk to me at E3 2005 though.

Perhaps he had the DTs?