I was talking over the weekend with some friends about the World of Warcraft. I'm not a WoW player, but I did play it back when it launched.

I played the game very sporadically for about a month before I lost interest and moved on to other things. And I was thinking this weekend that I might want to give the game another try. But the thing is that everyone who really plays the game already has a 50 to 60 level head start on me. And they always will have some sort of step-up in the game because they started way before I did. And I'm guessing that they're starting to get a little bored with the game too.

That's the problem with MMOs, I think, you never die permanently. I'm not saying in battle or on a quest, I mean death by old age.

I think in the rush to create a fantasy experience, MMO developers have forgotten to include some of the non-fantasy elements of the real world that help the people experiencing the game connect with the characters in it.

That's where MMOs need to go to break free from this cycle that has gamers losing interest and drifting away over a five to ten year period.

Imagine if someone created a triple-A MMO that included aging, natural death and legacy. There's no way to add stuff like that well into a game, I don't think. But if you know going into the game that your character had a set number of years to make a mark on the world, to amass wealth and power, before dying, wouldn't that be cool?

The game could let you have children and you could pass down your property and maybe some of your fame or notoriety, but the rest would sort of be a start over.

That way if someone started in the game fresh, they would be starting with a mix of characters who are, despite the experience of their players, relatively new to the world.

I know there are some smaller titles, most notably Sociolotron, already playing with this concept, but I'd love to see how a Blizzard, Sony or NCsoft with work this into a game.

What do you think? Am I on crack or just tragically misinformed? Brian Crecente