Some MMOs to watch out for.

Some? How many?

  Truth be told, initially it was '3 MMOs to look out for'. However, I could not get myself to stick to just 3 and therefore I dispensed of any specificity for that reason. So without further ado, here is my favourite to-watch-out list:

• Elder Scrolls Online (ESO): It is Elder Scrolls and it is online, what more do you need! With an estimated release sometime in 2013 (I am guessing Q4 2013), it is one of the most highly anticipated MMOs, and with the highest Hype rating on MMORPG for games in development. One only hopes that the Online version is going to do justice to the heritage of the franchise. Oh, and it is cross-platform!                                                  

• ArcheAge (AA): Fantasy MMO from South Korea! Yes, the feel of the Avatars is slightly Manga-esque but it is to be expected. In any case, it looks very impressive and beautifully crafted, with more very exciting and sought after feature, but sadly, rarely seen. Features include housing (yay!!), naval combat and adventuring, massive PvP and siege combat and a wide selection of option for designing your favourite character/class. It is about to go in its 4th Closed Beta Testing (unfortunately only for Korean players), so I expect a release in a couple of years.

• Neverwinter (NW): Who hasn't played DnD, who hasn't played Neverwinter Nights? NW is hopefully going to be an online flagship for the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, worthy of the Neverwinter name. Big selling point for me is the Foundry editing tools, which will allow players to build their own adventures, campaigns and zones within the game. Big minus, in my book, is that, unlike he Neverwinter Nights series this will windows only... makes me a sad panda. You can register now for the Beta, which means a probably release date of Q3 2013 if all goes well.

• Pathfinder Online (PFO): Possibly not a title well known outside of the pen and paper RPG circles. It is posing as a sandbox game, and we certainly need more of those. In my opinion, a big advantage of PFO is that it was funded mainly through Kickstarter. Why is that a good thing, you may ask. It means it was funded by the community itself. No restrictions and overwhelming control by big publishers and CEOs. The community at large decided it wanted the game out, and invested their $$ on it... that can only be a good thing I guess. We don't have any reliable information on a possible release date, but I would hazard a guess it would be for Q4 2015. ... and I also forgot, windows and Mac version!

• Shadowrun Online (SRO): As with PFO above, SRO will be most familiar to the traditional pen and paper RPG crowd. And as with PFO, it is also funded mainly through Kickstarter. As someting of a RPG veteran, and since Shadowrun was one of the first RPGs I played, I am eagerly looking forward to it. You can check some of the released videos of it, but really with Shadowrun it was always the setting that was the major selling point. And I expect the online version will be no different. Also it is truly cross platform game, accessible through Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, iOS and on Ouya.

 Another game might have made it to my list would have been World of Darkness, a game based on the White Wolf's World of Darkness setting (Vampire: The Masquarade, Werewolve: The Forsaken, etc.) and created by CCP (Eve Online). Unfortunately the information on its progress is little to no existent. On a positive note, someone posted on MMORPG.com that CCP is currently doing internal testing and hoping for something to show at Showfest 2013.