If you could make the perfect MMO

sKum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
256
I’m doing a project for my marketing class where I have to take an existing product or service and come up with a competing alternative.

I decided to do WoW and create a new MMO to compete with it.

I ask if you will, list what you like about wow, what you don’t like, what you expect out of an mmo, (price, content, etc) and any thing else that would entice you to play the game

Go into as much or as little info as you’d like, I’m just doing a preliminary analysis to see if I can collect enough data to justify a project


if you don't play MMO's, I'd like to know why, even if its something simple like they never seemed like they'd hold your intrest


Thanks
 
I don't play MMOs. They bore me, and I like CRPGs. The other "NPCs" are too distracting.

MMOs are "alternative lifestyles", more than straight up games. To me, the ultimate fantasy rpg is the next official iteration of the Baldur's Gate franchise, with optional 6 player online co-op.
 
I touched on WoW, played the beta for LOTRO for a couple of months, played post-NGE/CU Star Wars Galaxies for a couple months, and spent way too much time in a game called RPGWorld for the better part of several years.

However, and I know this is going to make people lament me...

I think what is needed is a military RPG. Maybe based on WW2, with all the theaters involved, or maybe even the civil war. Perhaps random assignments, and the potential to work your way up in the ranks. I would suggest first person, but third person could also be possible. The key would be realism in the sense of how easily you can be killed, and hence how the concept of people leveling up characters for money would be rendered impractical.
 
I don't play MMOs. They bore me, and I like CRPGs. The other "NPCs" are too distracting.

MMOs are "alternative lifestyles", more than straight up games. To me, the ultimate fantasy rpg is the next official iteration of the Baldur's Gate franchise, with optional 6 player online co-op.

ooooo!!!! Now thats a game I could see paying $40 for.

As for an mmo I like the idea of random dungeons that only the specific party can enter. Kinda like what the game .hack//sign did.
 
My biggest gripe with WoW was theres no end game gear unless you're in a huge guild.
 
I ask if you will, list what you like about wow, what you don’t like, what you expect out of an mmo, (price, content, etc) and any thing else that would entice you to play the game

Go into as much or as little info as you’d like, I’m just doing a preliminary analysis to see if I can collect enough data to justify a project

WoW likes:
Immersion in terms of actually feeling like a part of the Warcraft universe. I will give you an example of what I mean. Prior to WoW, I played Warcraft, Warcraft II, and Warcraft III. Warcraft III was really what made me go "Damn, I wish I could play ____ in an MMO type setting." For me ____ was the dwarven rifleman. Now, bear in mind, I had thoughts of a Warcraft mmo before the game was actually announced. When the game was announced, I was excited to find out that dwarves were a playable race, and that hunters was a class that I could play.

WoW dislikes:
I hate the fact that this game is pseudo-real time. Basically, after playing several MMO, I hate how 99% of them have you press 1 - 9, +/- to activate skills. After the button is pressed, you have an attack/casting animation, followed by a cooldown most of the time. This type of gameplay makes me feel like a drone sooner or later. It's boring at best for me.

What I want out of MMOs:
I want an MMO where the gameplay follows a traditional FPS mechanic. Allow me to explain. I'd like to be able to my character around like an FPS, and then attack using the left/right/center mouse buttons, where each time I press a mouse button, my character attacks. There would be no cooldowns. The scrollwheel or 1 - 9, +/- would cycle through different attacks/skills/gear, but they would never be used to actually pull off an attack. Attack should be strictly bound to the mouse buttons. Of course, balancing issues would really have to be scrutinized without cooldowns. AOEs would probably have to have a much smaller area of effect than in most other games. I want to be able to control my character in real time. This type of MMO would blend Diablo I/II play styles with an FPS game, in that in Diablo, the mouse was used to move the character as well as attack. Here, we could use the traditional WASD layout (or arrow keys).

Yes, an MMO shooter would be interesting, however I'm more looking into some tradtional sword/sorcery MMO with this set up. Again, I point you to the Diablo games. Take a game like Diablo, make it persistent, and redo the movement controls to use the keyboard.

Tabula Rasa sort of has this type of gameplay...but the game was boring for me.
 
i played wow from from dec '04 til may of '05. so about a total of 6 months when it first came out. i had a hate/love relationship with it. it was so fun and addicting to me that it hurt my relationships with local real life friends because i spent so much time on wow. i wasnt able to set limits and i look back on that time and feel stupid. i joined the army in june of '05 for various reasons, one of them being to curb my game playing addiction. in the army ive learned quite a few things and even learned a few things about myself, while sitting over here in afghanistan for the last 14 months. i know as soon as i get back to the states im going to start playing video games again. i know its going to hurt my social interactions but i cant stop myself. theres obviously a huge ever expanding player base in the mmo genre. however the best mmo's are always the same type. a fantasy world with trolls and elves. these games are the best because the best game developers grew up playin d&d. when other mmo types of games like swg try to break in, they may seem cool for a few weeks but eventually they fail.



in conclusion, we appear to be stuck with dwarves and dragons for now.
 
I hate the time investment. I play wow only for pvp. I hate that gear drives pvp. You have to get honor for gear, you have do dungeons for gear. I would like an mmo that is pvp based and doesn't have a reliance on gear to be good. Just make everyone have the same gear. Basically like an fps (but mmorpg style) where everyone has the same gear/weapons and your skill differentiates you.
 
I think what is needed is a military RPG. Maybe based on WW2, with all the theaters involved, or maybe even the civil war. Perhaps random assignments, and the potential to work your way up in the ranks. I would suggest first person, but third person could also be possible. The key would be realism in the sense of how easily you can be killed, and hence how the concept of people leveling up characters for money would be rendered impractical.

Yeah thats what I thought as well, except I would perfer a futuristic military RPG. Talking space exploration and all that good stuff. Many many options you can play with there and if developers really find a formula that works, it can be great.
 
I played WoW for about a year and a half, and I played diablo2 for about 2 years. I would say each has it's advantages. WoW caters to newbies WAAAY too much, that paying gold to change your build is ridiculous. They should've made it so that you only stick to one build, then people would actually spend time planning their build. Also they needed more pvp in WoW which is why I am waiting for warhammer. D2 was pretty fun except for all the hacks, and the fact that it wasnt a mmo. It would have been nicer if more people could interact at once.
 
Greater freedom

Greater risk vs reward

I can't stand MMO's which are all soft and nice, I want an MMO where you can be subversive and crafty and sneak about and hide and steal from other players. Large player based games are interesting and fun because you interact with other people, but it needs to be done on a grander scale.

UO is the only game even close to this, its the only game you've been able to pick pocket and stealth (hide) to any reasonable degree.
 
If people are so desperate and addicted to MMO's, they obviously can't control their own lives....
 
Take the original UO during the notoriety system before the first expansion.

Upgrade the graphics.

/thread
 
Nethack MMO! 1001 ways to permanently kill off your character, and just wait until someone finds a blessed scroll of genocide and uses it on @ ;)
 
My biggest gripe with WoW was theres no end game gear unless you're in a huge guild.

That depends on your definition of end-game, I have done Kara with a few friends and PUG'd the rest.

I would love to see a MMO that is like UO pre-expansion/update, with EQ1/WoW quality of raid/event content, then have graphics of Vanguard or better.
 
Easy..... look at Ultima Online :D

Just upgrade it to today's graphics and change the fight style a bit and you're good to go!
 
I think what is needed is a military RPG. Maybe based on WW2, with all the theaters involved, or maybe even the civil war. Perhaps random assignments, and the potential to work your way up in the ranks. I would suggest first person, but third person could also be possible. The key would be realism in the sense of how easily you can be killed, and hence how the concept of people leveling up characters for money would be rendered impractical.

WW2 Online but its garbage

Personally I'd like to see something like ArmA or Operation Flash Point 2 but on a much much larger scale.
 
You want a WWII MMO?? Aren't there enough other WWII games to keep you happy for the rest of your lifetime?
 
You want a WWII MMO?? Aren't there enough other WWII games to keep you happy for the rest of your lifetime?

If that was for me, no I do not want a WW2 online game, I would like to see an ArmA or OFP2 type MMO
 
My ideal MMO would require no additional subscription charges to play, and would be one of the few not dependent on the pathetic fantasy genre. The players would increase attributes by training in certain areas; all would start with a base intellect, and some with a handicap (randomly-chosen). They could improve upon their initial points a number of ways, such as going to the gym to increase strength, reading or engaging in reasoned debate or conversation to increase mental capacity, and so on.

Players would be freely able to interact with each other verbally, and this would allow them the opportunity to make new friends and relationships. They'd be allowed to marry if they chose, have children if they chose, or not, if they chose.

The aim of the game would be whatever you pleased. You could work to earn money and buy mechanical "mounts" and accessories - the character would be infinitely customisable, from body build to hair style and colour, though not created in a dedicated screen, but rather a result of your gameplay decisions (If you spent too much time idle, your character would gain bodyfat, or if you spent lots of time cycling, they'd lose it) - or you could choose different priorities, and work only as a means to an end, instead choosing to spend time doing things you enjoy with people you like.

If we could get all the MMO players onto something like this, if such a thing ever existed, nobody would ever have any contempt for them any longer, and they wouldn't become needy, overly-dependent clichés.
 
Actually i play WoW now and i think it was done very well. Over the years i played ff11 and such and WoW seems to take the cake it has all the best elements of each mmo i have played in past and just makes it alot better. Its hard to beat that game as u dont have to spend the mass amounts of time to feel like u accomplished something. Actually what got me into the whole MMO theme was a game called Shadowbane!!! Omg i loved this game to death. Was my first pvp experience and i lost lots of sleep playing it. It would be cool if in wow it took some elements from Shadowbane. For example in Shadowbane your guild or your mates form a guild and actually create their own town/city etc and other guilds could actually bane that town and it meant you were about to go to war with a specific Guild. There is none of that in WoW unfotunately. How cool would it be if your guild could create a town in the world of azzeroth and etc.
 
I like Counter Strike with the Warcraft 3 mod. If an fps/mmo came out like that, that would be so awesome.
 
i thought Sociolotron was already the perfect mmo?

you can kill ppls babies FTW! lol

you are gonna have to google it, since I was censored before for posting the link ;)
 
Vanguard. With not quite as high system requirements. The game has really come around.

Tons of bugs and horrible performance at launch but sony has done a pretty good job of fixing alot of things and improving performance. Sure it still has a ways to go but its a ton of fun.

Great crafting setup. Diplomacy is a fun addition. Raiding is in game now(Finally). Dungeons are huge and cool.

You do need a higher end system to run it though.
 
I'm going to echo what other people have said and say that my perfect MMO would involve UO mechanics to some degree. Pre-EAmakesthegameawful of course.
 
I like Counter Strike with the Warcraft 3 mod. If an fps/mmo came out like that, that would be so awesome.

You mean something like bioshock online?

Also I have another Idea for an MMO. It would be based off of pokemon, except the players would take the various roles of the NPCs in the pokemon games. Breeders, Trainers, Traders, Professors, etc. Also the Gym trainers and elite 4 would be players, although this would be harder to manage, i'm sure they could find a clever way to handle it.
 
My biggest gripe with WoW was theres no end game gear unless you're in a huge guild.

are you SERIOUS???

That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard anyone say about WoW... ever heard of PvP, you can get T6 equivalent gear without winning a single arena match (which I HATE since I raid for my gear which is actually hard)
 
you have to find a game that appeals to all the bases. ive come to the conclusion there are two types of gamers.

1) people who played counterstrike before the 1.0 release

and then there are

2) people who play madden and the sims
 
It would be Mechwarrior.

It's been tried twice and subsequently failed due to bad management and licensing issues. :( I'd be right there though.

After WoW I really don't plan on playing another MMO. If I were to get into another one, I'd like a more sandbox-oriented MMO, although generally sandbox means poor implementation and execution of design ideas and goals. See: SWG. The great advantage of non-sandbox MMOs is perfectly illustrated in WoW: far fewer possibilities in gameplay, but it was executed so well. The only sandbox MMO I can think of that is actually good is EVE, and even that has more limitations than oldschool UO and even olderschool MUDs.
 
Seriously, make UO again. What the hell. I simply do not get why it hasn't been done. Even with all the crap they've screwed the game up with, it's still far better than any MMO out there.
Screw WoW. Ah.. I hate it. Ever since that game came out, every MMO has to be exactly like it. Freaking try something new! PLEASE!
 
I'd make eve except I'd throw out the shitty combat system they have and just make it a space flight sim. Imagine epic combat with every ship moving under direct input from the user. Maybe have gun emplacements on larger ships be manned as well.
 
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