With Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" coming SOON⢠(= ~1 year), some of you may find this article - what looks to be part 1 of an eight part piece on the foundations of the MMORPG genre as it exists today - interesting. The article series can be found over at Gamespy.com:
Massively Multiplayer Online Games - The Past, The Present, and The Future
Massively Multiplayer Online Games - The Past, The Present, and The Future
"Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays." -- Friedrich von Schiller