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. For nominees: You may inform your community about your nomination, but may not otherwise unduly skew the voting by telling them who to vote for.

Most Innovative MMO

When it came to looking at the game that made the most strides forward in 2010 in terms of pushing the envelope and doing something new, there was actually quite a bit to talk about. Surprisingly, each of these nominees included their changes via an expansion.

The voting for Most Innovative MMO broke down as such:

EVE Online, a game that launched a surprising seven years ago wins another Reader’s Choice Award here at MMORPG.com, this time for being the game that brought the most innovation to not only their game, but to the industry as a whole.

While CCP, the company behind EVE Online, continues to push the boundaries of MMO technology with its single server game, their hardware isn’t what impressed MMO fans this year, rather it was the addition in the Tyrannis expansion of planetary interaction, expanding the scope of the game by allowing space-based players to interact with the planets that up until now have simply been window dressing to the space only game.

Congratulations to CCP and EVE Online as they continue to push the boundaries of MMOs seven years after their original launch.