Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Not sure if this should go here, it's largely neopets related, but not quite, so here goes...

Just read an article on the "trends" on virtual worlds/MMO's like Neopets based on what they saw on the Virtual Worlds Expo. The article can be seen here:

In summary they said the trends were:

1. War on geekiness: games becoming more mainstream by focus on a simple and fun user experience
2. No To Large Client Downloads: games are largely browser-based, with plugins like flash and java
3. Virtual Brands Go Terrestrial: Neopets was the poster child for this one, with real-world merchandise
4. Branded Items: Not Free For Long: the idea was for 'exclusive items' having that extra cachet by being priced (and thus even more 'exclusive')

Neopets already does this, but trends tend to grow- what re everyone's ideas or thoughts on this? What can we expect from it? Personally, I hope they don't go too far down the line on "simple user interface" as to dumb things down.

Everquest and WoW are never going to die...


...or change!