If you thought that the console war was big, you haven't seen anything yet. Say hello to the MMO war.

Blizzard and Vivendi Universal's World of Warcraft is being eyed as the most successful of the regular massively multiplayer online role-playing games to date. If that wasn't enough, it is being hailed pretty much as the biggest MMO game ever, in matters of investment. But critics still put EVE Online as the best (and prettiest) of them all.

Until recently, the game industry has been all about multiplayer online play through game matching services, like Ubi.com or GameSpy.

Then came the Korean flurry of MMORPGs - or at least that's what could have started the whole gig. Games such as Ragnarok blew across the Asian region towards the West, where gamers soon found that the tickle of online interactivity was so addictive than solo play.

Western gaming companies soon followed suit, entering their own versions of MMO games, and soon there were thousands of MMOs to go by that could satisfy a hardcore online gamer for lifetimes over. Some were free, others were web-based, many others asked players to pay, while others just wanted you to pay for enhancements to your gaming experiences (interpretation: make you look cool).

The rise of broadband internet and DSL was also another factor to blame. With speed came options. Frequent downloads, more data to share among peers...they all meant one thing: data being passed from one person to another could be seamless, like playing a game against really intelligent AI.

Adding the two factors set gaming giants upon one another on a whole other level of battlefield. With the growing popularity of both microtransactions and subscription-based MMOs, there were many options for game companies to earn a buck. They are just as varied as the types of games there are.

Second Life and Myst Online: Uru Live are two games that are beginning to emphasize the success of introducing newer varieties of MMOs, instead of the usual "powerleveling" games available. Instead of being a game, they would rather you thought of them as...well...your virtual life. If the life you had right now wasn't enough, you could live another one somewhere else.

Then there's the David and Goliath issues. Smaller companies can harbor enough potential to beat even the big game giants in the online wars. It's not all about the money, after all. Games such as Maple Story and Runescape have been constantly keeping huge populations of players online, placing a barrier in their market share. Because both games are in continuous development, like many others, each one has potential to grow even larger.

This year, there is a huge race in capitalizing resources, ideas and concepts to bringing up the "World of Warcraft killer." If there were billions budgeted for the games released this year, you can safely bet that this time around, it just jumped way higher. But you can blow wads on a bad game and it'll still be a bad game. Game critics, even game industry execs, agree that the next MMO blockbuster has to have the perfect recipe: a blend of characters, stories, technology, and gameplay that appeals to billions worldwide.

But the big question looms: who will prevail?