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| E3 MMOG Awards |
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| Posted by: Cuer - Tue May 31st, 2005 12:26 am EDT | With E3 wrapped up, the major gaming sites are putting out their best-of lists, and various MMOG are featured:
- The IGN.com awards gave the Best Persistent World Game title to Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Runners-up were Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Imperator.
- In the Gamespot Best of Show awards, Best Massively Multiplayer Online Game went to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, and finalists of Auto Assault, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
- Over at GameSpy, on their Top 25 list can be found City of Villians at #19.
GameSpy also had some thoughts on a New Trend: MMOs Come Into Their Own as part of their wrapup:
1.5 million is apparently the magic number. Since it's been publicized that World of Warcraft has that many worldwide subscribers, we've noticed that publishers are taking the MMO category a bit more seriously. Previously the home to scads of vaporware projects, a look at the MMO scene of today will reveal an entirely different scenario. There's a multitude of high-profile games falling into numerous distinct niches. No longer are MMOs simply variants on the same playstyle, and nowhere was this more evident than at E3 2005.
MMO-specific companies like Mythic and NCSoft have seen much in the way of commercial success, and this is reflected by the fact that they can bankroll, publish, and distribute their own games. Even better, comparatively small companies like these are making strides just as profound as giants like Blizzard. One case in point is NCSoft's ArenaNet-developed Guild Wars, whose monthly-fee-free, expansion-pack-heavy business model might just set the standard for how these games are sold in the future.
The value of lucrative licenses isn't lost on these devs, either, if Turbine's portfolio is anything to go by. With MMOs in developed based on both Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, the Boston-based studio is in quite the enviable state. Both of the games look great, and are a testament to the timeless source material on which they're based. It wouldn't surprise us one bit if one of the larger publishers out there were to get hip to this fact real soon, and seek out some kind of mutually-beneficial partnership.
In short, World of Warcraft seems like it's just the beginning. The MMO category is on its way to becoming the most important in PC gaming, and being on ground zero at E3 makes this clear as day. Now if only consoles can catch up!
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