I’ve been a follower of the MMORPG’s for some time now since I first got a free copy of Everquest for Mac. That didn’t last too long on my Powerbook simply because I found the interface a bit bonkers [and I was having too much fun producing pointless presentations in Keynote using the 'water ripple' slide transistion. - Believe me when you've done as many Powerpoint presentations as I have little gimicks like that mean a lot].
When Star Wars Galaxies arrived I was entranced. Every spare waking moment was spent battering Sharnaff’s and looking for a Doctor buff outside Coronet starport. I got about two-thrids of the way to becoming a Jedi before another game came along. This time it was Everquest II. I hammered this game to the point of needing new retina (at one point being in the top five on the server for kills/death ration with my brawler troll Toomak). So engrossed was I that I used to think “how can I continue playing - or atleast contributing - to my character when I’m not at my PC?”. I even bought a laptop powerful enough to play the game so that I would be able to logon from hotel rooms simply to carry on. But even that didn’t quell my insatiable appetite for grinding out more gold. What if I could belt out simple crafting or basic training on a portable gaming device (this was prior to the PSP) and then somehow upload my extra bit of progress onto my PC to add to my character? Maybe in the future as wireless gaming becomes more prevalent and viable I can continue on my PSP2 where I left off on my PS3? The Pokemon games had a little of this, although not in a persistent universe like the MMORPG’s.
So, clever people who know how to make games go away and do it.. Hang on? Don’t Sony run both Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies AND the PSP platform? Get it sorted guys.