MMORPG.com is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 Reader's Choice Award for Biggest News Story of 2008.

In the voting for Biggest News Story, 2202 votes were cast. The editorial nominees were: Tabula Rasa's Closure, Activision / Blizzard Merger, Age of Conan Directorial Change, Bioware Announces The Old Republic, Star Trek Online Re-Announcement, and WAR Ditches Cities and Careers.

With 46.8% of the vote, the winner of the Biggest News Story of 2008 was Bioware's Announcement that their secret MMO project was indeed the rumored MMORPG incarnation of the Knights of the Old Republic frnachise, titled Star Wars:The Old Republic.

Read the Biggest News Story of 2008: Winner

Wish I voted now.

what a crappy year for mmos 2004- present : Crappy era for mmo gaming.

The biggest news story of the year was the fact that nothing changed and we're still in an era of craptastic games.

I agree with the editors choice.

Originally posted by Rekindle

what a crappy year for mmos 2004- present : Crappy era for mmo gaming.

The biggest news story of the year was the fact that nothing changed and we're still in an era of craptastic games.

www.wardb.com/spell.aspx

So that's it?  Always chasing something ahead instead of the current misfires.  Message: Bury the mistakes, always hop on to the next game with pink-tinted glasses, and don't pay attention to the bigger forces at play in the industry?

This is even more to blame for the state of MMO's than the blinders worn by too many players of World of Warcraft.  I don't like WoW, but it's so easy a target that it almost sounds like a convenient excuse.

That's the outcome as I saw it!

Oh Jon there is a typo on the page (word choice):  "2008 MMORPG.com Reader's Chouice Awards: Biggest News Story of 2008: Winner"

Just because Bioware's announcement of the MMO, Kotor, was expected doesn't mean it can't still be the biggest news story! =D. Now if it was the most unexpected thing...than thats another story.

I would have to agree with the voting public. SW:TOR was the story of the past year and it will be the biggest successful launch since WoW this year.

Yes, I think a game with the profile of SW:TOR (probably the first MMOG to come on the horizon that can seriously look at garnering WoW type numbers) being announced by a developer with the profile of Bioware is definitely the news story of 2008 hands down.

I'm not sure where this "editor" gets that it was the worst kept secret either. Except for one semi-leak a little while before the announcement it was nowhere near a sure thing, and the game could have been any number of titles Bioware could use for a MMO. It being a Star Wars one was by no means a given at all, especiallty since SWG is still out there, as the person pointed out themselves.

The stuff surrounding TR wasn't big news at all. TR was a minor little game, and besides, anyone logging in to it and not speculating when the lights would be shut out must not know all that much about MMO gaming imo.

I voted for Tabula Rasa's closure, but I guess the winner is understandable.

After all the trouble on the boards worldwide I thought that WAR would be on 2nd place ... that the announcement of TOR will make the first place was written in stone

Well none of the news was interesting to me :\ Tabula Rasa was shit and was obviously going to go the way of AA so no big suprise and while ToR was no big suprise it's the only ray of hope for the genre having a good game other than WoW in the lime light.

This site is funny to read. In one thread some readers complained about a "lack of objectivity" from a very favorable review of WoW's expansion, and then the article for Biggest New Story of 2008 had more space devoted to Tabula Rasa's closure than TOR.

I also agree with the editors. The announcement by Bioware really didn't come as a surprise at all ( we all knew this announcement was coming  ). But the closure of Tabula Rasa - and especially the messy way this came about -  was a suprise of some proportion. It's not often a triple A title gets closed down after only one year . The fact Richard Garriot - in all probability - left NCsoft just prior to this decision  is indicating he already knew the management was going to do this .

About the only ones not knowing were the players and - really appaling - the development team . The folks at NCsoft had assured players   , days before the decision  , TR was here to stay and no plans of closing it down were considered   : also shows just how untrustworthy NCsoft is . They had decided this on formation of NCsoft west ( Garriot brothers were noticably absent in the general management of that division ) and had simply waited for RG to have left . 

The whole episode is messy and the only victims here are the subscribers and the dev-team ( kuddos to them for still trying to accomodate those players even now, they know they'll be laid off after february 28th ) .It also shows NCsoft is  doing business on a very short term-basis . Everyone having a bit of experience in MMO-scene knows as a fact you can't close down any major MMO after just one year ( it takes a full year to iron out bugs and tweak it ) . NCsoft managament  doesn't know MMO's at all, that has become apparent after the AA and RGTR episodes . 

Mind you : when I was casting my vote I was also considering the messy stuff going on with STO :) 

you star wars freaks

Not sure about the biggest news story, but for me the biggest shock was seeing this video coming from out of nowhere.

www.youtube.com/watch

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

I agree with the editors choice.

I also agree with the Editor's choice 

I would personally say that the biggest story was that EA Bioware's The Old Republic mmorpg will have a "mid-session" (interpreted as microtransaction by some) based payment model, as leaked by their CEO.  This could have far reaching consequences on how the whole industry operates.  Maybe it will be in next years poll if we are going to hear more about it in February.

I too agree with the editor's pick of Tabula Rasa closing. NCSoft tried so hard (and wasted a lot of money doing so) trying to market Tabula Rasa, that when this announcement was made, my jaw actually dropped. It's as if all the work and effort they put toward making such an important title for the company had been for naught.

Originally posted by OR-Nurse

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

I agree with the editors choice.

 

I also agree with the Editor's choice 

Guess what, i agree with the editor's choic too