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Red 5 Studios' current MMOG project may still be shrouded in mystery,
but in a recent interview with Gamasutra, Red 5's Mark Kern and Michael
Weingartner discuss some of the ways their game might differ from the
norm of fantasy-based settings and gameplay.  



One thing in particular that stood out from the interview is the
concept of allowing players to change the state of the game over time
– a somewhat rare approach to creating a persistent game
world, though it just might be a unique enough gameplay mechanic to
attract players who may be growing weary of the common
“snapshot along a time-line” approach to virtual
worlds.  

“We want players to actually change the
state of the game
over time. Time is a very important concept to our game. We play with
it in any number of ways. It is probably our key form of persistence,
more than, say, geography, which kind of ties back into your content
question. It's more about how this world evolves over time, versus how
big your world might be. I think, it's all about what you do with
it.”

One of the first things this brings to mind is the recent use of
phasing in style="font-style: italic;">Wrath of the Lich King's
opening quest chain for Death Knights.  Now imagine the
implications of changing-state environments and scenarios applied to a
complete game world.  Is anyone else excited for an official
announcement for Red 5's MMOG project yet?



We may have to wait a few more months for that announcement to arrive,
but in the meantime you should be sure to read through href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21575">the
rest of the interview, which also touches on the subjects of
setting, business models and the current state of the MMOG market.