I played my fair share of World of Warcraft in the past (as well as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Conan and Warhammer: AOR). Since I received my new system I was eager to play another MMO again, just for the sake of looting, questing and monster-bashing but I am reluctant to delve back into an 'old' MMO such as WOW and would rather be patient and wait for some of the new ones to come out (let alone the fact that recent ones such as Rift do not interest me at all)

Without further ado, here is a list of upcoming MMO(RPGs) I am looking forward to (to varying degrees).

1. GUILD WARS 2

Because I do like my (generic) fantasy MMOs and am not a big fan of Sci-Fi or else. The game looks gorgeous. The character selection screen is so beautiful already, cannot wait to see the game on maxed out details. I am also intrigued because the game is free to play and instead of sucking money out of our wallets for nothing or some updates here and there, they will provide us with more expansions and probably some DLC ? The quest system looks nice, I do like the group quest just popping up as you hit them, something they too from Warhammer AOR (public quest). I am not interested in PVP so don't know much about that. This is definitely on my Nr. 1 spot for upcoming MMOs.

2. WildStar

As a seasoned gamer, I don't buy easily buy into hype and MMOs that have 'great plans' to change the genre but this looks promising indeed, it's a shame that they too opted for cartoonish/goofy graphics, why can nobody come out with an MMO that is gritty and not fluffy ? I do like my cute little bunnies, but not all the time and in every single game. The premise of having character ****s that actuall DO play different from one another sounds very interesting and I wonder if NCSoft can deliver, they do have some MMO experience although they are known for the quantity rather than quality. I did love the trailer for the game and cannot wait for more info about the game to come out.

3. Star Wars: The Old Republic

This might shock some of my fellow geeks but I am not that excited about this game as most of you. I love the Star Wars films and characters etc. but have never been interested in other time periods in the Star Wars Universe and as such, I don't really care much for the extended setting of this game (apart from the core Star Wars license). To me, Jedi's had always been outcasts and only a few survive, this I why I loved the old Jedi Knight games. But an MMO with millions of Jedis running around, all wielding their light sabres, that does not excite me. I also don't like the art **** the animations look really clunky, when compared to other upcoming MMOs such as Guild Wars 2 and I wonder why that is ? Still, I will wait for reviews and opinions to flood the net and than make up my mind but considering that they will have a limited release at launch anyway, I will definitely miss the (first) boat on that one.

4. Salem

Ooooh, a crafting MMO, I like crafting as long as it does not translate to endless grinding and tedious repetition of pressing buttons all the time. What intrigues me about the game is what it is known for (so far) and that is the permanent death feature, I do like some sort of closure in my games and the idea of having a character go through the stages and life with death being the final one sounds like great fun. I am not sure whether you will be able to procreate or have an heir and continue your line or dynasty or if you have to start from scratch. Anyhow, this looks good and I hope they take more than one page out of the books of Minecraft and Terraria when it comes to creating an interesting crafting/building game.

5. Path of Exile

Diablo is one of my favourite game franchises and this looks like an honest, yet interesting clone of the game. A Hack 7 Slash game featuring the core gameplay that makes every ARPG good, killing hordes of monsters, randomly generated levels and loot, addiction guaranteed. It is online and free to play and as far as I know the microtransactions won't buy you power so I am okay with that (I usually avoid all games involving Microtransactions). The graphics look a bit rough around the edges but if the gameplay is good and the game is free after all, I will definitely give it a go.

6. Warhammer 40K: Dark Millenium

I have to say, I am intrigued by the Warhammer (and 40K) world but don't know a lot about it but all the games set in the Universe are dark and visceral and I like that a lot. This looks like another promising, fourth generation MMO to come out in 2013, so that is a long way to go and probably not worth checking out early infos already (and considering that Warhammer AOR bombed like a dead duck, a Warhammer license is not necessarily a good thing). The success (or not) of W40K Space Marine might greatly boost the hype for this one.

7. World of Darkness

I do like the oWOD a lot, but I have been disappointed by how the Secret World turned out which had initially been advertised as a Cthulhu-esque MMO but is nothing but a terrible mixture of all sorts of random monsters and beings against humankind without any thematic coherence whatsoever and the gameplay also looks like another grindfest (that is why it is not on this list). However, the world of Vampires / Werewolves / Hunters has lots of potential and I am a big fan of Vampire Bloodlines. I just hope they keep the dark tone and dystopian flavour of the source material and don't turn this into a Matrix meets Twilight shamble.

That's it from me, what are you most anticipated MMOs ? Let me know !