While the MMO has been around for a while, the past year or so has seen the genre explode into the Western gamer mainstream. The biggest reason is the success of Blizzard's behemoth World of Warcraft, but other MMOs like City of Heroes, EverQuest II, and Guild Wars demonstrate that there's plenty of room to grow and find success.

The West's discovery of the wonders of massively social gameplay, however, lags far behind Asia, particularly Korea, where gaming and MMOs of all types are so huge they are becoming the dominant thread in pop culture. Even "small" Asian MMOs routinely boast a million subscribers. It's no surprise then, that Western companies looking for a piece of the MMO market are forming alliances with Korean companies to bring their hit games to the west. The latest to do so is U.K. publisher Codemasters, who have partnered with NHN Games, one of the largest Korean MMO developers, to bring their hit MMO Archlord to Europe and North America.