Here's what people like to do in games (well, some of us, anyway - the ones that are bored to death with the current formula): customize our characters, strategicially develop them over time, and not be limited in how we explore or play the game. We also do not want to be forced to grind or spend hours and hours in the game doing the same ^%&*&(&*% thing we've done for too many hours in the past in other games. Heres my short list of true innovations to create some revolutionary games: 1) STOP THE END-GAME MADNESS - having a specific "end game" coerces all the game content into serving that end game, and being coded and built around it. Everything becomes about whether or not something is good or efficient in the end-game scenario. Make the game more lateral than linear; provide customization and development options, not a funnel everyone is herded down. Have soloer, group, and raid content; have combat and crafting content; have social achievement content - in other words, expand content laterally, not just linearally. 2) DO AWAY WITH CLASSES - Champions online is doing a great job at allowing the player to fully customize their character with a full costume and power set they design. Give players a number of customization points and let them pick and choose their initial power/ability set as they wish; let them create their own costumes and clothes and design their own weapons; if someone wants to be a cleric with a side of martial arts mastery, let 'em. Yes, there might be some very powerful combinations ... so what? Balance is only necessary if there is an end game rope around the necks of the devleopers, and we've already done away with it. 3) OFFLINE ADVANCEMENT - for the love of god, don't make us do this same &(*(()_***+#!^% over and over and over ... we've seen that movie many times. Let us set our character to study while we are offline in any one of several avenues of advancement we wish, changing the nature of the game from a massive time/grind sink to a more of a character development strategy game. Have dozens of trees of advancment one can pursue, and make it so you can organize your character's time (while you're offline) to pursue them - the catch, of course, is that your character can only pursue one line of advancement at a time. You can set your character to pursue some particular combat expertise for 10 hrs, then pursue a crafting expertise for 4 hrs, and then log in and assign points and explore your new abilities and find new (meaningful) quests. And yes, make faction and WORKING (i.e., collecing in-game money) something you can set your character to do while offline. While doing the same thing over and over is boring; creating new characters and developing their customized talent combinations and growth over time is fun ... if one didn't have to commit to all the mind-numbing repetitive exp quests and key-bashing hours of killing the same monsters over and over. That might be kind of fun the first time we play an MMOG: we're over it now. It's boring. Get rid of it. 4) NO THROW-AWAY QUESTS - Do your eyes gloss over when you get a quest? Do you even bother reading the quest? Do you just rush through it because it's the fastest way to level and get past all the boring shinola you have to do to get to do the interesting stuff, like exploring your talent/ability trees and gaining new abilities? How about this: make quests mean something. If we get to DESiGN our own weapons and armor, how about having the quests - even the very first quests at level 1 or so - about adding stats to your character, to your weapon, to y our armor, to your spells? If for the life of your character each quest you perform accumulatively adds stats to your character, your spells, your abilities, your armors, or adds options when it comes to adding to the visuals of your character or items, or adds to your reputations in an accumulative way, does that suddenly make quests more meaningful and enjoyable? How about quests that just make your avatar bigger in the game, or smaller? Make you glow, or give you sound effects not accessible unless you do the quest? Quests that make you run faster, or hold your breath under water longer? Permanent effects, not just some exp and some loot you won't use but for another couple of levels. What if you really had to read and pay attention to each quest because each quest was going to offer a permanent enhancement or customized change to your character, and do so accumulatively over the life of your character? And what if in one quest, you get to choose which permanent reward you want? Each time you do that quest (with alts), you can choose a different customization path, but you only get to do that quest once, and pick one particular reward. Imagine the variation and customization, the replayability, the ability to have your character advancing 24/7 (as fast as anyone else could advance), and the depth! Get 'r done.
Looks like EVE Online with meaningful missions in place of the obscenely repetitive agent mission system. I approve.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
Maybe we are just on different wavelengths, but if so, it's yours that needs some fine-tuning. Take the quote above, "be able to progress as fast as anyone else," what does that mean? It means you are comparing yourself to others, and you are not, in fact, asking for a game that is free from treadmill objectives and RPG metagame interests. This is simply self-delusion. You can't make a character-building game where time or effort is not a factor because no one would care about it, it would have no interest. If, however, you are actually talking about roleplaying (taking a part in a social structure to play out adventures and interesting storylines), then welcome to the club. MMORPGs were designed for precisely this purpose, and it wasn't a change in game structure that made things different. It was changes in the playerbase. If what you want is a game separated from powergamers, we are in the same boat, but I think there are better ways to split the MMO industry in half than what you are describing.
Your opinion that no one would be interested in it is only reflective of your particular bias; I would be very interested in it. I hardly think I'm unique. I've been contacted by many people, and have interacted with many people, that would also be very interested in such a game.
You are free to advocate for the game you wish to see marketed.
Your opinion that no one would be interested in it is only reflective of your particular bias; I would be very interested in it. I hardly think I'm unique. I've been contacted by many people, and have interacted with many people, that would also be very interested in such a game. You are free to advocate for the game you wish to see marketed.
You would be? I kind of doubt that. To find out, let's start playing now, it's fairly simple. I'll post my character:
If you post your character now we can compare to see who has the better character. If you are wondering, I simply chose to make leveling to 72 occur really quickly in our little offline game.
Your opinion that no one would be interested in it is only reflective of your particular bias; I would be very interested in it. I hardly think I'm unique. I've been contacted by many people, and have interacted with many people, that would also be very interested in such a game. You are free to advocate for the game you wish to see marketed.
You would be? I kind of doubt that. To find out, let's start playing now, it's fairly simple. I'll post my character:
If you post your character now we can compare to see who has the better character. If you are wondering, I simply chose to make leveling to 72 occur really quickly in our little offline game.P
You're arguing against an imaginary position, because I have no idea what you're talking about here.
well I guess by mentioning that EvE online does offline advancement I can help you to clarify how effective it is - and if you'd like a neat summary of how well this works for the game please click Here.
But other than that, i completely agree, MMOs do get stupidly repetetive: go here kill this X 10^9
The solution in my opinion is a game where the interface and style alone allows grinding and even moving to be fun, and for the potential to enhance your character aestheticaly as well as numericaly -(aesthetics seem to be a better motivation somehow - no i dont know why, but srsly check out WoW)- to be very high at a very low level.
In all honesty i picked this thread essentialy to just say, yes I agree, This is the best idea I can come up with to solve the exact dilemma you're facing. The fact that the article exists shows how bored I am with MMOs atm.
First of all, we should all look at what an MMORPG is SUPPOSED to be. The MMO part is present in all of these games but the RPG part is mostly lacking. RPG = Role Playing Game, originating from a pen, paper and dice game (namely Dungeons and Dragons; the grandfather) in which the players would actually "pretend" to be their avatar; i.e. actually playing the role of the avatar. Acting the part; if you will.
At some point; video game designers thought it would be a good idea to create a video game based on the concept; a great idea, but poorly executed. Not to say that these games are not fun in there own right but, rather, they are not what they were meant to be. Most gamers are not into roleplaying. They're video gamers, through and through. True Rper's, such as myself, who've played the likes of traditional RPG's have always longed for a "true" MMORPG. An interactive experience in a vast, dynamic world where we all "play the part", banding together to fight the good fight in truly "epic" quests that have wordly consequences.
I agree with you that this genre is becoming quite stale. They are all essentially the same game in a different skin. There is little innovation (though we have seen some) in MMORPG's. The developers seem to stick to a "safe" formula which will attract the average gamer. Afterall, it's a business and business is, primarily, about making money. This is not to say that developers have no passion for creation though, I'm sure, most creative decisions are made with a business factor in mind.
For me, personally, the majority of these games have the "Point A" to "Point B" rat-race architecture, with regards to quests. They are very "one dimesional" and cookie-cutter. I almost cringe when grouped and someone asks 'Has everyone completed "Xxx of the XXX quest?" and some one answers "yep I got my Sword of XXX." The same quest and reward for all. Unfortunately, this type of structure is the nature of the beast.
I do like classes, so I must disagree with your opinion on the matter, however, I would like to see a point system where players spend these points to choose from a huge list of skills, feats, etc. Much like pnp D&D. Its very sad to join up with a 27th level wizard with whom I've never met before and know exactly what abilities he has because all 27th wizards are exactly the same.
I think overall, what the OP is saying is that MMORPG's are lacking immersion and depth.
Customize - I think more customization is something that should be implemented into future MMORPG's. Customizable clothing (even saddles for the mounts), fully customizable housing (perhaps the ability to design and build it yourself from the ground up), an actual shop to run a business with the ability to hire employees (NPCs or otherwise). Even further; the ability to create your own "house above your store". Previous games have had similar features but with limitation.
Innovative professions - Why are we always stuck with the same professions (weaponsmith, jeweller,etc). What about a horse breeder where you actually raise and sell them to other players? A tavern owner with your name on the sign? A musician (something LOTRO did rather well, but could be expanded upon)? Maybe you can build or buy your own wagon and start a travelling caravan with others, selling your wares all over the lands.
Better quests and encounters- What about scripted random encounters or events? It sounds contrdictiary; though it's not. Example: Travelling through a valley; sometimes a random mob of bandits are there and sometimes not but when they are, the leader approaches the group or solo player and starts a conversation providing the player(s) with options, pay up or the bandits attack. Alternitavely, perhaps a quest can come out of it . Random attacks on towns, perhaps smaller ones, not the larger fortified ones. You could be in a town square talking with friends and then, BAM!, raiders attack the town. Townsfolk and players alike must fight them off. You can fight or run away; your choice.
Sadly, most of these ideas will never find there way into this genre. Mostly, they've all been reduced to statistics and "finding the better build" rather than just creating an awesome and truly unique avatar to enjoy the ride in an incredibly large and immersive world with much more to do than just "kill 10 of those and return to me" and "click and craft the clone sword".
Aside from that, I still do enjoy the large exploracious regions and the social aspect of MMORPG's. So I endure, take what I can get and hope that some day, the ultimate and 'true" MMORPG will be born.
1) STOP THE END-GAME MADNESS 2) DO AWAY WITH CLASSES 3) OFFLINE ADVANCEMENT 4) NO THROW-AWAY QUESTS
I agree with all of this. I think a lot of MMORPG design is still a holdover from the days of early CRPG's. Don't get me wrong, Wow is a great game. I played it for two months when it came out and a month when the first expansion came out. But I can't for the life of me see the long-term fascination.
People may think I'm crazy for saying this, but I believe that WoW is where EQ was five years ago. It seems invincible, but it's really a gigantic house of cards. Wether they realize it or not, a vast majority of the playerbase are DYING for the next new thing to come along. Only a tiny minority genuinely like the concept of the "endgame", but it's like a cult that people just get sucked into because the game that they started out wanting to play just led them to a dead end where they had nothing else to do.
1) STOP THE END-GAME MADNESS
In single-player games it makes sense to level the characters rapidly, to funnel them through the storyline that the designer wants to tell. In an MMORPG, there's no reason for that at all. An MMORPG shouldn't be an animated version of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books with a beginning, a middle and an end. An MMORPG should be a journey, not a destination.
I'd be pretty happy if the games were a lot less tall and a lot more broad. Personally, my favorite part is the beginning, when you start out with practically nothing and each new piece of equipment or coin is a milestone. But most games nowadays blast you through the first 10 levels in freakin' MINUTES! Where's the fun in that? I've doubled, tripled and quadrupled the power of my character before I could even blink, let alone fully appreciate the added abilities I didn't have before.
2) DO AWAY WITH CLASSES
I tend to start characters in MMORPG's and play them to their 20's or 30's and then feel the burning need to switch. Somebody needs to come up with a mechanic that could allow each player to only have ONE character, but instead of having him develop along a set and immutable path, let him gain FLEXIBILITY over time, rather than just power. So each player in a group can switch between different roles as the need arose.
Matrix Online was a horrifically miscoded game, but the concept of "reprogramming" is one that could have been promising. Obviously that IP is taken, but in a fantasy genre there's really no reason you couldn't put a mechanic like that into any MMORPG universe. Call it "crystals" you can swap out, different hats you wear; could be anything really, who cares. Just let me gain a wide variety of different skills so I can creatively overcome obstacles, not just rapidly accumulate power so I can fight ever tougher rats!
3) OFFLINE ADVANCEMENT
I would re-word this a bit. I don't see a need to leave your poor 'toon slaving away ala SWG. But it would make sense from both a gameplay and a business model point of view to make sure the rate of advancement is soft-capped as a function of the account's longevity.
Any MMORPG where you can start a new character and get to the highest level in ten days is, frankly, FUBAR. Anybody who does that is either exploiting or out-and-out cheating. Of course I understand there are some people who want to do nothing but "win" a race, even when they're on the freeway. But there's a difference between trying to beat a game and trying to break a game. Just make it so that the people who share an account, play 24/7, go to cheat sites or otherwise "powerlevel" each other can stay a few levels ahead of the pack.
But don't let a handful of monomaniacal freaks blast through all your content and then start screaming "MORE, MORE, MORE!!" In the first place, they didn't pay one penny more than the players who have jobs. But even more importantly, if you design content targeted at those sociopaths, you will eventually alienate all the normal people. And (while you might not realize it if all you do is hang out at forums like this) that's actually a significant chunk of the potential market.
4) NO THROW-AWAY QUESTS
Again, I would reword this. I think there should be a huge distinction made between "tasks" (short-term, storytelling interludes) and "quests" (long-term raisons de etre.) I think there is room for both of these in an MMORPG. But, yes, just focusing on the Fed-X jobs, etc., inevitably gets old. Using WoW as the example, I don't see why they couldn't take the 2,000 (or maybe more by now) quests and fit them under long-term arcs. For example, maybe a character could go to work for the Venture Mining Company, OR join the military, OR join a guild, etc. That way, instead of having a "fantasy Rolodex" full of quests you're constantly shuffling and deleting, you'd have an over-arching structure to all of those otherwise nitnoid little tasks.
But, yeah, even for the individual tasks, I wish they were either longer or better yet open-ended. If you find out you hate killing ettins in Mistmore, then you should be able to stop after the minimum 10, get your silver-plated saber and move on. But hey, if you find out you like doing that one, why not let you keep doing it as long as you want and keep upping the ante on the reward the whole time?
Also, I'd add another item to the list: 5) MAKE THE COMBAT MORE IMMERSIVE
That's kind of a big one for me. It seems like WoW's infantile button-flashing minigame version of combat is being replicated to death these days. And it's driving me batty!
WoW was the world's first easily-accessible MMORPG, and they had no real competition. So it made perfect sense for them to design a gameplay mechanic that everyone six-to-sixty could easily master. But anybody who tries to make a game now must realize they have an elephant in the living room they can't simply ignore. All new games are going to have to SEGMENT the market. Sure, make games for the kiddies and drug addicts, Lord knows they love clickin' them buttons.
But more than half of all MMORPG players are adults with jobs -- and, hey, we're the ones who have our own credit cards! So how's about showing us a little bit of respect for a change?
Instead of designing combat that makes us "play the interface," make it so that the little cartoon guy does the actual fighting and the player just makes decisions. I could go on and on outlining specific ideas for this but frankly I don't think any game designers could possibly care less. They figure "Combat? Oh, who cares? Just slap together a few dozen new 'combo' butttons and let's get back to refining those cloud bitmaps."
Comments
Looks like EVE Online with meaningful missions in place of the obscenely repetitive agent mission system. I approve.
Your opinion that no one would be interested in it is only reflective of your particular bias; I would be very interested in it. I hardly think I'm unique. I've been contacted by many people, and have interacted with many people, that would also be very interested in such a game.
You are free to advocate for the game you wish to see marketed.
You would be? I kind of doubt that. To find out, let's start playing now, it's fairly simple. I'll post my character:
Level 72 Half-Elf Ranger Raithe'Nor
Strength 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 14, Dexterity 18, Constitution 12, Charisma 10
Skills: Tracking 15, Hunting 16, Fishing 15, Stealth 17, Swimming 8, Running 10, Magic Lore 1
Attack bonuses: Bow +18, Elven Longsword +18, Dagger +16, Short Sword +15
Damage bonuses: Bow +18, Elven Longsword +10, Dagger +8, Short Sword +8
Languages: Elven, Common
If you post your character now we can compare to see who has the better character. If you are wondering, I simply chose to make leveling to 72 occur really quickly in our little offline game.
I get the feeling that this thread is going to boil down to a "we need more interesting quests for grinding" thing.
In which case, I'll take my leave...
You would be? I kind of doubt that. To find out, let's start playing now, it's fairly simple. I'll post my character:
Level 72 Half-Elf Ranger Raithe'Nor
Strength 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 14, Dexterity 18, Constitution 12, Charisma 10
Skills: Tracking 15, Hunting 16, Fishing 15, Stealth 17, Swimming 8, Running 10, Magic Lore 1
Attack bonuses: Bow +18, Elven Longsword +18, Dagger +16, Short Sword +15
Damage bonuses: Bow +18, Elven Longsword +10, Dagger +8, Short Sword +8
Languages: Elven, Common
If you post your character now we can compare to see who has the better character. If you are wondering, I simply chose to make leveling to 72 occur really quickly in our little offline game.P
You're arguing against an imaginary position, because I have no idea what you're talking about here.
Whoooo... Where to start?
well I guess by mentioning that EvE online does offline advancement I can help you to clarify how effective it is - and if you'd like a neat summary of how well this works for the game please click Here.
But other than that, i completely agree, MMOs do get stupidly repetetive: go here kill this X 10^9
The solution in my opinion is a game where the interface and style alone allows grinding and even moving to be fun, and for the potential to enhance your character aestheticaly as well as numericaly -(aesthetics seem to be a better motivation somehow - no i dont know why, but srsly check out WoW)- to be very high at a very low level.
In all honesty i picked this thread essentialy to just say, yes I agree, This is the best idea I can come up with to solve the exact dilemma you're facing. The fact that the article exists shows how bored I am with MMOs atm.
First of all, we should all look at what an MMORPG is SUPPOSED to be. The MMO part is present in all of these games but the RPG part is mostly lacking. RPG = Role Playing Game, originating from a pen, paper and dice game (namely Dungeons and Dragons; the grandfather) in which the players would actually "pretend" to be their avatar; i.e. actually playing the role of the avatar. Acting the part; if you will.
At some point; video game designers thought it would be a good idea to create a video game based on the concept; a great idea, but poorly executed. Not to say that these games are not fun in there own right but, rather, they are not what they were meant to be. Most gamers are not into roleplaying. They're video gamers, through and through. True Rper's, such as myself, who've played the likes of traditional RPG's have always longed for a "true" MMORPG. An interactive experience in a vast, dynamic world where we all "play the part", banding together to fight the good fight in truly "epic" quests that have wordly consequences.
I agree with you that this genre is becoming quite stale. They are all essentially the same game in a different skin. There is little innovation (though we have seen some) in MMORPG's. The developers seem to stick to a "safe" formula which will attract the average gamer. Afterall, it's a business and business is, primarily, about making money. This is not to say that developers have no passion for creation though, I'm sure, most creative decisions are made with a business factor in mind.
For me, personally, the majority of these games have the "Point A" to "Point B" rat-race architecture, with regards to quests. They are very "one dimesional" and cookie-cutter. I almost cringe when grouped and someone asks 'Has everyone completed "Xxx of the XXX quest?" and some one answers "yep I got my Sword of XXX." The same quest and reward for all. Unfortunately, this type of structure is the nature of the beast.
I do like classes, so I must disagree with your opinion on the matter, however, I would like to see a point system where players spend these points to choose from a huge list of skills, feats, etc. Much like pnp D&D. Its very sad to join up with a 27th level wizard with whom I've never met before and know exactly what abilities he has because all 27th wizards are exactly the same.
I think overall, what the OP is saying is that MMORPG's are lacking immersion and depth.
Customize - I think more customization is something that should be implemented into future MMORPG's. Customizable clothing (even saddles for the mounts), fully customizable housing (perhaps the ability to design and build it yourself from the ground up), an actual shop to run a business with the ability to hire employees (NPCs or otherwise). Even further; the ability to create your own "house above your store". Previous games have had similar features but with limitation.
Innovative professions - Why are we always stuck with the same professions (weaponsmith, jeweller,etc). What about a horse breeder where you actually raise and sell them to other players? A tavern owner with your name on the sign? A musician (something LOTRO did rather well, but could be expanded upon)? Maybe you can build or buy your own wagon and start a travelling caravan with others, selling your wares all over the lands.
Better quests and encounters- What about scripted random encounters or events? It sounds contrdictiary; though it's not. Example: Travelling through a valley; sometimes a random mob of bandits are there and sometimes not but when they are, the leader approaches the group or solo player and starts a conversation providing the player(s) with options, pay up or the bandits attack. Alternitavely, perhaps a quest can come out of it . Random attacks on towns, perhaps smaller ones, not the larger fortified ones. You could be in a town square talking with friends and then, BAM!, raiders attack the town. Townsfolk and players alike must fight them off. You can fight or run away; your choice.
Sadly, most of these ideas will never find there way into this genre. Mostly, they've all been reduced to statistics and "finding the better build" rather than just creating an awesome and truly unique avatar to enjoy the ride in an incredibly large and immersive world with much more to do than just "kill 10 of those and return to me" and "click and craft the clone sword".
Aside from that, I still do enjoy the large exploracious regions and the social aspect of MMORPG's. So I endure, take what I can get and hope that some day, the ultimate and 'true" MMORPG will be born.
In the end, I feel your pain.
I agree with all of this. I think a lot of MMORPG design is still a holdover from the days of early CRPG's. Don't get me wrong, Wow is a great game. I played it for two months when it came out and a month when the first expansion came out. But I can't for the life of me see the long-term fascination.
People may think I'm crazy for saying this, but I believe that WoW is where EQ was five years ago. It seems invincible, but it's really a gigantic house of cards. Wether they realize it or not, a vast majority of the playerbase are DYING for the next new thing to come along. Only a tiny minority genuinely like the concept of the "endgame", but it's like a cult that people just get sucked into because the game that they started out wanting to play just led them to a dead end where they had nothing else to do.
1) STOP THE END-GAME MADNESS
In single-player games it makes sense to level the characters rapidly, to funnel them through the storyline that the designer wants to tell. In an MMORPG, there's no reason for that at all. An MMORPG shouldn't be an animated version of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books with a beginning, a middle and an end. An MMORPG should be a journey, not a destination.
I'd be pretty happy if the games were a lot less tall and a lot more broad. Personally, my favorite part is the beginning, when you start out with practically nothing and each new piece of equipment or coin is a milestone. But most games nowadays blast you through the first 10 levels in freakin' MINUTES! Where's the fun in that? I've doubled, tripled and quadrupled the power of my character before I could even blink, let alone fully appreciate the added abilities I didn't have before.
2) DO AWAY WITH CLASSES
I tend to start characters in MMORPG's and play them to their 20's or 30's and then feel the burning need to switch. Somebody needs to come up with a mechanic that could allow each player to only have ONE character, but instead of having him develop along a set and immutable path, let him gain FLEXIBILITY over time, rather than just power. So each player in a group can switch between different roles as the need arose.
Matrix Online was a horrifically miscoded game, but the concept of "reprogramming" is one that could have been promising. Obviously that IP is taken, but in a fantasy genre there's really no reason you couldn't put a mechanic like that into any MMORPG universe. Call it "crystals" you can swap out, different hats you wear; could be anything really, who cares. Just let me gain a wide variety of different skills so I can creatively overcome obstacles, not just rapidly accumulate power so I can fight ever tougher rats!
3) OFFLINE ADVANCEMENT
I would re-word this a bit. I don't see a need to leave your poor 'toon slaving away ala SWG. But it would make sense from both a gameplay and a business model point of view to make sure the rate of advancement is soft-capped as a function of the account's longevity.
Any MMORPG where you can start a new character and get to the highest level in ten days is, frankly, FUBAR. Anybody who does that is either exploiting or out-and-out cheating. Of course I understand there are some people who want to do nothing but "win" a race, even when they're on the freeway. But there's a difference between trying to beat a game and trying to break a game. Just make it so that the people who share an account, play 24/7, go to cheat sites or otherwise "powerlevel" each other can stay a few levels ahead of the pack.
But don't let a handful of monomaniacal freaks blast through all your content and then start screaming "MORE, MORE, MORE!!" In the first place, they didn't pay one penny more than the players who have jobs. But even more importantly, if you design content targeted at those sociopaths, you will eventually alienate all the normal people. And (while you might not realize it if all you do is hang out at forums like this) that's actually a significant chunk of the potential market.
4) NO THROW-AWAY QUESTS
Again, I would reword this. I think there should be a huge distinction made between "tasks" (short-term, storytelling interludes) and "quests" (long-term raisons de etre.) I think there is room for both of these in an MMORPG. But, yes, just focusing on the Fed-X jobs, etc., inevitably gets old. Using WoW as the example, I don't see why they couldn't take the 2,000 (or maybe more by now) quests and fit them under long-term arcs. For example, maybe a character could go to work for the Venture Mining Company, OR join the military, OR join a guild, etc. That way, instead of having a "fantasy Rolodex" full of quests you're constantly shuffling and deleting, you'd have an over-arching structure to all of those otherwise nitnoid little tasks.
But, yeah, even for the individual tasks, I wish they were either longer or better yet open-ended. If you find out you hate killing ettins in Mistmore, then you should be able to stop after the minimum 10, get your silver-plated saber and move on. But hey, if you find out you like doing that one, why not let you keep doing it as long as you want and keep upping the ante on the reward the whole time?
Also, I'd add another item to the list: 5) MAKE THE COMBAT MORE IMMERSIVE
That's kind of a big one for me. It seems like WoW's infantile button-flashing minigame version of combat is being replicated to death these days. And it's driving me batty!
WoW was the world's first easily-accessible MMORPG, and they had no real competition. So it made perfect sense for them to design a gameplay mechanic that everyone six-to-sixty could easily master. But anybody who tries to make a game now must realize they have an elephant in the living room they can't simply ignore. All new games are going to have to SEGMENT the market. Sure, make games for the kiddies and drug addicts, Lord knows they love clickin' them buttons.
But more than half of all MMORPG players are adults with jobs -- and, hey, we're the ones who have our own credit cards! So how's about showing us a little bit of respect for a change?
Instead of designing combat that makes us "play the interface," make it so that the little cartoon guy does the actual fighting and the player just makes decisions. I could go on and on outlining specific ideas for this but frankly I don't think any game designers could possibly care less. They figure "Combat? Oh, who cares? Just slap together a few dozen new 'combo' butttons and let's get back to refining those cloud bitmaps."