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Let's get honest for a second here -- every MMO that seems to come out nowadays is the same game with a new paint job and one game design feature expressed above the rest. Currently, that game is Age of Conan, where larger breasts and the real-time combat system got the spotlight in this round of game making.

If game designers keep this up, we're going to watch the market dwindle as new gamers become jaded with new games just repeating the same content they've already been through over and over again. What we're looking for is an MMO that can break open the market like World of Warcraft did when it launched.

According to Earnest Cavalli at Wired, the Wii is the holy grail that MMO developers should chase after; a veritable icon of how to bring the market to a wider audience than just testosterone pumped adolescents.

As you may recall, Edward Castronova, professor at Indiana University and researcher of virtual world economics, had been developing a Shakespeare-based MMO, only to close it down because, in his words, 'It's no fun. We failed to design a gripping experience.'

In the current issue of Wired, Castronova offers his '5 tips for making games that don't suck', based on his experience. To summarize:

NCsoft's upcoming MMO Aion sure looks nice, doesn't it? Wired has posted a mini-preview of two of its character classes, the Assassin and Sorcerer. There's nothing revolutionary about these videos, but it's amazing how the right soundtrack can add so much to a simple video. Try watching them for the first time without sound enabled, and see if they're still interesting.

Aion is scheduled to be released this year on an unannounced date.

Monday's CES keynote will see Intel CEO Paul Otellini's presentation on what he's calling 'Third Life' -- a furthering of the concepts behind what has made Second Life so popular. The technology behind the keynote -- a virtual performance of 'Walkin' on the Sun' by actual Smash Mouth members -- will showcase the latest improvements in motion capture, streaming media, and multicore processors.

I'm glad Intel is taking such an interest in the future of online social environments, but Smash Mouth? Hey, I enjoyed that earworm as much as anyone when it debuted ... in 1997. Can we move on, please? And 'Third Life'? Does this mean we can expect next year's presentation to be called 'Fourth Life'? Will we see a 'Three-point-Five-point-Two Life' between now and then? Stick with hardware, Intel, and let Chiat-Day handle the promotional stuff.

[Update: Sister site Engadget has a liveblog of the keynote]

This Wired article put me onto a 'mockumentary' site advertising something called 'Wrath of the 1337 King', 'a movie about ATHENE best Paladin in the world' [sic]. Watching the trailer [NSFW language] the first time yields a mix of bemusement and humor. Watching it a second time makes me wonder if it's a complete bit of flummery from the top down: Is ATHENE for real, and he's just unaware that this documentary is being made to ridicule him, or is ATHENE an actor?

Honestly, I could make the case either way. It's well-known that World of Warcraft has the ability to make fools of otherwise rational beings, and the YouTube phenomenon has caused many such fools to seek the light regardless of, or perhaps because of the potential scorn this may bring upon them. And thanks to Borat, odd, vaguely Slavic accents are in!

Is it still fun to watch clueless people be exposed to outrageous behavior? Does the fact that ATHENE is a Paladin add to the joke? Did it need to be a movie, or is the trailer enough? My favorite line from the trailer: 'Flash Heal: Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom!' More bits from ATHENE here and here.

Keen followers of Second Life Insider, before we became Massively, will know we have, at various stages charted the reporting of Second Life in the media, as the media follows its own hype and backlash cycle. Now, MediaShift is reporting something we've been saying all along, although in their own way: the media cycle has missed the reality of the situation, virtual world and real world.

The whole article is well worth a read, as it contrasts various styles of (real world) reportage on Second Life, from Hamlet Linden as was, to Reuters, to Wired to CNN, and even has Wired's editor saying that both their hype and their over-the-top backlash were mistakes. The conclusion? A not very startling - it's better to, in the current terminology, embed your reporters or use local information than not, and particularly don't only listen to other journalists - but the steps along the way are well worth a read. They might be especially worth a read if you have to defend your engagement in Second Life to people that have only seen the backlash.

[Original lead via SLEd list]