The news has been flowing like wine these days, and there are some big titles on the horizon. In short, there's much ado in the world of MMORPGs. Most significant is the launch of the EverQuest 2 beta. Many of us here at GameSpy have been jonesing like crazy for it, and it's finally upon us. Granted, we've only scratched the surface, but we're in there, trying our damnedest to sink our teeth into the thing. Some hot news is also making the rounds, not the least of which is the announcement of Star Trek Online. Now, it's pretty far off -- sometime later this century, according to my sources -- but early word is that the developers are hip to what should and shouldn't be done, so hope exists.

Finally, there's a new MMO in development at Square-Enix, which may or may not ever come out here. Is there hope? Hope is for the foolish. But chances are, the people involved in developing and distributing are into money, and who has more money than America? Answer: Texas. And Texas is in America. So do the math.

As always, feel free to write me about absolutely anything. Enough. Let's get it going!



Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion

It's great when games are announced on days that Onlife goes up. It allows me to be extra-timely, and it inspires you all to write in since the stuff is fresh on your mind. You guys might have missed this one, however, given that it isn't coming through the usual channels. Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion, anyway, is another MMO from Square-Enix, whose track record so far is pretty damned good. At this point, it's hard to tell, really, what the deal with it is.


With the help of both a friend, and a helpful guy who posts at the Quarter to Three forums, I was able to discern the following: it's gonna be an MMO with an emphasis on hack-'n-slash action, and it'll incorporate some kind of focus on team-based strategic elements. Specifically, it mentions something about building fortresses to "further the cause of the war," whatever that means. The videos seem to focus on the character running around and killing huge monsters, and it all looks very action-y. There are also several sequences in it that show one of the characters changing costumes of the fly, which sort of suggests that it will be possible to change professions on the fly, Final Fantasy Tactics-style.

The art looks really cool at this point, but if you get the feeling that I'm sort of reaching as far as mining what little content exists for the purpose of writing impressions for you guys, then you're totally right. Here is what we do know, apart from what I already listed: it's set for release in 2005, it's only for PC so far, and there are no announced plans to bring it out outside of Japan. It wouldn't be so much of a stretch, though, given how successful FFXI has been for Square-Enix. Then again, this one won't have the Final Fantasy name attached to it, unless they decide to awkwardly superimpose it. It wouldn't be that bad if they lost the Fantasy Earth title, mind you, because it's sounds pretty dumb. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on this one. Hopefully, your PlayOnline browser will soon be more than a inconvenient second step in getting into FFXI.