Why? Well because it's my opinion, damn it!

Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms
Why? Well first off because Turbine completely f**ked up their shot at D&D.
Second, if you are going to do a fantasy game, do it right and go with the definitive classic RPG definition of a fantasy setting. There is so much lore and material to draw on for this, it's not even funny.

Traveller
Geez, it boggles the mind that no one has tried to do this. Traveller is the last word in a comprehensive Sci-Fi setting. Over 30 years of background material exist for Traveller.
Really the only thing that could hold it back would be an inept dev team that is only able to write "kill 10 rats" type content. Hear that SOE, stay away!

World War III online
Take a fictional country, add in some armies and set them lose. WWII online was an interesting idea but lets face it, its archaic old and so much more can be done with current technology. Imagine something with the CoD4 engine. WWIIO had some great ideas and scope of play that was awesome but something that would do justice to the genre needs to be made. IMHO, the FPS simulator "ArmA" or the tank simulator "Steelbeast Pro" best exemplify this.

Western online
An untapped wealth of gaming. There is so much you can do with this setting, its not funny. Bounties, tavern fights, wagon trains, building towns, robbing banks, robbing stage coaches, forming posses to run down the bandits, cattle rustling, searching for gold, gun fights....on and on...
edit
Steamboats, gambling....omg, does it end?

Day of the Dead online
We need another fantasy MMO like I need a hole in my head. Zombies and the entire Zombie sub genre are about as different as you can get. The end of the modern world by being eaten by the undead.
I watched an interview with George Romero once and he said that the movies are not about the Zombies at all, they are about how stupid humans react and how we cling to our old ways and selfishness in times of dire crisis. You can replace the zombies with any disaster....that's what his stories are really about.
What better place to demonstrate that then in the ultimate "how people behave simulator" online games? Of course many of the things most MMO's would require would need to be deliberately left out to simulate the isolation and feelings of hopelessness that this genre inspires like...general global chat channels, local only, no towns...undead would need to over run anything that players start to congragate at, no LFG, isolation is the key here. Overwhelming odds at every turn. Very limited resources. Open FFA PvP.
Survival would be its own reward.
Just some thoughts on a Sunday morning....
The MMORPG frontier is still wide open to explore. Lets hope that in the future someone with a tiny bit of imagination takes up some of these challenges.






