Your requirements for an MMO?

[Karetyr]

What are your core requirements to be interested in an MMO? What features are absolutely necessary?

For me, it's a couple things. For one, the ability to change my characters' appearances in detail. If I can't change nose size, for example, I'm not playing it. For another, it MUST have a tiered experience - by this I mean that it should be easy to pick up, but hard to master. I should be continually discovering new nuances in the gameplay, or discovering new minigames, etc. The original SWG and EQ2 both had/have this - and HJ, of course, will also. Last but not least, I have to like the graphics. Yes, that implies that it must have graphics for me to be interested.

 

[deathmetal]

Hmm, i'll make a list of some things that I lgenerally look for in a new game:

-Robust character creation I expect to be able to alter the facial structure, to have a huge amount of hair and beard styles AND to be able to alter the body scale and muscle size.
-Good Graphics The game doesn't need to have the latest graphics technologies, it just needs to have a good art direction that I like.
-Weapon sheathing This may be a small thing to most people, but I just hate seeing everyone running around with weapon in hand even in town and such. Having weapons hang at the side or on the back without sheath graphics is fine.
-Travel System Does the game have meaningful interesting travel or is there just a teleport system thrown in to make it easier on the devs. I really hate teleport and fast travel map systems, makes the size of the world insignificant. I'd rather travel in a caravan or somesuch and discover interesting things on the way to my destination. And really, in a world where teleporting is so easy why would there be different cultures? If everyone could zoom across the world they would just mix together and every person and region would be the same eventually.

I'll think of more later.

 

[z80]

appearance : the ability to look how I want to look without sacrificing power

quests : there should be enough quests for any given level to give you enough xp to reach the next level. you shouldn't have to resort to farming mobs to fill your xp. it should be an option but not something you have to do due to lack of quests

soloability : the ability to solo your way to the level cap and the ability to continue advancing your characters power after level capping to the same degrees as raiders by soloing. the raid-or-quit philosophy of some games is stupid and artificial even by videogame standards. it is not fun it's like a job and a game should be fun not a chore.

 

[Jaraeth]

Things I look for, in somewhat an orderly fashion:

1. Have solo content: I solo alot, about 90% of the time.

2. Housing / Banking: A way to store items with money storage optional, provided none is removed due to PvP death like some games. Housing is a great way to arrange the storage of items, and leads to me feeling like my character(s) have a home.

3. Great character customization: More customization means I feel greater connection to my character.

4. Community: I will usually give a game a try w/ or without a good community, but for me to stay, I need to find a group of good folks who enjoy sitting back, chatting in guild chat and playing together.

5. Content and storyline: The name of the game and the purpose of the game, must serve a purpose, and that purpose should either be, or follow the lore of a game. Lack of a purpose is kind of creating a civilization, and that civilization never asking "why are we here? how did we get here? where do we go now?"

6. Overall Appearance: I don't want a game that has the look of "My Little Pony" or "Rainbow Brite". I want it to be vivid and colorful, but serious.

7. GUI Customizable: I want the GUI to be customizable so I can resize the chat windows, experience bars, etc. If I can skin the gui, it will earn +1000 points, since I tend not to like most games GUI's, with the exception of AO's color scheming and DAoC's Atlantis default skin.

8. Quests: Make the game interesting for both the group and solo player. AO had Single and Group "Mission Terminals" which made playing fun for a long time, or a short time with the option to chose where you wanted the mission to be. DAoC's missions gave greater purpose and exposed more of the Lore & plot to the storyline. Quests make grinding feel less like grinding.

9. Graphics: They don't have to be the best, but they just have to look good. AO has buildings that are "flat graphics", there is no shading needed, pixelation or textures, but the artwork is astounding and makes it look like a full 3D building with lighting effects. Can you say "vastly increased framerate?".

~ Jaraeth

 

[Daax]

For me...

Graphics, Character customization, Diversity of Weapons, Large Explorable Jaw-dropping World, Large Diverse Ass-kicking Monsters, Extravagent Skills and Spells, Easy-to-Use Controls and Interface, and A Gaming Community and GM's that actually give a damn.

 

[PrestoAdam]

A couple of things.

1. An MMORPG that holds enough appeal for me, and for my wife.

2. One where there is no endgame. Where the entire game, from the start, on, IS the endgame.

3. One whose graphic engine is scaleable to new technologies (PPU, PhysX)

 

[Arremus]

A couple of things which I feel to be crucial for an MMO, which also happen to be two things that I haven't found yet (thus why I'm only subbed with DR at the moment).

True Environmental Interaction - you see a tree, you can go chop branches off it to craft into something. Long grass can be pulled and braided for string. You can even look under rocks or such. An environment you can interact with and not just a plastic land you get guided through, ala WoW, EQ2 etc.
Saga of Ryzom did interactivity the best that I've seen so far, with the wildlife hunting each other, prospecting etc (I never bothered with SWG, not into sci-fi).

Fully Customised Crafting - when you craft a sword, it has it's own stats and you craft ONE with a good amount of work. You're trying for a high strength chestpiece? You hone your skills and experiment with components to find the right mix. And the stats are still RANDOM! Arrrrgh...
None of this 'craft 100 longswords with generic-stat-#453c' felgercarb which I am sick a ruddy tired of. You should want to craft to produce something unique, not mass produce the same felgercarb as the guy or gal next to you.

Loot Drops with Random Stats - We all know BigBosswomanBetty will drop something nice, and rumour is she uses dual daggers, so sometimes drops dual daggers.
I don't see why when she has already dropped the daggers for another group that the daggers you get wouldn't be a different set - ie even boss loot has varying stats on it, random stats, so that the daggers you get will be a different set that the set I get.
Everyone loot farms in some way or another, pleeeease avoid the 'farm Instance X for Loot Y' crud that WoW and other MMOs use. Is it so hard to have the loot items and stats vary?

Things To Do SOCIALLY -
*Allow is to buy a round of ale at the tavern in town and then pass them out to our party. It's been a long adventure and we're all thirsty. Oh and give us drinking animations please.
*Let us sit around on a nice grassed area and have someone teaching a lesson (ala Dragon Realms etc) to several people, with the lesson slightly increasing the skill being taught etc.
*Put in a live bartering, auctioning system in an Auctioning House. Someone wants to sell an axe they crafted. They link it, anyone in the AH sees it, and can place a minimum bid. The Auction happens in real time. It lasts two minutes or whatever. True, interactive bartering and selling...
*Traders who's 'Class' is travelling town to town with a horse(s) and cart(s), buying and selling wares, living the life of a Trader. Do we have to fight monsters or craft to have a fulfilled life in an MMO? Where's non-combative/craft-related Religion and Trading interaction in MMOs?


I could go on.. and on.. about the things we should, or I would like to see, but we don't. Thus why I'm not bothering wasting my money on any MMOs besides DR at the moment.

 

[Ikiru]

1. Don't make it work! I already have a full time job. I don't want to be required to log on to keep up with friends. I also don't want to have do something, like repeatitive tasks for little gain...again I already have a job.


2. Easy to group or solo. Shouldn't take me all night to find a group and if I can't find one in 5-10 min I should have enough solo content that it won't matter.


3. Good Community. Argueably the most important this is what keeps me in the game. Much more likely to stay in a game where people take it seriously and don't run around talking in numbers and characters. A good community will over shadow my previous two statements and most minor problems in a game.

 

[Rics]

1: ROLEPLAY!
Must encourage, reward, if not enforce, Roleplying. At the very least provide RP servers.

2: Character creation and detailed customization
So far not many MMO's have provided this.

3: Large world
I don't want to have discovered the entire world in 1 week.

4: Add Content
Must add and update contend enough to keep the game fresh. I am one of those who doesn't mind buying expansions as long as it a major content addition.

5: No Ub3er L33t Dood sp33k!
Even if an MMO is not RP enforced they must try to curb the leet speak. I hate seeing this, but I'm also an english major

6: Name Filters!
No names with numbers, XXXX's, or anything else not pronouncable. I would like to see a strict name filter.

 

[Xhar]

Less grind, more fun. Make the low levels jsut as interesting and fun as the high levels so players dont concentrate on "just getting up there"

Make drops inferior to crafted items. No, Im not the crafting type and I am not looking for a player inflated economy, I just think all the time invested in crafting shouldnt be instantly overshadowed by the right drop.

Roleplay, but this is more Player driven than Game driven, so I guess thats up to all of us

Xhar

 

[Morneblade]

In-depth, stratigic combat system.
Unusual and nonhuman races.
Large word to explore.
Being able to solo, but grouping is better.
Involved questlines.
A endgame that does not envolve raiding.
Minimal drops/crafting/economy.
Fun as opposed to grind.

 

[Redfang]

I have only three requirements:

1. The game is fun at all levels;

2. The fun never stops;

3. The game isn't made or published by SOE.

 

[Foxeye]

Hmmm, these seem to be the pivottal things that have caused me to love or hate an MMO:

A. Pleasing character models

Most Important: Pleasing proportions and animations, creative clothing
Secondary Importance: Customization

Customization is nice, but for me it is actually secondary to something that is pleasing to the eyes. This is why I loved Lineage 2. Not much variety, but what it had, rocked. (<3 my female orc raider) I'd still be playing if they hadn't changed the stance of orc females to look like they were street walkers (yes, I quit over a simple standing animation...character models matter that much to me)

And as far as customization is concerned, body and clothing customization is INFINITELY more important. You can't see faces in most games unless you stand right up in someone's personal space, but body type and clothing you can see from far away. To me this makes them more important.

B. Worthwhile content.

I don't judge this one out the door, but without some carrot, I won't last. It doesn't have to be the carrot of achievement. The simple joy of looking forward to exploring can work too. Roleplay can be involved in this too, though to date no MMORPG really has fostered RP in a way satisfactory to me, so I don't think it's necessary...or else I never would have played ANY.

C. Fun clothing. I've always been a clothes horse in MMOs. I'm pretty sure HJ has the market corned on this. I can't stick around in a game if there's nothing fun to wear.

D. Interesting world.

Beautiful landscapes. Breathtaking cities. All these things REALLY captivate me.

 

[Redfang]

Originally posted by Foxeye@May 22 2006, 03:24 PM
I'd still be playing if they hadn't changed the stance of orc females to look like they were street walkers (yes, I quit over a simple standing animation...character models matter that much to me)

I respect that! A player who knows what he/she wants and will accept nothing less. If there were more players like you, we would have better games to play.

 

[cordy_CinVin]

I only have a couple requirements but have more hopes in terms of what I would like to see.

PvP - I'd want it to have a reason behind it not just hey lets go around and be killing everyone. Now at the same time if you have a group KSing you all day its necissary in my opinion to be able to take care of that situation whether its an all out fight or a duel system. But people should be given the option to opt out if thats not their cup of tea.

Quests - Like many have said the quests have to have a reason behind them that some how effects gameplay in some shape or form. Too often quests are go kill mob a until you get item b and then bring it back to npc for gold. That just isn't all that interesting and has no entertainment value to me.

Fighting system - I don't like it where there is no thought into how to fight. Its hit F1 go get a cup of coffee come back and get loot, no real skill envolved, doesn't keep me focused on the game and make me feel like I determine the outcome of the encounter. Not only that but the grind then just takes forever and your fighting to stay awake.

Now there is a lot of things I'd like to see in the new upcoming mmo's like a clan system that has some type of reward or point other than a different color chat or a place to find groups. Also I won't even go into char creation because I think HJ has a pretty good idea on what a majority of players are looking forward too and im excited to see how it turns out.

Also whats the endgame. Is there one what am I working for. But make it so I feel like im trying to achieve something but it will really never come because I like to have something to work towards and a story or history in the game that I'm trying to continue or affect in some way.

And last but not least an intricate crafting system. I'm all about killing mobs all day but I have those days where I would just like to make something plus I love having a slew of alts to mess around with. Crafting often times is a chore not a fun thing to do in a game and I'm hopefull that HJ will change this.

 

[hellek]

needs good character development, able to choose from many skills and not just a few pre-destined ones. lots of diffrent armor tired of playing games were everyone looks same at the end game. good craftable weapons, good economy, make quest meningful and not just go here kill this go back here go there again BORING. pets if there going to be in game good variety and ability to be unique so everyone is not traing the same pet once they find the best one. good helpful community sucks when you ask questions in chat and get no reply. bonus or honor points for helping newbies lvl up to ensure community help.

AND NEVER EVER EVER EVER FOLLOW ANY EXAMPLE S.O.E MAY HAVE SET EXCEPT WHAT NOT TO DO TO A GOOD GAME YES IM STILL PI$%*@ OFF ABOUT SWG SRY FOR THROUGHING THAT IN LOL

 

[z80]

I agree about pets. I am a pet fanatic. The game with the best pet system is the one that will get my money for a long time just because I will want to keep getting new pets.

 

[deathmetal]

Originally posted by z80@May 22 2006, 07:21 PM
I agree about pets. I am a pet fanatic. The game with the best pet system is the one that will get my money for a long time just because I will want to keep getting new pets.

Rangers get animal companions they can summon.. I think I may take Ranger as a secondary class, not sure yet.