There’s been a bit of a meme going around where people share the sixth screenshot from their sixth screenshot subdirectory. Unfortunately, I don’t order screenshots quite like that. Instead, I thought I’d just go through my big old FRAPs folder (which contains the last 5 months or so of screenies from me) and show you my personal favorites. Here you go (with a key after the cut):

Turbine’s been sitting on a dragon’s horde for some time now, and they’ve yet to let us know what they’re working on. If I had my druthers, this is what I’d want them to be putting that money towards:

- A free to play Harry Potter MMO -
We know they have connections to Warner, and we know they’re working on a Free to Play title. Why not have the best of both worlds? This game would be so good just from the spare parts it’s almost hilarious to think about. Every player gets to start off as a new schoolmate at Hogwart’s. Pick your faction (house), and offer differing content to each group. Leveling up isn’t hard numbers, it’s school years! Your avatar changes as you get higher in grades, getting older and getting more clothing options.

Go adventuring in classes, do homework and get graded on your performance (ultimate single-player element) and then collaborate with classmates on projects (grouping). Even go head to head in sports and wizards duels (PvP). Microtransaction elements include clothing, brooms, etc. etc.

Built-in audience, easily understandable mechanics, and if you do the ‘look’ right could be playable on just about anything. Must-do, must-do.

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Instead of the usual enormous blog post (which I used both in 2007 and 2006) I decided to take a different tack this year. Below are embedded a pair of videos running down my thoughts on the upcoming year. Enjoy!

A year ago, at the close of 2007, I threw out some prognostications about the coming 12 months. Those months have now passed and it’s time to pay the piper. Just as with last year I’m going to grade my predictions on a straight pass/fail basis; percentages are for actuarials.
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Seeing as I actually got a lot of the presents I asked for this year, I can’t help but pitch in and ask Santa for some more goodies next year. Every year, around the world, we secularly ask ‘Saint Nick’ for loot under the Christmas tree. I’ll try not to buck the trend. As I’ve put out for the last two years, here is what I want to see under the MMO industry tree figuratively for the next twelve months. Come on, MMO industry: gimme some pretty packages!

Here’s what I want for my 2009 year in MMOs:

• Mega-quantities of awesome from SOE. Agency, Free Realms, and DC Universe Online are all very near the top of my awesomedar. I am really looking forward to the Free Realms Beta, and my hope is that Agency will go into Beta at some point near the end of the year. I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing much of DCUO publicly, but at least one more chance to play that kickass demo would be much appreciated.
• An ongoing stream of content from BioWare about The Old Republic. Not only am I personally really thrilled that we’re finally getting something, professionally I can’t get enough of that SWTOR.
• The lads at 38 have told us that we should see real news on Copernicus sometime in early summer. I want their kickoff to be a huge splash, their content to be incredibly well-received, and their design to be absolutely inspired. I’ll be straight: I think they’ve got a long haul ahead of them. The fantasy genre is going to be hell and a half to enter as a direct competitor to WoW. But if they want to give it a try, who am I to stand in their way or do anything but cheerlead from the sidelines?
• After one of my favorite interviews of the year with two gents from Red 5, I have been obsessed about getting more details on their game. I would absolutely love to know what the hell they’re doing down there. More than any other ‘dark’ company right now, Red 5 is making the game that I’m desperate to explore. Here’s hoping they give us a bit more insight on their plans thiscoming year.
• I’m greedy, I know, but I really want a look at Guild Wars 2 as well. It’s been more than a year since Arena.net put out Eye of the North, and GW2 was well along in development back in that point. While I completely understand why it’s not out yet, the tomb-like silence that we’ve seen from the company on the topic of their sequel to their groundbreaking title has been a bit unnerving. I really hope Arena will finally be able to throw back the curtain and give us a look at the goods.
• Tons of success to my fellow MMO bloggers and podcasters, be they industry paragons like Scott or enthusiast juggernauts like Tim (Van Hemlock). While I know I don’t contribute a lot from this domain much any more, I’d like to think that the MMOblogosphere is a pretty darn special place to be hanging your hat. Here’s hoping it continues in 2009.
• Continued good gaming vibes and personal connections between myself and my guilds! A year ago I was a boring-as-hell soloer, and now I have a community in all three of my primary MMOs! I hope that 2009 finds me growing even closer to the Podcasters of Bree, Revelry and Honor, and What Would Thrall Do.
• The will, intelligence, writing skill, and patience required to run Massively.com. I’ll be honest, a year ago I never in a million years would have imagined I’d be running an MMO news site. It’s exactly, precisely what I’ve been working towards for the last few years and I feel incredibly lucky to be here. It’s hard, it’s challenging, it’s stressful, and to be honest it doesn’t pay that well. But it’s Massively, and I’ve got lots and lots of love.
• The energy to recommit to doing the MMOG Nation Broadcast … a podcast that should be returning soon!
• And, of course, the dedication to keep the feed alive here at MMOG Nation.

Feel free to drop in what presents you want from the industry next year in the comments.

Or rather, how I finally ‘got’ LotRO. As I’ve said elsewhere I honestly think Lich King is a better expansion. Moria and the two new classes are incredibly impressive, but WoW’s newest offerings are (in my opinion) some of the best content ever added to an existing online game. What the last few weeks have proven to me, though, is that when I keep saying ‘the fantasy MMO is a solved problem’, I’m not giving enough credit to the other fantasy games that are already out there.

Let me be clear: new fantasy MMOs are almost certainly a losing proposition at this point. That’s just the way the market looks. But my viewpoint that WoW’s success had completely overshadowed other company’s work is oversimplifying things. Turbine’s hard work on LotRO – which I’ve long tried to highlight at Massively and elsewhere – is not wasted effort. Nor, I think, is SOE’s work on EQ2 – but that’s another blog entry. Read on for some thoughts on why Turbine’s work should be lauded so.
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SWTOR is going to be microtransaction-based.

“The Star Wars online MMO [is a] mid-session game, microtransaction-based. You’ll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call.” According to the game news site, “Mid-session” refers to the amount of time the game is typically played within a gaming session. “In this context, it seems that EA might be positioning The Old Republic as an alternative to MMOs that traditionally emphasize longer play sessions and charge users only on a monthly basis.”

My.LotRO goes into Beta.

This is the greatest/scariest/most amazing news day I’ve seen in a while. Yikes.