Finale for Fantasy?

As the MMOG-o-blog-o-sphere holds its collective breath, ready to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of post-NDA Warhammer Online impressions, and the behemoth that is Wrath of the Lich King stomps slowly towards release, I was idly contemplating what might follow in their footsteps once the novelty has worn off.

With the dominant MMOGs over the past ten years including Ultimate Online, Dark Age of Camelot, the Everquests, World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online, commentators frequently pondered the lack of non-fantasy games; EVE Online, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes and Tabula Rasa had varying degrees of success (notably EVE’s continuing growth), but fantasy has always been top dog as a setting. After WAR, though, are there any more big fantasy MMOGs in development? Champions and DC Online promise superhero fun, sci-fi TV fans have Star Trek Online and Stargate Worlds in the pipeline, Knights of the Old Republic Online gives Star Wars another bite at the massively online cherry, APB and The Agency have contemporary settings. Not much in the way of Elves, Orcs and wizard hats, though there might be a bunch of forthcoming games I haven’t come across, my research didn’t much stretch past trying to remember what’s been showing up in the blogroll recently.

Is WAR the last throw of the fantasy MMOG dice (2d8 to hit, 3d4 damage)?