which would you prefer?

[awdougherty]

X-Online is scheduled to be a massively multiplayer experience, but I've read that those games are the hardest to make and maintain (and a bad launch can kill the game before it even gets off the ground... World War II Online).

Would you prefer the next X to be X3 with the ability to run your own, small-scale server, while maintaining the single-player angle or just an all out massively multiplayer game, pay for play, and whatever else that entails?

Personally, it seems like MMORPGs and the like have given a false hoe to developers looking to bring in a steady stream of cash. Sure there are a million and one MMORPGs in development, but how many can the market support? How many have really paid off the effort put into them? What about the fact that most people still use dial-up, if they even can access the net?

Or is this intended to be a niche MMORPG of sorts? Curious what the community's thoughts are.

[Snokid]

isn't the point of x-ou to be an mmorpg. It would suck to play in small groups like that!
edit: I should refine my opinion.
x-ou is Bern's dream to make a game in which we all play in his x-universe. We play and trade, seeing each other's skills at piloting a ship, and helping the new people learn to fly (thus my hierarchy arguement). The old people can make guilds, protecting the new people until they get on their feet..and have fun!! it's a persistent universe; one to be like the single player game, but with us real people in it

[X-Warrior B AS]

Like Snowyhands already stated: XOL would miss it's point if it were to be run on small local servers. It is intended to be big, get bigger, and expand until every players drops from playing-fatigue.
Local servers would make too small communities, taking away quite a bit of the fun of the large scale internet game.