What do you want to see in the next generation of MMOs

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vengence

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There are several MMOs on the market today. EQ1/2, WoW, CoV/CoH, FFXI, etc. The graphics engines for most of these games are showing thier age (look at FFXI for example). There will soon be new MMOs (Warhammer Online for example is to be release Q2/Q3 iirc) but thats not what I want to talk about. For those of you who have played several MMOs, what do you really love and really hate. How would you make a better MMO than the one your currently playing.

For the record I've played FFXI for several years, I've tried CoV and WoW each for about 3-6 months before returning to FFXI because I enjoyed it more.

The ideas that I really like come from a varity of games. I really like the relaxed leveling that is doable solo or in groups (WoW good, CoV alright). I LOVE the multiple jobs/classes on one character (FFXI). Crafting that is worth something (FFXI). Player run economies (FFXI). Challenging End game. And by challenging I don't mean long time, or lots of people. While you can have stuff that requires lots of people, shear number of people should never make you win at something.

The ideas I dislike: NPC run econ. By this I mean you go and farm something, then sell it to a shop, then buy from a shop. Time being used an a way to make somethign difficult. (like 20 people taking 8 hours killing easy stuff but there are just so many of them to kill)

Just some ideas to get the discussion going.
 
The absolute abandonment of fantasy themed MMOs and a swarm of sci-fi and space themed MMOs.

Seriously, I would absolutly love a space/sci-fi skinned WoW, or something very similar to it. The overall mechanics of WoW are still great IMO, PvP needs an overhaul but it's still an awesome MMO. I am extremely curious about Bioware's unannounced MMO. I hope the rumors are true!
 
Make the fun more interactive with more fun via mechanics and less "fun" from grinding and time-sinks. People have played games that don't even have levels and loot for years on end. Make the game itself fun to play, then add the whole advancement aspect over that, but ONLY after the game is fun to play.
 
A crafting system that is actually worth a damn. The ability to run a business if you desire. Every MMO i have ever played is combat based. That is just silly IMHO.

For instance, i mainly play WoW, and every craftable item is easily eclipsed by stuff that drops off of enemies. So why should i bother to make anything? No point really, and that sucks IMHO.

They can make it hard to craft the good stuff, but not impossible. Hell, even a massively long cooldown would suit me, if i could just make good stuff.

I'd love to see an economy based on character made stuff. For example, vendors run out of stuff if players aren't selling stuff to them. So eventually, ALL in game consumables would be player made. Want arrows? Better either know somebody who can make them for you, or hope to god somebody sold some to the vendor earlier that day.

There would be a REASON to maske things. I much prefer making things to endlessly killing crap. Maybe i am in the minority, but i think it would add a lot of realism to the game.
 
A Call of Cthulhu based MMO, focused on small groups, deductions and investigation instead of a combat mmorpg. It should be a heavily IC game with a huge map and a sloppy communication system.
That'd be cool/freaky.
 
I want to see them breaking away from the same bland generic overdone bullshit formula.

The "Trinity" of classes built up around healing/tanking/damage dealing, the focus on GRINDING, die rolls, "uber" items, all that shit done away with.

I want to see an mmo that is more focused on player skill with light rpg elements (Think Mount and Blade) where the emphasis is put more on building your own character that you like how you wish (more skill system, less lv system, a la UO) and where the game is built around a "Sandbox" world design rather then a "hold me by the fucking hand linear ass lv GRINDFEST" that most mmo's have become these days.

I'm so burnt out of mmo's in general, they've made playing games not fun, I mean seriously how do people find tanking fun? or healing when you can't do anything BUT heal because that's all you're good for? Then combat, where it's mostly determined not by your SKILL at playing but more by what lv you are and what items you wear.

So so tired of that, I want an MMO where the actual ACT OF FUCKING PLAYING is Fun and it's not a rabbit chase your tail around the fucking garden for some proverbial carrot on a fucking stick chasing the next "uber item/lv" until the next expansion that has even better uber items and more lv's to chase.
 
kelbear said:
Make the fun more interactive with more fun via mechanics and less "fun" from grinding and time-sinks. People have played games that don't even have levels and loot for years on end. Make the game itself fun to play, then add the whole advancement aspect over that, but ONLY after the game is fun to play.
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Couldn't agree more. Leveling, and the grind associated with it, just leads to people refusing to do anything that doesn't advance their precious xp bar as efficiently as possible. Not to mention those players who confuse being good at a game with being able to spend more time grinding than the next person.

I would like an MMO with a greater emphasis on exploration and discovery than repetitive, formulaic boss encounters. Ideally one that's big enough that you could never hope to visit every part of the game world (but one where you don't need to spend all your time running from one end of the world to the other because of poorly-designed quests like you do in Vanguard). And gameplay that goes beyond pressing a row of buttons in whatever order makes your numbers bigger than your enemy's numbers.
I would just like to see something a bit more sophisticated, because with the exception of minor graphical improvements (and even those have been minimal so that players with older machines aren't excluded) really nothing of any value has changed since the likes of EverQuest.
 
Stiler said:
I want to see them breaking away from the same bland generic overdone bullshit formula.

The "Trinity" of classes built up around healing/tanking/damage dealing, the focus on GRINDING, die rolls, "uber" items, all that shit done away with.

I want to see an mmo that is more focused on player skill with light rpg elements (Think Mount and Blade) where the emphasis is put more on building your own character that you like how you wish (more skill system, less lv system, a la UO) and where the game is built around a "Sandbox" world design rather then a "hold me by the fucking hand linear ass lv GRINDFEST" that most mmo's have become these days.

I'm so burnt out of mmo's in general, they've made playing games not fun, I mean seriously how do people find tanking fun? or healing when you can't do anything BUT heal because that's all you're good for? Then combat, where it's mostly determined not by your SKILL at playing but more by what lv you are and what items you wear.

So so tired of that, I want an MMO where the actual ACT OF FUCKING PLAYING is Fun and it's not a rabbit chase your tail around the fucking garden for some proverbial carrot on a fucking stick chasing the next "uber item/lv" until the next expansion that has even better uber items and more lv's to chase.
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You just saved me the time to write all that. I couldn't agree more.
 
Stiler said:
I want to see them breaking away from the same bland generic overdone bullshit formula.

The "Trinity" of classes built up around healing/tanking/damage dealing, the focus on GRINDING, die rolls, "uber" items, all that shit done away with.

I want to see an mmo that is more focused on player skill with light rpg elements (Think Mount and Blade) where the emphasis is put more on building your own character that you like how you wish (more skill system, less lv system, a la UO) and where the game is built around a "Sandbox" world design rather then a "hold me by the fucking hand linear ass lv GRINDFEST" that most mmo's have become these days.

I'm so burnt out of mmo's in general, they've made playing games not fun, I mean seriously how do people find tanking fun? or healing when you can't do anything BUT heal because that's all you're good for? Then combat, where it's mostly determined not by your SKILL at playing but more by what lv you are and what items you wear.

So so tired of that, I want an MMO where the actual ACT OF FUCKING PLAYING is Fun and it's not a rabbit chase your tail around the fucking garden for some proverbial carrot on a fucking stick chasing the next "uber item/lv" until the next expansion that has even better uber items and more lv's to chase.
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tys90 said:
You just saved me the time to write all that. I couldn't agree more.
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x2

sounds like you would have liked the original SWG (like me :( )
 
prtzlboy said:
x2

sounds like you would have liked the original SWG (like me :( )
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I played SWG beta/when it came out, it had some good parts and some bad ones (easily one of the ugliest/worst world designs in any game, it was literally like someone hit a random generate land button when they went out lunch then came back and hit the stop button and said "yay, I'm done with work!") but the skill system was better then many mmo's among the player crafting system.

I started playing mmo's back with UO, then EQ/AC and on from there about all of them. UO was my favorite mmo by far with it's skill system and sandbox design built more around the world itself and just exploring and having fun within it rather then focused on items/quests that amounted to killing crap over and over, etc. Sadly, after EQ almost all mmo's followed the same basic formula as it did and the sort of mmo's like UO/Meridian 59 died out back then with only a few attempts at them usually by indie developers who don't have the funding by AAA publishers to get out the door or finish the game.

Regardless of that, why can't they just make something new/different in the mmo world?

I personally, would LOVE to see an old west style mmo, where the gameplay is real time fps style shooting, no auto-attack/spam special bullshit but actual aim+ shooting with lite rpg elements tied into the mechanics similar to how mount and blade handles their archery (IE better skill = less sway to your aim, faster reloading depending on skills/weapon, etc but the arrow goes where it should and it's under the player control with things like aiming, arcing the arrow, etc).

Another thing that I think is hurting the MMO genre is instancing. Instancing has some GOOD points to it when it's used correctly, like for a dungeon that's built around offereing specific character/group content that would not generally be able to be done in the open world.

However many many mmo's these days are using instancing for EVERY single facet of the world.

EQ2 is a good example. In EQ1 it wasn't instanced, I mean you could go into the city and that was "the" city, it wasn't city 1a, city 2b, it was the >insert name of the city< and anyone on that server could be there. It made the game world feel huge and everyone connected.

Now with EQ2 they built each zone around instances. Each zone has a limited number of players allowed in it, once it's filled up a new instance is made. This makes the world feel really really disconnected and like it's more of a lv-designed world rather then an open one.

They've basically found a way to start taking the "massive" out of massively multiplayer mmo's, and I do not like it.

Instancing specific content for story elements to provide gameplay that you can't build with an outside world = good, instancing entire zone's for no reason but for population = bad, imo.
 
World of Halo! You have 3 sides: Elites, Brutes and Humans and each with different classes. It would also be nice to do away with turn based combat, i.e. skill is required. If you were a sniper class, you should be allowed to aim your gun and shoot, not face in general direction and click the "attack" command. Also a never ending battlefield, like a war front that just has reinforcements in the form of people jump to help each side.

So what I'm trying to say is that a game that is a combination of Planetside, WoW, Halo charecters, and a skill based combat system would be a winner.
 
spugnor said:
A crafting system that is actually worth a damn. The ability to run a business if you desire. Every MMO i have ever played is combat based. That is just silly IMHO.

For instance, i mainly play WoW, and every craftable item is easily eclipsed by stuff that drops off of enemies. So why should i bother to make anything? No point really, and that sucks IMHO.

They can make it hard to craft the good stuff, but not impossible. Hell, even a massively long cooldown would suit me, if i could just make good stuff.

I'd love to see an economy based on character made stuff. For example, vendors run out of stuff if players aren't selling stuff to them. So eventually, ALL in game consumables would be player made. Want arrows? Better either know somebody who can make them for you, or hope to god somebody sold some to the vendor earlier that day.

There would be a REASON to maske things. I much prefer making things to endlessly killing crap. Maybe i am in the minority, but i think it would add a lot of realism to the game.
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You sound like someone who would like EVE Online. It's free and pretty good from what I hear, you should look into it.
 
krameriffic said:
You sound like someone who would like EVE Online. It's free and pretty good from what I hear, you should look into it.
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I was about to get into that but then I read a lot of stuff about how people who have been around for a while are so far ahead it's hard to make a name for yourself now since they control "everything".
 
I realize its been mentioned multiple times on multiple threads but holy crap, SOMEONE remake UO. Seriously. Not everybody digs WoW style games.. oh my god. There is no freedom in that game. Just quest to quest. I played UO for... god knows how long.. 3 years.. never once did a quest. Okay, maybe once.
That game gave you so much other stuff to worry about (murderers, optional factions, completing a spell book, getting regeants, getting a house, crafting, selling). I can't believe how fun being a thief was. What MMO these days lets you walk into shops and steal crap at the risk of being destroyed by a guard.

To finish this rant: can someone make a MMO that doesn't have the WoW style icon bar at the bottom? I'm sorry, it's starting to piss me off. I guess CoH was alright.. but that was just because using your attacks made you feel bloody powerful. But then once that feeling went away, there was no drive for me to continue. I played 3 seperate times and never got past level 13. I just don't have the patience.
 
dingobiatch said:
I realize its been mentioned multiple times on multiple threads but holy crap, SOMEONE remake UO. Seriously. Not everybody digs WoW style games.. oh my god. There is no freedom in that game. Just quest to quest. I played UO for... god knows how long.. 3 years.. never once did a quest. Okay, maybe once.
That game gave you so much other stuff to worry about (murderers, optional factions, completing a spell book, getting regeants, getting a house, crafting, selling). I can't believe how fun being a thief was. What MMO these days lets you walk into shops and steal crap at the risk of being destroyed by a guard.
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I'm no expert but I think there is a sizable niche market for a new skill based sandbox game. Maybe it's just a trend on the hardforums :). I think people who started MMOs with WoW would have a really hard time switching to a different style game.
 
TheGooch69 said:
The absolute abandonment of fantasy themed MMOs and a swarm of sci-fi and space themed MMOs.

Seriously, I would absolutly love a space/sci-fi skinned WoW, or something very similar to it. The overall mechanics of WoW are still great IMO, PvP needs an overhaul but it's still an awesome MMO. I am extremely curious about Bioware's unannounced MMO. I hope the rumors are true!
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I would hate it. I prefer Midevil MMO setting, I think setting in Age of Conan could prove very interesting.

OP: you forgot to mention LOTRO in your original post.

Out of all of the current MMO's, LOTRO has the best graphics IMO, and they keep adding stuff to it. Given time, I could see it becoming freaking awesome, it is quite good right now. To me, LOTRO is a perfect MMO given that they add more content to it, but going back to your question, yes I would want some stuff added.

I want a game which setting is very simular to LOTRO, with a bit flashier weapons though and some more skills. I would like for an MMO to have really good graphics with nice shadows and foresty/weathery enviroments with seasons and great day/night cycles. I really enjoy questing in huge/open areas where there are a ton of trees and grass, and plenty of snow. Each area should be enormous with preferably an outpost with plenty of quests. Quests shall be soloable/small group quests, there should be alot of them. Quest rewards (something lotro is lacking) should offer great armour that is a bit better than crafted armour. Crafting professions should be very advanced and offer awesome armor with Gem slots (wow). As I have mentioned, weapons should be realistic, not too overr the top (wow).

Skill system should be a mix of LOTRO and WoW. THere should be traits (lotro) and skill tree (wow) which will advance your character in any way that you may like. Skills themselfes should not be too overthe top and classes should be fun to play. I think that a player should be able to choose which direction he wants to take his class, If it's a hunter, he should be able to choose which area he wants to be proficient in: if it's pet, marksman, a mix or whatnot ( think of GW). World should be huge with a ton of leveling areas and a high level cap.

PVP? There should be a world PVP. Think of Guilds and alliances. Eaach guild could fight any other guild member in any area, guilds could create an alliance to fight against other guilds/alliances in any part of the world. Most towns could be then controlled by specific alliances/guilds and give great benefits to controlling guilds/alliances. Guilds could attack other's encamplennts at any time, thus the controlling guild must defend. I think that would raise PVP to a whole new level, would be sort of fun.
 
I'd like to note that I never played SWG, but I think it would be a great setting for another MMORPG. A fantasy/sci-fi world, like Star Wars, where you could travel from planet to planet. You could build homes anywhere on these planets (given landscape and city contraints) with ships you could build and fly. Something like a mix of Vanguard, SWG, WoW, and KoTOR. Fast combat like WoW, setting of SWG, open world like Vanguard, and the feat/leveling system of Knights of the Old Republic. The graphics don't have to be amazing, but have dynamic shadows/smooth animations/etc. I don't think different races should be limited to certain classes, but they should certainly have benefits for being certain classes. I like the KoTOR design where you chose a base class, and then build upon it as you progress. I hate how when you create a character in WoW, Vanguard, etc. you can only individualize your character by a couple trees of talents.



So..... thats my little rant. Enjoy!
 
Speaking of LOTRO and it's updates got me thinking about another huge aspect I forgot to mention.

With MMO's I feel that one of the MAIN things that they have over other genre's of games is the ability for the developers to add in content/things to the world.

I will use one game to describe what I mean, Asherosn call. To me this is the game that did "updates" justice. Every month in AC they would have an update that added something to the world, sometimes in regard to the storyline, etc.

It greatly helped the game feel active and changing, instead of the stale some old same old.

For example, at one point in time during AC's storyline these "spires" appeared over major cities and reports of "shadow people" were seen. You read about this on the forums/update and then you got into the game itself and what do you know, BAM a huge ass spire is sitting there over the cities up in the clouds and running around the world you would encounter these shadow people as enemies.

Another update might be something as simple as weather, but it was great because I remember loggin in one morning and it was snowing lightly in the game world, there was just a light snow covering little parts of the ground. Then later that evening when I logged in the snow was coming down heavier and a lot more of it was covering buildings/tree's, etc as though you'd expect it to do in real life.

These sorts of things help set mmo's apart from other genre's, yet many mmo's don't do this sort of thing or they simply save it all for an "expansion" that you have to buy, which defeats the purpose and enjoyment of it imo.

Even without these sorts of updates it is possible for mmo's to have special events in games to a degree.

I remember in UO there was a time that the undead attacked Trisnic. A lot of the players got together to defeat them and it was just plain FUN. You had people fighting all around you and then when things got too heavy people got up on top of the bank using a portal (The roof being the only "safe" place to be since the npc's couldn't get up there).

Then there are special events where it can be something as simple as a gm party, getting players together and just being social or other things, just something different to let players socialize with one another instead of simply lv grinding or killing killing killing.

MMO's as a whole need more variety and interaction, they have moved away from socializing imo and toward streamlining a lv experience.

It seems with each newer generation of mmo's the developers and players both(not all, but many) just want everything spoon fed to them. They want to focus 100% on acquiring lv's/items and forget anything else, just rush and focus on getting to the end game as quickly as possible then when they realize "hey, there isn't shit to do now that I've got the uberest items and the entire game is built around it" they end up getting bored/quitting then the developers pop out an expansion to add more items/lv's to gain in hopes they'll come back, this is a cycle that needs to change and more people need to wake up and realize it.
 
Forced Grouping = HATE. I cant stand this concept. I understand the idea behind it. Teamwork. And thats all good....seriously. But, to make a game which creates the NEED to group is just crap.

I played FFIX too. Thought it was DA SHIT!!!! Lots of interesting things and the Themes the devs would create, such as during Xmas time.....sheer beauty.

Soloing was do-able up to a certain level, but after that, you had no real choice, either you get with a group or you do not level. There were actual areas where people would seemingly pull up a lawn chair and sit down while spamming the chats that they were looking for a group. Sometimes youd get accepted, sometimes youd sit there for over an hour, finally get into a group only to have it dissolve 5 minutes later because ONE person had to leave. That person being a "key" class. Without them and the group is useless.

This is what finally made me quit FFXI and I went to WoW.

The hangup I have with WoW is simply, later on in level (I quit at level 56, prior to the Burning Crusade when 60 was the cap) you find yourself, again, in the "MUST be in a group" scenario....spend hours upon HOURS killing the same crap over and over again for the HOPE that you would get the drop of a weapon or armor you were looking for.....and then, finally get it and find out that THAT piece of equipment only makes you stronger by a tiny little fraction of a point. Instead of doing, say 100pts of dmg, now with your new, LONG awaited Axe, you now do 102pts of dmg. But it took you hours, if not days or weeks of constant battling to get that Axe.

Then, once you have that, its off to do it all over again, but now, for a Helmet or some pants.

You can pretty much attribute this aspect to ALL MMO's to one point or another. THIS is what MMO's need to STOP doing and rethink what is FUN instead of what will cause the player/customer to stay and pay.

And for gawd sake....If I cast a spell which causes you to catch on fire.....Id like to actually see some sort of REACTION to that effect aside from a small grunt or spalsh of blood or something. I always thought it kinda stupid that I can cast some fire spell on someone and in reaction to that, they just stand there casting a spell or shooting something back at me. OR or or or...LIGHTNING!!!!! I would cast a lightning spell, strike someone with it and yet they would just continue running towards me as if nothing happened...albetit with slightly less health, but common....I just hit you with LIGHTNING...at least fall on and ground and cry or something.....geeeshhh!!!!!
 
I'd like to see a "mature Fantasy Environment" (aka Conan, The Witcher, etc) setup, where there is no "epic raiding for loot". What you CAN do epic raiding for is to capture a fortress for your guild, or to raid a vast store of gold to buy shit. I hate being forced to RAID for items, I wouldn't find it so bad to simply farm gold for stuff. Gold farming can be done when you have 20 mins a day, 5 days a week. A raid requires you have have 2 full days free.... one to raid and the other to make up for lost sleep.

All Items would be able to be store bought, or player made for less money (but the player can still earn a profit if he sells his items).

The focus would be on realm based conflicts between numerous empires (3 or 4 perhaps, maybe more).

Combat would be based on skills (push a button) and position based damage meaning if you cleave the mage in the back he's dead almost instantly. He has to then watch out and observe proper position. No running through people in combat zones, in cities you can.

Oblibion style travel in PvE zones, no "horse routes" "flights" "whatever". Portals (Asherons call style) would be ok... provided you have the portal summoning spells as well. I also quite liked Lifestones and lifestone recall.

Crafting and Spells should have a discovery element, akin to Asherons call style spells...

Asherons Call had the best loot system I've seen in an MMO. You had a chacne almost everywhere to find a "super" item... that only had "base" stats, the rest could be buffed, some places were better than others "The Lugian Fields" for example. I'd like to see something like that, but none of that annoying 20 minute buff cycle, for 30 minutes of killing. Repeat until health packs or spell comps are gone... Enchanters can put either PERMANENT enchantments on an item, or super powerful ones that last for say... a week in-game time. Or so.

Group friendly assassin classes.

Ummm... thats a rough start.
 
All I want to see is EVE Online. Oh wait, already have that.

Can I say EVE 2?
 
I want an MMO in which users can create their own content for others. Well not just create as a developer would. Create by playing. Where my character can dig out his/her own dungeon and populate it with baby gremlins or have his/her own palace built by paying or trading with other players only to have another player's group take it over with. These things could have so much depth, but I wouldn't know because I would never play a game that requires a monthly fee.
 
I want a MMO that is more focused on skills and abilities than levels, preferably I'd want a MMO without leveling at all (Look to traditional RPG systems like Deadlands / Savage Worlds and to a degree Shadowrun). In addition I want a MMO that actually encourages roleplaying, I recently got into WOW and my only real gripe with that (apart from the HUGE emphasis on leveling) is that even on RP servers there a virtually noone that roleplays.
 
Darth Bobo said:
I want a MMO that is more focused on skills and abilities than levels, preferably I'd want a MMO without leveling at all (Look to traditional RPG systems like Deadlands / Savage Worlds and to a degree Shadowrun). In addition I want a MMO that actually encourages roleplaying, I recently got into WOW and my only real gripe with that (apart from the HUGE emphasis on leveling) is that even on RP servers there a virtually noone that roleplays.
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I never understood the concept of roleplay, care to enlighten me?
 
Olthgar the barbarian does not answer your foolish question!!!! Tremble in fear before I crush you....




its like playing dress up for big kids. But this way you don't have to wear a dorky costume and scamper through the forest (LARP-ing). its either all in your head/with little figures on a table or on your computer monitor.

it can be kinda fun if you want to be creative and create aback story for your character. Great for people who want to do something creative, but don't have the ability to draw, paint, write a creative dialogue/book/short story and suck at poetry. Or maybe not. :)
 
aFive said:
I never understood the concept of roleplay, care to enlighten me?
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Its a form of player-made content, mostly by acting out a character or player-made storylines. You know, like the phrase "Role Playing Game". Its hidden in the term MMORPG. Actual RP'ers are rare but can sometimes be found in tabletop games like D&D, persistant worlds in NWN/NWN2 and the odd guild in WoW. EVE even has some. Most people just play a game as presented to them without adding their own details, or those details lean towards the metagame.

As for what I want in next-gens:
- a complex, player-driven economy. businesses, crafting, markets.
- large-scale, open-world PvP with consequences. Emphasis on long-term control of territory (by guild/alliance/faction) instead of temporary, non-permanent PvP (no instances). Daoc and Eve style vs WoW style.
- an endgame designed and tested from the start, and ready on release day. Preferably player-based instead of npc-based.
- skill-based character development. This means UO/SWG/EVE style instead of EQ/WoW-style leveling.
- PvE content starting with a strong newbie experience, leading up to endgame, ready from day 1 and not implemented 'later'.

The biggest failing of MMOs so far has been 'not being ready for release'. If the next gen can fix that it would be a nice start.
 
UO used to be great, until they tried to start making it "Fair" and getting a larger base of players and catering the game to that effect. Rather then forcing people to take the time to learn to play solo, or get good groups to fight of PK's, they kept making the game "safer and safer"

That killed all game play fun for me. I think a lot of other games are out there like that as well.

There are some player run UO Shards with old rule sets, but not enough people get on them to make it worth getting back into the game. Nothing really has grabbed me since then, so maybe if they make something similar in the future.

I did to SWG for a bit and tried being a crafter, but after UO it just seemed like too much grinding and leveling.
 
Kickass crafting and home/land/business ownership and numerous other non-combat pursuits. For me the non-combat stuff is what makes the world seem real and alive, and that's what makes it fun
 
Remake: Asherons call <darktide> Best time i have ever had with any mmo hands down nothing compares. This experience puts wow to shame in every way.

And the creation of the carebear stare o.0
 
Take UO, before the first expansion, update graphics.

/thread

UO, which has been the best MMO by far, is still in a class by itself. Nothing has even tried to mimic that type of system. Other than UO, FFXI has been the next best MMO I've played, but it does fail in some respects.

WoW is shit.
 
Nicolaskl said:
Kickass crafting and home/land/business ownership and numerous other non-combat pursuits. For me the non-combat stuff is what makes the world seem real and alive, and that's what makes it fun
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That brings up another point I wondered about. Since the introduction of instances and auction houses (EQ2 and WoW), "businesses" are essentially non existent and other gameplay mechanics that make it easier to buy and sell stuff make it less important to develop the other non-combat pursuits you mentioned, at least from what I knew it as in UO. I think there are a lot of people that would complain about having to buy and sell from a non-centralized location. I'm not sure what my take is on it. It would depend on how the game handled traveling around.

I've read that LOTRO has implemented a system that is kinda in between the two but is missing features people would like (maybe someone can comment on that since I don't know much).
 
zombix said:
Remake: Asherons call <darktide> Best time i have ever had with any mmo hands down nothing compares. This experience puts wow to shame in every way.

And the creation of the carebear stare o.0
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Agreed. Nothing has come close to comparison to Asherons Call. I mean NOTHING. This game was/is so good, graphics took a back seat to gameplay and no one cared cause the gameplay RAWKED that much.

Last I looked, they still have AC going. I think I might have to join back up, cause nothing out right now or in the future is worth my time.
 
An item system more like Diablo. Not saying I want runewords and enigmas souring the game, but the rare item system in Diablo is one of the best item systems I've ever seen in a game. Doesn't it get old when everyone has pretty much the same crap and look the same once they reach a certain level?

NPC's with VOICES for crying out loud, this isn't the 90's, we have huge hard drives capable of storing voices for the friggin NPC's. My favorite games have had some hilarious or out right amazing voice acting. Star Control II anyone? Diablo? Duke Nukem? Etc...they may not all be RPG's, but they helped turn the games into icons. Not only that, but you know you get sick of reading paragraph after paragraph from every NPC to the point to where you just skip over it and miss a lot of the story the game has. I don't think people play WoW for the story...

Better character development, I mean leveling and adding stats is cool but I always liked how in Fable you could get fat, skinny, buff, etc. Or how in Oblivion you could be a vampire. You know just little things like that, helps separate you out of the thousands (or in WoW's millions) of players.

spugnor said:
A crafting system that is actually worth a damn.
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YES!

spugnor said:
The ability to run a business if you desire.
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FINALLY, someone understands! I mean if you could open up any kind of business with contracts to prevent people from scamming, how cool would that be? You could have some sort of bounty business, perform tasks, sell custom whatevers, etc. Skies the limit.

I really dislike Second Life, but you gotta admire the way you can really do whatever you want and your not really limited by anything.

spugnor said:
Every MMO i have ever played is combat based. That is just silly IMHO.
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Indeed it is...Grinding gets really old.

I'd definitely keep the music system that was in LOTRO and apply that to all MMO's because it made something as simple as sitting around in a pub playing music really interactive, where in most games you would play an air guitar.

Stiler said:
Another thing that I think is hurting the MMO genre is instancing. Instancing has some GOOD points to it when it's used correctly, like for a dungeon that's built around offereing specific character/group content that would not generally be able to be done in the open world.
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I agree but I can understand why they do it.

Someone mentioned something like a real time weather system, that would definitely be cool. Areas could flood out, there could be natural disasters, how cool would that be?

Forced grouping and forced soloing is really a downer too, kind of the reason I stopped playing GW (I know...not a true "MMO"). That and a game that has 4 expansion packs gets annoying.

Also combat where the only interaction you have is pushing the damn"1-3-2-7-3-1-7-1" keys gets old. Isn't there SOMETHING that can be done to make it a tad more fun? :confused:

I guess I'm just looking for innovation instead of rehash.
 
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