Ryan James O'Sullivan

My friend Jim is trying to get an MMO blog going with a few of us. My plan for contributing to the site is to cover more Wonk / Business angles on topics that are being debated in the community. My first article up is about the never ending ZOMG WILL WARHAMMER ONLINE DETHRONE World of Warcraft debate and how it needs a serious reality check; but that doesn’t mean you should count it out.

One has to start any debate on World of Warcraft’s success with a clarification of that success. If you start out on the premise that WoW is a game with 10 million subscribers all paying 14.99 a month you are working with bad information right from the start. There are 10 million people playing WoW but Blizzard makes very little from about 80% of those people; they are in Asia where alternative business models prevail and revenue generation is not on par with North American, European and Oceanic markets. We pay 15 dollars a month while in China they pay about 5 cents an hour. This on top of the fact that Blizzard doesn’t actually manage WoW in China so there is money coming off the top there as well.

You can read the whole shebang here.

Speaking of Warhammer Online if you are planning on playing on the Order side my multi game guild Aureus Knights will be setting up in the game – check it out. Be sure to say hi on the forums!

In case you haven’t heard there was a propane explosion in the city of Toronto today. Huge parts of the city have been shut down and the largest shut down of the 401 (Ontario’s major highway) in history has occured as a result. For the record I am in the opposite end of the city and we are all good here.

At this time there are two people injured (I believe employees with the propane company) and one person missing. Also just a few minutes ago Toronto Fire announced that they have a fire fighter without vitals.

Driving home from the cottage I was listening to the coverage on the radio and I thought to myself no one killed, some property damage; there was no way this was that big of a deal. Wow – then I came home and saw the footage – unbelievable, check this out:

(Watch the video around the 1:50 mark)

This is obviously no little deal. I hope the fire fighters involved come out of this ok and we get the situation in order. For once I am actually impressed with the city’s response to something – it looks like they were really on top of it.

I hope everyone in the area is ok and gets life back to normal ASAP.

PC Gamer is collecting the top 100 games of all time from its readers – you can check out the site here.

Here is my top 10:
* Ultima Online
My first and best MMO experience – started a life long love affair with virtual worlds and MMOs

* It Came from the Desert
A little known title but one of the best games of the post sierra adventure game world

* Everquest 2
The first MMO where I reached and actively participated in end game. I will never forget EQ2 and I believe it is the clear winner of the third generation

* NHL
My gateway drug to sports games. I remember playing the NHL series on a sega for the first time – I was sold and had a reason to buy consoles for many generations to come

* Battlefield 2142
I still don’t get why this game didn’t take off like other FPSs. IMO this is the best battlefield title.

* Star Wars: Galaxies
This game came dangerously close to recreating the Ultima Online experience. The SOE team was brave enough to take on the sandbox game format but was not brave enough to stand by it. I’m still waiting for another studio to take a shot at a true sandbox experience.

* Final Fantasy XI
I haven’t put nearly the time into this game that I wish I had. I believe that this is the best end game out there but the community and the developers got in the way of making it accessible

* Civilization
Civilization requires no introduction – I remember playing this in Keith’s basement; probably one of the first games I played on the PC (as opposed to the amiga)

* SimCity
I don’t know if this qualifies for a top PC game as I played it on the Amiga 500 – but again, Sim City requires no introduction.

* Team Fortress 2
The newest title on the list. The team at Valve has managed to create a very accessible and very FUN experience. I’ll be falling back on TF2 for years to come.

So what’s your list? Post in the comments