The new year is finally upon us and a variety of new MMOGs are set to go live later in 2009. With this influx of new challenges at our doorstep, I'm curious about how smooth or steep a learning curve these games will have for the masses. Back in the early days, when the majority of us were playing Everquest and/or Ultima Online, that curve was so steep it often felt as though you were the leader of your own pack of lemmings as you dove head first off a cliff.

It never looked this good when we played.
 
There's no arguing that the landing could be more painful than watching a 24-hour Lawrence Welk marathon (Google it, you whippersnappers!). No one should have to suffer through that kind of pain while learning the ins and outs of their favorite game, but back then, we had little choice, so we sucked up more deaths than you can count and carried on. And do you know what? We liked it that way! Ok... some of us liked it that way, but those were also the days when those of us that played had more time on our hands, so it wasn't a big deal.

Fast forward ten years, and the MMO landscape has gone through some drastic changes, sometimes to the point that it's barely recognizable. Where there used to be open fields as far as the eye could see in the MMOG market, there are now cities and roadways cluttering the view no matter what direction you look in. One of the things that has changed the most is the amount of hassle gamers are willing to put up with from a game. If it's too hard or confusing early on, chances are they'll walk away from it in short order, no matter how cool they've heard things get near the end of the game. Despite what the majority of numbers tell us, I don't think this concept is as written in stone as people like to believe it is.

The undisputed king in the MMOG ring is obviously World of Warcraft. Even if they didn't currently have over 11.5 million subscribers, it's the one game that everyone in the modern world knows about, even if they don't play it. From the upheaval over pixelated torture to the William Shatner commercials on TV, the game has become a household name. While I know the original team didn't know how explosive their population would become (Everquest held the title back then with 500,000 subscribers), the game's success was not purely an accident. The biggest change they made in the established MMOG formula was to make it easily accessible from the moment you logged in to create your character. There were a myriad of other tweaks to the standard gameplay of the day as well, but in my mind, this was the most important.

Here's a napkin for your chin. Try to quit drooling!
 
Since then, other games have begun adopting the Warcraft approach as they make their way into the market. None have been remotely as successful as WoW has been (and I still don't think anyone will be for years), but some have been profitable and that's really all that matters when it's all said and done. If a game can support the developers and their families while still making a profit for the company itself, that's all they really need in order to continue following their dreams.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, while near and dear to my heart, went in a different direction and though I applaud them for it, things just haven't worked out for them. Innumerable issues have been a factor in Vanguard's struggle, but the initial learning curve played no small part. Assuming your gaming rig was capable of running the game smoothly, any old school Everquest player immediately felt right at home. This was due in large part to the immense depth of the world and the systems within it.

For new players, especially those that picked up Vanguard as their first MMOG, the learning curve was far steeper than that of