I left UO to play SWG as in the Original days SWG was UO:2 with the Star Wars IP. UO's greatest strength was that you could change your class. Its not like WOW where a Mage is a Mage is a Mage. You could mix parts of the Mage skill set with that of the warrior and with the pet handler and create your own combination. Sure there were cookie cutter builds but by the time you changed your character to that build a new cookie cutter build had gained popularity. People became good at PVP not by changing their skills every two weeks but learning to master the skills that they had chosen to learn for best effect. IMO while UO stays away from Archetype based characters it will maintain its niche.

It really depends a lot on the game. In Ultima Online you had a system where you could take a bunch of runes and mark them at a location and then teleport to that location later on. To do this you needed to have some magic skill which meant less points you could spend on other things. For the non mages other ingame crafters could make Rune Books and sell them and also scrolls of teleportation and Portal. Its not a technical problem and more developer laziness. SWG even has a reward that is an instant transport ship that people could obtain.

In WOW the mages can do the same things but just to specified town locations. Still in WoW Engineers can make transporters to a couple of other locations. Yes not everything in WoW is as good as it could be but its the unfortunate yard stick that others try to measure up to.

Don't discount the value of providing an AV app as a part of Windows Update. Even if anti trust measures etc come into play a lot of users will install it as its "there".

I am in Australia and have two WOW accounts merged into the one Battle.Net account. Along with my D1, D2 and D2:LOD keys.

I think the US means WOW US Servers.

This is actually not a bad idea. I walked into my local EBGames store to get a classic old fashioned Joystick to play X-Wing vs Tie fighter as my current computer doesnt have a MIDI port to pulg my old joystick into. Where they used to stock hardware like this there were a couple of racks of Wii Controller covers, DS and PSP "Skins" Bargin bins of empty boxes and shelves lined with more empty boxes and Collectible Card Games behind the counter.

The only Joystick they had was under a bargin bin out of sight. I had to ask a staff member did they still sell them. The staff member had to ask the manager who asked another assistent where they moved the old stock to. The second assistant pulled out this old Logitech box (circa 2005) and said it was the only one they had. Ironically is that it comes with a 12 month warrantee that as I had just bought it is only now coming into effect.

With MMOGs, the PS3/Xbox360/Wii marketplaces and things like Steam what role does the game shop serve now? If not this one of demoing the game to get you to want to buy it then what?

Ironically I only knew him from Empire of the Sun and its sequel Kindness of Women. Both of these two were in a way supposedly quasi-autobiographical of his own experiences at the time.

The problem with the genre is that often times the Sci-Fi set is too smart for its own good. Take for example the original Star Wars: Galaxies. It had some brilliant character creation and development systems. The concept that you could mix and match from 24 professions to create your character made it very appealing. What happens to it? It didn't have the content it needed to guide a users experience hence it was too hard for people to understand. Then SOE starts a series of neuters that reduce it to a shadow of its former self and any of the redeeming features are removed.

Now this "too hard to play" syndrome is present in the Fantasy genre. UO/DAoC were too hard core for a lot of players who gravitated to Everquest then WoW.

With the exception of EVE I cant think of another Sci-Fi MMO that still has a presence in the MMO space.

I would wager that if a R Rated Star Trek film was made that was gritty and dark and above all A DECENT PLOT AND VILLAIN (Read on par with ST2:Wrath of Khan), It would succeed beyond measure. It would be abhored as a rejection of Roddenberry's vision and due to the controversy would attrack all the people burnt by Brannon and Braga's bastardisation of the Star Trek Franchise.

Or just Xwing Vs Tie Fighter on any format that is playable. I had a copy and have moved and been unable to find it.

I know they tacked part of this onto SWG and called it Jump to Light Speed but it just wasnt the same. I miss being able to go head to head at a lan party with different fighter configurations.

Its not Australia that hates the internet. Its fear mongering produced by the Australian Media and over zealous politicians who hold the balance of power in our governments that hate the internet.

Well the media doesnt hate it per se - they love the publicity that stories about children being stalked online generates to the Big Brother lowest common denominators of our society.

The politicians dont understand the internet. I would be surprised if any of them could spell it. They see the media reports and go into we must protect our children from the big bad internet as we all know from the media that all children are hunted, targeted and in danger.

I am an australian and proud of it. I would also like to point out that there are industry groups like the iia (http://www.iia.net.au) who both stand up to government and attempt to influence policy on practical matters.