Readers' Choice Awards 2004
Awards

Out of all the first categories, the most remarkable winner is probably Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion, which has won the Best Expansion category by just three (3) votes (0.08%), leaving behind the worthy competitors Dark Age of Camelot: Frontiers which has been the other major free expansion of 2004 and Chains of Promathia, new engine for Final Fantasy XI.

Speaking of free, in case you haven't heard, you can play Anarchy Online for free through all of 2005. This, in our opinion, also makes Anarchy Online the most revolutionary game of 2004 - being the first major MMOG to make it's original game available for free to everyone. We can only hope EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot and all the other first (or second) generation and genre defining games will jump on the boat and allow those who are not yet compelled by persistant online worlds to get a look at how fantastic this genre is without being forced to sell their soul beforehand.

But enough already, let's bring it on!

Best Expansion of 2004

Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion

Second Place, with 1320 Votes (35.10%): Dark Age of Camelot: New Frontiers
Third Place, with 1118 Votes (29.73%): Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia

Best Fantasy Game of 2004

Final Fantasy XI

Second Place, with 1055 Votes (26.74%): Dark Age of Camelot
Third Place, with 600 Votes (15.21%): EverQuest

Best Original Game of 2004

City of Heroes

Second Place, with 748 Votes (21.37%): A Tale in the Desert

Best Player vs. Player Game of 2004

Planetside

Second Place, with 1196 Votes (20.68%): Dark Age of Camelot
Third Place, with 1020 Votes (17.63%): Neocron 2: Beyond Dome of York

Best Science-Fiction Game of 2004

Eve Online

Second Place, with 1963 Votes (14.29%): Saga of Ryzom
Third Place, with 1943 Votes (14.14%): Planetside

Best Space Simulation Game of 2004

Eve Online

Second Place, with 305 Votes (3.64%): DarkSpace
Third Place, with 230 Votes (2.74%): Jumpgate

Most Anticipated Expansion of 2004

Eve Online: Exodus

Second Place, with 1369 Votes (10.48%): Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs
Third Place, with 1135 Votes (8.69%): Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed

Most Anticipated Fantasy Game of 2004

Guild Wars

Second Place, with 2941 Votes (23.46%): World of Warcraft
Third Place, with 2772 Votes (22.11%): Dark & Light

Most Anticipated Science-Fiction Game of 2004

The Matrix Online

Second Place, with 889 Votes (20.05%): Imperator Online
Third Place, with 769 Votes (17.35%): Face of Mankind


All of these awards were well deserved, and we will not question the outcome in any way. It's the Readers' Choice of 2004.

There are a few second or third places that deserve an additional mention, like Dark & Light: seeing how the Saga of Ryzom has successfully launched from half a decade of development on their open-source engine NeL (and of course, the game's content), this is the next big competitor coming from the Champ Elysee. France brings to the table yet another graphically excellent and might-be revolutionary game. You should check out the Dark And Light Profile and their official website(s) for more information, as this might be one of the uprising underdogs of 2005.

This is pretty much it for our 2004 Readers' Choice, farewell. But, wait, you're right - we forgot, or did we?

Of course we did not forget about the most unjustified cancelation of 2004!

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