1. Dynamic and varied gameplay... Content adjusts to level/skill of character, innovative and creative content that is not repeat of previous quests/mission with different text... built for both hardcore and casual, and for both solo/group.. give players choice and reward them for choices they make, not force them into making a certain choice. most of all fun and engaging, not repetitive and bland. exceptional combat, crafting, and social system's that reward skill/talent of player not amount of time/money invested through grinding. 2. Highly customizable avatar/character.... Tons of options at character creation, ability to customize character appearance in game with ability to dye/hue armors/clothes, change hairstyles, hide/show certain armor pieces/clothing, modify way character walks, runs, swings/uses weapons, even what kind of stance they take, how they ride... thousands of possible combinations of skills/abilities and customized character builds, no "cookie cutter" class builds or forced builds for group play 3. Strong story driven gameplay, exciting PVE experience that tailors itself to what you do, the path you decide to take. a game world with true consequence to actions and effect on whole game world. deep and involved, player characters need to feel as if they have a permanence, importance in world not just another adventurer 4. exceptional PVP gameplay that is fair and balanced, skill/talent driven rather then gear dependant. Varied and exciting mini-game type "battlegrounds" for quick play, arena system for competitive ladder play, massive world-spanning gameplay allowing players to control the maps/resources in a never ended struggle for dominance, rewarding leaders and their entire army/world/race/etc. 5. steady and feverish pursuit by developers to add new content, correct bug/balance/technical issues, improve and enhance the experience, listening to play suggestions and providing world class customer service/assistance.
QFT.
And I want to add something that may come off as silly, but I want Collision Detection! No more walking through characters and trees.
1. Skill progession rather than level. No classes, you train what you want, would keep the game more interresting for me.
2. Impact on the world - I want to feel like I actually effect the world in some ways, that my actions change something, even if it's just tiny little things within the world that are effected, that'd really help immersion.
3. Meaningful PvE, not just for the gear, I want a truely interresting story as to why I am fighting some big dragon.
4. Housing/Territory - Player owned houses (visible) is nice, along with player owned cities, where diplomacy can take place, economies are formed.
5. Meaningful PvP - To go along with territor and housing, I'd love for PvP to really mean something. Like fighting for players territory.
3. Instances that are available to everyone, i.e. they don't put you and your group in your own world. For instance, (pardon the pun) you get a mission to take something out. It's location is the same place you happen to travel everyday and no one is there, now there is. Not a place where people can camp waiting for the NPC's to spawn.
4. Areas you can go where pvp is allowed yet going there you will find more/better items/money.
5. The ability to own land, either by purchasing or by conqering as an idividual or group/clan/gang/corporation.
6. Ability to build all but the very elite items.
I tried to keep it to 5. I'll probably have more in a few minutes so i should post now.
These are more desires/likes than "must-haves" because I play and will play games that don't fulfill them all, or even any of them.
1. no instancing
2. non instanced player housing
3. crafters player driven market
4. skill based (ala UO, EVE)
5. PvP
That said, I'll be playing LOTRO (I simply HAVE to). Vanguard is also tempting though it has stuff I don't like much. Plus my PC can hardly handle it and a new on is outr of the question
- Unlimited /ignore list for chat, covers trade and party invites as well.
- Zero tolerance for gold farmers, aggressive, quick investigations when players report gold farming activities
- A player bounty system, and PVP any where except cities
- XP and item loss upon death in PVE and PVP
- Player-controlled economic and political system
A game with all of these features implimented correctly would never attract the massive number of players needed to make a profit from a professionally designed game that cost millions to develop. But, well, that's my list.
1. Dynamic and varied gameplay... Content adjusts to level/skill of character, innovative and creative content that is not repeat of previous quests/mission with different text... built for both hardcore and casual, and for both solo/group.. give players choice and reward them for choices they make, not force them into making a certain choice. most of all fun and engaging, not repetitive and bland. exceptional combat, crafting, and social system's that reward skill/talent of player not amount of time/money invested through grinding. 2. Highly customizable avatar/character.... Tons of options at character creation, ability to customize character appearance in game with ability to dye/hue armors/clothes, change hairstyles, hide/show certain armor pieces/clothing, modify way character walks, runs, swings/uses weapons, even what kind of stance they take, how they ride... thousands of possible combinations of skills/abilities and customized character builds, no "cookie cutter" class builds or forced builds for group play 3. Strong story driven gameplay, exciting PVE experience that tailors itself to what you do, the path you decide to take. a game world with true consequence to actions and effect on whole game world. deep and involved, player characters need to feel as if they have a permanence, importance in world not just another adventurer 4. exceptional PVP gameplay that is fair and balanced, skill/talent driven rather then gear dependant. Varied and exciting mini-game type "battlegrounds" for quick play, arena system for competitive ladder play, massive world-spanning gameplay allowing players to control the maps/resources in a never ended struggle for dominance, rewarding leaders and their entire army/world/race/etc. 5. steady and feverish pursuit by developers to add new content, correct bug/balance/technical issues, improve and enhance the experience, listening to play suggestions and providing world class customer service/assistance.
Sadly, UO was the best, most innovative MMORPG ever made... 10+ years ago. But you can only play one game for so long, so it's not all that playable (especially now that they changed it too much, but even player run shards just arent the same).
That said:
1. non consensual PVP with safe zones in towns and punishments for PKs
2. housing with a purpose (storage, guildhousing, etc)
4. non-sandwich pvp. UO style pvp where the person's gaming ability matters more than some magic item or level
5. focus on Players interacting with each other - forget lame quests and PvE. PvE should be almost ignored - MMORPGs will never be able to compete with offline RPGs in terms of story or cool monster fights and that's fine because the coolest fight in a MMORPG should be one you had against a real PERSON/Guild and not a friggin monster... otherwise why make it online?
Basically: WoW's interface/graphics + UO's rules would be the ideal game. Just make UO again with good graphics (not that crap update OSI is making).
NOTE: by "UO" I mean the UO from 5 years ago before Trammel/T2A.... not the weird shit they have out now.
3. Instances that are available to everyone, i.e. they don't put you and your group in your own world. For instance, (pardon the pun) you get a mission to take something out. It's location is the same place you happen to travel everyday and no one is there, now there is. Not a place where people can camp waiting for the NPC's to spawn.
4. Areas you can go where pvp is allowed yet going there you will find more/better items/money.
5. The ability to own land, either by purchasing or by conqering as an idividual or group/clan/gang/corporation.
6. Ability to build all but the very elite items.
I tried to keep it to 5. I'll probably have more in a few minutes so i should post now.
LOL
you must be an EVE player, for sure is it that obvious
Honestly, I dont care what my face or your face looks like really. Half the time its under a helmet or too small to see. Sure a few things are nice, but most games now spend so much cutomization on something I never see rather than something I see like Cloths. More armor variation is always a plus in my mind. I think the value of cloths customization is highly under-rated. I want cusomization people can see. Also as sombody said earlier... chose your own combat animations, select your own waiting stance. Things like this could really allow players to add their own little flare to their character and really make it your own, and its something you see, unlike your face.
2)PvP and PvE working together:
I know this is mind boggling but I would love to see a game where Both PvP and PvE come together with one goal. For example, guild have a base. The base is maintained via PvE Goals, killing raid bosses for things for the Base and getting things to help in defending the base. Where the Base is also used in World PvP for controlling territory. The PvE content not only helps the PvE players, by giving them raid specific armor, perhaps only usuable in raids or receives a buff in PvE raid situation. But Also helps PvP'ers. Where as PvP'ers deal with Player Vs Player and help get their guild status, and perhaps buffs for the amount of land they control which could buff the Guildies doing PvE. A system like this allows for interaction between the two different play styles that both help eachother and allows them to play together, but doing things they enjoy.
3)Instancing!
Instances were perhaps one of the greatest things to hit MMORPGs in a long time. The difference between Raids in EQ, and FFXI and WoW or new SWG content or AO is amazing. WIth Instances you can have instanced encounters, that are in a more controlled enviroment for PvE players, who want to work together as a team to accomplish goals, not get ganked or compete to see who can throw enough bodies at the raid boss to win. It prevents zerging and allows for very elaborate and exciting strategies to be implemented. It is the savior of PvE content, and should be used to its greatest advantage.
4)Loadingscreens be Gone!
I want to see these horrible abominations of gaming begone. They have been around for far too long, and in my mind was one of the biggest problems with EQ2. WoW had it much better with only loading across continents or ships. But I would like to see much more creative ways to avoid loading screens, they are out there, but its just not being used, and this is something I can't wait to say goodbye to.
5)COSMETICS!
I want to be highlevel, but I want to look cool. Everyone has their own idea of whats cool and I want to look like the hero in my head. Sometimes im just logged on to lounge around and vegitate , I dont own a TV and sometimes I just need to kill time. I want to look cool I was to be able to just look impressive. I want to be able to show off. I want lotsa titles for ingame accomplishments. I want fancy things I get from killing hard things. I want to be able to flaunt my abilities and my successes. I think most poeple would agree they dont just want their stats to reflect their abilities, but also how they look.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Why only five? The massive list of features I'd like would all have to be integrated just right for them to be functional... and, I've found that the features never make the game... they just draw people to the game. Look at Horizons: The features on Horizons were amazing - most of which have not been duplicated since... but, the game didn't make it.
- lots of weapons and armos, I mean come on , they design a whole city, but making just couple more armors and items would kill them?
- real-life based things like marry ur lover, do jobs like farming,mining,cooking
- A map that feels realistic. there must be alot of difference in things like trees and grass.Im tired of maps in games, with a copied ground( its just 1 little piece of map, for example 1 grass typed ground , and they copy it 100000 times to fit the map.
thats fucking lame.
- SKILLS! ohyea, make creative skills.let players make their own choices of skills.not that everyone at lvl 14 has the same skills. just like at armors and weapons, it wouldn't kill them make some more skills. because these things makes it addictive. U want to reach that lvl to do that skill. so it has to be good and creative.
1 skill based- with limits to how many skills you can use in one situation
2 open world- physiclly open while it makes sense to have the narrow channel feeling you get in MMO's in some places. it's boring to have everywhere. IE. not feeling cramped up, a swamp smashed next to islands to the north, forests to the west, city to the east and desert to the south. it doesn't make sense.
3. crafting, crafting, crafting. crafting being a major aspect of the game, best gear from crafting.
4. real monster loot. I want bones, furs, meats from butchering. as a matter of fact you could even go a route and have say there be no or very few metals on your games planet IE crafting materials(I know ryozom did it along with a few console games), after all devs think people like bashing monsters heads in.
5 community aspects. doesn't matter what they are as long as they are there. you need to go further than just guilds that are there to take out boss #34652 type B. guilds declaring allegiances to towns, controling the towns policies all the way down to declaring war(guild leader getting a vote in a senate type thing for every 10th player).
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
if devs of a new game came to you for advice because you had some experience, they would be very disapointed when they leave =p People aren't listing advice that will make a popular mmo, they don't even list advice that would make a good mmo. They list advice of ither new things they thought about would be cool to have in game, or some ideas they always wanted to see in an mmo. Bottom line is though, if devs implemented all of the 5 advice by almost anyone in this thread, that mmo would be a major failure for a number of reasons.
I actually have no features, but 5 basic concepts that current MMOs are amazingly screwing up.
1) FUN GAMEPLAY. It should be obvious, but is rarely mentioned. No current MMO that I've played has this, most have gameplay that seems an afterthought built around the hamster wheel. An MMO should have gameplay that would make a fun game even if you were playing for no rewards.
2) UNIQUE CHARACTERS. I want to look different than the guy or girl next to me. I want to have different abilities, and a different status in the world. Players all having the same body with 12 different heads is crap. Everyone in my class having the same skills is crap. Everyone getting the same reaction from NPCs in the world is crap.
3) CHOICES THAT MATTER. There are limits to how much you can affect an online world, but there's no excuse for how lazy current game developers have been. How can you immerse yourself in the role of a hero (or villain, etc) if the game is built like a theme park of attractions?
4) NO END GAME. Gameplay should not suddenly change. Character building should not end If items can be upgraded forever, why do characters have to hit a wall, other than poor design? If the game becomes a bait and switch experience when you hit the highest content, the game is broken.
5) MEANINGFUL PLAYER COMPETITION. This doesn't have to be PvP, and definitely is not "gank random people for kicks". But it must have a meaningful impact on the world, not be a tacked-on sideshow.
1.) Elimination of the "More Time = Better" factor. The game shouldn't have to be my life in order to keep up with the population. In most MMOs, a person who has a job and responsibilities will never be able to compete with someone who plays for five (or fifteen - don't lie, you've seen 'em) hours every day. I should be able to put in an hour or two every couple of days or a nice four-hour stint on the weekend and still be able to keep pace. Getting "hahaha lrn2ply n00d"ed by someone who doesn't have to make the rent and knowing that I can never grind the hours necessary to catch up doesn't add to my playing experience. Time shouldn't be able to eclipse skill. This is not an endorsement for low level caps - that stifles the feeling of meaningful character progression.
2.) Highbie/Lowbie integration/reliance. A lot of the games I've played recently seem to be solely for the high-level players, and they have no use for the lowbies. As a result, a lot of the game turns into work, something that has to be drudgingly done in order to get to the fun. If you do end up running into someone of a higher level, they have absolutely no incentive to lend you a hand or to have anything at all to do with you (or you with them). I'd like to see a game where high-level players need to rely on low-level players to get ancillary tasks accomplished, complete minor quests, or fill roles in which they might be capable. This in turn would cause the lowbies to look up to the highbies as leaders... heck, anything other than in an annoying "giv gold plz kthx" mentality would be refreshing. The jobbing system in Puzzle Pirates is a nice example of this sort of community behavior.
3.) Harvestable/craftable item consistency, variety and complexity. Every mob corpse should be harvestable for the same sorts of goods (like skin, hair, organs, meat) in a consistent fashion - one should only need to kill 20 bears to get 20 bear livers (unless you by chance destroyed it in killing the mob). A character's ability to get these harvestable items should be in some way mutually exclusive to prevent economic inflation (skin but no meat, etc) and skill-based for varying item qualities. Crafting needs to be as complex as the materials available in the world, and meaningful as well.
4.) Realistic milieu. There should be no global communication. You shouldn't be able to communicate with anyone not in earshot. No whispering to people with whom you aren't in hand-to-hand melee range. Mobs should have realistic lines of sight, areas of hearing and zones of smelling - and should aggro accordingly. Collision detection. Long-distance travel should take a long while, and be by some sort of caravaning quest, not by some winged taxi. If you want to quest with your mates, then you and your mates should stick together and remain in the same area. The world should be suitably large (unlike WoW, which could easily fit into a large park) with undocumented and unexplored frontiers. Player-created structures/ excavations. Noone can run and fight non-stop all day without dropping dead of exhaustion, and neither should your character. The world history or backstory should also give a good reason why there are hordes of violent and disposable cads running about. There should be cases where people depart for destinations unknown and aren't seen again. There should be a palpable sense of the unknown beyond the frontiers of your own experience or the tales of the locals, and none of this strategy-guide omniscience. The game should feel real enough to be able to tell a consistent and realistic story about your adventures, not about how many Chuck Norris jokes you had to listen to while getting your dodge skill to 40.
5.) A team with the brains, dedication and magic (because, frankly, most of the above is impossible) to put it all together in a pleasant package and to keep working hard to make sure it retains the luster week in and year out - and I'm only half talking about the development team. Communities make or break these games.
1)Little no grind offcourse 2)Great graphics offcourse 3) Many kinds of armor for each level...offcourse again 4) Quick leveling or no leveling at all 5) grouping required.(if you go anyware alone you will almost certainly die.
im sorry for double post but i have to re think this.
Comments
And I want to add something that may come off as silly, but I want Collision Detection! No more walking through characters and trees.
haha I totally agree with both of you!
2. Impact on the world - I want to feel like I actually effect the world in some ways, that my actions change something, even if it's just tiny little things within the world that are effected, that'd really help immersion.
3. Meaningful PvE, not just for the gear, I want a truely interresting story as to why I am fighting some big dragon.
4. Housing/Territory - Player owned houses (visible) is nice, along with player owned cities, where diplomacy can take place, economies are formed.
5. Meaningful PvP - To go along with territor and housing, I'd love for PvP to really mean something. Like fighting for players territory.
you must be an EVE player, for sure
1. no instancing
2. non instanced player housing
3. crafters player driven market
4. skill based (ala UO, EVE)
5. PvP
That said, I'll be playing LOTRO (I simply HAVE to). Vanguard is also tempting though it has stuff I don't like much. Plus my PC can hardly handle it and a new on is outr of the question
<aref="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="rift guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-rift/14060_d62c0a5a4ba0df2e.png"></a>;
Hard to only list five but here I go:
- Unlimited /ignore list for chat, covers trade and party invites as well.
- Zero tolerance for gold farmers, aggressive, quick investigations when players report gold farming activities
- A player bounty system, and PVP any where except cities
- XP and item loss upon death in PVE and PVP
- Player-controlled economic and political system
A game with all of these features implimented correctly would never attract the massive number of players needed to make a profit from a professionally designed game that cost millions to develop. But, well, that's my list.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
- Unrestricted PvP
- Seamless world, no instances
- Diverse character customization
- Player-driven economy and politics
www.blacklistedclan.com
That said:
1. non consensual PVP with safe zones in towns and punishments for PKs
2. housing with a purpose (storage, guildhousing, etc)
3. cool/controllable transportation: mounts, boats, etc
4. non-sandwich pvp. UO style pvp where the person's gaming ability matters more than some magic item or level
5. focus on Players interacting with each other - forget lame quests and PvE. PvE should be almost ignored - MMORPGs will never be able to compete with offline RPGs in terms of story or cool monster fights and that's fine because the coolest fight in a MMORPG should be one you had against a real PERSON/Guild and not a friggin monster... otherwise why make it online?
Basically: WoW's interface/graphics + UO's rules would be the ideal game. Just make UO again with good graphics (not that crap update OSI is making).
NOTE: by "UO" I mean the UO from 5 years ago before Trammel/T2A.... not the weird shit they have out now.
you must be an EVE player, for sure
1)Customization that doesnt involve your face:
Honestly, I dont care what my face or your face looks like really. Half the time its under a helmet or too small to see. Sure a few things are nice, but most games now spend so much cutomization on something I never see rather than something I see like Cloths. More armor variation is always a plus in my mind. I think the value of cloths customization is highly under-rated. I want cusomization people can see. Also as sombody said earlier... chose your own combat animations, select your own waiting stance. Things like this could really allow players to add their own little flare to their character and really make it your own, and its something you see, unlike your face.
2)PvP and PvE working together:
I know this is mind boggling but I would love to see a game where Both PvP and PvE come together with one goal. For example, guild have a base. The base is maintained via PvE Goals, killing raid bosses for things for the Base and getting things to help in defending the base. Where the Base is also used in World PvP for controlling territory. The PvE content not only helps the PvE players, by giving them raid specific armor, perhaps only usuable in raids or receives a buff in PvE raid situation. But Also helps PvP'ers. Where as PvP'ers deal with Player Vs Player and help get their guild status, and perhaps buffs for the amount of land they control which could buff the Guildies doing PvE. A system like this allows for interaction between the two different play styles that both help eachother and allows them to play together, but doing things they enjoy.
3)Instancing!
Instances were perhaps one of the greatest things to hit MMORPGs in a long time. The difference between Raids in EQ, and FFXI and WoW or new SWG content or AO is amazing. WIth Instances you can have instanced encounters, that are in a more controlled enviroment for PvE players, who want to work together as a team to accomplish goals, not get ganked or compete to see who can throw enough bodies at the raid boss to win. It prevents zerging and allows for very elaborate and exciting strategies to be implemented. It is the savior of PvE content, and should be used to its greatest advantage.
4)Loadingscreens be Gone!
I want to see these horrible abominations of gaming begone. They have been around for far too long, and in my mind was one of the biggest problems with EQ2. WoW had it much better with only loading across continents or ships. But I would like to see much more creative ways to avoid loading screens, they are out there, but its just not being used, and this is something I can't wait to say goodbye to.
5)COSMETICS!
I want to be highlevel, but I want to look cool. Everyone has their own idea of whats cool and I want to look like the hero in my head. Sometimes im just logged on to lounge around and vegitate , I dont own a TV and sometimes I just need to kill time. I want to look cool I was to be able to just look impressive. I want to be able to show off. I want lotsa titles for ingame accomplishments. I want fancy things I get from killing hard things. I want to be able to flaunt my abilities and my successes. I think most poeple would agree they dont just want their stats to reflect their abilities, but also how they look.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Why only five? The massive list of features I'd like would all have to be integrated just right for them to be functional... and, I've found that the features never make the game... they just draw people to the game. Look at Horizons: The features on Horizons were amazing - most of which have not been duplicated since... but, the game didn't make it.
- Instances used VERY sparringly. Maybe just for the intro levels as dungeons to help tell the story.
-Skill & Level based
-Story Driven
-No pre-determined "side"
-RvR PvP, not FFA
1) FFA PvP
2) Corse-Looting (100%)
3) No Instances
4) Housing
5) No Classes (Skill-based play)
Pvp
Decent Char Customization
Sieve Warfare
Housing
Wide race/class pool
1.-4. Everything that Darkfall has.
5. Must not include "vaporware" feature.
- A lot of choices between classes and races.
- lots of weapons and armos, I mean come on , they design a whole city, but making just couple more armors and items would kill them?
- real-life based things like marry ur lover, do jobs like farming,mining,cooking
- A map that feels realistic. there must be alot of difference in things like trees and grass.Im tired of maps in games, with a copied ground( its just 1 little piece of map, for example 1 grass typed ground , and they copy it 100000 times to fit the map.
thats fucking lame.
- SKILLS! ohyea, make creative skills.let players make their own choices of skills.not that everyone at lvl 14 has the same skills. just like at armors and weapons, it wouldn't kill them make some more skills. because these things makes it addictive. U want to reach that lvl to do that skill. so it has to be good and creative.
1 skill based- with limits to how many skills you can use in one situation
2 open world- physiclly open while it makes sense to have the narrow channel feeling you get in MMO's in some places. it's boring to have everywhere. IE. not feeling cramped up, a swamp smashed next to islands to the north, forests to the west, city to the east and desert to the south. it doesn't make sense.
3. crafting, crafting, crafting. crafting being a major aspect of the game, best gear from crafting.
4. real monster loot. I want bones, furs, meats from butchering. as a matter of fact you could even go a route and have say there be no or very few metals on your games planet IE crafting materials(I know ryozom did it along with a few console games), after all devs think people like bashing monsters heads in.
5 community aspects. doesn't matter what they are as long as they are there. you need to go further than just guilds that are there to take out boss #34652 type B. guilds declaring allegiances to towns, controling the towns policies all the way down to declaring war(guild leader getting a vote in a senate type thing for every 10th player).
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
if devs of a new game came to you for advice because you had some experience, they would be very disapointed when they leave =p People aren't listing advice that will make a popular mmo, they don't even list advice that would make a good mmo. They list advice of ither new things they thought about would be cool to have in game, or some ideas they always wanted to see in an mmo. Bottom line is though, if devs implemented all of the 5 advice by almost anyone in this thread, that mmo would be a major failure for a number of reasons.
no leveling, good combat system, non-gear based combat, inventive storyline and lore, moderate-good graphics
I actually have no features, but 5 basic concepts that current MMOs are amazingly screwing up.
1) FUN GAMEPLAY. It should be obvious, but is rarely mentioned. No current MMO that I've played has this, most have gameplay that seems an afterthought built around the hamster wheel. An MMO should have gameplay that would make a fun game even if you were playing for no rewards.
2) UNIQUE CHARACTERS. I want to look different than the guy or girl next to me. I want to have different abilities, and a different status in the world. Players all having the same body with 12 different heads is crap. Everyone in my class having the same skills is crap. Everyone getting the same reaction from NPCs in the world is crap.
3) CHOICES THAT MATTER. There are limits to how much you can affect an online world, but there's no excuse for how lazy current game developers have been. How can you immerse yourself in the role of a hero (or villain, etc) if the game is built like a theme park of attractions?
4) NO END GAME. Gameplay should not suddenly change. Character building should not end If items can be upgraded forever, why do characters have to hit a wall, other than poor design? If the game becomes a bait and switch experience when you hit the highest content, the game is broken.
5) MEANINGFUL PLAYER COMPETITION. This doesn't have to be PvP, and definitely is not "gank random people for kicks". But it must have a meaningful impact on the world, not be a tacked-on sideshow.
(Can you tell I'm not currently playing an MMO?)
1.) Elimination of the "More Time = Better" factor. The game shouldn't have to be my life in order to keep up with the population. In most MMOs, a person who has a job and responsibilities will never be able to compete with someone who plays for five (or fifteen - don't lie, you've seen 'em) hours every day. I should be able to put in an hour or two every couple of days or a nice four-hour stint on the weekend and still be able to keep pace. Getting "hahaha lrn2ply n00d"ed by someone who doesn't have to make the rent and knowing that I can never grind the hours necessary to catch up doesn't add to my playing experience. Time shouldn't be able to eclipse skill. This is not an endorsement for low level caps - that stifles the feeling of meaningful character progression.
2.) Highbie/Lowbie integration/reliance. A lot of the games I've played recently seem to be solely for the high-level players, and they have no use for the lowbies. As a result, a lot of the game turns into work, something that has to be drudgingly done in order to get to the fun. If you do end up running into someone of a higher level, they have absolutely no incentive to lend you a hand or to have anything at all to do with you (or you with them). I'd like to see a game where high-level players need to rely on low-level players to get ancillary tasks accomplished, complete minor quests, or fill roles in which they might be capable. This in turn would cause the lowbies to look up to the highbies as leaders... heck, anything other than in an annoying "giv gold plz kthx" mentality would be refreshing. The jobbing system in Puzzle Pirates is a nice example of this sort of community behavior.
3.) Harvestable/craftable item consistency, variety and complexity. Every mob corpse should be harvestable for the same sorts of goods (like skin, hair, organs, meat) in a consistent fashion - one should only need to kill 20 bears to get 20 bear livers (unless you by chance destroyed it in killing the mob). A character's ability to get these harvestable items should be in some way mutually exclusive to prevent economic inflation (skin but no meat, etc) and skill-based for varying item qualities. Crafting needs to be as complex as the materials available in the world, and meaningful as well.
4.) Realistic milieu. There should be no global communication. You shouldn't be able to communicate with anyone not in earshot. No whispering to people with whom you aren't in hand-to-hand melee range. Mobs should have realistic lines of sight, areas of hearing and zones of smelling - and should aggro accordingly. Collision detection. Long-distance travel should take a long while, and be by some sort of caravaning quest, not by some winged taxi. If you want to quest with your mates, then you and your mates should stick together and remain in the same area. The world should be suitably large (unlike WoW, which could easily fit into a large park) with undocumented and unexplored frontiers. Player-created structures/ excavations. Noone can run and fight non-stop all day without dropping dead of exhaustion, and neither should your character. The world history or backstory should also give a good reason why there are hordes of violent and disposable cads running about. There should be cases where people depart for destinations unknown and aren't seen again. There should be a palpable sense of the unknown beyond the frontiers of your own experience or the tales of the locals, and none of this strategy-guide omniscience. The game should feel real enough to be able to tell a consistent and realistic story about your adventures, not about how many Chuck Norris jokes you had to listen to while getting your dodge skill to 40.
5.) A team with the brains, dedication and magic (because, frankly, most of the above is impossible) to put it all together in a pleasant package and to keep working hard to make sure it retains the luster week in and year out - and I'm only half talking about the development team. Communities make or break these games.
1)Little no grind offcourse
2)Great graphics offcourse
3) Many kinds of armor for each level...offcourse again
4) Quick leveling or no leveling at all
5) grouping required.(if you go anyware alone you will almost certainly die.
EVERYTHING IN EVE ONLINE BUT BETTER GRAPHICS