The month of December has come and gone, taking 2010 with it. Some say good riddance, some look back fondly, but no matter how you slice it, that puppy’s behind us and we’re all moving forward to 2011. For the team here at MMORPG.com, we’ve just got one tiny loose thread to tie up before we officially start the new year: We have to announce the winners of the 2010 MMORPG.com Reader’s Choice Awards!

This year, our categories were: Game of the Year, New Game of the Year, Most Innovative, Most Improved, Best F2P, Favorite Company, Biggest News Story, Most Anticipated, and the newest, and most dubious, addition to our prizes, Biggest Disappointment.

The rules were simple: For readers, look at the nominees and vote. One vote per person. We frown on cheating.

Most Improved Game

One of the best features of an MMO, and what keeps me constantly coming back to the genre in my play time is the fact that these games are ever-evolving. The game that players are faced with at launch will be a different beast entirely six months, one year, two years, etc. from then.

This year, MMORPG.com nominated five games that stood out among the rest for their exceptional improvement over the last year. The voting broke down as such:

It seems as though the sundering and re-integration of an entire game world was just too much for the competition to overcome as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft takes home the prize for Most Improved Games.

While many would choose to disavow all things World of Warcraft, it’s hard to look back in any serious way at 2010 without at least taking about World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm, a much anticipated expansion that tears the world of Azeroth asunder, makes leveling easier, adds two new races to the mix and more.

Congratulations to the team at Blizzard on their win.