Sports gamers who have been keeping up with the rest of the video-game industry may have noticed that Blizzard Entertainment’s flagship title, World of Warcraft, recently reached the impressive mark of 11 million subscribers, giving it the largest active player-base of any game to date.

With all the profits that Warcraft is generating for Blizzard (per person: $50 for the game, $40 for each of the two expansions, and about $15 in monthly subscription fees -- plus the game essentially cannot be pirated), it is no stretch to assume that sports developers must be thinking about how they, too, could incorporate some of the addictive massively multiplayer online (MMO) aspects into their own lineup of games.

While the '09 crop of sports games did make some efforts to bring elements of MMO gaming into the traditionally conservative sports genre, only EA Canada’s NHL 09 really went all-out this year to deliver a true MMO experience. And even that game seemed like a title that was merely dipping its toe in the MMO waters, rather than truly taking advantage of everything that has made Warcraft such a long-standing success in the ever-changing waters of online multiplayer games.

Here are some MMO qualities that next year’s sports games could borrow from Warcraft to increase the attractiveness of their own virtual worlds to gamers of all types:

Persistent, Customizable Characters

NHL 09 was the only sports game this year that let users create virtual representations of themselves that could be suited up for battle against enemy creations from around the world. That more "personal" approach to online gaming is one of the key reasons why NHL 09 will be making its way onto many people’s "best of" lists at the end of the year.

What the developers at EA Canada realized is that, as fun as it can be to play as superstars like Kobe Bryant or Peyton Manning, their presence in the game becomes more of a detriment than a benefit when users are trying to field teams full of human players, because there is always a fight over who gets to be Kobe and who gets stuck with, say, Luke Walton.

NHL '09’s solution to the "superstar dilemma" was to let users play as themselves, which many people would agree is just as fun, if not more fun, than playing as a stud like Sidney Crosby.

The other great thing about NHL '09’s created players was the way that players' attributes improved over time, so long as they were performing well on the ice.

The player progression not only gave users a long-term goal to shoot for from game to game, but it also gave users even greater control over how they shaped their players' talents.

Replacing Powerhouse Teams With Teams Full of Specialists

In the real sports world, disparities in overall talent level are simply a part of the game (Detroit Red Wings vs. Tampa Bay Lightning for example), but in the virtual sports world, one-sided matchups can be a real fun killer.

It is no coincidence, then, that two of the best online sports games in recent memory, All-Pro Football 2K8 and NHL 09, use an online system which ensures that every team’s overall talent level is similar (NHL), if not identical (All-Pro).

These two games make parity interesting because there are a variety of specialized roles that players on each team can fill. By giving each team different strengths and weaknesses it can utilize, teams like the Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers, Red Wings and Manchester Uniteds of the world will never dominate these online lobbies.

The truth is, aside from the few powerhouse clubs, most real-life sports teams tend to have players who are designated playmakers, defenders, scorers, speedsters, intimidators, etc.

And that is where the true fun of team play can be found: finding a role that you enjoy and playing to your player's strengths.

The problems with team play occur when the player is forced into a role he does not enjoy. However, that issue can be easily solved by allowing players to create virtual versions of themselves who are designed to fulfill the type of role the user enjoys playing as the most.

NHL 09 recognized all of these issues and dealt with them accordingly in its version of Online Team Play.

Next year, it's time for the rest of the sports-gaming field to catch up.

Guilds, or as We Call Them, "Clubs"

Three of EA’s games this year (FIFA, NBA Live and NHL) had their own versions of the traditional MMO "guilds," which became known in the sports community as "clubs."

EA’s club system let people add up to 50 players to their team’s roster. At any time, club members could separate into smaller groupers of players to take on other clubs in head-to-head play.

In all three of those games, EA's clubs improved users' online experience by allowing friends and like-minded players to enjoy the team play experience without having to deal with the random hooligans who tend to ruin everyone else’s fun by hogging the ball, playing out of position, or just being an all-around poor teammate.

However, there were still times when no fellow club players were online; in other words, gamers sometimes still had to venture into the dreaded public lobbies. So in future MMO modes, there needs to be a system that includes harsher penalties for disruptive players, so that poor teammates are easier to recognize in the lobbies and can be avoided before users find themselves stuck in a game with a fun-killing hooligan.

The club feature could be further expanded upon by giving clubs more customization over their appearance, specifically, giving them access to a uniform or logo editor -- which is already included in many of this year’s sports games.

Club communication could also be enhanced by having team "bulletin boards" where club leaders could post notes for scheduling games/practices. In addition, larger lobbies for clubs to use so that they are not confined to the wimpy five-man lobbies in NBA Live (six for NHL) or the 10-man lobbies from FIFA would be a nice move in the right direction.

Guilds in "real MMOs" often have their own forums on the Internet and use voice-over IP clients like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo for organization purposes. So console sports games are going to need similar tools built into their games if they want to make organization and communication easier for the potential "sports MMO" community.

Persistent Online Worlds

In MMOs like Warcraft, every server is its own self-contained "world," containing differences in everything from the types of players who inhabit it to the economy that is governed by those players.

This year, the developers of EA's NCAA Football 09 took a similar first step by creating a persistent online "sports world" with their implementation of the Online Dynasty feature.

But online dynasties are only a baby step in the direction of what could be a major renovation to the way sports gamers play their "franchise" modes.

For example, imagine if, instead of having 10 friends controlling 10 different teams in a dynasty, those 10 friends played together on one team.

Now imagine if every other team in that league did the same thing, until the entire league was filled with teams of 10 (or more) friends.

Is such a world feasible in sports gaming? Blizzard seems to have no problem maintaining dozens of Warcraft servers, each filled with with hundreds of different "teams" (guilds). So why couldn't something similar be achieved by, say, Electronic Arts, which is one of the most powerful publishers in the video-game industry?

Certainly, the potential for fun is there if EA could meet the demands of maintaining this type of "persistent world." Competing for national championships and Heisman trophies would take on a whole new level of intensity if the field was populated, not by computers players running off A.I. scripts, but by thousands of like-minded human competitors.

Improving Team Play

The true test of a game engine is how well it holds up when all the players are controlled by human players. Now while EA’s FIFA and NHL franchises fared well this year during their respective 10-on-10 and 6-on-6 modes, the 5-on-5 play of both EA’s and 2K’s NBA games is going to need some serious improvement if it wants to become more fun than it is frustrating.

Both NBA games’ team play suffered from abuse of the turbo button -- notably absent in FIFA and NHL. The lack of fatigue and player momentum in these games allowed trigger-happy players to fly up and down the court, running around in circles like they were members, not of a basketball team, but of a flea circus.

Because the offense could run around in circles to get open at will, off-the-ball defense was more or less impossible in both of this year's NBA games. Unfortunately, the lack of off-ball defense meant that the offense could pound the ball into the paint, where the players' only chance of getting a stop was to jump around like their shoes had been replaced with pogo springs.

Gameplay issues aside, NBA 2K9’s Team Play mode also suffered from major technical difficulties on the networking front, So if 2K wants to make its games viable from a team-play perspective, the first thing it needs to do is improve its online infrastructure so that the games do not feel like they are running off a Dreamcast that is connected to a 56K modem.

EA is in better shape from a networking standpoint, but like 2K's teams, EA's developers need to keep a serious focus on their game engines to ensure that online contests do not devolve into pathetic circus acts when computer players start getting replaced by human players.

How To Reward Long-Term Play

Long-term play in MMOs like World of Warcraft is built around the grind of obtaining better equipment for your player. Sports-game developers would be wise to keep their titles off the tedious treadmill" of gear acquisition.

Here are some alternative incentives to keep players of sports MMOs around for months after a game's release:

1. Tournaments, trophies, awards

The pursuit of individual and team awards is a major motivation for real-life athletes, and game companies would be wise to implement these features into any future MMO modes.

Special indicators next to award-winning teams/players would also give players even more incentive to work on their game year-round.

2. Endorsements, salaries, cribs

Real-life athletes are always competing to be the player with the most advertisements, the biggest paycheck or the largest house, and an MMO sports game could easily mirror those pursuits, too, with various virtual representations.

Final Thoughts

I have simply made a few suggestions so developers can start easing the sports genre into the crowded-but-profitable pool of MMO gaming.

Now tell us what you think:

Are MMO qualities being successfully introduced into sports games?

Are you excited by the direction the genre is headed, or is this a marriage that needs to be nullified?

If it's the latter, what other direction would you like to see the sports genre expanding into?