Breaking the Chain-Mail That Binds
Obviously, the online RPGs have had huge success with the usual cast of orcs, trolls and knights errant, but it's undeniable that there's a huge audience that doesn't care for swords 'n' sorcery. Thankfully, a few games on the horizon plan to break the stereotype. Micro Forte's Big World, Funcom's Anarchy Online and Wombat Games' Dark Zion all promise to take massively multiplayer into the world of science fiction. Even EA's muscle car bonanza Need for Speed: Motor City Online will have RPG aspects, with a persistent community and cars that can be upgraded like "characters."

What Does It Mean? The MMRPGs finally have a chance to break out of the medieval ghetto and reach a whole new world of people, which could establish massively mutliplayer games as the definitive gaming experience.

Invasion of the Licenses
A long time ago companies figured out that if you slap a popular license on a game -- or a box of cereal -- people will buy it. So far, the world of massively multiplayer RPGs hasn't been invaded by movie and TV characters, but that's all about to change. The biggest news is from Verant, creators of EverQuest, and LucasArts, who recently announced a massively multiplayer Star Wars RPG supposed to launch in 2001. Activision is working on a massively multiplayer Star Trek game, and with WON.net's recent announcement of a massively multiplayer Lord of the Rings, the Ren Faire set will be in clover.

Sounds good so far, right? Well, things just took a turn for the worse. Kalisto Entertainment (responsible for another awful movie game, The Fifth Element) recently announced a massively multiplayer game based on … The Highlander. According to Kalisto's press release, USA's scifi-'n'-swords potboiler is an international hit, but I'm sorry, this sounds about as exciting as a Silk Stalkings first-person shooter. Expect this to be the beginning of a trend....

Next page: k3wld00dz and hey ... an MMRPG with a story!