By now most everyone who is into MMOs (and more than a few people who aren't) has heard about the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware (now under the umbrella of EA) and Guild Wars 2 from ArenaNet. If you also happen to be a follower of Penny Arcade, you've probably also heard more than a little braggadocio regarding the innovations each of these titles claim to bring to the genre. If you're an even bigger dork yet, you may have followed some of the video releases or E3 interviews from either studio, in which design team members extoll the unique advantages of their new ideal over the boring, stagnant existing MMO standard. No need to be coy, folks, we all to whom you're refering.

Now, I want to set the record straight here. I've been an on-again/off-again WoW player since its release nearly six years ago, and I was an employee of Blizzard Entertainment for the better part of that time. I acknowledge that WoW's success does lend some credit to their design choices, but lets be honest: successful does not necessarily equal good. Madden is successful. Halo is successful. Armageddon, Titanic, and Avatar were successful. But setting aside WoW's popularity and considering its design alone, there's still a lot to admire. Like all games, it has flaws, to be sure, perhaps even more than its share.

Both TOR and GW2 have been heard to claim to revolutionize the genre by introducing story to the MMO. I'm honestly not sure where these guys have been for the last two years though: while WoW may have launched with a more or less static story, the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, definitely brought story to the fore. Blizzard went all out, introducing a new mechanic that allowed the world you play in to change based on what part of the story you were in, destroying towns, establishing forward camps, and removing vanquished enemy forces. Wrath even includes two cutscenes that play out at pivotal moments in the story.

I haven't yet had a hands-on look at Guild Wars 2, but my experiences with the Old Republic beta test have been less than mind-blowing. While it does introduce fully-spoken dialogue and Mass Effect style dialogue choice wheels, there's no storytelling revolution to be found here. I guess Bioware and EA will have to fall back on the game's revolutionary gameplay instead.

Oh, wait...