Gamasutra has posted a talk from GDC: Dave Jones talks about APB[^].
This guy has some really good points!

He talks about how the level grind of the old days-MMO is absolete, or in his own words:

One MMO concept Jones also eschews is the traditional level grind. “How will people be playing this in six months? What’s going to keep them playing again and again and again?” He asks. “How long will I have to get all the cool stuff and level 99? …I think that’s wrong, it’s broken.”

I couldn’t agree more! There are so many other things one could incorporate into a MMO that don’t involve endless, boring grinding of some sorts..
Like player generated content, player-made stories, player-made communities. Put the player in control, and stop forcing them to blindly play with [the company's] content.
Like he mentions too in his talk:

So Jones eliminated the concept of character levels for APB. “I didn’t want any grinding. It’s a very broken instrument to drive gameplay. It’s customization that’ll drive players.”

The day [Kybernesis] makes a MMO, we’re gonna focus on the same.. Customization, player-created content, making the world so the players make it their own world. And not giving players access to a static world of [Kybernesis'] design.

All MMO’s today brag about being dynamic, persistent, listening to their community.. Granted, MMO’s are persistent, but not all dynamic.. The only dynamic today is when the company decide to release a content-patch or an expansion. Then it just goes back to be static again… Ugh!
It has to stop!

Gamasutra have posted a really interesting interview with Team Blizzard form the 2008 DICE summit in Las Vegas on their site; “DICE: Team Blizzard On Building Its 17 Year Success[^]“.

Coming on Blizzard’s 17th anniversary as a company, the lead team — co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime, game design senior VP Rob Pardo, and product development executive VP Frank Pearce — got together at the 2008 DICE Summit in Las Vegas to reflect, and to discuss how small steps on a long journey helped create a game industry giant.

A lot of good insight and tips in that interview ^^

BionicBadBoi talked earlier about using different kinds of peripherals to manipulate a game in his post; Big Mac versus Microshaft[^].

Today I stumbled over a post @ Gamasutra[^] which peaked my interest considerably, so I ended up on Emotiv’s main site @ Emotiv systems[^].
Take a look at their little video going on the lower left. Now start imagine a game where you have this thing on your head, and a Wii-mote in your hand. Then put yourself inside a game like The Force Unleashed. See where I’m going with this?
Just imagine for a second, the possibility to “think” force powers while fighting with your lightsaber(Wii-mote), and the powers actually activate!

And this is just the first example that dropped into my mind. If this is as real as they say it is(and it sure seems that way) , they might revolutionize gaming completely.. And not to mention everyday computer-use et al.
This is science fiction come real *drool*

With todays different peripheral technology, I’m picturing a future where computer use is controlled mentally and by touch. We already have multitouch screens, and obviously now also a brainwave pattern reader. Who would really need a mouse, joystick, keyboard etc. anymore? Of course, there will always be a need for more conventional peripherals too, like the wii-mote. I at least would appreciate having something to have in my hand while waving around a sword or lightsaber or whatever in a game

Looking forward to see what the industry will do with this! Just hope it won’t be another VR. A short big fuzz and then die away…