The results are in… for MMORPG.com’s Reader’s Choice Awards 2007, and below is the summary.
Follow up:
For this summary, all titles in bold are online games with local and/or regional server or payment gateway here in the Philippines and South-East Asia. So…
Number of voters: 40,000+
Categories: 8
- Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) – 43%
- Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa (TR) – 26%
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes – 15%
- HellGate: London (HGL) – 11%
- Fury – 2%
For this category, I voted for Tabula Rasa which ended up second, but I am not surprised with Lord of the Rings Online getting 43% of the votes. I played LotRO from it’s Alpha to it’s early Commercial Launch and it is just superb. Great concepts and serious thinking was put into its development which gave LotRO its right to win in this category. The only reason I did not continue playing is that I don’t see myself (or my character) anywhere but being just another being in the world of Middle-Earth.
- EVE Online – 39%
- City of Heroes/Villains – 20%
- Lord of the Rings Online – 20%
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes – 17%
- Lineage II – 5%
If anyone still remembers Mobius Online Games, well, they have a Payment Gateway for EVE Online, and even though I don’t play EVE (because I don’t have time to dedicate for it), my friends told me great stuff about its latest free expansion, so I guess EVE do deserve this award.
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – 42%
- Rise of Kunark – 24%
- Guild Wars: Eye of the North – 20%
- Wings of the Goddss – 8%
- Secrets of Faydwer – 4%
Not a surprise here, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the hottest expansion of 2007, people waited for it. With NCsoft’s and ArenaNet’s Guild Wars: Eye of the North placing third.
- Age of Conan – 29%
- Warhammer Online – 25%
- Star Trek Online – 10%
- StarGate Worlds – 8%
- Pirates of the Burning Sea – 8%
- Aion – 8%
- The Chronicles of Spellborn – 4%
- Jumpgate Evolution – 3%
When I was still with Mobius Online Games, we were already talking about Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. These two took 29% and 25% of the total votes respectively, with Star Trek Online placing third with a huge gap with the second placer. It is interesting to note that the 1st and 2nd placer are close, as well as the 3rd and 4th placers. STO, StarGate Worlds, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Aion are the other MMOGs I am eagerly anticipating, and I believe for Aion, as more info are released, its hype will go bigger.
- Guild Wars – 68%
- Dungeon Runners – 10%
- Granado Espada / Sword of the New World – 9%
- Puzzle Pirates – 5%
- Fury – 5%
If you are really following the industry, then this is another no-surprise for you and to anyone else – Guild Wars taking 68% and winning the MMORPG.com’s Best Free/Micropayment Game of 2007. I can say that Guild Wars is also the #1 Free-to-Play game here in South-East Asia (now that’s flame bait), but it may be just me. Anyway, Granado Espada or Sword of the New World as it is called outside of East Asia is on third place with 9% very close with Dungeon Runners, an NCsoft game (now that I’m surprised, but it’s 1% difference).
- EVE Online – 48%
- Tabula Rasa – 25%
- City of Heroes/Villains – 23%
- Second Life – 2%
Another award for EVE Online, 48% of the votes, with Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa with 25%. When it comes to Second Life, I believe it is expected SL will get the least votes since it was grouped with “MMOGs”, SL for this category is the “Other” from the “Best Sci-Fi/Other Game” category title. The other three are obviously “Sci-Fi”. Yep, I dare say it, Second Life should have been left out as well as that “Other” in the category title. It just doesn’t do justice for SL to be included here.
- World of Warcraft – 33%
- Lord of the Rings Online – 25%
- EverQuest II – 22%
- Guild Wars – 13%
- Lineage II – 5%
Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is the Best Fantasy Game for 2007 according to MMORPG.com voters with 33% of the total votes followed by Lord of the Rings Online with 25%. I see these two as a battle between “popular” franchises. Warcraft is popular by itself, so does Lord of the Rings. It seems that when it comes to gaming, an original game title still wins over titles taken from other medium even if it is J.R.R. Tolkien’s LotR. But tbh, I was hoping to see LotRO to win in this category, to keep the hopes and spirits of the investors and the industry that MMO “imports” can kick arses. But, as we all know, it all comes down to the development of the game, and LotRO’s second place is affected big by the great system and gameplay it has to offer (and not just because it is a J.R.R. Tolkien world).
- EVE Online – 24%
- World of Warcraft – 16%
- Lord of the Rings Online – 12%
- EverQuest II – 12%
- City of Heroes/Villains – 10%
- Tabula Rasa – 6%
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes – 5%
- Guild Wars – 3%
- Lineage II – 1%
- Granado Espada / Sword of the New World – 1%
- HellGate: London – 1%
- Final Fantasy XI – 1%
- Fury – 0%
- Second Life – 0%
- EverQuest – 0%
- Dungeon Runners – 0%
And that’s the Best Overall Game for 2007 according to MMORPG.com voters – EVE Online, I’ll stop there.
* International rewards shouldn’t be taken as a representation of the South-East Asian market. When it comes to South-East Asia, the results are very different. Majority of South-East Asian and SEA-based gamers play SEA-based games. There are few Aseans who play non-SEA-based games, and that includes me, I play Tabula Rasa and Guild Wars and used to play World of Warcraft and Ultima Online.