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Microsoft Announces Vanguard MMORPG
Thanks to GameSpot for its news story covering the announcement of Microsoft's new massively multiplayer PC game, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, in development by "renowned designer and cocreator of EverQuest Brad McQuaid" and his company Sigil. The official Vanguard site is now publicly viewable, stating Vanguard's aim to "become the premier third generation massively multiplayer RPG", and an interview with Brad McQuaid over at GameSpot goes into more detail, noting the game's style is "generally what someone would label as high fantasy", although not discussing whether Vanguard's development is one of the reasons for Microsoft's cancelling of their internally-developed MMO Mythica.
The Second Generation is already here, but with MMORPGs coming out every year, rather than a few at a time followed by a longer period of waiting, the lines between the generations will probably blur now. Star Wars: Galaxies, Horizons, Final Fantasy XI, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron's Call 2, Anarchy Online are all Second Generation. There are only 3 main players in the First Generation: Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call. How this MMORPG will be different from all of these past MMORPGs to warrant the cry of "Third Generation" will be interesting to see, but graphics are usually a main contribution to defining a Generation. I do wish (and hope) gameplay becomes more of a factor to base Generations on.
Continue through the teaser story - it's revealed what they are -- might wanna stick around one of the flash pages.
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
I hear this argument a lot, but I don't have much sympathy with it. While I can't say for sure, my guess would be that they need to charge for the games in the store to cover the game's development costs (which are generally huge with a mainstream MMOG) and to insure against the risk of a lot of players ditching the game when the free trial expires. The monthly fees then cover their ongoing costs, such as servers and the staff to support them and develop the game. The only other model would be to dramatically increase the montly charges, and I think most gamers would balk at this.