Less annoying than a late night infomercial host, but with about the same enthusiasm and vocal trajectory, is Mythic creative director Paul Barnett.

In a recent video interview with GameTrailers, he talked about his upcoming game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and compared it to that other MMORPG, Blizzard's phenomenally popular World of Warcraft.

"So there's this game, 'WoW' I believe it's called, and I believe it was incredibly popular. What you've got to understand is that they changed things, like when The Beatles turned up in music."

He explained, "You can't be The Beatles. They sell more units, they did stadiums, they did everything. How are you going to take them on? Well, there's a trick. If you try to be like The Beatles, you'll end up like The Monkees. We don't want to be The Monkees.

"So we decided to be the next-generational band. We're Led Zeppelin: the cooler, heavier rocking one. Less members, but we've got an aeroplane."

Mythic, an internal EA studio, is readying to release WAR on September 18.

Even EA chief John Riccitiello has admitted that chances are slim that WAR will be a substantial rival to WoW, which boasts over 10 million users worldwide.

"No, I don't think it's going to rival WoW, but no one would ever predict that. But it is a strong game that will ... get our returns for us. We're proud of it," Riccitiello said in June.

Whatever fortunes may lie ahead for WAR, Barnett is currently happy with the game's positioning.

"Just like the toy soldiers [Warhammer's] based on, we're very heavy metal," he said.