Hardly there is a time in the MMO industry that we come across something that is new. Typically companies play it safe with the all too nostalgic games that are all too the same. I for one am tired of many companies doing this, and it's rather odd because the big, bad companies with millions and millions of dollars pussy out and play it safe. Call me naive, but wasn't the whole purpose of calling a game 'new' or 'revolutionary' it being actually revolutionary and something new? All we have right now for MMOs are games that promise something, but are not what they promise so basically it's false advertising. Never mind the bugs (which shouldn't be there at release to begin with) they can be patched, my concern is terrible design decisions on games that utterly ruin the experience, Darkfall is a perfect example of that.

The only game since 2003 that came along that actually brought something new to a specific sub-genre in the MMO space (in this case it's the sci-fi genre) was EVE Online, ironically enough it wasn't from a company with a big budget, no it was from a little known, independent company called CCP. CCP had a vision to create something that nobody had done for the sci-fi sub-genre; a sandbox, player controlled universe. However in 2003 it was a rough start, many things were not polished as it is today, there were client side and server side lag issues, but the thing that kept myself and many to the game was the torch it held to the sci-fi genre and that it broke away from the traditional third-person grind fest; the game was and still is a gem.

However this isn't about EVE Online, it's about Mortal Online, a game that seems to be reminiscent of what EVE Online did for the sci-fi genre now MO will do it for the Fantasy genre. Mortal Online is pushing for a very, very ambitious game, but they themselves say they may not even have the funds to run a server for a long time unless they have a moderate subscriber base. This makes me very skeptical and very nervous, however this reminded me of CCP. CCP didn't have large funds, nor does Star Vault (the creators of Mortal gold) and they are both independent companies. I know, but I cannot stress this enough, they are independent companies, but why do I keep mentioning this? Well, it's because these guys are doing what their big company counterparts aren't doing, revolutionizing the genre.

Here's a key list of features that Mortal Online will have:
Real time combat (real time blocking and fighting)
Player housing
First-person combat/roaming
Large environments
Sandbox MMO
Full loot PvP
Mounted combat
Minus a few features, this sounds exactly like EVE Online, but is it really fair to compare the game to EVE Online? The reason I do the comparison is that Mortal Online gold is exactly in the same spot EVE Online was quite a while ago. The new kid on the block company trying for something big. But, what I really think it comes down to is how Star Vault will execute this title and how the game itself will be. A lot of us hope it will not become the next Darkfall, but rather it follows the path of CCP's EVE Online and blooms over time.

Summing it up, we know how EVE Online ended up being a beacon of success for what they did, let us see how Star Vault turns up Mortal gold for the Fantasy genre.