Some short answers

Being on holiday I didn't get around to answering all the questions and requests from the open Sunday thread, shame on me. So to make up for that, I'll answer them here in a shorter version:

Void rants that marketing video games with screenshots and trailers is insufficient, what we need is more info about gameplay, and preferably free trials and demos. I fully agree. But then of course the marketing hype often starts before the gameplay is fully finished, so I can understand the screenshots and trailers marketing in the early phase.

Chris wonders whether Cataclysm will last long enough. I do not consider that the previous two expansions lasted long enough, that is they didn't keep me playing WoW for the full 2 years until the next expansion, I took breaks. Thus assuming that Cataclysm will have the same problem is a safe bet. While the fact that Cataclsym only adds 5 new levels might offer the kind of player who only plays one main a shorter experience, the added races and revamp of old Azeroth will provide a longer experience for more casual players. Thus overall I don't consider Cataclysm to be any shorter than previous expansions. And who knows what will be added by patches before the 4th expansion.

Sid67 asks whether we will see full-fledged games on Facebook. I think there are technical hurdles preventing that. And ultimately we don't need the games to run *on* Facebook. Facebook offers a service called Facebook Connect with which you can link your full-fledged game to Facebook. For example the Settlers 7 I just started playing offered me to post my achievements on Facebook.

Pickly asked about the release date for Guild Wars 2, but I'm afraid I haven't got a clue when that will be, nor when we will get more information.

Azzur hopes that "next-gen MMORPG will be "Eve-like", and especially in scale (where it is one large virtual world". I'm not a tech expert, but it was my understanding that the main problem of making huge scale virtual worlds is what happens when many people gather at the same location. I don't know of any game, not even EVE, that doesn't have *some* lag problems reported when hundreds of players turn up at the same spot. I think however that the borders between servers will get more porous, with some games already having chat possible between servers, and there being cross-server battlegrounds and dungeons.

Klelith asks about the MMO itch, and whether I ever *not* play any MMO. Yes, that happens. I do have in-between-games periods, or nowadays more often in-between-WoW-expansions, where I play single-player games, or experiment with stuff like Facebook games.