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I'd really like to see a MMORPG that captures the complex storylines that I've seen in the text-based RPGs (Muds). A game I played and staffed on (www.armageddon.org) had incredible story arcs in a persistent game world. Many of these story arcs were inspired by player actions, but some were decided on staff side. One example: the game is set up around two warring cities, Allanak and Tuluk. Through ingame actions and play, Allanak invaded and occupied Tuluk for about 3 real-life years (50 or so ingame years). Tuluk then became an occupied city-state with an active rebellious underground engaged in terrorist and guerrilla warfare against the occupying army from Allanak. Other Tuluki became Allanak sympathizers, betraying their city-state. Opened up a completely cool and interesting political side of gameplay that made classes and coded powers/skills much less important than one's ability to inspire, organize, and lead.

To a certain extent, playing an MMO is all about improving your character. The games are addicting because you're always working towards that next reward that's just "oh so close". If you want a storyline, you need to be playing a single player RPG where you [and your party] are the centerpiece and the savior(s) of that RPG universe. 10,000,000 people can't all be "The Hero". Another huge part of an MMO is the "epeen" factor, which is just a way for people to feed their ego to an extent that would be completely impossible in their real lives.

Bioware has never failed with a game, but I really worry they might not do very well with The Old Republic. I really hope I'm wrong.

It was interesting seeing them talk about it with the gamespy guy earlier. They're apparently scripting 100s of hours worth of story progression, not just for each of the 8 individual classes, but for separate branches of each of the 8 classes. And they plan to somehow tie character progression in with that story progression. They made it sound like you would get more powerful by progressing within your own story, rather than only through endless hours of filling your quest log and grinding away (which, let's face it, that's what major MMOs are about right now - max your level that way and then raid...).

I'll have to see it implemented to really be able to give an opinion on it, but it's certainly ballsy.

****in Bioware, lol. EPIC.

You're right when you're talking about 10,000,000 people. The MUD I played on had a population of about 500 active players, usually maxing out at 100 or so online at the same time. Even at that, it was extremely intensive on the staff side of things to keep realistic, interesting storylines going ingame, but it worked. But for 100 players online, we had a staff of like 20, so you're looking at 20% of your people online being responsible for playing NPCs, keeping the storyline going, and managing making the game environment respond realistically to player actions. Basically a lot of the stuff that MMORPGs handle with code, we'd handle manually... but that manual handling allowed for it to be more unique, unpredictable and interesting. Not sure that an MMORPG on the scale of WOW will ever be able to pull off a truly great story-based roleplaying game.

That must have been fun as hell.

Very much so. It's still going: www.armageddon.org

I just don't have the time to sink into it. Oh... the most badass thing about it that contributes to not getting too into your skills/stats: permadeath. When your PC dies, it dies. You then create a new one (which is actually really cool, because there are so many difference gameplay experiences through different races, clans, city-states, tribes, etc). While this sucks in some ways, it also makes it so that having a long-lived PC is more important than having a code-wise strong PC. In other words... who is more powerful? The bigass, strong barbarian warrior or the effete noble that can hire 20 bigass strong barbarian warriors?

Holy...mother...of ****. Those were the best graphics I have ever seen in a game.
That trailer made my balls tingle joyously.

After WoW took over my life I vowed to never play another MMO again. Then I see this and Final Fantasy XIV...

I made that vow after EverQuest. And then after Star Wars: Galaxies. And then after WoW.

I'm not making that vow again. LMAO

The thing that keeps City of Heroes alive is that the game keeps making changes with each new issue. The Architecht Missions right now is the only thing keeping me playing at the moment. I love making my own missions. Going Rouge that's coming out soon that allows Heroes and Villians to switch sides also sounds pretty awesome.

The Deceived trailer is badass.

That shit was Imax-worthy.

The Trailer was cool but it won't be like the game. Trailer's rarely show the exact game mechanics and views. As for an MMO, I'm all for it, if it's done right. There's too many variables yet to sway my immediate purchase of this title upon release.