It may seem that Blizzard is a bit late for the MMORPG party (no pun intended) as the last two years have seen nearly countless incarnations of persistent online worlds set up by companies trying to ride the subscription model to higher profits. Banking on the addictive nature of these games and the sheer financial sense of a subscription model, publishers have been licking their chops each time a new version of Everquest or more recently Dark Age of Camelot falls into the laps of fervent gamers. The world has taken notice; even European developers such as Funcom and movie behemoth Lucasarts have jumped on the train with their unique worlds of Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxies respectively. Many more have followed but the obvious question is: have any of these companies done the genre right? Has there been a world so well crafted for both the hardcore and casual gamer that it can truly be placed amongst the some of the greatest games ever made? I think you probably know the answer to that question. So is Blizzard late to the MMORPG party by chance or by design? Probably a bit of both, but it’s safe to say that everything that has come out of the usually secretive company indicates that they have done their homework in the MMORPG arena and are working towards a game that should garner some serious awards, not to mention, hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers.