Massively multiplayer online games are all the rage now that World of Warcraft has shown developers that they can be profitable with the right formula, so it’s no surprise to see so many genres adapting elements from them in the hopes of cashing in on some of that long-term player cash.  Even EA seems to have caught the bug with their new Need for Speed World, which is apparently WoW in cars.

The media was able to catch up with producer Marc de Vellis at a press event, and besides calling the game the “biggest Need for Speed arena ever,” he gave up a few other details about the PC exclusive.

From Destructiod:

“The game world in NFS World is an amalgam of new areas and of cities from the Need for Speed franchise’s greatest hits: the beta I saw included such places as Palmont (from 2006′s Need for Speed: Carbon) and Rockport (Need for Speed: Most Wanted, 2005). The regions are connected as one seamless entity; you can race from one end to the other without any loading screens. And when the game launches this summer, EA expects tens of thousands of players to be driving around at once inside it.

But NFS World will grow still larger. De Vellis assured me that its developers, EA Black Box and EA Singapore, will continually expand the game post-launch, periodically bolting on additional fan-favorite locales from other Need for Speed titles. With fourteen distinct entries in the long-running franchise, they’ve got plenty of varied settings to choose from.”

I think as high-speed internet spreads and becomes more affordable, the line between MMO and non-MMO is going to quickly blur.  Many of the games I play now are MMO’s in one way or another.  For instance, Modern Warfare 2 is essentially World of Warcraft with guns; the only thing it lacks is a persistent world.

I consider this a positive evolution for the industry; I’ve always enjoyed games more when they involve other humans.