Please give us something new! Really new!

I've played quite a few different MMORPG's (SWG, Wow, D&D online, DAOC, Everquest, Knight Online, Hero (Beta) and so on).

By far the most attractive concetp i've encountered was the "early days" SWG. Brilliant economy concept, good character building/development, and sense of individuality (your character didn't just look like everyone else) were the major up sides of this title. Down sides, poor pvp concept, closed SWG enviroment, stagnation, and the revamps (which led me to stop playing). Still it WAS a game where I could find some of the most elaborate concepts about economy and character costumization, no lvl up was fixed by a profession tree that worked very well. The Jedi concept brought instability to the game and IMO proved to be a down side the devs just couldn't fix. First it was too difficult then u could see jedis jumping around everywhere. Played it for almost a year, when the combat revamp got out so did I.

In WoW I found a brainless platform, that is such a comercial hit cause it can be played from ages 3 to 99. The game is set so u completly forget u have a life outside it, and it comes to a  point where u aren't able to to anything by yourself (sigh). If u want end game pve aplly to a guild, show up on raid hour, waste 4h and earn some DKP to roll on an item that 1k players already have. if u want to reach rank 14 better find yourself a a pvp team and if u are on a server with massive pvp better be ready to play 8h a day to get anywhere from rank 10. Itemization has reached a point where a melee character can take on a +8 lvls caster one, and not even the recent Naxxaramas provided anything new, same drill find a boss, try it a few times, develop a working tactic, kill boss, trash mobs, next boss and so on.... On the up side, when u start to play it it's fun, brainless fun but fun none the less. It's graphically enjoyable and detailed, give a pleasant experience to the eye, it's easy (too easy IMO) and although getting old really fast it has a good PvP engine. Thumbs up on the sound enviroment, two huge thumbs down on support, it's slow (when and if it comes).

 I had my hearth set on D&D Online but boy was that a fluke. For someone that played D&D since it's 1st eddition, I craved for a lot (lot lot) more than i got. First and Foremost, D&D it's a universe of fantasy, Elves, Dwarfs, Dragons, Gods, Magic, the works... What i got in Stormreach was : trivial, ugly, boring, to sum it BAD. I played the beta with some friends so i could take advantage of the party factor they so claimed and even so the game lacked on almost every aspect. They would have a no brainer if they had based it on Forgotten Realms settings (remember Baldur's Gate?, so simple yet so well written and fun), but they went with an "alien" world that is unfamiliar, unfriendly to the sight and just plain boring. Not saying that it's easy to bring D&D 3.5 into a game but it could be a lot better. Up side.... (I know there is at least one...) oh.. must have slipped my mind.

Hero, I just played a bit of the beta so I don't have a detailed opinion about it yet. One thing i got already, it's a bit on the basic side (which is not good bearing the competition) In a gaming world that is starting to reach a saturation point on MMORPG it's a huge risk to realease anything short of a MASSIVE GAME (it's in the game class).

I'm aware that it's tricky (expensive) to aquire the rights on an existing RPG. But i feel there are still a few game systems with a good chance of success. Specially if the studio behind it learns from the current MMORPG direst mistakes. I'm thinking universes like Shadowrun, Legend of the Five Rings, Call of Cthullu, and one I see particulary great potential is something based on the Fallout Universe (I mean post nuclear fallout... what better plot to start a MMORPG from scrap, there's alot around anyway)...

Through my experience I've come up with some key factors that add quality to a title:

Concept: In the long run this can become the single most important thing in a MMORPG. It gives longevity, fun, playability, game experience, and determines saturation points. The main thing that drives any RPG player is character progression: be it from lvl up to skill point system to skills and feats, traits and tallents, whatever... The system that drives your character foward must be challenging and immersive, leaving the feeling that it was both hard and rewarding to achieve the next great thing (be it a new item or some new skill). In almost any game behind this progression we have to great engines: Quests (tasks, missions, errands whatever the name used) and grinding (which is nothing more than earning XP to repetitive actions). The system that provides this elements will prove to be crucial to the success/failure of the title. What some companys fail to understand is that players are not robots designed to perform the same task over and over again, but who are we kidding that is what some of us are starting to be when playing some of the currente games on the market. Make the concept work and your on the way to a great game.

Graphic and sound enviroment: MMORPG's are played for hours and hours straight, if they are not apealing to the senses they will cause anoiance to the senses sooner rather than later. So eye and ear must be pleased and thrilled from the start. (In the shape of well detailed town a lush forest, waterfalls, rivers, changing enviroments required music changes, battle stances should have matching music tempo and such).

Itemization vs Balance and Itemization vs Economy : You can be in space, in a dungeon, castle, street or at the beach. Items play a major role on any MMORPG. They can be drops, rewards, crafted, bought, sold, traded, costume fit, a multitude of things. There will always be classes more dependant on items than others (more dependant on skill), but so it has been in any RPG. I agree that there should be great quest rewards and great world drops. But IMO the great items (or at least the ones most needed to players) should be crafted by players, they should required a wide range of components that will eventually add to a great gathering->processing->final product chain. (SWG was a great example of this, WoW is the worst ever). If items are made to last forever the only way (and IMO the wrong way) to get new items is to make them ever and ever more powerfull, and the speed at which they become more powerfull it's exponentialy faster. I'm not saying fantastic one-of-a-kind items shouldn't be allowed, they shouldn't be trivialized that's all.

Player Impact on the Enviroment: I understand this can be tricky to manage but players like to see a change in the world now and then (if they can say they had a hand in it the better). Conquer and loss, a fight for territory u call home, for strategic resources, for a planet, for a town whatever the scale. This shifting possibility adds another degree of depth to the game and another point of interest to the player.

An endless stream of new concepts and ideas flows through my mind ATM but i've been writting this post for over an hour now and I don't want to bother you more than I already have.

So please help me out here and all those teams in development put that extra effort to produce a good and complete MMORPG.

Sorry for this huge brain teaser but hope it can come to any good. Feel free to drop your comments via PM

Thx