Gamasutra interview compares UO and WoW

An interesting interview on Gamasutra makes a fairly balanced comparison between Ultima Online and World of Warcraft. The interview is with two designers of UO, who are not out to bash WoW, but to give readers an idea of what the differences are between the games. They may be stating the obvious, but I have not read a better comparison between the two games. UO has more of an open-world design, which emphasizes gaining skills, rather than overall character levels. They call the WoW design an on-rails method that emphasizes character classes that are defined, plus leveling that character. It sounds like UO has no character classes, but is designed to make the skills define the character. The designers also point out the Blizzard has put a focus on the action-reward cycle, or the ding factor.