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What MMOs introduced features that became commonplace thereafter?
Loktofeit
Member RarePosts: 14,247
Sometimes a feature shows up in an MMO and then almost every MMO from that day on has the feature. It becomes so commonplace that an MMO without it almost seems lacking or incomplete. Other times, it's not a whole new feature but just a design approach that catches on. For example:
Asheron's Call 2 - HUD layout has barely changed in MMOs since AC2 introduced this:
World of Warcraft - Market compare with equipped. An unbelievably useful yet elegantly simple extra panel to compare what you are looking at on the vendor/auction with the relative item that you are currently wearing.
What are some others?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Comments
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
World of Warcraft didn't introduce comparing equipment, there were RPGs that with similar functionality way before WoW was released.
Everquest...
Most things you see in modern mmos came in some form from EQ
Introduced to MMOs and became commonplace in MMOs thereafter. I figured since we are talking about MMOs that I wouldn't have to spell it out that far, but it was evidently unclear. Maybe I should have put more "MMO" in "Sometimes a feature shows up in an MMO and then almost every MMO from that day on has the feature. It becomes so commonplace that an MMO without it almost seems lacking or incomplete. "
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Can you list some of those things?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Meridian 59 intruduced most things to MMOs even if many of them were used in MUDs and single player RPGs before...
Like:
Cooldown on skills
Trinity combat
"Kill 10 rats in the moat" (seriously the first MMO quest I ever did)
Sliders for appearance (but boy were the graphics ugly)
Classes and levels (yeah, this one were already in C-64 RPGs like Pool of radiance)
The Realm Online - Instanced combat areas
Meridian 59 - 3D environments, DOOM-like but still 3D
One I'm curious about is emphasis on Quest Progression as primary leveling mechanic. My guess is AC2, but I'm not sure.
No kidding. M59? I didn't know that.
Not enough credit goes to WAR and the other MMOs that expanded on it like Rift and GW2. That's the future of PVE grouping right there... once someone takes the concept as far as it needs to go getting rid of static spawns and having instead constant emergent game crisis that can destroy towns if not dealt with.
Also from WAR: achievement tracking panel. Copied and enhanced in WOW's next expansion after that.
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Not sure if this was the first, but one of the EQ expansions added hireable henchmen that would join a party so a small group could run a dungeon.
EDIT: On second thought, that never really became common. Leaving it in as trivia.
Yeah, it seems RIFT and GW2 tend to get credited with the Public Quests, when they just picked up a ball that WAR already put out there. WAR's PQs were pretty decent, too.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Lotro was the first I played that created an account/server wide bank(all characters could access it, around the same time as the Mirkwood release, 2009. Not quite the same as housing storage.
Was WoW the first to do automatic weapon sheathing? Seems to me, before that came along, you had to either keep your weapon drawn or pull it back into your inventory.
WoW's groupfinder? (I'm trying hard to think of a game that did it prior to WoW, but either it's slipping my mind or it's one of those I never played)
I think Anarchy Online was the first MMO that I played which used instancing for quests. (Not entirely sure if it was the one to introduce the concept though)
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Minions of Mirth (2005?) had account bank. But I think it was faction specific (Light / Dark / Monster).
Some of those things werent so much introduced as they were an inevitably. Such as sliders, kill 10 rats, classes and level, and cooldowns.... leaving maybe the Trinity?
Today I learned.
As for Hud/UI FFXI has an empty screen which allows for better viewing,the macros only come up when you want them to.
Customized UI?Likely EQ1.
First mmo game to allow you to con enemies?Again likely EQ1.
EQ2 i believe started the whole mentoring idea.I believe it also started to the scaling of content with Splitpaw Saga expansion.
MOST ideas in Wow were taken from EQ/EQ2.However they likely started the cross server grouping,albeit instanced.
FFXI started the multi class system.
First game to have Epic animated weapons?EQ1?Realm online?Realm Online had animated epic gear.
First game to start player>player combos?I am not sure lol.I know Street Fighter started it but that is a single player game.I think was FFXI unless EQ1 added it later.
hmmm what else,housing?Realm Online?
Fast forward many years,20 to be exact since RO was made,i would say that seeing SOE and Blizzard copy everyone else and each other,that SOE Brad/Smed likely did play that game and were influenced or copied ideas from it as well.
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Dark Age of Camelot had weapon sheathing too. Not sure if any came before it.
DAOC came out first (DAOC: October 10, 2001; RO: August 31, 2002) and had castle sieges from day 1.
I think DAOC may have been the first with:
Travel routes (flight paths in WoW terms). Sure, EQ had the boat, but DAOC was, I think, the first with a proper network of stables to travel faster from point A to point B and all places in between.
Tokens for gear (Darkness Falls)?
Mobs yelling for help, and thereby calling any similar mobs within range into aggro
Non-training mobs. As in if you flee to the zone line of a dungeon with a train of mobs on your arse they would walk back to their usual spot peacefully unless attacked. Whereas in EQ they would simply aggro on the next person they met.
With (mostly) seamless world. EQ had zones, DAOC you would only get a loading screen when entering/exiting an enemy's Frontier, dungeons, and capital cities. You could run from Hadrian's Wall to Lyonesse without zoning once.
Quest loot guaranteed to drop. If you had a quest to get the 'Dagger of MacGuffin' from 'Named Mob X', then Named Mob X would drop it every time for everyone who needed it in the group.
CoH did it better and several years earlier. Though from previous discussions I'm pretty sure other implementations already existed prior to 2004.
The WoW Devs stubbornly fought for the stupid Meeting Stone idea for far longer than necessary.
Nope, CoH first again, on both counts. Scaling Content was CoH from day 1, along with Sidekicks and (later) Exemplars, scale your friends to your content.
Gotta remember CoH ran with a loot-less system for years. (Shock and Horror!)
I'd say City of Heroes Rikti invasion as the first public quests.
Also, CoH had their achivement system in at release in 2004 long before WAR.
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And when they added loot (invention stuff) , they where first to use individual loot system, every player in team got his own loot, not some Need for Greed rolling.