Joystiq has an announcement calling for gamers to sign up to play around in the pre-release version of the forthcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) Ultimate Baseball Online (UBO), and as a former addict of the Intellivision's Major League Baseball game, I'm sorely tempted. I'm also eager to find out exactly what massively multiplayer online baseball will be like, as my current perceptions of titles in this genre are dominated by the orcs and goblins "fayre" of leaders EverQuest and World of Warcraft, and others of their ilk.
Sure, MMOGs that don't feature level 62 swords of Tolkien or similar such madness have been successful (Sims Online, City of Heroes, Toontown Online), but the releases of UBO and the forthcoming "massively multiplayer caRPG" Auto Assault from City of Heroes publishers NCSoft suggest that the Western world's idea of the genre is about to be blown open by the non-orc forms that it could take.
This could be very exciting indeed.
And speaking of non-orc online games, Alice has alerted me to the beta-release of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom, a free web-based virtual world in a similar ilk to the digital community space Habbo Hotel, but with quests to pursue around the theme park. Curioser and curiouser.
If Walt's progeny are embracing the genre, who knows what other corporate establishments could look to such an endeavour in order to heighten their brands and give consumers a greater sense of involvement in their fanstasies? MMOG Eastenders, anyone?
