Come to think of it, it's rather difficult to limit negative features to three. So let's explore a bit more than that. I'll make it 10.
1. Non-consensual PvP
It's not PvP. It's not skillful. It's not fun to deal with or to dish out. It just doesn't bring anything to the game that isn't better done by an arena, large-scale PvP map(s), or dueling.
2. Gear-based as opposed to skill based organized PvP.
Large-scale PvP can be whatever it wants. Organized PvP should be uniform.
3. Perma-breaking gear
4. Potions / Food
A bit of a common gripe for me. I would much prefer for my sustain and stats to come from the tools on my character or my teammates - not an arbitrary gold sink.
5. Slow leveling.
6. Complete lack of story.
7. Lack of meaningful playstyle customization / lack of character customization (functional)
8. Lack of character customization / Poor quality character design (visual)
9. Competitive looting (Need vs. Greed and other non-individualized loot systems).
1. ! or ? or any other markers over npc heads or on maps.
2. ALL hand holding
3. content that has nothing to do with the game's LORE or immersion,example jump puzzles or timed races or any kind of nonsense like that.
4. Quests that offer xp and any other lame xp hand out like discovering a new area for xp.
This about sums it up for me.
Basically, anything that gives more benefits to playing the game solo than it does to playing as a group. Hate how easy and trivial games have become... and I know all you will come back with I do not play games as a job I don't want to have to play the game to earn anything I wanted handed to me.. so no need to reply with that.
But I can sum my answer to one thing.
1. Any feature the mods of this website enjoy. I think the mods on here just about always love games that I find to be the worst games... usually leading to me getting banned when I disagree with their short term love for the worst games ever.
1. Worldwide chat - Discourages talking to the person next to you for help, which ruins immersion.
2. ?, ! or book symbols over NPC heads. Also, any pointers as to which direction the next stage of the quest is. I mean to be honest at this point you don't even need to read the stuff the npc says... just click him til he stops talking, run to the area that highlights on the map, kill random stuff there til it updates, then get your reward. This ruins immersion.
3. Open world PVP - Not because I am against it, but because there are no real repercussions. If you do it then it should have severe consequences not what you get in MMOs today. What if your toon would actually be executed when it got caught? I mean no reset, no revive... would your max level toon do it? I'd be ok with that PVP, but not the gank-fest most PVP is today.
A ready made world : I want to build my own cities, forges, guilds, city walls, shops, blacksmiths, bridges to access new areas, portals to reach new areas, ect.... nothing comes easy and takes a lot of team work.
Solo friendly, I want the world to be harsh, where you need friends and guild mates, I want to world to be changing and not just have everything die and 10 seconds later respawn in the same spot, I want to feel like really do play a part in this world and can change its landscapes
This is not quite so major, but I hate invisibility , like in a rogue, such a horrible feature IMO, I believe in stealth, makes you hide in shadows and make you harder to see, but not 100% invisible.
The lack of an immersive world in favour of trivial distractions. I want to explore and feel immersed in a game. I do not suffer from ADHD. I do not need to be constantly distracted from (the fundamental blandness of most modern mmos) by flashing text and pointless achievements.
The rush to end game. IMO games should be about the journey not the destination. I hate they way 90% of a game is rendered useless after 1 month. If you want to make a game that is all about endgame then do not waste so many resources on vast levelling zones, just make an interesting end game map and lose the levels.
Any mechanics that reduce social interaction- be they the instant join groups, the group finder the hub/ lobby based gameplay.
This fits me pretty well. I love a journey to max level, I love social interaction and having a community. Its nice when you can build a rep for your character and make regular group of friends to do stuff with at all levels. Dungeon finders and solo leveling as the main stuff kills this. In the old days a good player in an important role (not dps) when logged in would get tells from many friends for groups, raids, whatever. Now its all whatever. I also loved having a huge world to explore and make my way through along with repeatability for other toons such as having many areas to level up to near max level.
I'll also add:
4. Endgame being dailies quests, dungeons, and raids. Endgame gear or near best gear being available by doing repetative tasks over and over again such as dailies or grinding dungeons for tokens.
I'd kill for a new game like EQ classic, DAoC, EQ2 classic, and WoW classic.
Comments
Come to think of it, it's rather difficult to limit negative features to three. So let's explore a bit more than that. I'll make it 10.
1. Non-consensual PvP
It's not PvP. It's not skillful. It's not fun to deal with or to dish out. It just doesn't bring anything to the game that isn't better done by an arena, large-scale PvP map(s), or dueling.
2. Gear-based as opposed to skill based organized PvP.
Large-scale PvP can be whatever it wants. Organized PvP should be uniform.
3. Perma-breaking gear
4. Potions / Food
A bit of a common gripe for me. I would much prefer for my sustain and stats to come from the tools on my character or my teammates - not an arbitrary gold sink.
5. Slow leveling.
6. Complete lack of story.
7. Lack of meaningful playstyle customization / lack of character customization (functional)
8. Lack of character customization / Poor quality character design (visual)
9. Competitive looting (Need vs. Greed and other non-individualized loot systems).
10. Racial and gender locks on classes.
This about sums it up for me.
Basically, anything that gives more benefits to playing the game solo than it does to playing as a group. Hate how easy and trivial games have become... and I know all you will come back with I do not play games as a job I don't want to have to play the game to earn anything I wanted handed to me.. so no need to reply with that.
But I can sum my answer to one thing.
1. Any feature the mods of this website enjoy. I think the mods on here just about always love games that I find to be the worst games... usually leading to me getting banned when I disagree with their short term love for the worst games ever.
1. Worldwide chat - Discourages talking to the person next to you for help, which ruins immersion.
2. ?, ! or book symbols over NPC heads. Also, any pointers as to which direction the next stage of the quest is. I mean to be honest at this point you don't even need to read the stuff the npc says... just click him til he stops talking, run to the area that highlights on the map, kill random stuff there til it updates, then get your reward. This ruins immersion.
3. Open world PVP - Not because I am against it, but because there are no real repercussions. If you do it then it should have severe consequences not what you get in MMOs today. What if your toon would actually be executed when it got caught? I mean no reset, no revive... would your max level toon do it? I'd be ok with that PVP, but not the gank-fest most PVP is today.
1) Boring generic task/mob grinding as the main source of PvE progression while leveling.
2) Limiting an entire class to a single weapon and a single Role.
3) Pay to Win for F2P mmos. Box + Sub + cash shop for paid mmos. Charging a sub for a F2P-quality game.
There are more mmo killer features out there but OP only wanted 3.
1. Raids as the only end game focus
2. PvP, it's a mini game
3. Forced grouping just for the sake of it
This and a few more:
5. Lack of level scaling.
6. Gear restrictions by class.
7. Low % of group content.
Edit: In essence, things that keep me from playing with others or insult my intelligence.
I cant really limit it to 3...
1. Consensual PvP.
Arenas, battlegrounds, all of these organized pvp seem to fit better in a FPS than an mmorpg. PvP is much funner and unpredictable on an open world.
2. Instances
This has destroyed the genre, why would I play this instead of Diablo 3 or whatever other lobby based dungeon crawler?
3. Fast Travelling
Why have an open world in the first place if you can just teleport all over it?
4. Dungeon Finders
Again this is just retarded design, ill go play Diablo if I want a game like this.
5. No looting
Gives way more meaning to pvp if you can take all of your enemies stuff
6. Shared loot
Yeah just take away all possible conflics in the game so people dont have anything to fight over...
7. Shit Crafting
If you cant craft the best items but have to get them raiding or some other nonsense then that game is stupid.
8. No decay
Again, no way too lose items = shit economy and crafting system.
1. Bad Story ( I need to be immersed in a game)
2. Too quick to max level w/out additional content (really two things but this has caused an issue in many games for me)
3. No reason to replay (ie characters, different story, crafting ect)
This fits me pretty well. I love a journey to max level, I love social interaction and having a community. Its nice when you can build a rep for your character and make regular group of friends to do stuff with at all levels. Dungeon finders and solo leveling as the main stuff kills this. In the old days a good player in an important role (not dps) when logged in would get tells from many friends for groups, raids, whatever. Now its all whatever. I also loved having a huge world to explore and make my way through along with repeatability for other toons such as having many areas to level up to near max level.
I'll also add:
4. Endgame being dailies quests, dungeons, and raids. Endgame gear or near best gear being available by doing repetative tasks over and over again such as dailies or grinding dungeons for tokens.
I'd kill for a new game like EQ classic, DAoC, EQ2 classic, and WoW classic.