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

Video games and sports have been inseparable since the first Pong arcade machine found its way to the local tavern. So why haven't the major sports game publishers tackled a sports-based MMO? Ten Ton Hammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye hopes to address this question in his In the Trenches weekly column by not only unearthing the problems but providing some thoughts on how to build a sports MMO as well. This week's In the Trenches takes a look at creating persistent characters in a sports MMO and what developers could do with them.

But I don't think having the latest sports stars on their roster would really be a boon for the sports MMO developers. While athletes have ups and downs in their season (which could be adjusted via patches if you wanted to include them), the lifespan of an MMO can last for years, even decades. Grabbing the iconic team names and logos should be an absolute must, but having the actual players isn't a necessity. It would probably be in the developers best interest to focus on the players and allowing them to have their own created characters would do just that.

• To read the rest of this week's In the Trenches, click here!