As a proud member of Areae.net's board of advisors, I'm proud to announce that their coming out party was today. Their product is named Metaplace, and they debuted at TechCrunch40.
[Please leave any comments there...]
In the grand tradition of old-time MMORPG designers announcing their competence:
Meet the Beastmaster Okefarflung of Argent Dawn.

Accomplished this before my son, for once. Now I'm twinking him! :-)
I guess it is possible for a casual player to hit the World of Warcraft level cap, eventually.
This was only possible with the support of my guild-mates in Force Recon, who tell me that this is a more than respectable showing in terms of a short amount of game-time to reach this level, especially the first time.
That double-XP bonus for us casual gamers really works. I can tell you for sure that I would have quit long ago if it weren't there.
I am amazed how quickly I've come to miss the XP bar. Skinner boxes, indeed.