From dice to dragons - the evolution of MMOs

1up's latest instalment in their "Evolution of Online Gaming"
looks at the MMO world's preoccupation with dragons and tights
(part 1 examined the current state of MMOs). The fact that most MMOs take place in a fantasy setting can lead to outsiders pigeonholing the entire genre, although the heritage of fantasy is rich enough to lend itself well to the persistent-world RPG concept, and is easy to step into
("Everyone knows what orcs, elves, warriors, and wizards are supposed to be and do", says Ryan Seabury of NetDevil).

With upcoming MMOs such as D&D Online still sticking to the fantasy genre, and only a few daring to break the mould (such as NCsoft's City of Heroes and
Auto Assault), are developers hurting themselves by playing it safe?
World of Warcraft's success may be as attributable to its gameplay as its fantasy setting, and with other cultural pools to draw from—pirates, Greek myths, ninjas—perhaps the lessons learned from WoW will help bring more originality into the world of MMOs.

MMO designers are still trying to capture the audience of hardcore gamers who spend hours each day playing FPS games online; with persistent levels and statistics, some FPS games fit the MMO concept in a way, but
MMOFPS may be the elusive solution to get hardcore gamers going massive. We've had MMORPG, we're getting MMOFPS, what of MMO-Strategy, MMO-Adventure, MMO-Sports and MMO-Driving?

[via Slashdot]