On the surface, assuming the role of, say, a space captain, spell-slinging badass, or superhero who sees lasers and breathes blizzards sounds like just about the greatest thing ever. And yet, there is a videogame genre that basically says, “Ok, let's take those fantasies, grind them up, and sprinkle them in a blender with heaping helpings of boring.” It's the MMORPG, and Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert – a man who's been behind the scenes on games like City of Heroes, Star Trek Online, and Champions Online –  has had just about enough of it.

His solution? Neverwinter. Described as a “co-op RPG,” it aims to reach a hand inside that blender and pluck out the boredom while leaving behind the good stuff. And, we suppose, keep both its hands. Difficult, in this case, doesn't even begin to describe it.

So, how's it gonna work? Read all about it – straight from Emmert himself – after the break.

Barring a real-life version of Thriller's music video, the King of Pop will probably never moonwalk among us again. However, his memories live on in the minds of his fans, his music, and... a massively multiplayer online PC game? Seriously, World, why not just make a calendar where every day of the year is April 1 and just be done with it?

The game's called Planet Michael, and it's slated to launch late next year. So, how's it work? Will our face have slots for upgrades? Not quite, unfortunately. Here's the gist, straight from developer SEE Virtual Worlds:

“At its core, Planet Michael is a massive social gaming experience that will allow everyone, from the hardcore fan to the novice, to connect and engage in collaborative in-game activities with people worldwide. Entire continents will be created that will celebrate Michael's unique genius in a way that underscores his place as the greatest artist of all time.”

The game world itself, meanwhile, will be composed of “visuals drawn from Michael’s music, his life, and the global issues that concerned him.” Well, at least it won't be dull.

Us, we'll probably spend most of our time on the Smooth Criminal continent. Not so much the Neverland continent; we've heard that place is kind of, er, weird.   

Well, physical game discs, it was a good game. You fought hard and had a nice, long reign, but now you’re relics -- destined to be excavated millennia from now and presented as evidence of our time period’s ingenious developments in Frisbee technology. Hear that? That’s the fat lady singing. She’s belting along to the tune of 11.2 million units, which is how many the digital market moved during the first half of 2010. Retail, meanwhile, went down swinging with 8.2 million.

Note, however, that NPD – who presented the report – doesn’t have access to Steam or Blizzard’s sales data. Instead, "weighted and projected" surveys provided a portion of the data, which were – at the very least – accurate in so far as Steam came in first by so many thousands of miles that most of its competitors were technically on another planet.

Direct2Drive, EA, Worldofwarcraft.com, and Blizzard.com rounded out the top five, which sounds about right to us, although we’d still like to see some hard numbers to back it up. Overall, however, NPD saw a 21 percent decline in traditional PC game sales, the blame for which it placed squarely on the shoulders of the already massive casual and free-to-play games market.

So basically, the PC gaming market is like an incredibly unstable dictatorship. One day, someone’s on top, but the next, they’re mysteriously found dead – the cause of death being a far less mysterious knife between their ribs. Then someone else takes over, and the cycle begins anew. Word is, they’re already making an HBO drama about it. And by “word,” we mean we’ve got a cheapo video camera and are willing to pay in whatever you can steal while our roommates aren’t looking.