The comments about the EvE-ification of a fantasy world have, I think, shown that there’s a lot of interest in that sort of gameplay moved from interstellar space to interfluvial forests.
Ammon777 brought me to task for not knowing about Darkfall, which sounds a lot like I was imagining, except you’re still directly playing your avatar (from a first or third person view) rather than seeing it and your forces from a distant perspective, as in EvE. Also, it doesn’t look like you get to attract an entourage based on your skill development, as you do in EvE (replace ’entourage’ with ‘guns and shields and drones and stuff’ – they’re conceptually similar).
That was the really cool part about the whole thing.
The Wikipedia article makes the history of the game development seem as exciting as the game. Moving from Norway to Greece, a six+ year development time, the game itself shrouded in secrecy… There’s a story about Darkfall Online that begs to be written, and maybe exists on its web site, but I can’t read it here at work.
An RTS/Full PvP/MMORPG? I’d love to try it!