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What new things would YOU like to see in a MMORPG?
lanorra
Member Posts: 9
First off, I apologize for the length of this, but it's something I have a very large interest in, and I'd love to discuss this stuff with other MMORPG fans. 
So ... what do you want to see in "next generation" MMORPG's?
One of the biggest frustrations I have with current and future MMORPG's is that character progression seems so similar across the board. You pick a race, you pick a class. And then you are on a track. There are very few "juicy" character progression decisions you can make along the way to help make your character decidely unique and different from anyone else in your class. Of those I've played, WoW probably does the best job by allowing you to choose different talents. A fire mage has different abilities than a cold mage, for example, and you can't max out both at once. EQ1 had AA skills, and while eventually every person in one class could achieve the same level of competency in ALL the skills, there were enough of them to encourage a little diversity, at least for a time. Althought I've not played the released version, Guild Wars allowed you to combine certain sets of skills so you could have some diversity among classes. Saga of Ryzom allowed you to progress in different areas by practicing in each, so every person was unique in that regard. But none of them took that to the next level ...
Do I see any attempt in "next generation" games to further what these games started? Not convincingly.
I would love to see many more opportunities to customize characters as they develop in future games. Here are some ideas I've discussed with friends who share the same frustrations:
1. Make Dieties Matter: Allow characters to pick a diety, and make this selection matter. For example, if you choose a God of War as your diety, you become better enabled to wield certain weapons, or gain certain combat skills. If you choose a God of Nature as your diety, you have innate abilities to track, or to calm animals. If you choose a God of Stealth, you are better able to hide and sneak, etc. etc. As you progress in levels, new skills in these areas open up. (Obviously, game designers can choose which skills each diety would impart to his/her worshippers, and my suggestions are merely for illustration). In all cases, it would not matter what race or class you character was, unless of course your race had it's own preferences in terms of gods or goddesses it worshipped. I think this could add some really neat personal dimension to characters and help make them unique from one another, especially amongst those of the same class.
2. Give us different classes and races, please: I'm not sure I can get excited about playing a high elf cleric anymore. Or a barbarian warrior. /yawn. How about races of beings that are different from the typical player races we've seen before? Insect people. Bird people. Dog people. Nymph like faeries. Whatever .. I don't have the best imagination, but I'm sure if you turned loose the people who get paid to think this stuff up, they'd come up with some pretty interesting characters. Same thing with classes. How about classes that aren't EITHER a healer OR a melee type OR a scout/rogue OR a magic user? You can combine these or evey create new types. Isn't there more out there to be imagined? Create classes with unique abilities ... shat about Genies, or Pirates, or Mounted Swordsman? How about Scientists or Physicians or Philosophers? There is no limit there either ... (again, these are off the top of my head ..)
3. Create upward branching skill trees: Most games today have an inverted skill tree. You can select from a bunch of skills, and you narrow down your expertise as you progress. And, for the most part, those choices exclude your ability to learn others. Eventually you are really good at one thing, and that's all you can ever attain. So ... why limit people? I realize that games can't have everyone doing everything, but I don't believe the answer is to artificially limit people's choices. Instead, make the pursuit of the skills harder. Make it take a long, long time to get really good at something, so only people who are incredibly dedicated (or insane, or both) can achieve that pinnacle. But, if they want, people can be moderatly good at lots of things instead. Or, they can attain success in multiple areas if they put the work and time into it. Real life's like that. We always have the opportunity to pursue whatever we want. Some things may be harder to achieve than others given our "starting stats" of course, but being good in one area never precludes us from getting better in others. It should feel that way in games too.
4. Make your choices have global impact: I really find worlds that don't take politics and religion and your reputation into account very strange. If I happen to be a worshipper of a God of War, and I wander into a temple run by priests who covet peace, I don't expect to get a warm reception. If I kill a cat person mercenary in a dungeon, I expect that to get back to the local Cat Town. If I saved a nobleman from the ruling court, I'd expect to gain access to other members of the noble class and to have people in certain areas react differently to me. While some games attempt to create a world that is reactive, it's grossly over generalized in most cases and more often than not "feels" like an afterthought. You can create some really intriguing gameplay with this stuff, and I think it's highly under utilized in game design.
I could post more, but I'm probably going to get /flamed as it is.
So let's hear your ideas! What would YOU like to see?
Comments
Maybe a game with no classes...with hundreds of skills...no two of you the same...you pick a race,develop your look,and your off into a world where everything you do has a consequence.Everything you say,has a consequence.Everything you kill has a consequence.You can become politicaly known and own and run Towns,Villages,City's,and fight off other rebellious lords,wanting to take your place.Where players can buy and rent houses in theese civilizations of yours.Or become a brave adventurer,and travel off into a fable,or a bold wizard fulfilling his destiny,both to be led to death or fame depending on your choices.Maybe own a store,sell the goods you find and make to other players for profit,or own an inn,where you can bed theese people for a price.Where the world is huge and always changing, with civilizations always at war.Lead your army of friends and conquer other countries.
The more you mine,the bigger you become,stronger,more muscular.The less you eat,you become smaller,skinnier.The more you practice the sword or magic,the better they become.EVERTHING MATERS.
I'd like to see modern MMORPG's take up a social structure that is similar to cybertown.com's philosophy.
imo, social structures and the "guild factor" has not been built up to par with modern technology at all.
I really like a game with an awesome community (less kids who are obsesed with being uber 1337)
I dont like PvP at all, unless it is limited, and theres a penalty that is pretty sever for just running aorund killing people. Everything else thats in EQ2 works for me too.
What I'd like to see in a MMORPG? First of all, very good graphics. As I prefer games like GW, WoW and such, VERY advanced character customisation, meaning being able to change hair color, hair length, hairstyle, eye color, eyelashes, eyebrows, mouth/lips, lipstick color if playing a female character, mustache or beard when playing a male character, face, expressions, clothing, lenght, muscles (for example: very muscled when playing a strong and brave warrior or fighter, or less muscled when playing a fast and agil ranger/bowman or whatsoever). Quite some different jobs/specialisations and races would be nice as well, so you can create a character that suits you well. Crafting would also be nice, so you feel like being able to really ''live a life''. Of course, gameplay must run smooth. A nice community is important as well. I want to be able to communicate with lots of different people from different countries and so different cultures. The game must contain a very good storyline. It would be nice if the quests change or follow the storyline, so you feel like being part of a great story. Sounds and stuff like that must be good as well, of course, but I think these are the most important features...
::Semper Paratus Pro Justitia::
There are a lot of new things I'd like to see in future mmorpg's, and I'm constantly giving it a lot of thought because I've never been satisfied with playing any one game for a long period of time. I'll try to make this short.
I think the social system of a game is ridiculously important to keeping an indivitual interested. A looong looong time ago, when I was just a kid, I played a game called Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds. Compared to today's games, its graphical garbage and has simplistic gameplay, but when I was a kid it was great. The main reason it was so great was because there was a community of about 500 people, and within the game you were able to grow in fame not statistically but respectively. The more you accomplished, the more people knew your name. Fame and Power did not necissarilly go hand in hand, but being both famous and powerful did help. Rising the ranks in one of the 5 or 6 guilds, becoming the leader of a subpath, being a heavily respected roleplayer or PvP master...all of these things could boost you to becoming a leader in that world. Despite the terrible graphics and horrible game play, it was impossible to leave a world in which everyone loved you.
Another great aspect this game USED to have (before its untimely downfall due to the removal of this) is that all social aspects of the game were run by fellow players. Guilds were given special priveleges by game masters, but managed by players. There was an entire political system run by players. Even Subpaths, role playing groups that targeted specific roles and granted special spells and abilities, were run entirely by players. This also aided in the Fame aspect and gave you a lot to work for. In a sense, there was really no reason to grind levels at all. You could be perfectly content just existing in such a social environment. When Nexus removed many of the player-run spots and replaced them with game-master run staff, the entire game collapsed on itself and turned into a social disaster, leaving it in the state its in now.
Seeing as the numbers of people who play online games these days has skyrocketed, I can see these two previous things being almost impossible to bring back. I can, however, see this being salvagable by making worlds in which you are born into a small town or faction, and having numerous other smaller towns or factions to compete with that are socially run by those who reside there. Unlike guilds, where you join up into a group like this, you would be around people who you are almost forced to ally with, giving you more of an opportunity to make a legend for yourself. Gaining the respect of those who don't know you is far more pleasing than earning the respect of a group of people who respect you already. Its a stretch, but it may work.
Also, I think having more indivitualized class systems would help a lot, too. Maybe a system that branches a lot more, so that a person who is a Mage for example could potentially not have access to a single spell that another Mage of the same level does, and vice versa, but both mages are potentially equally as powerful. The first initial response to this would be "oh, like fire and ice, earth and wind. It's been done." I'm thinking of a more defined system, however, where for example two level 45 mages may have recently earned new abilities that are completely different, and they used the exact same build until level 40, at which they branched apart. This would require many, many different spells, but it can almost ensure that every player's experiences would be vastly different. Different combat abilities and spell sets would be nice, too...something a little outside the box. Maybe being able to snipe creatures with arrows from trees, being able to mentally control another player's character breifly in PvP, small thoughts like that that could give a little more of a change.
I'll post more if I can think of them, but I think that's a good start.
I agree wholeheartedly. I'm not familiar with Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds, but I had a similar experience to yours in those days. Communities back then were much more tightly knit and you felt your status in the social system mattered. This quality is long gone in modern games, to be replaced by impersonal masses of strangers that abide by a loosely agreed upon social code of conduct.
It would be impossible in a game like World of Warcraft or Everquest to ever introduce this, but if one were to design a game from the ground up with a well thought out social structure in mind I'm absolutely certain it could be accomplished. And it would be successful, completely and utterly successful, because ultimately the social aspects of a game are the #1 reason people stick around. It creates its own content, it's dynamic and it gives you a feeling of worth admist these masses of impersonal games.
I liked how Mourning had such a developed social structure, actually. That's one of the things that pulled me to it before I saw the light. But Mourning's plans were but a fraction of what I have in mind.