Nerfing anything that's released. In the original eq the dev sword they would never nerf anything they put in the game and stuck to it for years.
Why build power and play for years for a build they will be nerfed into being useless and not even wanted. An example of this is in gw2 where an ascended cloromancer was loved and now considered useless and is unwanted.
Any MMO that's changing gear and stats to where player are forced to run the flavor of the month or the flavor of the season 3 months etc will cause players to fall away.
Some day we will have a MMO where the week classes-skills-gear is increased to balance. But then I also hope for someday to have a dev team where this is done in advance before release .
Sadly the industry is making a NEW Class way powerfull sell it cash shop-expansion. Let it rule for 2-3 months then nerf it and Sell another NEW class lol to generate game compony money.
A new mechanic that's actually pretty solid but the game entirely chooses not to focus on basic standard MMORPG foundations causing the new great idea to be completely irrelevant because the game itself is lame.
Dedicated game forums Listening to players Linear on rails gameplay Gender locked classes...with few exceptions never make sense Anything Chris Roberts does without supervision...oh shiny... The entire BR genre is (imo) a mistake.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Any game that has the resources and ability to provide better gameplay but either for greed, laziness or both don't. ESO and everything that game could be is a good example IMO of what I described.
Focusing on story. I really don't care about story in an MMORPG.
Instead the focus should be on implementing systems that improve player interactions with other players. Find creative ways to foster interdependence.
Unfortunately once you give players the ability to ignore all other players and still succeed, it's very difficult to take that away from them.
This I agree a lot with. This was my issue with SWTOR prerelease during the hype phase. Whenever the developers (Bioware) would do some kind of hype press conference of some kind, all they really ever talked about about was how revolutionary their Story system will be and how unique story telling would be in SWTOR. That was a red flag for me. Then we found out how much MONEY out of their development budget that they were putting into STORY elements like voice acting, that you likely will only get excited about one when you first play through the level experience of that MMO, and then that voice over becomes wasted resources that could have gone to more game play elements that have a longer lasting appeal and replay value.
yeah I am still trying to understand this system. Lot of confusion in that game. Quest Item Infusions, is another. Never experience something as bad as that in a MMO before.
1. RNG. Situation where I may get all the shinies and you get slime frog remains. Bad luck/karma... Loot RNG must be replaced with guaranteed items given to everyone (plus - class usable; if I can wear light armour and get epic super-heavy, bound to toon - emmm....what to do?).
2. Un-neccesary grind. Don't get me wrong, I like grinding as long, as it is doable and gives something. Imagine, you have to kill 300 Stinky frogs and there are only two spots: one with 5 and one with 2 frogs. There are more players on server and in that map. Your chance for doing this is...? If there is grind, there should be legal landscape mean to do it efficiently.
3. "Wasn't meant to be" pseudologic. Imagine, you grind Slime frogs and find nice item that gives you +100 strenght. Good one. Next your toon finds same item. Soon server starts farming Slime frogs for shiny item. Developers see and just destroy all shinies. "It wasn't meant to be, go *** yourself" - they tell you. Developers should be responsible for things they create. If it's not exploit (Istaria's distance gathering) - admit mistake and leave it be. Another topic - making things harder just to make things harder. This Slime frog hit you with 55 hp...ok, we will do 255 hp, it's good - and just because it's good, you lose your dps. All changes should be beneficial to players, not monsters.
4. Oblivion lands. Yeah, your starter area you won't return to. Same level 7 monsters, starter NPCs...Solution: make high level quests be there also. SWTOR handles it nice, even Lotro had some. Otherwise you have lands that newbies tend to leave a.s.a.p
5. Oblivion items. Remember that lvl.20 area with hard to get Supreme Armour of Owning? Yeah, you get armour, at lvl.25 you get new one, at lvl.30 you get twice as powerfull...no need to run dungeon that rewards with Supreme Armour. Unless one roleplays heavily, of course.
6.Too harsh restrictions for free players, citing gold spammers. Unable to use any chat, unless buying chat option. Unable to send mails. Limited to really low level. Unable even to whisper to anyone. Unable to post on forums. Hey, even toolbar restriction. While restrictions for f2p is a must have and no one complains about logical ones - just not too big ones.
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Combat being the only focus and only grouping/social bridge. It is the worst and most annoying way to be forced to interact. It is also one of the most shallow things you can focus on.
So much this. I've been like a broken record on this since the late MUD years... anyone even played RPG (ok, with an at least moderately good GM) can tell, combat is not the bread and butter of roleplaying. Not even close. Except if you're one of those dice-addicted rollplayers...
which is a much broader topic, includes gear score, watered down classes and mechanics, FotM classes and builds, etc.
MMORPGs should give as much flexibility and a wide array of options as possible. Like @cameltosis said with the early SoA years of LotRO, but I'd add the first year of TSW too, or AoC before RotGS and the faction grind.
If your content is only accesible/playable with a very strictly set of gear, class, build etc., you have a bad game design.
A third one, unmentioned so far maybe because it's rare (thank god), forced pvp. Like RaiderZ and FoM did - guess what, both of those are gone, FoM actually died multiple times. I'm not saying that was the killing factor (RaiderZ had massive duping and an ignorant dev team, FoM was just mismanaged at every relaunch), but I'm sure it had a big impact.
If you really want to put pvp in your otherwise PvE game (which is a bad move on its own, but I'm biased since I don't like pvp ) at least separate it from the rest, and definitely don't force all of your players to participate. If you do, don't be surprised if most of them rather just leave.
Deliberately making the leveling process bad so people think end game is better "Endgame". Difficulty being a hp bar that depletes slower. Legendaries not being legendary. "Balanced" Classes
There are relatively safe zones . . . and there are places with no safe zones and so if you want safety you can have it, if you want danger and more rewards you can have it.
Catch me streaming at twitch.tv/cryomatrix You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
In realm vs realm games, your power grows infinitely the more people you have, which means it's 100% numbers, and not 70%.
In real life, it's not exactly like that, as everything has drawbacks. The bigger your army is, the slower it moves, the less effective the communication, harder to coordinate, easier damage large parts of it, etc.
In GW2, a large army moves as fast as a small group, has instant communication to everybody, is harder to damage because more people more heals, and everyone can scatter if you throw a big bomb at them no matter if there are 100 people standing in one place.
For me, it's no fun as either the smaller army, or the larger army. No change to win, or no challenge in winning.
I'd like to see a developer give large groups drawbacks to go along with the benefits to see if that would be fun. Example,
1. if you bunch of in huge groups, speed debuff
2. Collision detection so if you group up and they throw a bomb at you, well RIP
3. Effectiveness of heals goes down in huge groups, or
4. Attrition of resources/lower health to simulate having to feed a large army.
5. People can hear you only within a certain distance, so you would have to organize into platoons for effectiveness
Expansions that make older zones irrelevant. Maybe build on existing zones so they feed into the new ones. No one likes logging into a ghost town.
A flat loot system where everyone is wearing the same set throughout the game, especially the endgame. I don't want to be exactly like every other warrior or wizard in the game because there's only one real option if you don't want to suck.
A flat loot system where either crafted items or drop items are pointless because the other is always going to be better. They should work together like a puzzle that gives the stats and bonuses that augment your playstyle the best.
All factions that are identical. Yes, they are our foreign enemies but they are exactly the same as us... but we hate them anyways.
Whole skill lines that go unused because they literally suck in comparison to other skill lines.
Nowhere to go once you hit capped level. As expansions come out, they should add augmenting secondary, tertiary, etc skill lines that continue to makes your character a little better without destroying the class or making it stupid OPd.
Meaningless PvP or not PvP. Timed/instanced battlegrounds are meaningless. Killing because your a ganking asshole is meaningless.
There are relatively safe zones . . . and there are places with no safe zones and so if you want safety you can have it, if you want danger and more rewards you can have it.
If you want safety go to null sec and if you want danger start a new account and leave your high sec station. Yes, I agree.
how is that different from Flagging system used in many MMOs.
Want to play it safe, stay unflagged. What to do the same zones but with risk, Flag Up to be attacked.
Unlike what you describe, map content isnt gated by a this or that. both types of players can still play together and on the same content. Rather have a full game rather than half and half a game
There are relatively safe zones . . . and there are places with no safe zones and so if you want safety you can have it, if you want danger and more rewards you can have it.
If you want safety go to null sec and if you want danger start a new account and leave your high sec station. Yes, I agree.
how is that different from Flagging system used in many MMOs.
Want to play it safe, stay unflagged. What to do the same zones but with risk, Flag Up to be attacked.
Unlike what you describe, map content isnt gated by a this or that. both types of players can still play together and on the same content. Rather have a full game rather than half and half a game
I am a big fan of the flagging system, it solves so many issues. with PvP/Pve living together.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Comments
Instead the focus should be on implementing systems that improve player interactions with other players. Find creative ways to foster interdependence.
Unfortunately once you give players the ability to ignore all other players and still succeed, it's very difficult to take that away from them.
Why build power and play for years for a build they will be nerfed into being useless and not even wanted. An example of this is in gw2 where an ascended cloromancer was loved and now considered useless and is unwanted.
Any MMO that's changing gear and stats to where player are forced to run the flavor of the month or the flavor of the season 3 months etc will cause players to fall away.
Some day we will have a MMO where the week classes-skills-gear is increased to balance.
But then I also hope for someday to have a dev team where this is done in advance before release
Sadly the industry is making a NEW Class way powerfull sell it cash shop-expansion. Let it rule for 2-3 months then nerf it and Sell another NEW class lol to generate game compony money.
Listening to players
Linear on rails gameplay
Gender locked classes...with few exceptions never make sense
Anything Chris Roberts does without supervision...oh shiny...
The entire BR genre is (imo) a mistake.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Another topic - making things harder just to make things harder. This Slime frog hit you with 55 hp...ok, we will do 255 hp, it's good - and just because it's good, you lose your dps. All changes should be beneficial to players, not monsters.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
"Endgame".
Difficulty being a hp bar that depletes slower.
Legendaries not being legendary.
"Balanced" Classes
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
homogenization of roles and classes
simplifying things
Group finder
There are relatively safe zones . . . and there are places with no safe zones and so if you want safety you can have it, if you want danger and more rewards you can have it.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Want to play it safe, stay unflagged. What to do the same zones but with risk, Flag Up to be attacked.
Unlike what you describe, map content isnt gated by a this or that. both types of players can still play together and on the same content. Rather have a full game rather than half and half a game
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
drastic power levels
questing
minimap and map markers
Philosophy of MMO Game Design