MMO Gaming

Unfortunately people’s opinions are so varied that it is hard to try and decide what is “perfect” for people. However, I think you can make a reasonable attempt at developing something good that will reach a large audience.

I mentioned a while back about how to make a good MMO. You know, the one with the letters and nothing else. Well, there was a topic over on Guild Cafe about what you would have in your perfect MMO, so I went ahead and replied with a few little things I wanted to say, but then thought I’d like to more fully flesh these ideas out over here. I’m thinking I may touch on these early next week in more depth, but I wanted to quote my post now. Feel free to ask any questions before I get ready to write the post completely otherwise I’m sure I’ll be missing things.

Setting
Multiple. Essentially taking place along various moments in the game universe’s time-line. The Isaac Asimov book The End of Eternity gives the best depiction I can think of in relation to what I’m referring to.

Advancement
Again, multiple. Various ways to advance including a PvP-centric way along with a PvE-centric way. Crafting/building is also a form of advancement in itself, such that if a player wants to be a merchant he does not necessarily have to still go about leveling up/increasing stats/etc. Something like what EQ2 has with their being separate levels for crafting vs. adventuring, except there wouldn’t be the whole level/xp thing at all, and you wouldn’t have to increase both of them if you only wanted to play one.

PvP
PvP isn’t forced, but encouraged, and it isn’t FFA but it does allow the chance for people of one faction to attack their own other players. This is accomplished through various PvP venues, such as world objectives/control points, political struggle in the game world (rioting/revolutions, that sort of thing.) Also keep in ideas like an Arena style PvP outlet and perhaps even instanced PvP areas as well for certain places.

Property
Players can build up and own many things. Guild Halls, houses, shops, etc. Not true for every city, but many areas that start out as maybe small towns or villages can be built up over time and become thriving metropolises.