If you believe WoW to be a long leveling process or a grind, then apparently you have never played a older MMORPG like EQ where levels meant something. EQ is now garbage but it use to be a great game.
EQ was my first MMO- blessed game, best memories of MMO are from the insanity and totally unbalanced and unrestricted gameplay in EQ... it had a major downfall though.... mind-numbing grinding for exp. Ugh. Even the quests were built on grinding...
Graphics aren't a big issue for me. Although, that's mostly because my computer is pretty low-end and can't handle the heavily graphic-intensive games unless they're on the lower settings. Gameplay is HUGE, being that a game that is not fun to play, I find, simply isn't worth playing. Character customization is a big deal for me too, although that may come from City of Heroes being one of my earliest MMORPG experiences and that game may have simply spoiled me in that regard. I've actually passed on games that don't offer suitable (or any) character creation and customization options, which includes a good number of the F2P MMOs. A decent community would also be nice, as I tend to play a Tank or Healer class more often then not and it's nice to have a few players around who won't rush through twenty different mobs. But then, if you have the previous two details in place, then you're more likely to find that you have a good core of players.
That's all I care about, really. A game that is fun to play, where it is easy to create a unique player character and find a decent team. I've never really had a thing for the player markets or PVP.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Playing: Nothing Played: Champions Online, CoX, STO, PSO, WoW, lots of free-to-play crap Looking Forward To: DC Universe Online, Blade and Soul
World immersion including an open and dynamic world (inc. monthly events, gm interaction, npc raids on player towns etc), player freedom (including FFA PVP), deep skill based character customization, in depth quests that DON’T hold your hand, non item dependant PVP, non cartoony graphics, massive loot table with lots of VIABLE equipment, no instances, PVP rewards are in the form of meaningful RvR including; item looting, sieges, fighting over towns, leveling spots - NOT stat or honor grinds (read: NO PVP GRINDS!!!).
Well when I look into an MMO my first question would be, what can I be, what can I do and how can I change the world. Will I just be one of those heroes running around doing quest or do my action actualy have consequences in the world. That is why I do like game like Wurm Online, Face of Mankind and these kind of games, because I as an player actualy have a meaning.
Gameplay mechanics close to being on par or better then Elderscrolls Oblivion. Crafting being built around a pvp system, best items come from crafting. And not a crafting system where you have to pay cash for the materials but are able to find them in the world. items must ware out, or be able to be broken like a shield can be shattered if hit with a 2 handed hammer etc, something conceivable and realistic for the setting.
Manual blocking, no point and click combat, you must have cross hairs on the target and be in range.
Seige combat with player made siege engines of all sorts.
Player made cities that dont cost jack except the time to build and the resources.
FFA pvp with no siege timers or any timers saying when you can attack anyone. Screw egg timers. City defences should be strong enough to defend against attacks up to a point so that one dude cant roll up and knock down a city.
A full living world model. NPC's with their own lives and objectives
Mounted combat
FPS controlled ship combat
New lands added all the time
NO expansion packs to pay for besides your monthly fee, aint that the reason you pay a monthly fee for in the first place, for content updates...
Craft anything in the game world, from an apple cider jug, to a zepplin
Player houses that they can build, or buy.
NO CLASSES
NO LVLS
NO TIMESINKS
Spec any way you want with all the spells and skills you may like, if you change your mind about one or three then drop them for others anytime for nothing. Your not a robot, your a thinking creature, do what you want, when you want with the ability you may have.
Players should be dropped in the middle of a town and told to get on with living. Go make your own storyline aint no body going to hold your hand.
Go explore and make a name for your self.
No death penalty except lose of cash and time, and a hit to over all perm durability of items, so they break faster and give crafters more work to keep econ going strong.
I must find a gameplay which I like (PvE grouping/soloing for example), and I must DREAM that I will master it only doing stuff I like. The path to TOTAL MASTERY of that gameplay must be inside it (and/or other gameplays which I like, but I would still scowl a little).
The progression is VERY important, the graphics and character customisations/creation are part of it I will like the grouping or not, tiny elements, but still there. EQ would score okay even today on the graphics and character customisation, CoX is tremendously nice.
I must find my character attractive or MAYBE grotesque...or maybe identify myself to the character, but...that is something that haven't happen in a long while so; not easy either as it must both be physical and psychological if I identify myself to the character in a way or another (idealistically as well)...playing a cute gurl is a lot easier. :P
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Your character or spaceship can't look like complete crap because that's you man, most avatars look like garbage. The more stylized avatars like in WoW, RF Online, or even a cutesy MMO like DOMO are way better than the more realistic avatars like in Shadowbane, DDO, or Vanguard or even Pirates of the Burning Sea. That's something ccp might have to worry about when they have avatars walking around on the stations cause if they look real like their portraits it's probably going to kind of suck, not like walking around on stations will mean anything in eve but it shouldn't suck.
Also travel time, the longer the travel time the more realistic it seems. In Eve it's cool to carve out your little piece of the galaxy so that's a win. In Warcraft you can go anywhere in less than 10 minutes and sometimes in a couple seconds yuck. Lineage 2 had good travel time. Game design has to compliment it though, you can get megacyte on both sides of the universe in Eve but you can only get the Devout Robe in one place in WoW. So it's not like travel time is there just for the sake of travel time it's when the game design benefits travel time, I'd like to mention Pirates of the Burning sea here but I haven't played it enough to have a good opinion.
Pvp with a justification of something a little more persistant than numbers in your character sheet adds greatly to the immersion. Like controlling your territory in Eve or Lineage 2. Before cross server battlegrounds in WoW there was a teeny tiny bit of immersion in battlegrounds cause it would make yourself known to other people regardless of whether or not they could see your title. Pvp in eve was also way more fun before killmails in my opinion cause it wasn't a silly numbers game like WoW, it was a show of force to destroy the morale of your enemy in one single battle instead of reference for you to point at at any old time on the forums or other places. You figured out who's good and who to avoid or not avoid just as good without killmails as you do now. I feel that aspect of pre-killmail pvp was quite immersive cause your opinions were shaped in game about who's good and who's bad instead of on the forums, I think that's how pre cross server battlegrounds in WoW was more immersive as well, few enough people so you knew who was who and you didn't get your opinion of them from the armory.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You? if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it. Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
Gameplay is probably the main thing for me, if the game features a nice way of playing that gets me hooked I can ignore the other things. Graphics would be the second thing, I got problems playing games with too bad graphics, but I can stand the most if the gameplay is good. The rest of the features in game come in second hand is rather positive things if they are good rather than something negative if not there.
Gameplay.. i love the games with free movement ( jump, walk over hills ) that is why i dont play Guild Wars... its like looking at Age Of Empire, just with a really small army
Comments
EQ was my first MMO- blessed game, best memories of MMO are from the insanity and totally unbalanced and unrestricted gameplay in EQ... it had a major downfall though.... mind-numbing grinding for exp. Ugh. Even the quests were built on grinding...
Graphics aren't a big issue for me. Although, that's mostly because my computer is pretty low-end and can't handle the heavily graphic-intensive games unless they're on the lower settings. Gameplay is HUGE, being that a game that is not fun to play, I find, simply isn't worth playing. Character customization is a big deal for me too, although that may come from City of Heroes being one of my earliest MMORPG experiences and that game may have simply spoiled me in that regard. I've actually passed on games that don't offer suitable (or any) character creation and customization options, which includes a good number of the F2P MMOs. A decent community would also be nice, as I tend to play a Tank or Healer class more often then not and it's nice to have a few players around who won't rush through twenty different mobs. But then, if you have the previous two details in place, then you're more likely to find that you have a good core of players.
That's all I care about, really. A game that is fun to play, where it is easy to create a unique player character and find a decent team. I've never really had a thing for the player markets or PVP.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Playing: Nothing
Played: Champions Online, CoX, STO, PSO, WoW, lots of free-to-play crap
Looking Forward To: DC Universe Online, Blade and Soul
World immersion including an open and dynamic world (inc. monthly events, gm interaction, npc raids on player towns etc), player freedom (including FFA PVP), deep skill based character customization, in depth quests that DON’T hold your hand, non item dependant PVP, non cartoony graphics, massive loot table with lots of VIABLE equipment, no instances, PVP rewards are in the form of meaningful RvR including; item looting, sieges, fighting over towns, leveling spots - NOT stat or honor grinds (read: NO PVP GRINDS!!!).
That’s a good start IMO.
Well when I look into an MMO my first question would be, what can I be, what can I do and how can I change the world. Will I just be one of those heroes running around doing quest or do my action actualy have consequences in the world. That is why I do like game like Wurm Online, Face of Mankind and these kind of games, because I as an player actualy have a meaning.
Gameplay mechanics close to being on par or better then Elderscrolls Oblivion. Crafting being built around a pvp system, best items come from crafting. And not a crafting system where you have to pay cash for the materials but are able to find them in the world. items must ware out, or be able to be broken like a shield can be shattered if hit with a 2 handed hammer etc, something conceivable and realistic for the setting.
Manual blocking, no point and click combat, you must have cross hairs on the target and be in range.
Seige combat with player made siege engines of all sorts.
Player made cities that dont cost jack except the time to build and the resources.
FFA pvp with no siege timers or any timers saying when you can attack anyone. Screw egg timers. City defences should be strong enough to defend against attacks up to a point so that one dude cant roll up and knock down a city.
A full living world model. NPC's with their own lives and objectives
Mounted combat
FPS controlled ship combat
New lands added all the time
NO expansion packs to pay for besides your monthly fee, aint that the reason you pay a monthly fee for in the first place, for content updates...
Craft anything in the game world, from an apple cider jug, to a zepplin
Player houses that they can build, or buy.
NO CLASSES
NO LVLS
NO TIMESINKS
Spec any way you want with all the spells and skills you may like, if you change your mind about one or three then drop them for others anytime for nothing. Your not a robot, your a thinking creature, do what you want, when you want with the ability you may have.
Players should be dropped in the middle of a town and told to get on with living. Go make your own storyline aint no body going to hold your hand.
Go explore and make a name for your self.
No death penalty except lose of cash and time, and a hit to over all perm durability of items, so they break faster and give crafters more work to keep econ going strong.
And a ton more ideas ill keep to myself.
FoE Fist of the Empire
Content .. content and content.
Good, fun, polished, well implemented content.
Gameplays.
I must find a gameplay which I like (PvE grouping/soloing for example), and I must DREAM that I will master it only doing stuff I like. The path to TOTAL MASTERY of that gameplay must be inside it (and/or other gameplays which I like, but I would still scowl a little).
The progression is VERY important, the graphics and character customisations/creation are part of it I will like the grouping or not, tiny elements, but still there. EQ would score okay even today on the graphics and character customisation, CoX is tremendously nice.
I must find my character attractive or MAYBE grotesque...or maybe identify myself to the character, but...that is something that haven't happen in a long while so; not easy either as it must both be physical and psychological if I identify myself to the character in a way or another (idealistically as well)...playing a cute gurl is a lot easier. :P
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
The number one thing is does it lend itself to grouping in the early levels? That's what I like to do in an MMORPG, play in a group.
I liked DAoC PvE because of this, and EQ, and also EQ2 wasn't that bad.
WoW sucked for grouping before you reach max level, so I didn't like it at all.
City of Heroes was kind of in the middle. The grouping was better than WoW, but not as good as DaoC or EQ.
MMORPG Maker
Immersion, which takes a bit from everything.
Your character or spaceship can't look like complete crap because that's you man, most avatars look like garbage. The more stylized avatars like in WoW, RF Online, or even a cutesy MMO like DOMO are way better than the more realistic avatars like in Shadowbane, DDO, or Vanguard or even Pirates of the Burning Sea. That's something ccp might have to worry about when they have avatars walking around on the stations cause if they look real like their portraits it's probably going to kind of suck, not like walking around on stations will mean anything in eve but it shouldn't suck.
Also travel time, the longer the travel time the more realistic it seems. In Eve it's cool to carve out your little piece of the galaxy so that's a win. In Warcraft you can go anywhere in less than 10 minutes and sometimes in a couple seconds yuck. Lineage 2 had good travel time. Game design has to compliment it though, you can get megacyte on both sides of the universe in Eve but you can only get the Devout Robe in one place in WoW. So it's not like travel time is there just for the sake of travel time it's when the game design benefits travel time, I'd like to mention Pirates of the Burning sea here but I haven't played it enough to have a good opinion.
Pvp with a justification of something a little more persistant than numbers in your character sheet adds greatly to the immersion. Like controlling your territory in Eve or Lineage 2. Before cross server battlegrounds in WoW there was a teeny tiny bit of immersion in battlegrounds cause it would make yourself known to other people regardless of whether or not they could see your title. Pvp in eve was also way more fun before killmails in my opinion cause it wasn't a silly numbers game like WoW, it was a show of force to destroy the morale of your enemy in one single battle instead of reference for you to point at at any old time on the forums or other places. You figured out who's good and who to avoid or not avoid just as good without killmails as you do now. I feel that aspect of pre-killmail pvp was quite immersive cause your opinions were shaped in game about who's good and who's bad instead of on the forums, I think that's how pre cross server battlegrounds in WoW was more immersive as well, few enough people so you knew who was who and you didn't get your opinion of them from the armory.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
Gameplay is probably the main thing for me, if the game features a nice way of playing that gets me hooked I can ignore the other things. Graphics would be the second thing, I got problems playing games with too bad graphics, but I can stand the most if the gameplay is good. The rest of the features in game come in second hand is rather positive things if they are good rather than something negative if not there.
Gameplay.. i love the games with free movement ( jump, walk over hills ) that is why i dont play Guild Wars... its like looking at Age Of Empire, just with a really small army
aside from gameplay,graphics, etc. i also look for gaming community.