Massively^™

Fish or cut bait? Boxers or briefs? Order or Destruction? It's those difficult choices that make life complicated. When it comes to MMOs, getting the balance of appeal right between player factions is one tricky task. According to Napox, as detailed over on thegreenskin.com, the population balance on Warhammer Online is now evening out, after an initial surge of favor for Destruction. This data comes from a career poll on warhammeralliance.com.

Napox's meticulously researched spreadsheets give a current estimate of 47% Order, 53% Destruction; the bad guys are still in front, but at least more people are signing up to play for the white-hats. Goblin Shaman is by far the most popular class, while the Elf White Lion is the least.

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A survey performed by researchers Parks Associates titled "Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II" concluded that there is very little room for market expansion for subscription-based MMOs. On the whole, users surveyed preferred the free-to-play model. The poll data suggested that mostly only the hardcore users already playing MMOs were willing to play subscription-based games, and that only 2% of gamers not currently playing MMOs would consider a non-free-to-play game.

Hardcore MMORPG players tend to frown on or look down on microtransaction-based games, but aside from World of Warcraft, most of the industry's growth has occurred via free-to-play. In fact, the director behind the research project (named Yuanzhe Cai) was quoted saying: "World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model."

Perhaps we'd better get used to microtransactions, eh?

It's generally accepted as common knowledge that Horde players in World of Warcraft are, by and large, the more mature of the two factions. Whether or not this is actually supported by hard data is a matter of debate, but the logic says that older players are the ones best able to overlook the stigma of playing races long-perceived to be the "bad guys." There are mouth-breathers no matter what faction you roll, but perception is what it is.

We've been watching a poll over at Warhammer Alliance that sought to identify a specific age correlation between the two factions amongst the hardcore Warhammer Online community. With just over 2100 votes cast at the time of writing this, we did find an interest trend. Although Destruction was more popular than Order in every demographic, the disparity between the two become decreasingly pronounced as you move up in the age bracket. The ratio went from 1.7:1 in the 12-16 bracket to 1.5:1 amongst those 17-25 to 1.3:1 for ages 26-35, finally to 1.1:1 in the 35+ bracket. Does this mean Order will be the faction of choice for older players? Definitely too early to tell, but this early data is intriguing.

Seems like every week now on WRUP we've been looking forward -- from Warhammer to APB, we can't wait to get our hands on some of the biggest MMOs still "coming soon." But this week, we think it'd be a good idea to take a step backwards -- this weekend, we recommend you go back and try playing a game that you haven't touched in a while. Maybe it's Lord of the Rings Online with some of that Monster Play, or maybe check in with that creepy Bling Gnome in Dungeon Runners, or even go back and visit Star Wars Galaxies just in time for the anniversary. Why are we spending all of our time waiting for new games when there's so much out there to play right now?

Of course, the post is called "WRUP," not "WTYWWWYTP" (We Tell You What We Want You To Play) so the choice is, as always, yours: What aRe yoU Playing this weekend in the world of MMOs? There's a certain charm in going back and visiting old characters, and you never know -- maybe an update since you left an old game or a little bit of leveling will show you a lot more in the game that you didn't see before and get you interested all over again.

And if not, you can still just wait for Warhammer. It's up to you.

Dark Age of Camelot developers EA Mythic have posted a poll on the Camelot Herald requesting player feedback regarding the Old Frontiers territory. To wit: would players be interested in a server that:

• Brings back the old Keeps, Relics, and related systems
• Does not include Master levels, Champion levels, Artifacts, Minotaur Relics, Champion weapons, or Mythrians
• Focuses on the "classic" zone territories that existed prior to the expansion packs
• Focuses mainly on the class types that existed prior to the expansion packs
• No buffbots, but rather a universally available buffing option

We know this news will make some of you terribly excited. If this is you, go vote now!

[Thanks, Chanell!]

It's no secret that there's a weakness in the crafting component of Richard Garriott's sci-fi epic, Tabula Rasa. The folks at Tabula Rasa Vault put that weakness to the test last week when it asked it's community members, "Do you craft?" A total of 330 votes were tallied and a whopping 215 of those votes responded with, "Maybe if they fix things." Ouch. This week TR Vault tosses out a follow up question: What change would you like to see MOST in crafting? They offer four possible answers, with a fifth allowing you to comment in their forum thread. The folks at NCsoft and Destination Games take this matter very seriously since they've announced this in their own Community News section. If you'd like to see changes in the crafting system, be sure to go and cast your vote!

I have a handful of toons spread out across the middle teens, and crafting simply doesn't seem to be very useful. While it's fun to collect and break down equipment to see what you get out of them, the current system is a bit cumbersome, time-consuming and not very beneficial at low levels. Based on what I've read elsewhere crafting doesn't make a noticeable difference until the 30's. This isn't a deal breaker for me since I still love the fast-paced action and the "realistic" sense of a war that the game imparts. What are your thoughts? We want to know!

A new poll is up at Cheyenne Mountain's official Stargate Worlds website. Normally this would only be worth a mention in passing, but the text and contents of the poll actually confirm the inclusion of six specific Stargate SG-1 franchise planets.

The poll asks players which planet they're most excited about visiting, and then lists six "confirmed" planets: Agnos (an Ancient city which we've already seen some pictures of), The Castle (the Tau'ri prison planet), Lucia, Stargate Command (aka Earth), Tollana, and an "unnamed Goa'uld desert planet."

So it looks like there will be a good variety of places to go. But where's Abydos? It's not Stargate without Abydos!

Let's face it-- MMOs are time-consuming. Just one great MMO can steal all your free time, but there are just so many out there that it's hard for some of us to stick to just one. I'm paying for two subscriptions at the moment, but with free-to-play games, and a couple of betas, I'm up to about five different games that I occasionally sign on to about once a week or so..

I can't say that splitting myself between that many games makes much sense-- I mostly do it just to keep up with what's new in all of them, so I'd guess that I'm a little higher than average. So let's put the question to you all today-- how many MMOs would you say that you play regularly (about once a week)? Are you a one-game player, or do you figure the more virtual worlds you get to visit, the better?

For today's edition of The Daily Grind, we thought we'd ask you what you were looking for in your next big MMO? Are you one of the many for whom fantasy is the universe you want to escape into? Or are you looking for something new? I know many of us were sad to see Perpetual's title Gods and Heroes get shelved, as Historical MMOs are definitely a cool concept. Personally, I have to admit, I'm hoping someone will eventually option someone like Phillip K. Dick or William Gibson and we'll see a strong cyberpunk MMO in the Sci-Fi genre.

How about you? If you had your pick of any genre that you'd like to see some new MMOs in, what would you pick? Would you like to be a dark elf, or a civil war soldier? Take the poll, leave your thoughts, and let's see what you all want.