In any case, this brings us to today's topic. Apart from a few exceptions, "sword and sorcery" serves as the thematic lifeblood of MMOs in the Western world. That is not the case in Asia, and I suspect it will not be the case here for very long. I believe that if we look at how the most mainstream manifestations of gamedom are being reworked to fit the persistent-world model, then we can forecast what tomorrow's most popular MMOs will look like. Naturally, we're going to look at sports games.
It bears mention that EA, without question the most influential publisher in existence, is already making inroads towards creating a mainstream sports MMO -- at their most recent Gamers Day event, they demonstrated the methods by which they're building distinct gameplay mechanics into each line position in the next Madden game. The tight end will play differently from the wide receiver which will play differently from the fullback, basically. The next logical step, of course, is to assign different players to play these different positions in order to field teams comprised entirely of human players. This sort of thing is already happening in existing games -- just not any that you've likely played.
Ultimate Baseball Online
It's happening in Ultimate Baseball Online, as a matter of fact. Actual players man every one of the nine field positions, and there is an RPG-style character development system. You choose your character's position, which in turns determines what your starting statistics will look like. Pitchers will naturally have stronger, more accurate arms, but they won't be able to hit very well. Outfielders, meanwhile, are typically burlier, allowing them to more easily become power hitters, but depending on their specific positions, they might suffer in the areas of throwing accuracy and catching range. There are seven attributes that determine how effective you are at any given area, from how likely you are to respond to a stolen base, to how many pitches you can launch before becoming fatigued. Fielders are also able to increase their ability to hit within certain sections of the "batting box," while pitchers can specialize in different kinds of pitches.
Ultimate Baseball Online encourages team play in a very real way -- in order to field a team that actually wins, you can't have a full roster of, say, power hitters. People will have to take on less glamorous roles for this purpose and actually hone their skills in these areas. As you can imagine, many of the game's most devoted players are people who are very much into the technicalities of the sport -- former High Heat Baseball aficionados, if you will. The game indeed is pretty hardcore, and when you compare it to the glitzy console sports titles out there, it seems a bit lo-fi. But it sure has a good deal of substance, and for this reason, I suspect that it will continue to thrive. The game is due for something of a relaunch this fall, so keep an eye out for it.