General Discussion

What are your  three favorite features in MMOs?

For me

Asheron's Call: The stat/skill/spell based system, I could kill monsters and use that experience to train what I wanted. Sure you could get nerfed by making "wrong" choices, but it was still a good system. I loved being able to train jump or run skill. And before sites came out with the info, trying to find the right spell ingredients was a lot of fun too.

Eve: Free expansions, this is one thing I really like...no need to buy 50 expansions to get caught up in the game.

Saga of Ryzom/LOTRO: Awesome crafting system in Ryzom, I really really liked it...and I added LOTRO because I really really really hate PvE raiding and I can craft items as good as raid items in LOTRO

And what are your three least favorite features in MMOs?

1. Raiding...not PvP raiding, that is actually fun...but PvE raiding. Doing the same instance for weeks to get a set of items. I've tried raiding, in EQ and WoW...and if a MMO comes out with raiding as its main focus, I'll definitely avoid it.

2. Eve's skill training system, I have to wait for days or weeks for skills to train...and later they take even longer. That wouldn't be bad...but, whats worse is that I can't have another character on the same account training a skill at the same time, so I would have to buy ANOTHER account...no thanks

3. Swarms of paid expansions...why do they need to make a huge number of expansions? I can see 2 or 3 expansions, but it just gets crazy after awhile...at least Eve has free expansions, and LOTRO/AC has free expansions too...yeah, some are paid for...but a lot of the content patches are free too, they don't pop out expansion after expansion hoping that people will actually buy them. If Eve and others can make free expansions, others can too.

So, what are your favorite and least favorite features?

Desires:
1. Sci-fi with both ship and avatar combat and interaction. SWG and E&B had this right.

2. Best stuff made by players. This goes for houses, weapons, armors, food, stimulants, etc. I'm so tired of having to raid countless hours to get shit to replace it a month later.

3. Wide open world that constantly changes with the availability to do all sorts of stuff. Dev's are paid good money, they should keep the world moving for the most part, this would also eliminate end-game raids that people do every freaking night. Also, kill people of your own faction. In WoW i wanted so badly to just kill people in my faction that were idiots. ::grumbles:: dumb khadgar server...

No-No's:

1. NO MORE FANTASY!

2. Equipment shouldn't be bound to players, and if it is, you should be able to pay some cash out to get it unbound so you can still sell it to others.

3. Linear worlds where you do the same quest over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again... till the expansion and its all useless and no one steps foot in there. The Orcs in BWL are dusting for christ sake.

Hmm...

One of my favorite things that I'd like to see make it back to the games coming out now is the dependence on crafters.  Back when DAoC was going strong, majority of the equipment people used were crafted.

Another is the meaningful PVP that DAoC had where the achievements you gained in PVP translated into some bonus for the rest of the people in PVE.  This would give a sense of community and a sense of loss if it were taken from you and would ultimately make you want to fight and get it back.

And the third would probably be the ability to fly like I could do in CoX, or super jump as long as it fits the genre of the game.  I liked that part of CoX while I played it.

Things I dislike:

Like you I did not like WoW's raiding system.  I did not enjoy going over the same content over and over again.  I also think that if there was a game due to come out with Raid-centric themes I too would avoid it.

Grinding for Rep as done in WoW is another thing.  I realize that it was done as a way to prolong a person's play time and have them fork over more money to the company but I think it's just a cheep copout.

The severe use of Custom User Interfaces as done once again in WoW.  I believe it turned the game into something that it was not intended to be.  I'm all for custom interfaces as long as it's only cosmetic and not changing the mechanics by which the game runs.  I'd suggest making a server where you can have UI skins that are moderated by the game company to exclude the mechanic altering characteristics such as the stun timers, or deadly boss mod, things that IMO change the game.  That way I'm not putting myself at a disadvantage because I choose not to get them and get mangled by the people who do use them.

Also as Sunrider said, get rid of the bound items.  I think this is the worst idea to come along in a long while.  So many times I'd have given someone my old weapons or transfered them to my alts only to be stopped by the bound mechanism.  Or even tried to sell them to others only to be shut down.

Wow my three favorite and least favorite things in a game...

Favs

1. Being able to pick your race, stats, and skills
2. Pets and rides. Doesnt matter is the pets cna be rides or if they two different things
3. wide varaity of stuff to kill with a varaity of places to go

Pevs

1. Gender picked classes. Hate games where you have to bea guy for this class or a girl for this one
2. Quests that start right when you talk to a npc with no option if you want to do something else. Like when you go to a merchant and you talk to trade. BAM! You got another quest ontop of your ever growing pile.
3. DOn't have a third. Any other pev varies from game to game.

Likes:

1. 100% skill based character development. No more classes or levels.

2. Player housing/cities in the game world. I cant belive developers keep missing its social values (save UO and SWG).

3. Complex crafting and harvesting.

Major dislikes:

1. Loading screens (when zoning).

2. Instanced zones.

3. Non explorable worlds.

Likes:

Skill system that lets me create my own character and challenge put back into character development so games aren't all about the endgame content, like UO.  Less hurry up and get to end game so the fun can begin.

Fun, challenging and rewarding crafting and resources gathering system, like UO and LOTRO.

Player housing, I know it's trivial but I spent so many hours decorating and redecorating my houses in UO that it was a great break away from the norm.

Dislikes:

Raids

Linear world and progression.

WoW's instant dungeon (micro raids).  I have nothing against instances I think if done properly they can enhance game play greatly but WoWs take on instant dungeons was little more the micro raids.

Things I think are needed in mmorpg's:
1: A good combat system, not something like WoW where you just push right-click do some special attacks and wait till your mob is dead.

2: A great crafting system. I think you should be able to craft weapons/armours that have equal or even better stats than those who you can find in raids.

3: Some other fun skills: like agility, cooking, mining,...

You know these people have points with the house thing...god to many things in so many games. I didnt like RS version where you had to spend  your soul for a good house

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Originally posted by PickyChick
You know these people have points with the house thing...god to many things in so many games. I d