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At first thought, a Rock Band-inspired MMO may not sound like the greatest idea to everyone. I've actually entertained the idea for a long time now, only shove it aside as a crazy notion. But the thing kept popping back into the forefront of my mind so often that I couldn't discount it as happenstance. I've become enamored with the idea, because let's face it; a Rock Band MMO has the potential to ooze- no, to gush pure liquid awesome.

Over at Eurogamer.net, Rob Fahey has been taking a hard look at some of the conventions of MMOs and considering how recent innovations in non-MMO games development could act as a wake-up call. Using Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as a focus point, Rob points out the parallels between that game and conventional MMOs - a persistent player character, experience gained through tasks and through defeating adversaries, new weapons acquired, new abilities unlocked.

Evidently, core gameplay elements characteristic of MMOs can be transplanted into different gaming contexts without making the new entity into a traditional MMO, and also while leaving some of the arguably less desirable elements behind, such as the grind. Rob recognises this evolution as much more important than it has so far been given credit for. Designers and fans have debated how to break the MMO model out of its entrenched conventions: CoD4 has (Rob argues) already done exactly that, while nobody was looking.

Kristen Kalning, the games editor of MSNBC, asked her readers, "What game hooked you and why?" After the flood of e-mails finished cascading through her inbox and she tallied the votes in each one, it wasn't surprising that World of Warcraft came up as the leader.

While she does say that other games like City of Heroes, and other non MMO games like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and even Guitar Hero came up, her article took the time to mostly focus on the addicting properties of WoW. Readers added their own tales of addiction and the addiction of others, and Kalning relates some of the most woe-worthy stories she received in her inbox.

However, the article isn't all doom and gloom. One reader took the time to talk about how Guild Wars helped her with her shyness while another reader explained the proud feeling his Halo 3 accomplishments give him. It's always nice to see that games aren't harming the social habits of every gamer who picks up a controller or keyboard and mouse.

If you're fascinated by addiction, or just looking for a story to scare your WoW addicted spouse, be sure to drop by and check out her article, as well as the original. If it's the addicted spouse, however, may we interest you in a detox clinic?

A recent article asked the question, "Are online shooters turning into MMOs?" That's a good question. Lets go over the basics and see if they fit into the mold. Ever since Call of Duty 4 came out, it's become an addictive online experience for many people. Is it because of the tight controls, excellent visual/audio design and enormous variety of online modes? Perhaps, but we're fairly certain that many players are finding themselves addicted to what we here at Massively refer to as, "The Desire to Ding"

What do you get when you take Game Developer magazine, Game Developer Research division, Gamasutra and combine their various developer information gathering efforts? Well, you get an all-encompassing list of the top 50 best developers of 2007 that takes not only weekly sales and ratings into account, but an anonymous survey on developer reputation fielded by Gamasutra itself. The survey asked community members to score game developers on overall reputation and direct interaction working for or with said developer, where they had actually done such.

The list puts Blizzard at third for Burning Crusade, just under Infinity Ward at second for Call of Duty 4 and Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play) at first. It's an interesting method of rating developers, since they have to of had a game released the previous year to be eligible -- yet rankings also depend on developer reputation, which is a longterm concept. We weren't surprised to see Blizzard sitting pretty high on the list, beating out a lot of other developers responsible for some pretty great titles last year. (sorry, Valve)

There is a nagging question in the back of our minds, however: Which carries more weight in determining placement on the list -- sales or reputation?

Ever since World of Warcraft hit the scene back in late 2004, it has experienced enormous success that even its creators hadn't foreseen -- with an estimated 2.5 million active player-base in the United States, 5.5 in Asia and around 2 in Europe. I think we can all agree that World of Warcraft's position as king of the hill isn't going to change anytime soon, because change takes time with all things. There is, however, a change that's been coming to a slow boil. For the past three years players have been leveling up in WoW, but when they get to the end most players have only two choices. They can either choose to focus on battlegrounds/arena PvP or they can partake in endgame raiding of various instances.

These last few months I've been looking closely at the two hyped-up massively games 2008 has to offer; Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. It has become more and more apparent to me that this year is going to be the year of the PvP endgame focus. A lot of people have played or seen the raid game and found it to be something they had no interest in. Ideally, if a developer can make a PvP endgame experience that's easy to get into and fun for everyone involved they will have something different on their hands that could potentially grab tons of subscribers.