Nice touch. Shame they didn't have a survey BEFORE making U:AM

<nods at Space Captain>
Yup. I believe they are, or were, specifically MMO game consultants. They're made up of various people from the sidelines of games like Ultima and Everquest. Essentially if you think about all those angry articles fans write about what the game companies have done wrong and should be doing then that's what some of them used to do. Now they get paid to TELL the game companies what they should do to keep fans happy and generally promote their games. Pretty neat gig really.

Interesting to speculate what happens if 100s of thousands of government computers start running Linux. These users go on to buy a Linux PC for home (Internet, Wordprocessing and Photo manipulation is all they'll want it for most likely - if the distribution comes with a version of solitaire all the better). Next thing their friends are asking them why they don't have to worry about worms and virii...

Can you imagine the time when Microsoft is obliged to offer compatability with .sxc and .sxw files in their products? Heh.

There was some game mentioned on Blues earlier in the week that was going for Permadeath. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Death of a character can often lead to cancellation of an account. For instance losing your body in Everquest can mean months of work down the drain. OTOH it would make for an incredibly engaging game. Actual death, as opposed to incapacitation would have to be pretty hard, eg in SWG something may knock you out then wander off and leave you to recuperate. Something else may finish you off.

If everyone starts with 1000 gold, and we're basing the economy on real dollars/euros then that money entering the economy has to be accounted for by part of your initial payment. ie it can't just appear out of nowhere. Ideally we want an exchange rate - game dollar against real dollar that favours the game devs slightly but not massively. ie if you make 1000 gold, you cn exchange that for $4.00. If you want to buy 1000 gold, it'll cost you $5.00. Nothing can drop gold, but you'll also earn a small amount of gold each month - based on your subscription payment. This would do away with ebay and give devs a direct cut of the action. If someone has a cool sword for sale at 10000 gold, you agree to buy it, either from your own reserves or you fork over fifty bucks to get it. The seller then takes that gold and cashs it in for 40 bucks. Game makes 10 bucks and the players have a secure and easy transaction. So long as nothing drops gold and gold can only be gained from other players the economy will mirror the real world economy. You don't need ebay.

I can't remember the name of the game but there was a game which was going to give away free access but let you exchange hard cash for in game currency. It seems to me that the key to making a fortune out of on-line gaming is something like this. If you think about the state of mobile phones (in Europe at least) you have people with dirt cheap access to phones (not exactly free BUT...) who spend more on text messages, logos and ring tones than they do on phone calls. It's become CRITICAL to have a unique ring tone when you have to answer the phone while chatting someone up down the nightclub.
This does all rather pre-suppose there a potential crossover between people who desperately want to seem cool or unique and people who play on-line games. I can't guess what it'll be but something will click and make on-line fee-paying (however) persistant games viable - think Counter-Strike - where'd that spring from!?! Nobody in a grey suit planned that.

Okay, it doesn't have nearly everything you're looking for but Neocron has PvP real time combat, it's sci fi, has robots and vehicles.

They're also only giving out XP for group missions.

Awww shucks. I had high hopes for AD&D-O. I immediately resent having to group to gain XP. With the PnP I didn't have to group to get XP. Sure, the nature of the game is based about groups but there was always the option for a strongly aligned character to gain the eye of the DM by playing in character and earning appropriate XP, even while under the noses of his "comrades". AD&D is about role-playing, I thought. The MMORPG is a cash-in by the sound of it.

I did play EQ for 3 or 4 years and it had an awful lot right. The grouping in that game was amazing. But you could also solo if you wanted to. It was slow and painful but if that was what you wanted to do, you could. I hate to see games FORCING anyone into roles because it suits THEM.