The top 5 MMOs of 2012 — and what they’re doing differently

2012 will see some of the biggest releases ever in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game genre. GamesBeat has rounded up the most promising titles and asked their developers, “What makes your game unique?”

You’ll also find beta information, minimum system requirements, and pre-order bonus/collector’s edition details, if applicable. Let’s begin!

[DV_Bastian]

Blade & Soul looks sick. I have mastu--admired Hyung-Tae Kim's work for years, so I'd definitely play his MMO.

[roblef]

That's hawt.

ew.

[ATi_Elite]

1. Guild Wars 2: I can't tell you how many millions of Gamers including myself are waiting for this! It's the ONE to get!! Land and Sea combat, a hybrid real time / lock on combat system to please both genre's of gamers and NO grind No subscription NO crap just huge amounts of quest, exploration, and an ever evolving story.

2. Firefall: I do not need a Beta, I do not need no stinking review. Firefall is a straight up First or Third Person Shooter depending on your preference with a nice amount of strategy tossed in. I saw 15 minutes of You-Tube video that contained awesome Player vs. player battles and HUGE Boss fights and I threw my wallet at the screen! Day 1 for me!

3. TERA: Got a chance to play it during the free open Beta weekend and it did not disappoint! (mundane as hell in the learning area but once you get out OMG!) It's basically World of Warcraft BUT and this is a big BUT.....way better graphics and with REAL TIME COMBAT! none of that TAB-auto lock on crap! You better have some First Person Shooter skills or my Level 10 character will slaughter your Level 60 character (unlike WoW where player skill doesn't matter)! My only complaint is Tera is $15 a month.....with enough support and expansion I can see paying it plus that $15 will keep the Noobs away! If your not a FPS fan and want to play TERA you better learn to Circle-Strafe, Jump Duck, and Tea-bag!

4. The Secret World: Plays like WOW but NO GRIND or other boring stuff that WoW has. Yes it has the Auto-Lock which means NO real time Action combat but the story, challenges, and locations of TSW make it stand out over other WoW clone MMO's. TSW is the thinking man's MMO as it has a great story and nice challenges that require you to do some hunt and searching even outside of the game but with some big time competition in the ACTION MMO department I don't know if I (a more Action Gamer) can pay $$$ bucks a month for this one. (I will play for a few months cause the story and settings are great)

5. Blade and Soul: I don't know, first i've seen of it! Reminds me of the Hack N Slash MMO's like Vinidctus and Dragon Nest! lots of action, lots of fun,.........but need more support! Really does remind me of a more mature themed Dragon Nest! Jury is still out on this one for me!

My Additions

6. ArcheAge: don't know if it will make a North American 2012 (Korea 2012 for sure) but this WoW type MMO might be a sleeper hit. Lots of buzz in the MMO world! if you like WoW type of MMo's!

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

7. Planetside 2: looking more like a 2013 release date than 2012 but all i can say is this MMO/FPS has 1000 vs. 1000 on a battlefield at a time with Land and Air vehicles plus interactive forts as factions via for control of a planet and it's resources 24/7/365! Not just mindless shooting as the resources and forts are VERY important! I'm all in especially after playing a bit of Planetside!

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

8. End of Nations: MMO/RTS game, lots of explosions, lots of gamers, lots of on screen units, more strategy than you can shake a Zerg rush at! (Im more of a Dawn of War type of guy but many are waiting for this)!

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Not all MMO's are like WoW! MMO's can be anything....Rpg, action RPG, RTS, FPS, FPS/RTS, FPS/Space combat, hack n slash, etc.. and hopefully these small few will get everyone to stop thinking WoW right after saying MMO.

2013 = World of Darkness.....from the makers of Eve Online!

[roblef]

Wow, Tera, speaking of masturbatory fantasy. That's quite the objectification you got going there.