What began as a year in review editorial, morphed into an analysis of the evidence 2007 gave us that the subscription model was on its way out in North America and Europe. In this article, I look at the historic evidence and where things might head in 2008 and beyond.

All the evidence suggests that World of Warcraft is not the harbinger of an expanded marketplace, but an aberration, a lightning strike at the right moment. Among Western audiences - as it was among Eastern audiences years ago - the subscription based MMORPG is at best on life support and more than likely on its way out the door.

The one-two punch of WoW and Guild Wars in 2004 has delivered a significant blow to the prospects of any company that has the audacity to charge their subscribers a monthly fee. Guild Wars showed that a high quality experience can be free and WoW redefined what people expect for that $14.95 a month.

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ArenaNet opens pre-orders this Friday for its first true expansion pack to the Guild Wars series, Eye of the North. At E3 last week we talked to ArenaNet Co-Founder Jeff Strain about the expansion, what it adds, it's focus on PvE dungeon crawls and how it acts as a bridge to Guild Wars 2.

Fast forward to E3 and the team now hawks Guild Wars Eye of the North. This one requires that the player own either Guild Wars or either of its "sequel-spansions" to play. The team felt they'd added a lot of content and it was time to go back and really flesh out what they'd built, rather than piling more pieces on the Jenga tower. Beyond that, they also hope to use this expansion as a bridge between Guild Wars and the upcoming Guild Wars 2.

"[Eye of the North] is a fan service expansion," Jeff Strain, one of ArenaNet's Co-Founders told us during the demonstration. They went back to the start, their initial release, and started fixing things, expanding them and making them more complete. Their fans didn't want to start new classes, they wanted to improve those characters they had. The combination of this philosophy and the actual business model of the expansion make it clear that they're not kidding. This is not about new players, it's about the ones they have.

Read more after the click.

ArenaNet opens pre-orders this Friday for its first true expansion pack to the Guild Wars series, Eye of the North. At E3 last week we talked to ArenaNet Co-Founder Jeff Strain about the expansion, what it adds, it's focus on PvE dungeon crawls and how it acts as a bridge to Guild Wars 2.

Fast forward to E3 and the team now hawks Guild Wars Eye of the North. This one requires that the player own either Guild Wars or either of its "sequel-spansions" to play. The team felt they'd added a lot of content and it was time to go back and really flesh out what they'd built, rather than piling more pieces on the Jenga tower. Beyond that, they also hope to use this expansion as a bridge between Guild Wars and the upcoming Guild Wars 2.

"[Eye of the North] is a fan service expansion," Jeff Strain, one of ArenaNet's Co-Founders told us during the demonstration. They went back to the start, their initial release, and started fixing things, expanding them and making them more complete. Their fans didn't want to start new classes, they wanted to improve those characters they had. The combination of this philosophy and the actual business model of the expansion make it clear that they're not kidding. This is not about new players, it's about the ones they have.

Read more after the click.

Today we present an exclusive editorial that looks at the MMO industry since the launches of World of Warcraft and Guild Wars in 2005. These two games changed the industry, both in the way people design them and what players are willing to pay for them.

World of Warcraft is at its heart an easy game. That's not a bad thing, far from it. It's a sensation, it's breaking records and it's damn fun, but it's not really that hard. It did make the steps of an MMO easy to follow, easy to enjoy and shrunk the curve to something manageable. It did a wealth of other things right that made it what it is, but along the way, the core ease at which players can get somewhere in it has redefined what players will accept in terms of torture from an MMO.

Read more after the click.