What are the best aspects of each MMO?

kickarykee

Hey folks,

We know there are countless MMORPGs out there but what do you think are the best aspects of each of them?
See it like this:
If you could combine alle MMOs you know into a single one, what would it be like and what features would be in it?

I've mostly played Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft, but also Rift, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars, Aion and a few others. I'll give The Old Republic a try as soon as I got the money to get it as well...
So far I liked LotRO best for it's story system, that's something I really missed in WoW for example, some kind of epic storyline. On the other hand I love the travel system in WoW, where you don't have to stop at "checkpoints" but just determine where you want to go and the journey continues on it's own. The quick travel for LotRO is nice, though.
I also love it when there is "more" to do, like the Deeds in LotRO or as they are in WoW now (they were introduced after I stopped playing, though). What I can't stand are endless "run from A to B to C and back to A"-quests as they were common in Aion...

Welease

For me.. it generally revolves around pvp..

1) More than 2 realms - Unbalanced servers suck. Having 3 realms means the 2 smaller ones can gang up against the big ones to level things out

2) A real point to pvp..There has to be a reason to come out and fight in rvr zones.. Some reason that its worth getting people in a realm to work together to gain a bigger more valuable goal. DAOC did it well with relics.. SWTOR has no point to the pvp, so people just camp bases..

3) Swappable skills builds.. Great idea in Rift, you could train a base class, but have 4 skills builds.. So I can be a dmg specced when I want to solo.. single heal + dmg speced when I want to duo, and full healer spec when i want to group v group.

Nody

Welease wrote: »

For me.. it generally revolves around pvp..

1) More than 2 realms - Unbalanced servers suck. Having 3 realms means the 2 smaller ones can gang up against the big ones to level things out

2) A real point to pvp..There has to be a reason to come out and fight in rvr zones.. Some reason that its worth getting people in a realm to work together to gain a bigger more valuable goal. DAOC did it well with relics.. SWTOR has no point to the pvp, so people just camp bases..

3) Swappable skills builds.. Great idea in Rift, you could train a base class, but have 4 skills builds.. So I can be a dmg specced when I want to solo.. single heal + dmg speced when I want to duo, and full healer spec when i want to group v group.

This really, for me MMOs these days are revolving around PvP because it's the only way to keep the end game fresh and not have scripted events that follows the same path (with minor variations if lucky).

Depending on your point of view I'd possibly add instancing of raid zones/dungeons to the list as well.

ThunderApple

Sometimes I don't mind the "run from A to B to C and back to A" quests. At least as long as they are for free. If I decide to invest some real cash into an online game, I expect something more then that.
However, I stopped playing online games because of my thesis..

Nothingbetter2d

kickarykee wrote: »

Hey folks,

We know there are countless MMORPGs out there but what do you think are the best aspects of each of them?
See it like this:
If you could combine alle MMOs you know into a single one, what would it be like and what features would be in it?

I've mostly played Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft, but also Rift, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars, Aion and a few others. I'll give The Old Republic a try as soon as I got the money to get it as well...
So far I liked LotRO best for it's story system, that's something I really missed in WoW for example, some kind of epic storyline. On the other hand I love the travel system in WoW, where you don't have to stop at "checkpoints" but just determine where you want to go and the journey continues on it's own. The quick travel for LotRO is nice, though.
I also love it when there is "more" to do, like the Deeds in LotRO or as they are in WoW now (they were introduced after I stopped playing, though). What I can't stand are endless "run from A to B to C and back to A"-quests as they were common in Aion...

eve online for its sandbox one universe environment one server (except the chinese server which is not linked into the tranquillity server due to chinese laws)..... nowhere in eve online is truly safe

kickarykee

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

eve online for its sandbox one universe environment one server

Never truly played that, what is this about?

About pvp:
I guess lots of folks love that, me not for some reason, don't know...
I started on a pvp server with WoW and swapped to a PvE server after a while cause I hated the camping and everything.
I love that there's a special PvP zone in LotRO, so you can do PvP but you don't have to get involved if you don't like (you know, special area etc., the Ettenmoors).
I totally understand about wanting to have more than two factions if there are some, it sucks when one is way overpopulated and the other stands no real chance.
I also love when there are contested zones in games - adds to the feeling of reality.

About payment:
That's something I don't mind at all as long as it's fun. I spend about 30 Euros a week going out with friends, that's about 120 Euros a month, so I don't mind spending 20 Euro paysafecard a month to play my games with them at home when I don't want to or can't go out. It's social as well after all but you can also play alone, one huge advantage of MMOs if you ask me.

Oh btw! Another HUGE advantage when MMOs feature it: I wanna be able to quest solo. I don't like games where you need buddies for more than half of the quests...

humanji

kickarykee wrote: »

Oh btw! Another HUGE advantage when MMOs feature it: I wanna be able to quest solo. I don't like games where you need buddies for more than half of the quests...

That would be a big plus for me. I like teaming up, but some times I just want to bumble about on my own, and I don't like being stuck somewhere just because I can't find team mates.

I also loved Lord of the Rings Online's storylines. All MMO's have some sort of storyline, but LOTRO's was just brilliantly done. I think it's probably down to it being familiar, so it was great to see the places in the books come to life and not be ruined by Peter Jackson's homoerotic prancings of Legolas and Gimli.

I also would like more of a sandbox type world to play in. Star Wars Galaxies felt really open and a lot was left for the players to do themselves. It's more rewarding living in a player made city than the crappy instanced living spaces that LOTRO had.

Also, with SWG, the players created their own events. I remember reading about one group of Imperials who raided a Rebel stronghold and captured it. And in honour of that there was a celebration where they got to meet Darth Vader. That sort of random thing is just brilliant, and is lost in the likes of WoW and it's clones, because you can't really stray from the set path that they give you.

I'm not a hard core player of MMO's, and those sorts of things probably exist in other games, but I'd like to see it more.

And the biggest thing that's needed is innovation. Star Wars The Old Republic's biggest selling points that were pointed out at every chance the publishers had were that it was a Star Wars game made by Bioware and was fully voiced. And then they come out with a fairly bland MMO (good single player game, just a bland multiplayer experience).

A few different games tried newish things, but they're nothing to shout about. The only one that seems to really want to be different is Guild Wars 2. Now I don't want to get too excited about it in case it just disappoints, but they are at least trying to evolve MMO's instead of slightly modifying the standard game.

Laviski

TLDR

EvE is the ultimate griefers game CAREBEAR TEARS BEST TEARS!

if your into hardcore games then you should try eve online. it has everything you want but you need to earn it and get it blown up time and time again. The term used in game is Don't Fly what you can't afford to lose.

There is too much to list of the possibilities hence the sandbox environment. Some people find it too boring and grind lvl's4 mission or do incursions but i say they just lack imagination. In eve you have to try a lot of things to find what suits you and your playstyle.

For me personally playing eve since 2003 it can be boring 90-95% of the time depending on what i get up too. but that other 5-10% is whoa :cool: and enjoy it for the harsh environment it gives especially during wartime.

BTW i believe eve online to be the only game to make news headlines for its ingame content and player made events

linkys:
Econ
"EBANK" drama
Espionage - how BOB got disbanded <--

so i say to all try it, but i'm not gonna lie to ya its a steep learning curve and its not everyones cup of tea. I will help anyone that genuinely whats to give this game a shot.

kickarykee

@humanji:
Hehe, well, I agree on the awesome storyline but I'm a huge fan of PJ's take on the story, also the (in my opinion not so homoerotic ;D) relationship between characters. I remember walking toward's Tom Bombadil's house for the first time and being totally awe-struck since everything looked so intriguing - just loved it sooo much and still do!

@Laviski:
I've heard that before about Eve, but I'm not sure I would like it too much... I don't like it when things get boring, even for a short amount of time and 90-95% would be a bit too much for my tastes, but if you're into it I'm sure it's an awesome game

Jimbob 83

Welease wrote: »

For me.. it generally revolves around pvp..

1) More than 2 realms - Unbalanced servers suck. Having 3 realms means the 2 smaller ones can gang up against the big ones to level things out

2) A real point to pvp..There has to be a reason to come out and fight in rvr zones.. Some reason that its worth getting people in a realm to work together to gain a bigger more valuable goal. DAOC did it well with relics.. SWTOR has no point to the pvp, so people just camp bases..

3) Swappable skills builds.. Great idea in Rift, you could train a base class, but have 4 skills builds.. So I can be a dmg specced when I want to solo.. single heal + dmg speced when I want to duo, and full healer spec when i want to group v group.

Pretty much this, i love Dark age of Camelot too purely for it's pvp, if i have afew hours spare it's my go to for PvP fun

Here is a recent video of a solo caster plying his trade (One of the best current players)

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20843664/Mister+III.wmv#

Lemming

humanji wrote: »

I also would like more of a sandbox type world to play in. Star Wars Galaxies felt really open and a lot was left for the players to do themselves. It's more rewarding living in a player made city than the crappy instanced living spaces that LOTRO had.

Also, with SWG, the players created their own events. I remember reading about one group of Imperials who raided a Rebel stronghold and captured it. And in honour of that there was a celebration where they got to meet Darth Vader. That sort of random thing is just brilliant, and is lost in the likes of WoW and it's clones, because you can't really stray from the set path that they give you.

This ^^.

There are a handful (if even) of sandbox games available now and the beauty of them is allowing players to create their own content, their own user experiences rather than having to play through someone else's vision of what their "experience" should be.

The ability to simply redefine yourself and not have to repeat everything you did before to get to the same point in time is great for keeping people interested. And if you just want to chill & be social, you can do that too. The cantinas in SWG were great for that, with people going to lengths to come up with unique or novel looks, be it with costumes or cantina decor.

kickarykee

Yeah, well for that I'd love to see the worlds split into instances more often ...
For example bosses you killed should stay dead and if you want to go for them again you need to enter a kind of "retry instance" - that would really make the world feel alive.
I just had the case that I was on two quests involving a character in LotRO and so I was in a city where he was twice - standing like 5 meters from his other version, that really sucked.

Nothingbetter2d

kickarykee wrote: »

Never truly played that, what is this about?

About pvp:
I guess lots of folks love that, me not for some reason, don't know...
I started on a pvp server with WoW and swapped to a PvE server after a while cause I hated the camping and everything.
I love that there's a special PvP zone in LotRO, so you can do PvP but you don't have to get involved if you don't like (you know, special area etc., the Ettenmoors).
I totally understand about wanting to have more than two factions if there are some, it sucks when one is way overpopulated and the other stands no real chance.
I also love when there are contested zones in games - adds to the feeling of reality.

About payment:
That's something I don't mind at all as long as it's fun. I spend about 30 Euros a week going out with friends, that's about 120 Euros a month, so I don't mind spending 20 Euro paysafecard a month to play my games with them at home when I don't want to or can't go out. It's social as well after all but you can also play alone, one huge advantage of MMOs if you ask me.

Oh btw! Another HUGE advantage when MMOs feature it: I wanna be able to quest solo. I don't like games where you need buddies for more than half of the quests...

in eve online you can pay the sub via credit card/paypal/game time card/Plex (Pilot Licence Extension you can buy/sell from the market using ingame isk)

PVE content:

Mission running (gets a bit boring after a while)
Mining (very boring - prone to suicide gankers)
Ratting in nullsec/wormholes/low sec (you need to keep a watch out all the time for pvp'ers looking for a gank
Sansha Incursions - this requires teamwork to do sucessfully but it pays out alot of isk - vangaurds need 10 -11 players, assaults need 20-21 players, Headquarters need 40 - 41 players, and Sansha Mothership sites, need about 80 players to complete.
Planetary interaction - needed to make certain items
Moon mining - needed to make t2 items
Market trading - can make huge money if you have the time and patients to do it
Production - basically you can build stuff to sell.

download a trial and check it out for yourself

kickarykee

I actually might but I heard it takes ages to do anything in Eve and that's usually not my kind of thing ^^

What are subs?
Do you need them?
And if yes: They do take paysafecard, don't they?

Dohnny Jepp

kickarykee wrote: »

I actually might but I heard it takes ages to do anything in Eve and that's usually not my kind of thing ^^

What are subs?
Do you need them?
And if yes: They do take paysafecard, don't they?

subscription is like 15 euro a month if you pay with credit card.

It takes ages to do certain stuff yes. You can be useful after a week. But to gain access to certain ships and skills it can take months and even years.

Laviski

if you need a trial and test it send me a pm and will be happy to send you one.

kickarykee

uff, really does sounds a bit tedious ^^

but thanks for the offer ;D