As well as targeting casual gamers, there also seems to be a concerted effort to turn the hypnotic, gesturing hand of MMOness towards action and twitch game lovers. There were certainly a lot of first-person MMO perspectives on show at E3, while Guild Wars and WOW's upcoming Battlegrounds show that it's perfectly possible to have frantic team-based action within a heroic fantasy world.

NetDevil's forthcoming Auto Assault looks ready to build on this, with an innovative blend of traditional MMOG and driving simulation, within a post-apocalyptic world where humans, mutants and biomechs battle it out in vehicle-based combat.