MMOs for the New Year

It's the beginning of a new year, I havent posted anything new here in a couple of weeks, and though I have lots of fragments floating around, nothing coherent is ready. So, to keep some fresh content flowing without devolving into commenting on my
personal life, I've decided to make a brief list of upcoming MMOs that I hope to see this year.


Darkfall - This one is at the top of my list because their goals and ideas pretty closely mirror a lot of the core concepts I'm interested in seeing in an MMO. Player-owned towns, open PvP, skill-based system,
playable orcs, no floating names, just to name a few. Unfortunately, this game has been in development for quite some time. Many people seem to think that this automatically makes it vaporware, but to me, it means they're taking times to do things right. When, if ever, this game is released is unknown, but I'm hoping that it at least starts up a serious beta test sometime this year.

Warhammer Online - This will be a definite WoW replacement for me (though hopefully I won't still be playing WoW by the time this game makes it to the shelves). WoW-type interface with a PvP focus. Sounds good to me! And Warhammer's history is so rich and interesting. I hope they can infuse the game with some of that backstory and character. But at the very least, I'm definitely looking forward to bashing in some stuntie heads, cutting off their beards and sacking their cities!

Pirates of the Burning Sea - Ship to ship combat. Full player crafting. Town ownership. All set amidst the turbluent seas. This game has the potential to be the Eve Online of the pirate era.

Age of Conan - I'm a little leary of the twitch-oriented combat. Lag already causes enough issues with the standard MMO combat model and I'm scared to see how it affects combat in Conan. I've only been following this peripherally, so I dont know a lot of details, but I do remember reading something about keep ownership and sieges along with some other interesting goodies (bar brawls!)

That's all that I can think of offhand without looking up a list of upcoming games. Which ones catch your attention and why?