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5 greatest MMORPG features/systems
strangiato2112
Member CommonPosts: 1,538
5. EQ2 Housing
Ive probably lost a lot of people already. But SWG and UO were open world! This is true, and those games have the #2 and #3 spots on the best housing list, but I think that EQ2 is a step above. The possibilities really are endless and the houses and guild halls people create are amazing.
The casual homeowner can simply decorate modestly, or just diplay all his kill and quest trophies. And the super-creative can take a blank island and build their dream house from blocks and tiles.
Throw in the large amount of holiday themed housing items and you can easily decorate your guild hall for christmas or create a halloween themed island with mazes and surprises around every corner.
The next step would be to combine this with SWGs cities....maybe the company that created both systems could merge them for their...next...game?
4. WAR's Tome of Knowledge. MMOs these days all seem to have achievement systems. This is obviously an offshoot of XBOX Live popularizing the concept, but the first (I think) AAA MMORPG to introduce the concept did so in the most creative of ways..
Not only did achievements reward you the customary titles and such, the ToK rewarded you with more lore and information about the game world.
Even the boring kill x of mob y achievements were more interesting in WAR, because after a set amount you would have to seek out a lair or a specific named.
Since WAR was mostly billed as a PvP game (as a side note youll find no PvP systems in this list as I am a primary PvEr), the ToK didnt get much publicity and when WAR basically dumped the PvE aspect of their game it fell into obscurity.
3. SWG crafting
From the resource gathering (and resource stats) to the experimentation to the mass produced factory runs, the SWG crafting system was brilliant. Nothing more really needs to be said, and I think this is the one item on my lst that most will agree on.
Funny, 2 out of three systems so far are in SoE games. Will it be 4 out of 5?
2. EQ AAs
AAs served two important purposes in the game, both of which modern MMORPGs struglle with.
The first is non gear related progression at max level. AAs helped keep the RPG trait of character growth a permanent trait, as opposed to something that went away at max level when it became a gear grind (gear acquisition is NOT charcater growth).
The second is it provides a benefits to everyone in the party, not just the person you wer ehelping achieve a goal. It also lessened the blow of the rng coming up short, since you did get something positive out of your play time.
But hey, EQ was great before the AAs got added in. It was obviously a fantastic virtual world, but was there something else that sets it apart?
Yes.
1. EQ Group mechanics
People talk about the holy trinity as heals. dps. tank. That is absolutely incorrect. the Holy Trinity comes from EQ, and that Holy Trinity was Warrior/Cleric/Enchanter. Those three classes were the backbone to every group. But if that was the whole story, it wouldnt be as interesting. No, EQ was deeper than that. Of course in group settings a SK or Pally could take the warrior's place, and in 90% of the group content even a well geared/AA'd Ranger could take the place.
A traditional EQ group needed these roles filled: tank, healer, slower, and puller or crowd control (basically a way to ensure group would fight one mob at a time because two mobs could equal death). And this traditional group could be filled out in a large variety of ways. And for those times where you had one add and couldnt mez it, maybe the ranger could root it. or the necro could kite it. So many different classes with so many different skill sets offered many, many ways to get the job done
Heck even non traditional groups were around. Kite groups where some poor soul would piss a mob off and runt it in circles while the rest of the group killed it. No heals or tank needed.
Perhaps this type of thing will never happen again. Some of the mechanics (such as feign death pulling or kiting) werent even intended by the devs, they just took on a life of their own. but more companies need to look at ths class interplay that made EQ so special.
Comments
WurmOnline: Terraforming(make a wall of dirt+fortifications) combined with housing.
Haven and Hearth Crafting: Good and well enough developed that a lot of the community never even fights in combat, and a VAST majority of it spends more time on crafting than anywhere else. Just well thought out, resonable player+item developement and similar.
EvEOnline Server arctitecture: Game design allows for some cleverly hidden loading screens, transfer and similar but it's all very impressive getting all those players in one place, and doing it soo far ahead of the competitors.
EvEOnline market: THe entire game is based around around the market economy, even players that refuse to do such are a part of the "real game" that is market control and domination.
WoW: well timed release, well polished, and just "ready-ish" for bringing the genre to the main stream. Really set the standard for what people expect from a AAA developer in releasibility and support, and even if the design doesn't really move the us forward the rest of it does.
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
"At one point technology meant making tech that could get to the moon, now it means making tech that could get you a taxi."
Totally agree with EQ2 housing, SWG crafting, and EQ grouping.
I also agree with Eve's economy from the next post.
And I'd agree with WoW for making a mainstream project. They obviously hit on "the formula," and love it or hate it, most of us have played it for a time. It's hard to argue that 10M+ players, something that fairly well eclipses the entire rest of the industry combined, isn't something insignificant.
I guess all in all I don't add a lot, other than some "I agree"
I'm not interested in sandbox features - housing and crafting will never be interesting to me
1. SWTOR class story quests: high quality story telling - they shouldn't have voiced anything but story quests and main planet quest line - options to make choices is also nice for RPing.
2. WOW leveling paths: at least two unique paths per faction - should be the standard
3. WOW combat smoothness and response
4. GW2 - quest tracking: automatically tracks nearby quests. No quest hubs of endless quest givers. DEs were a good start but needed a lot more depth
5. WOW group finder and endgame: No other MMO has held my attention nearly as long. I wish there were extra LFR tiers of increasing difficulty. There's always stuff to do in WOW to advance your characters.
Honorable mention:
Best Battleground: Classic WOW Alterac Valley - my best MMO PVP experience (Never tried DaOC)
Best UI: WOWs multitude of addons are ideal
Best Community: LOTRO
Best Developer: Trion
i could not possibly disagree with this person more, what he said is an insult to me and every respectable mmo gamer in the world, swtor questing wasnt completely terrible though.
and the polish that wow had/has is not a feature.
played a million mmo's
trollin?
I agree with pretty much all of this, though I think I would replace GW2 quest tracking with EvEs economy. My son got me hooked on EvE and I think that the EVE economy is the best of any mmo I have ever played by far.
Rather than trolling me, why don't you guys make your own lists.
I defined what I like best, which are the best features of Theme Park MMOs.
5. EVE's economy. Player driven, second to none on this one.
4. Final Fantasy XIV's graphics. Breathtaking to look at, not so impressive to play.
3. GW2's combat. Not talking about skill bound to weapons, but the movement and action mixed with traditional tab targeting. They put the best of both worlds into their game and nailed it.
2. Aion's Character Creator. Some think it's too flexible ... but in a system where you can make your character look like a celebrity or even yourself - just amazing.
1. WoW's fun. Any way you shake it, there's only one reason why people still play this game - it's just fun. Sure, it may be the Mcdonald's of the MMO industry but people keep coming back because it's just fun to play. Whether it's the quirky stories or entertaning dungeons- MMO elitists be damned, WoW is a sinful indungence that I dip into still from time to time - like that big tub of ice cream. It's a guilty pleasure.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
wow, ok but anyway LOL
5. WoW group/dungeon/guild finder
4. WAR tome of Knowledge
3. DAOC realm vs realm
2. SWG/EQ2 housing
1. SWG crafting
Do you realize that you're on MMORPG??? Saying anything good about World of Warcraft will get you bashed!
Anyway, good post!
In no particular order:
Any Alternate Advancement - Like in EQ2, Rift and AoC
Dungeon Finders - Might get a fail group sometimes but overall it saves TONS of time
Auction Houses - First was in FFXI or AO I think? Saves time compared to the old way.. sometimes spent 8hrs in a day trading my stuff in AC1 until the trade bots came.. never again
LOTRO's Legendary Items - It's LOTRO's AA in a way, but as you are leveling items you could play the game forever and always be progressing something. Made a bigger connection between your character and their gear. I wish more games would do something like this.
Asheron's Call Allegience System - If you don't know what it was/is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheron%27s_Call#Allegiance_system. Basically the most social system ever put in an MMO. You have a real good reason to be helping other people out.. some players made it their profession to take care of other players and hardly did any kill grinding since their vassels would get them all the experience they needed. Was like a parent and child relationship, was worthwhile and it worked perfectly.
I think I threw up in my mouth a little...! WoW has that except SWTOR Story scinematics! if you want that type of game then just play SwToR!
Other than that, the top 5 for me is
1. Is EQ2, SWG, & Rift's housing.
2. FFXI/FFXIV's dual Class system.
3. Rift's Devs community disscusions
4. Vanilla WoW's Altarac valley GW2's WvW
5. GW2 & Rift's dynamic event system (more GW's)
Below is where we can disscuss and come up with new ideas for Sandparks!
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5164689#5164689
1 - The single server architecture used by Glitch and EVE, or the option to switch channels depending on your preference as seen in RuneScape and possibly TESO.
2 - The skill training in EVE and Glitch. I can keep a 40 hour job and still feel like I'm accomplishing something and not fall behind.
3 - The crafting based economy in EVE and Glitch.
4 - RuneScape's and to a lesser extent FFXI/FFXIV's questing system. Don't give me a laundry list of quests to level off of. Let questing unlock areas, storylines, lore, etc for the reward.
5 - The age/weight system from Mabinogi.
It's cool, you get hated on for giving props to WoW or SWTOR on these boards. I agree with your opinions.
1) Runescapes skils(firemaking, woodcutting, hunting, fishing, cooking, etc) system with experiece and highscores page...imagine if an MMO had all those player skills like runescape, that were valuable but were actually fun to level up instead of a grind like runescape? Now that would be something special, but even in Runescapes current form, it has been one of the most successful MMOs of all time. That says a lot, imagine a AAA MMO being developed in the style of runescape and with real combat instead of the garbage runescape currently has.
2) TERAs combat - While it needs some tweaking(lower levels) and has some hitbox problems, it was a huge step in the combat department, at level 60 you really get a feel for how impressive it is and it makes going back to tab-target games very difficult.
3) Rifts Dimensions - Probably the most impressive and most customizable housing I have seen, while it may be instanced it is still very impressive and i've seen very creative dimensions made, people even make jumping puzzles with them or build boats/houses all thanks to the amount of customization and freedom you have. I personally never experienced EQ 2s housing but Rifts I have heard is as good if not better.
4) WoWs Leveling Paths - I am no fan of WoW, but different starting zones for all races and leveling paths is something a lot more games need to adopt, 1 or 2 starting zones makes creating alts a very tedious process.
I can't think of a fifth that is specific, for example Archeage's sandbox features as a whole are great but I can't just put a single one of them on the list. So i'll leave it at those 4 specific things for now.
Thanks to you and a couple of others that have been nice. I don't even play WOW, and haven't since the month Cata released, but I know what I've enjoyed the most from all of the MMOs I've played.
Rifts dimensions are based off of EQ2s housing. I didnt toy with it much, but it is *very* similar from what I can see. Which is a huge plus for Rift.
I think the WoW leveling path thing can really be traced back to EQ where each race had their own starting city (most were massive) and starting zone. WoW was actually streamlined compared to EQ since there were fewer races and its gone downhill since. I do agree this should be the standard.
I greatly prefer strategic, resource based combat than having to be in constant motion clicking every gcd. I do think TERA is a step up from games like WoW and Rift for sure and actually *less* motion and clicking than WoW, but far from my ideal system. I completely understand the people that dig it though and expected it to be mentioned a lot.
1 - Absolute freedom in terms of what you're allowed to do and create/modify such as in Wurm Online or A Tale in the Desert and Xsyon to a lesser extent.
being able to build your own house from scratch, dig a huge tunnel under the mountain or resort to gardening because you can is absolutely amazing. Wurm has so much to do in it that it is mind boggling.
2 - a system that promotes doing things in order to gain skills, such as in Asheron's Call/DarkFall Online and Wurm as well. Everytime you did anything in any of those games, you gained XP points toward that skill.
9Dragons had that too so did Ultima Online, but I'd have to say it was perfect in Asheron's Call
3 - Difficulty. Challenging games are awesome. Why bother to play games that hold your hand throughout the entire leveling process? Hell yeah I want to lose items and xp points upon death. Hell yeah I want to do corpse runs like I did in Diablo 1 back in the day and die over and over until I finally get my bow of awesomeness back. This was the actual fun. What do we get today? a billion of quests that give you everything you need and some games dare to go as far as give you 1000s hp pots as soon as you start and have no penalties of any kind until you're deep in your 100s of levels.
The best MMORPGs are the ones that make you sweat and struggle for every point of your XP bar
4 - Player run marketplace. This is what Eve managed to achieve so well, but so did many other games like POTBS and UWO. Being able to become a millionaire in a game because you can't in real life is a good feeling.
5 - Kickass combat system. One of the reasons I never got into WoW and never will is because of how boring the combat system in WoW and EQ is for me. I hate standing in one spot and press same button over and over.
Asheron's Call had a very interactive combat system and was way ahead of its time as well, so did a lot of Korean games and most recently Tera Online and GW2.
It;s just a lot more fun, more interactive and a lot more engaging. Even if I'm several levels below your character (in Asheron's Call you could be up 50 levels below) I could still kick your butt if I'm better than you. in a lot of games today, your prowess is measured by how much grind you endured in raids/dungeons and how much crap you collected over the years.
For people that have lives/families, games like GW2 offer an alternative
I review lots of indie games and MMORPGs
1. Asheron's Call quests
2. Asheron's Call dungeons
3. Asheron's Call loot system - tinkering
4. Asheron's Call character development
5. Darkfall's gameplay for pvp
Basically take Darkfall's gameplay/graphics and combine it with everything else in Asheron's Call and I would be happy.
Agree but SWG had better housing. THe ecoration part atleast. Was wonderful to walk into someones guildhall or cantina and see how nicely decorated it was. It was like a mini game lol. tilt, tip, back, forward, up, down, move things anywhere. Was real nice.
1. FFXI
a- to this day EVERY facit of endgame is relevant
b- this is because of gearswapping
c- all classes (jobs), 1 character.
d- actual MMO. GROUPING!
2. SWG
a- community
b- setting
c- housing, to go further into detail: non-instanced, useful in so many ways
d- liked the "jedi" system, and skill system.
3. WoW
a- fun leveling 1-60: say what you want about the game, but I've never had more fun getting to max level in any mmo.
b- not afraid to change their game (not saying the changes are good, but you have to give them credit for always mixing things up)
4. EVE
a- the world is what the players make of it
b- actual value in what you're doing
c- single server
5. RIFT
a- Trion is by far the best support staff without question that I have personally dealt with
b- non stop content generation
1) EVE's real time skill training, not tied to time spent in game. Love it or hate it, there's nothing quite like it and one of my favorite MMORPG features of all time.
2) Blessed Teleport Scrolls (B-Tels) - From Lineage 1, loved the way you could set a location (up to 30) in the game world and teleport back to it when you wanted using one of these scrolls. Made them a valuable trade commodity that funded much of my spells and gear.
3) 3 faction PVP - Dark Age of Camelot - The perfect storm, no game has ever gotten this right since, and I really now appreciate the simple beauty behind the system.
4) EVE's economy - There's been no game quite like it, so many years since it launched, yet the economy is totally in control, even with the selling of PLEX's and in game farmers. Amazing the economy continues to hold up. (but maybe not, they employ an economist to keep it running right)
5) Interdependent game / social mechanics, including grouping, crafting and other interactive systems to encourage in game socialization between players. (Largely extinct in modern MMO's)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
SWG had a *lot* less to work with than EQ2 does. Go check out the Norrathian Homeshow threads on EQ2s forums. What people can do in EQ2 is absolutely mind boggling.