If you could go back in time and be the developer of one mmo what would it be?

bcbully · January 2013

What would it be? Let's pretend there's no temporal distortions, and you didn't go back and actually ruin the game, so that the game you wanted to go back and develope is a sucky game now, and you never would have chose it in the first place, or would that be the second case?

Anyways what mmo & why?

Adamantine · January 2013

Whats the point of getting back in time if I cant cause temporal distortions ?

If I could, I would have forced Sigil to get a damn real businessman and a damn real lawyer into their leadership section, who would make ironclad contracts with Microsoft so they cant weasel out of them and cause Vanguard to be released far too early, far from finished, and taken over by SOE very soon, while Sigil went bankrupt.

Pretty much the same for Troika Games, by the way.

Caliburn101 · January 2013

Age of Conan - I would get a grip of Funcom's team and give them enough coffee to wake up and see the vast number of elementary errors they were making, pep them up with as 'this is what you are getting so gloriously right' speech and thenstand over them till they made the game it always deserved to be.

Quirhid · January 2013

I would go back in time to fight tooth and nail to keep Bioware as an independent developer. Nothing more.

Remember when Bioware was still independent? Those times were good.

Castillle · February 2013

WoW. Id do everything the same way in vanilla n stuff and get reech doing so.

merv808 · February 2013

The matrix online.
not sure what I would have done differently, but what mmo could have more potential?

laokoko · February 2013

Age of conana? I think if that game didn't ship with no "end game" content, it might do slightly better.

klaphood · February 2013

Aion. From the bottom of my heart.

AutemOx · February 2013

Ignoring what the OP said about temporal distortions...

I would go work on SWG, that way I can hang out with the amazing Raph Koster. Also I would sieze all sleep and hobbies and do nothing but work on SWG for a year straight, leaving it without bugs at launch so that it gets better reviews and WoW copies it and today would be an amazing assortment of wonderful sandbox mmo's and I would not be here posting on this thread because I would be enjoying all the wonderfulness.

[Deleted User] · February 2013

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Luckshmi · February 2013

Grand Chase and bring it back to season 2

Unknown · February 2013

Star Trek Online.

It could have been SO much better. It's improved in the last while, but it's still nothing like what I was hoping for.

- Way more tactical starship combat, kind of like EVE, but not *that* deep.

- Improved "away team" missions where there are lot more options for diplomacy, etc.

- WAY more polish.

Also, SWTOR would have been basically SWG 2 with space combat akin to X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.

Volmok · February 2013

Warhammer Online

I'd try to kick behinds here and there to keep things on track and maybe save that game :P

Cepheiden · February 2013

Definitely World of Warcraft. I would have stopped the madness that led to todays ever increasing simplification and cutting of content in the game.

Right at the first expansion stop questing from becoming chain grinding. Stop the separation of pve and pvp by gear. Stop the destruction of the game lore, e.g. no paladins for horde and no shamans for alliance. Stop the oversimplification of raids and battlegrounds. Most of all, actually add more content to the game.

Homitu · February 2013

GW2 for me. It's my current favorite MMO out there, but it does suffer from some flaws (not just according to my own subjective tastes.) I wish I had been there to exert my influence, make some vital changes, and create the best MMO possible.

jtcgs · February 2013

SWG

I would kick Koster out on his backside and make that game with actual worlds instead of random generated crap that had a ditch every 20 steps.

There would have been an actual 3D X/Y axis allowing you to jump, not be running or on a mount and get stopped by a pebble...and you wouldnt be able to shoot through a hill to something on the other side of it.

The random quests wouldnt be spawning in housing areas so no creature mounds would be spawning in someones house not allowing them to access it unitl a server reset, let alone the person not being able to complete the quest...

The gathering system would have been done without the randomness, or the ability to place a structure to do it for you. That system favored those that didnt have to work or go to school at the times of the resets leaving less for everyone else...and it promoted hording.

and there would have been random battle events between the empire and rebels.

sudo · February 2013

WoW. Because it'd guarantee me a good place and salary in any other game-related company.

Tigasnake · February 2013

Oo I love hindsight threads.

Here's what I'd do before traveling back to the past. I would find a winning lottery number for a huge payout, then play that number in the year 2006. Next, I would stop Bioware from even thinking about EA, and instead become their top investor. With enough investing, I wind up becoming a producer. SW:TOR would have its own game engine and things like space gameplay would mirror a game like Earth & Beyond.

One can dream. Short answer: Win lottery, fund SW:TOR.

Sovrath · February 2013

Aion

I loved the concept but the execution was not what I had in mind.

Caldrin · February 2013

SWG and stop SOE killing the game...

ignore_me · February 2013

1) I would go back to right before jtcgs was going to kick Koster and intercept that kick. I would then support jtcgs in adding the 3rd dimension, but then have him removed from the building before he ruined gathering in SWG by making it "fair."

2) I would show up at the studios where LOTRO was being developed with anatomy books and examples of realistic art of human figures. I would then tell them how I was from the future and explain that the world would be destroyed if they didn't change the character models to something acceptable.

3) I would go to Bioware and convince them that they should make a Mass Effect MMORPG instead of using the star wars IP. My argument would be supported by the many failings of SWTOR as it existed in my timeline. If this failed I would have the code sent back in time where I would be waiting with a tarp and a shotgun.

L0C0Man · February 2013

I'd go to Blizzard, developing WoW... and I'd just sit back, tell them to do everything as they were doing (did?), use all the money I can get to buy as many blizzard stocks around 2003, get big bonuses after the game is released and is such a success, come back to the present, sell stocks for big profit..

And while I'm there I could also do things like investing in apple short before the ipod is announced, again before the iphone and so on..

ShakyMo · February 2013

Wow

Then I could be on my own private island counting all the cash.

Angzt · February 2013

Originally posted by bcbully
What would it be? Let's pretend there's no temporal distortions, and you didn't go back and actually ruin the game, so that the game you wanted to go back and develope is a sucky game now, and you never would have chose it in the first place, or would that be the second case?

Anyways what mmo & why?

easy answer, WoW. made most money

i could start alot of new projects with that much mon€y

Wraithone · February 2013

Tabula Rasa. First I'd not have picked NCsoft as the publisher (they can't be trusted with western games), and second I'd have shifted Richard Garroit off of the creative side, until after his trip to space had been completed. I'd have fired who ever came up with the REALLY bad crafting system, and made it a modular system. (armor, weapons and consumables).

I would have kept the focus ENTIRELY on PvE, and developed the symbolic system to a much greater extent.

I would have expanded the war against the Bane into a territory control system, based around who had possession of the out posts, and fortress complexes. Just a few of the first things that come to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rasa_(video_game)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A60pdxfAwNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B_w12sNPGo