Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Its by the Design Team of Dark Age of Camelot.
This looks like a REALLY, REALLY cool MMORPG. Possibly the best chance to bump off WOW of its #1 spot.
Although the game is both PvP and PvE, the key difference between this and other RPGs is that it centers around a military conflict. Everything revolves around it, including the PvE. Its basically a Mix of WOW and BF2. It takes the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde and adds a detailed strategic level.
Its a Basic Good vs Evil, However the war takes place amongst 3 Fronts. When you pick your race you square off against your opponent at the Front
The Fronts are:
Empire (Human good) vs. Chaos (Human Evil)
Elves vs Dark Elves (Evil)
Dwarves vs. GreenSkins (Orcs Evil)
*It is possible for races to mix. For example Dwarf characters can travel across the Dwarven lands and enter Empire territory and join the Empire Front and fight against Chaos. However Good can only aid Good, and Evil can only help Evil.
Each Front has 4 tiers (Plus a Final Tier). Each Tier is according to player Level so Tier 1 is Levels 1-15, Tier 2 15-30, up till Level 70
They way it works is that each Tier has control points (very similar to the Battlefield Series FPS). Your side must control these points in order to win.
So if you start as a Human Warrior level 1 you will be facing Chaos Characters level 1 for control of that Tier. The game is geared so your measely level 5 Dark Elf isn't going to have to face against a level 60 enemy. All characters on a tier will be within a few levels of each other.
The Beauty is all the results of battle on each Tier will affect the subsquent Tiers. So If the Empire controls a majority of territitory on Tier 1, the Empire on Tier 2 will gain benefits because of it.
The ultimate goal is to capture the enemy Capital City on Tier 5. Should this happen, the winning side will get benefits (all Tiers). Eventually the winner will lose control. There are safeguards to ensure this to keep the game running.
Even if you play in PvE areas the effects of this will affect the PvP area. For example, a quest might include hitting enemy supply lines (controlled by the AI). The success of this will impact what goes on in the PvP area.
If you want to check it out...
http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/home/index.php
Only catch is, as of yesterday, the game was pushed until Q1 2008 as EA/Mythic wasn't happy with the Elven areas.