According to this Wired blog post that refers to an IGN announcement (that I can’t read, since IGN (but not Wired) is blocked at work), 38 Studios will announce their MMO at the San Diego Comic Con this weekend.

All the big guns will be there.

I am hoping, hoping, hoping that they won’t announce a new WoW. I will call it like it is if they do. 38 Studios can’t have a more talented crew. To come up with a new MMO in the world of Middle Generica, where elves, dwarves, humans and orcs frolic while players race to level 50 so they can raid… I would be crushed. Todd McFarlane’s art and R. A. Salvatore’s story will not be enough to shine that turd.

But maybe it will be different. Maybe, instead of pretty screenshots (‘TAKEN RIGHT FROM OUR GROUNDBREAKING RESOURCE GRABBING GAME ENGINE!’), they will have… story shots… and maybe a faraway continent where the players make the story, build their own cities, pull the Fantasy MMORPG industry out of its decade-long slumber.

I’ve been disappointed by Vanguard and LotRO already this year. The secrecy around 38 Studios’ MMO, and knowing the people working on it, has kept my hope up.

I just don’t know what I’ll do if they have just chosen to remake WoW (‘NOW YOU CAN FINALLY PLAY DRIZZT! DROW IS A PLAYABLE RACE! HERE IS A SCREENSHOT OF OUR RAID DUNGEON! OUR DRAGONS ARE 50% FIERCER THAN THOSE IN ANY OTHER MMO! BUT YOU BETTER BE LEVEL 50! AND BRING LOTS OF CLERICS!’)

I’ve taken heart from Ryan Shwayder’s recent articles… he sounds like he’s also got this idea that MMOs need to change.

We’ll know this weekend. The press release promises much, but then, they all do.

Â