Game of the Year Awards 2008 - Most Promising MMORPG
For two weeks you could vote for the Most Promising MMORPG of 2009. There is no Editor's choice for this one as there simply aren't enough editors playing MMORPGs....
The Winner: Darkfall Online
Aventurine's Darkfall Online has been in development for seven years and is much anticipated shown by its victory in this poll. A sandbox game offering nonlinear gameplay where you are at liberty to master any and all facets of gameplay. Players define and create the dynamic world, they can choose their own skills and actions define alignment. An open PvP based game without any safe zones (full looting) where anyone can fight anywhere.
The tough alignment system will make murderous thieves outlawed in civilised areas while blacksmiths can spend their time creating and repairing weapons for others and never fight. Prestige classes are also available for set routes to particular play styles with boons and banes. Other features include building cities and naval warfare sounding familiar to Ultima Online in its original state. Darkfall is all about offering the player an open/free world without any restrictions. It's highly anticipated by many and might just be the next best thing in online gaming.
The Runner up: The Chronicles of Spellborn
Like Darkfall, The Chronicles of Spellborn has been in development for many years and was released at the end of November in several European countries. It's a game that adds a new twist to combat with its innovative combat bar making it possible to create your own combos. Combat resembles the high paced action of an FPS with the "combo-bar" and the ability to step sideways in real-time to evade attacks. It's possible to kill a creature by bouncing around and striking it without the creature being able to hit you. TCoS has many of the elements that are present in other MMOs but manages to remain unique with its art and combat style.
Third Place: Fallen Earth
Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic online game where the apocalypse was triggered by a virus (Shiva) and takes place in the year 2154. In this world six factions rival for dominance and you have to find your place amongst them. The game is classless allowing you to customize your characters (thousands of items and twenty-two character slots) with stats, skills, abilities, and mutations!
There is no guarantee the game will be released in 2009 although the start of the alpha testing phase has been announced recently.
The Numbers
The following tables shows the complete results of the voting.
| Rank | Game | Percentage |
| 1 | Darkfall Online | 20,2 |
| 2 | The Chronicles of Spellborn | 12,4 |
| 3 | Fallen Earth | 7,8 |
| 4 | Alganon | 7,0 |
| 5 | Runes of Magic | 5,4 |
| 6 | Dungeon Party | 4,9 |
| 7 | Mortal Online | 2,8 |
All other games scored a percentage of less than 1%.
