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If you were to design your own MMO, what would you leave out?
anemo
Member RarePosts: 1,903
Basically this: https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/471520/if-you-could-design-your-dream-mmo-what-would-it-feature/p1
But the reverse. What mechanics would you just not allow to be added to your game. After all MMOs seem to be in a slump where TONS of time needs to be spent making every mechanic ever that competitors have had. There has got to be something that can be tossed aside like it's yesterday's crust allowing devs to put resources where they are more loved by the community.
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For myself getting rid of big numbers would be nice. I kind of liked how GuildWars 1 had a max base health of just under 500.
But the reverse. What mechanics would you just not allow to be added to your game. After all MMOs seem to be in a slump where TONS of time needs to be spent making every mechanic ever that competitors have had. There has got to be something that can be tossed aside like it's yesterday's crust allowing devs to put resources where they are more loved by the community.
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For myself getting rid of big numbers would be nice. I kind of liked how GuildWars 1 had a max base health of just under 500.
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."
Comments
Most other can be useful with right among , but this is ... i don't want it .
Other is level requirement to do things , i hate it .
No forced PvP.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
I think the biggest thing I would leave out, would be: Numbers.
Most MMOs become all about the numbers, and this turns the MMO from a game designed to played, into a math challenge to find the ultimate meta builds.
So for me, I'd remove any trace of client side numbers, and leave the community descriptive terms, or just visual effects. IE: You see that you hit, varying shades of "Damage" and "Blood" would denote how hard you hit.
Weapons would describe how they work, but not give any numbers out.
This way, players would need to "feel out" what works for them, and not just look at the numbers to see what is better.
My game would have an open world without instances, and if you want to do a quest with someone, you have to talk to them. Also, levelling, grinding items, or sieging territory would be most efficient in groups/clans, or at least with mercenaries.
If you want to go fight in lobby-based instances, so you can play multiplayer without having to communicate with people, go play World of Warcraft, or League of Legends, or some other streamlined mainstream game. No need for something new for that type of gameplay.
Those are the things i despise most.
But damn I agree with most of it.
Crafting
Pets. (Or at least required pets. The game should not be any more difficult merely because one does not want to have a pet along. Guild Wars 1 had this Done Right). Ditto for vehicles.
Titles & Achievements
Puzzle-bosses
Timed quests/missions
No gear that cannot be recolored! The game needs to have a global skin system that allows recoloring everything with a standard palette, or covering it with a costume appearance.
No main-world PvP (in an arena or battleground would be fine)
No group cooperative content which is timed.
Single-player timed quests should have the timer manually activated by the player, not start without warning when the quest is picked up.
No case in which a resource or property can only be obtained via guild membership or cooperative group play. Guild membership should not be required for anything except inter-guild PvP, if that exists in the game.
No perma-death. No characters that age unless this is a totally optional cosmetic thing.
No central plot about an epic war *puke*
I could really do without horor content.
I'm not a big fan of high fantasy content such as good races vs. evil races. Elves, dwarves, etc. are pretty boring unless they have a big twist to make them more original.
I'm not a fan of steampunk, except for the clothing and the airships; even then I prefer magical wooden flying ships. But I could really do without all the clockwork automatons.
No top-down or 3/4 overhead view.
No mouse-only movement.
Yea it's the stuff like that which travels from game to game slowly ruining the game/gamer in the process. Once the gamer starts down that path they are done for life.
They'll always try to jerry rig stuff so they can use those type of old cheat mechanics in games. Even if they can't they'll still look for it.
What else,oh yeah cartoon graphics OUT,RAIDS OUT,geared/tiers content OUT,my game would be FUN,levels would be more like life years/aging and not some meaningless number.
Drops would make sense,meaning NO mount dropping out of some Bosses pocket,No Axe drop while the Boss is using a Staff.
None of the nonsense i see of late like bows shooting faster than a AK47 and mages would actually appear to be conjuring magic and not shooting laser beams from their hands.
IDC if people support crappy game designs,i would make a game i want to play and one that makes sense and not just a pile of computer code thrown together with a band of misfit ideas.
What else is left out>>>somersaults,no gymnastics moves,no parallel bars or Trampolines in my mmo.NO automation like fish botting or auto travel.
I would also leave out mobs on a leash because it is wrong and a terrible mob design.I would leave out cheap lazy proximity aggro and replace it with realistic features where each mob reacts differently.
NO instances unless it is some solo testing ground to test your individual skills or some testing trial.
NO solo combos,player to player only.NO SPAM gaming,NO over sized weapons.NO cash shop,NO loot boxes.NO FREE gaming as it would be a sub fee,every player is an equal ,no early buy ins/preorders to gain special perks unless it is outside the game stuff.
Sadly i just described what almost every single mmorpg is doing right now,i call it garbage game designs but this is sadly what people are supporting.IDC i'll think for myself thanks,i don't play follow the leader to anything popular unless i endorse it.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
There is no loot. Because in my MMO, you would be the mob using your claws and teeth to kill. You don't need stupid human or humanoid items. You are mindlessly evil and just want to kill and charge head long into everyone. I mean you're so dumb, you wait till the humanoid is within a certain radius before you attack even if you see them from miles away. You don't need loot cuz you're so dumb, you see a few humanoids coming who are slaughtering your brethren without breaking a sweat and you can't even run away if you want.
On a more serious note:
I have to tread carefully on what I say, but I just do not like the whole eastern style of graphics or art design, or like over-sized stupid weapons or pedo-like characters. Anything with bunny ears should be road kill and not a hero.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Levelrequirement is another matter, you can get rid of that if you do like the first Diablo and set the requirement on stats instead. If you take away all requirement though you could just skip all gear below max level since no-one that earned a little cash would want it under any circomstances. In that case it would be better to skip levels altogether instead.
Both of those ideas sounds good at first look but they don't work since they screw up the economy.
Anyways: I would start by getting rid of daily quests. They make no-one happy and add the most pointless boring grind I ever seen in the 22 years I played MMORPGs.
I also would get rid of the huge powergap that makes PvP so boring. A small powergap is more fun.
Another thing I would skip is all simple and boring quests. Kill 10 rats in the moat? no way.
Quests should be fun and hard and we don't need 5K of them, 500 good and longer quests with some acceptable dynamic events and good dungeon gameplay is more what I like. And good PvP.
XP / Progression tied to Stories - whenever you tie the primary form of progression to quests/story, you end up creating a very linear game and, again, segregating the community based on who has or hasn't completed a quest. I don't mind having stories in my games (even though they're usually poor), but disconnect the story from progression.
Enrage Timers - Whenever I see a boss with an enrage timer, I am reminded that the game has been poorly designed. An enrage timer just means they couldn't design a challenging boss and so are instead implementing challenge via statistics. Try harder.
Shallow Combat - I'm fed up of shallow combat. Action combat is the main reason why combat has become so shallow, but it is possible to have action combat and have a deep combat system (I've never seen it personally, but it is theoretically possible). If a game has shallow combat, I'll be bored very quickly and quit. Design something deeper and it'll keep me engaged for months, increasing retention and therefore revenue.
Dungeon / Raid Finder - I think MMOs should retain some way for an average person to indicate that they are looking for a group, but I think the act of putting together a group and launching a dungeon or raid should remain manual. This is an essential part of community building, but whenever it gets automated you remove responsibility and leadership. Whilst a dungeon finder may result in more group content being run, it does nothing to improve the community and so I consider it a negative impact on the game and genre.
Content Scaling (other than group size) - I hate content scaling. With a passion. I've never seen it done right. Whenever content is scaled to the player, it invariably makes it too easy. It removes all sense of progression and usually a sense of danger too. The only time I'm happy for content to be scaled is when it is scaled by group size, but even then I think that needs to be limited in scope and perhaps restricted only to instanced content.
Loot-based Gear - I prefer a game where all gear is crafted and nothing is bound. You can still tie some of the best ingredients to hard content as a way to motivate people, but crafters should supply virtually all gear in the game. This creates a much better community, but more importantly it opens up options to the players. No longer will you have to grind a raid for weeks on end as the only method of progressing gear. Now, you can either craft it yourself, or buy it. Doesn't sound like much of an increase in options, but when buying gear you have tons of options for how to earn the money. Perhaps you'll farm rare mats to sell. Perhaps you'll craft low level items to sell. Perhaps you'll grind missions for gold. Perhaps you'll just trade on the auction house. Options keep people happy.