Onward, to new lands

WE’VE conquered the Star Wars universe, traversed the embattled lands of Kalimdor and carried out campaigns against evil in Middle Earth.
The virtual worlds of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMO) have given players the opportunity in an age of globalisation to rediscover the excitement that Christopher Columbus and James Cook must have felt during expeditions to new and unchartered lands.
The games are living, breathing virtual worlds that can take days, weeks or months to fully discover, while the player completes a swag of quests, mostly with the intention to save innocent people from evil overlords.
The market is flooded with fantasy MMOs, the most popular being World of Warcraft (WoW).
But gamers who are beginning to find WoW’s approach a little stale after almost three years of gameplay are now asking what they can play next.
Since World of Warcraft’s success, which has translated into hundreds of millions of dollars for game publisher Vivendi Universal, other companies have been keen to offer gamers the next generation MMO.
Here’s a list of upcoming MMOs, each with a brief profile of what gamers can expect.
Age of Conan – due fourth quarter of 2007.
Based upon the universe in the book of the same name, Age of Conan is more than your typical fantasy MMO.
Funcom, the developer, describes Age of Conan as an action role playing game, and the title appears to be more than just marketing hype.
Unlike other MMOs that require no precision, just button clicking, to conduct combat, Age of Conan gives players the chance to swing or fire their weapons at different points on an enemy target, requiring skill – not just buffed statistics – to become an elite warrior.
The game also promises a strong single player campaign capped off with multiplayer mayhem as players progress to the end.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning – due first quarter 2008
The popular Games Workshop role playing game is moving from the battle boards and figurines of the real world to a virtual world that on the surface appears similar to World of Warcraft.
But realm versus realm player battles look set to revolutionise the PvP genre of MMOs with storyline quests requiring the player to slaughter characters belonging to other players.
This move thrusts PvP gameplay out of the sideshow distraction that it is in other games and into the limelight as the main focus for playing an MMO.
Gods and Heroes – due third quarter 2007
Again, another fantasy MMO – but with a distinct difference. Gods and heroes will face off in this fantasy universe, but as a hero, you have the ability to employ an army of computer-controlled helpers.
Your group members will have different roles – a healer, a warrior, a long ranged combatant and so on – embedded with next generation artificial intelligence so they work together with you as a unit to defeat your enemies.