Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

We're not even thirty days into the New Year yet and everyone is giddier than a geek at a Star Trek convention with all the news surrounding a fresh wave of science fiction based MMOG's coming to the market. With all the tribble loving going on right now, you might think there's little for fantasy fans to go gaga over. Would I have named my weekly column Forever Fantasy if that were the case? In the words of one of the greatest villains of all time, "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

You've got to go find this game!

After the flurry of rumors bandied about last year, hopes are still high that an Elder Scrolls MMOG will be forthcoming from ZeniMax Online Studios, the sister company of Bethesda Softworks. Long before the days of Oblivion and Morrowind, Bethesda created Daggerfall, the second game in the Elder Scrolls series. While Morrowind was heralded as an RPG masterpiece with a land of massive expanse, I'm here to tell you that if you can find a system that can still run it, you owe it to yourself to play Daggerfall. Morrowind was a mere pinprick on the tapestry of land found within Daggerfall. The size, scope, and depth of the game was mind boggling and could provide more hours of entertainment than nearly any game since.

ZeniMax acquired $300 million in additional funding last year and while they haven't confirmed an Elder Scrolls MMOG is in the works, they haven't blatantly denied it either. Reasons to pursue such a course of action are many, and we can only hope to see this vision fulfilled. The series has a staggeringly immense library of lore to pull from, including land masses, a volatile political structure, and more races than many games today. Combine this with a name so well known and respected within the RPG world, and I'll be completely flabbergasted if we don't hear something concrete about this project in the future.

The Elder Scrolls MMOG may be a rampant rumor right now, but former Red Sox pitcher and founder of 38 Studios, Curt Schilling, has been making waves again with news of Copernicus. At this stage of the project, Copernicus is just a working title and little is still known about it. Normally my vaporware warning system would be on high alert right about now, but 38 Studios continues to flesh out their staff and they've been gathering anything but rookies. I’ll give you a few examples.

Todd McFarlane, Executive Art Director, was one of the country's most influential comic artists of the 90's with his bold and dramatic style. Not only that, but the level of art and detail embodied in his toy lines was unheard of back in the day and completely changed the action figure world forever. Not enough oomph, you say? Alright, lay this one on for size. R.A. Salvatore, Executive Creator of Worlds, is the visionary behind one of the most cherished and recognized characters in the realm of fantasy. You'd be hard pressed to find any lover of fantasy fiction that doesn't know who Drizzt Do'Urden is. Salvatore's books have sold over 15 million copies combined... 15 million! That's a lot of potential fans in the making.

Also free to play? Amazing.

All this is well and good, but none of those people know how to make video games, let alone an MMOG, right? Right you are, but no one said the gang at 38 Studios was stupid. The game's world and content may be a secret, but the experienced industry veterans they've been grabbing certainly aren't. From Audio Director, Aubrey Hodges (DOOM, King's Quest, and more), to former Everquest Lead Designer, Travis McGeathy, they're building a dream team of talent. It remains to be seen how well the all-stars work together, but if the game can meet the full potential of this team, you may as well start buying lottery tickets now. The only chance you'll have of survival after this releases is to be sure you never have to work again.

Not to be left out in the cold from all this fantasy fun, ArenaNet is hard at work on Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars was arguably the first successful F2P MMOG in the Western world. To the delight of the masses, Guild Wars 2 will follow in its predecessor’s shoes by avoiding the need for a subscription fee. How they've managed to make a profit strictly from initial box and expansion sales, I have no idea, but congratulations are due to them for it.

Guild Wars 2 will take place over 250 years after the current iteration of the world. Level caps will be pushed past 100, DirectX 10 will be supported (though not required) with a new engine, and did I mention they still won't have any monthly fee? When word of Guild Wars 2 first started coming down the pipe, I always assumed the second edition would be a normal P2P model, but they've surprised me. If they can raise the bar as high as they believe, and still make the game free after your initial purchase, Ralsu's dream of an accepted F2P game in this part of the world may finally come true.

We've gone over the what if, the code named project, and the soon to be sequel. I'm tempted to just leave you dangling like this, but I can't bring myself to do it. For years now, we've heard the constant rumble from today's gamers, begging a company to create an open world, with full PvP, where a player’s skill and community reputation matter more than what level they've achieved. Hang on to your britches, because that's exactly the kind of world Star Vault is creating with Mortal Online.

Can you say gorgeous?

There are no levels in Mortal Online. You will live or die by the skill of your sword, the precision of your spells, or the speed of your mouth as you try to talk your way out of trouble. Star Vault's goal is to create a realistic, breathing world. Real time combat, first person view, and true PvP from the ground up make the base for this upcoming game.

It sounds impressive and like a dream come true for many, but the reality of today's marketplace makes this a difficult task to pull off. Since the game will not have any "PvE-only" servers, there will be real consequences to being an ass hat. I don't say this arbitrarily, but bring it up as an extremely important fact. While I'm not a heavy PvP player (and never really PvP'ed much at all until Warhammer Online), I know a lot of us deeply miss the sense of community we had in other games. From the moment you step into the game, your initial actions may very well dictate how the rest of your avatar's career will go. Avoiding the griefing that caused many of us to quit Ultima Online within a matter of days will be a difficult task, but I'm anxious to see what (if any) systems they implement to deal with this. It's a tall order, but I wish them the best of success with it.

I also have a confession to make... I, Eric "Dalmarus" Campbell, am a graphics whore. There. I said it. Obviously, graphics can't make a game and gameplay is more important than anything, but I absolutely adore gorgeous graphics and continually upgrade my system to take advantage of all the eye candy out there. If Star Vault manages to honestly bring the intense realism shown in the Mortal Online trailer into existence, I'll be in geekdom heaven and will probably have to have a cigarette after the opening credits.

The upcoming sci-fi games of the future may be trying to steal the spotlight, but don't believe for a minute that fantasy will be left in the dark. As the year progresses, expect to hear more from all these titles and a few others I'll bring to your attention in the coming weeks. Until then, play some Oblivion in anticipation of an Elder Scrolls MMOG, read the early Salvatore books to get a glimpse into his creation of Copernicus' new world, and get ready to cry over the glorious beauty that is Mortal Online... I hope.