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How to Make the best MMORPG: the 8 aspects to make a good Game.
Dr4g0nm4n
Member Posts: 6
Okay over the years ive figured out the ideal objectives developers should consider in making an amazing game. (this is long but will make one of the best mmo's)
1.) Questing- Take a guild wars approach not just the go over to the woods and dominate, do a diverse approach, Solving puzzles, riddles, almost like minigames but Quests with rewards, harder quests better rewards.But still keep in those delivery and killing quests, they can be fun too
2.) Housing- everyone like housing, it makes your character That much more unique, instead of having just PvE (player vs. Enviroment) and PvP (Player versus Player) have a 3rd aspect making the game have so much more to do, once your done killing monsters, or your enemies, go to your home, and relax, possibly you could have a graden of some sort to grow materials for cooking proffesions and such.
3.) Proffesions and Crafting- World of Warcraft really nailed this one, the crafting was extremely down to eart, most proffesions lined up with each other really making them exclusive and fun for everyone, also make this a way to get money, people will have another option of making gold or w/e then farming mobs all day.
4.) PvP- Good pvp. no over powered moves or classes, make it so everyone has a chance, but skill will topple over gear any time. Also consider new types of PvP, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, look at halo 3 but put it in a MMO that would be sweet, First to X amount of kills wins etc. Ganking might be fun but allow low level players to have fun too let higher level players fight players around the same level and same for low levels, make it so low levels award no Kill points or w/e
5.) PvE- Another thing wow really hit dead on, Bosses with scripted Phases, this will make the players have a challenge instead of wailing on mobs, make it so final bosses are Hard, Phases are good things to have. Ex. Phase 1: Boss fights normally, Phase 2: when the boss is down 25% life he does a special move that you have to get out of So on and so Forth
6.) Character creation- try to make Players make a unique character but dont over due it make it simple and unique, also have enough races and classes for the player to choose from but make them balanced enough for everyone to enjoy the game equally
7.) Graphics- Try to make it Pretty and 3d , But.. it doesnt have to be pretty to be a good game, look at Blizzard's Diablo 2 (not an MMO) but its graphics werent the best, yet it is oen of the worlds best sellers and greatest games. try to polish it but make sure it doesnt hide the game play. Many games hide there boring gameplay behind pretty graphics.
8.) "Cash Shops"- One of the things players hate most is cash shops, this insanely can make the game unfair. As a F2P game i understand why you would have these cash shops so you can fund yourself the game etc. but instead of being able to buy Over Powered weapons and Potions why dont you sell Leveling Aids, Cool mounts, Housing items, Unique character edits, or stat resets.
These are the main topics Developers should focus on, if anyone else has ideas please reply them i like listening to what you have to say, i hope you agreed with what i said and enjoyed the read Thank you Leave feedback or reply 
Comments
I agree with most of this especially the cash shop part I say down with cash shops, I rather be able to play a 10 day free trial download of the game off the website then If i still like it after 10 days Pay hell I wouldnt mind paying 100 dollars for a hard copy of the game with no subscription fee and no cash shop, Id even pay 150 dollars for a game with no subscription fee and no cash shop, Just give me 10 free days to try it first.
what you said about Guild Wars is WHY i am looking forward to GW2 i mean you can not beat the PVE gameplay in GW ...GWEN was one of the greatest expansions of all time.....GW has come so far for a game with no Sub fee..GW has always had great expansions..Factions took PvP too a greater level...NF brought back the PVE that Faction was slipping on...Mix that with Hardmode and now you have another 3 games.....then GWEN came out and Everyone loved it and it really brought people together...(too bad i always looked at GW with as a PvPer..and when they destroyed HA i couldn't really go on and i had done everything anyway....the games not title wise....
and the PvP section is just about how WAR is doing it
but all the things mention are good and player house should really be in major MMOs DAoC had it and i loved it
9.) Your community/fan base- They are what will keep your game running and keep you getting a paycheck every month. There input is possibly the most important game development/idea source you will ever have, keep them sweet and keep good relations with them and you will have a good starting point in the industry.
i dont agree with 3.
WoW did not nail it on the head, far from it. i agree, crafting should be a good way to make money (to hell with what everyone thinks. who makes all the money in the world? merchants and people who make goods? or the guys running around making deliveries and butchering animals?) it should infact be more profitable than mindless grinding.
i think a more complex crafting system is ideal or, at the very least viable system. currently all the stuff you make is usually 5-20 levels below what you currently are and to top it all off, is usually crap. it frustrates me when i need to be a 250 miner/blacksmith or an artisan miner and weaponsmith at lvl 25 just to get decent gear.
aside from that i think your spot on
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
you had some very nice points thank you for replying i also liked what you said about pvp
thanks for replying
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Top MMORPG Features
1. WORLD IMMERSION
When people love the world, they tend to love the game. A world that is rich with lore, character, diverse civilizations and geography with a sense of exploration is a huge seller.
As games feel more confined and more limited, world immersion actually becomes more important.
2. CUSTOMIZATION
Similar to world immersion, when people are attached to their characters, they are attached to the game. Players, however, become attached to their characters when their charactesr are:
3. COMMUNITY
When people enjoy the community, they much less likely to click "cancel." The game will provide something "socially" to the players that will prevent them from easily "giving-up."
4. QUESTS (real quests)
A journey that makes you feel as if your character, in this fascinating world, not only accomplishes something particularly challenging and worthy but developers her character and impacts the world at the same time. Deep questing is way underestimated and mostly poorly implemented. A shame, really, bring back the creative writers!
5. ACCESSIBILITY
You need the ability for players to click log-in, zone-in, and be able to immediately do "stuff." It could be professions, Quests, boring and predictable tasks, travel/exploration, etc. People with only 15 minutes of time need to use that time productively.
Developers lose enormous market when they do not make the game accessible to those who can only play for 20 minutes to an hour each day.
LFG features is a part of accessibility, and there is so much room for improvement it is ridiculous. EQ 2 has a system of "mentoring" that is awesome. It is easy to do, practical, and fun.
1. I think questing should be there to add variety and not be the focus of the game. There should be other equally viable ways of getting to where you want to go experience wise, if indeed you're still talking about a level based game.
2. I can go either way on the housing thing. I don't particularly care much for it but I do recognize that there are a few people out there who enjoy this kind of stuff and therefore I say put it in. If it provides a larger player base to interact with then all the better... as long as it does not turn into WoW community.
3. I'll agree with a bunch of the other posters when I tell you that the crafting in WoW was mediocre at best. Good amount of the stuff you made was relatively useless. The level of craft did not keep pace with the level of the character. For you to make things that you need to use at the time you'd have to go into places you could not to gather the resources or spend an arm and a leg on the auction house to buy it and thus bankrupting yourself in the process. I really think you should go experience crafting in other games before you choose to settle on WoW's model.
4. No more instanced PVP! EVER! There is no way I can place Capture the Flag into a fantasy setting. Perhaps if it was some other genre maybe but still. Segregating people into small zones with limited number of people removes the randomness, the thrill of the unknown. I'd much rather be ransacking some village then capturing some unimportant flag. Make PVP matter. Make what is accomplished in PVP affect the rest of the game. Have bonuses given to your side as you conquer more territory, or capture some magical item of grand importance that will boost the productivity of your crafters, or increase the potency of your magic or melee. Move away from the Good VS Evil 2 sided games. Make an uneven number like 3, 5, 7 or whatnot. Remove predictability.
5. I'm not much of a PVE person so I won't have much constructive stuff to add here. As long as there's other ways to get things such as loot from say crafters or PvP rewards then I don't really care how they do it as long as it makes some people happy.
6. I think they should go the way of City of Heroes when it comes to character creation. However this might backfire since most of the time the "uniqueness" of a character is usually buried beneath all the fancy armor and weapons. I think what they might do here is instead give a large amount of armor dyes and give crafters the ability to modify how things look before they make them.
7. Graphics don't have to be stellar since a few months into the game I'm usually more focused on the game play and the people I'm playing with then the visuals. In some games I've disabled the fancy blinding spell explosions just because after a while it starts to annoy me. I'd say just make it functional.
8. No cash shops. I'll agree with you here. Just no.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Lets see.
1.) Travel - upon account/character creation you should be allowed to travel anywhere in that gaming world by just opening the map and clicking on the destination.
2.) Level/skill level - upon account/character creation you should have the option to skip all content in the game and go directly to max level. Ingame GMs will assist you with completing instances either by playing the npc themselves or putting them on autopilot.
3.) No money - there will be no price or cost on anything in the game. Just bring up a item search and type in the name of the item you want, whether it be common, rare, veteran, etc... if you are paying you deserve all things in the game even if the account is only 1 day old and the game has been running for 10 years.
4.) Ignore all players - referencing 2.) with an optional no interaction with any other player character thats being played by another subscriber. Options include total invisibilty, personal instances, and entire personal gameworld.
5.) Be anything at anytime - bored with waiting for that crafter friend of yours to log in? Just bring up your friend list and type /copy skills to give your character 10 hours of temporary maxed profession so you can make that uber item instantly!
6.) Housing - living quarters, no just for putting crafted items anymore! In-game housing provides a full virtual gaming system(monitor, pc, keyboard, mouse) inside the game so you don't have to leave your house to enjoy the game even more.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Good thread
9) Get rid of level-based systems forever and make it so that combat requires active hitting and blocking instead of being a spectator watching your character fight. Character stats should still be important but not more than the actual player skill. How about 50/50?
10) Interesting quests OR no quest at all. Never a NPC should ask a player to kill 35 boars just so he can make a crappy soup.
11) Combat should not be the only thing to do. Building cities, forming a society and exploring the world should be as interesting as killing monsters/players.
12) Sandbox, sandbox, sandbox! We need freedom. Don't hold my hand, I'm a grown man.
13) Danger. I want to think twice before leaving my city alone and unprepared.
I could add so much to this list but I have to go now
Good post.
www.oblinq.com/SnowmonkeysTemple/
I like a quest about once per 5 levels. Like a big quest to upgrade armor every 5 levels or so that you have to do with a group.
Otherwise, I don't do quests if I can help it, and I prefer to grind on mobs with a group.
Did not like Guild Wars. Didn't like the instancing, didn't like the character progression.
Housing? Why in the world would I need a house? I need a bank to keep excess money and items, but I can't see any reason I need a house. I'm not logging on the play decorator, I'm logging on to get in a pick up group, and kill Mobs, make levels, get phat lewt, and PvP. A house doesnt' help me do any of that.
I agree about games with item malls. I won't play them.