Perfect MMORPG

[Kuragari]

Ok, so i've played FFXI, demoed WoW, played the demo of EQ2, played the old EQ, and i've noticed that none of them really come to terms with everything that is to be done for the most optimized mmorpg! i find flaws everywhere, and so yeah, shoot me and call me an idiot and tell me it will never be done, but hell, i just thought i'd say it anywayz, so this is what i think the perfect mmorpg needs:

• Personal storage areas like FFXI moghouses were a good idea, however, it would be wise to somehow integrate and option to allow others into your "storage area"
• Guilds, every good mmorpg has guilds, which is essentially now, every mmorpg
• On a second note to the Guilds, games with guilds need a Guildhouse, where guild members can gather together, within these guildhouses there needs to be a personal guild forum/message board to be accessed from within the guildhouse only, there needs to be a "guild safe" as well, for a pooling of guild money that there could be a vote to use it to buy certain things, persay a 2/3rds majority to use the money, also included is a small pooled storage area, also if your own little personal storage areas could be accessed from here then that'd be nice as well
• VoIP!!!! i can't express how nice it would be for these games to have integrated VoIP instead of having to use teamspeak all the time, and it wouldn't really be hard, do something like Halo 2 where there's a certain radius where you can hear others and then have filters where you could filter out certain ways of hearing others so your speakers and mic don't explode, haha
• BETTER MUSIC! i'm sorry, but every mmorpg i've ever encountered SUCKS in terms of music! do something about it! or at least let users be allowed to customize their music!
• Variety, this isn't that bad in WoW or EQ2 persay from the demos i played, but in FFXI it is absolutely horrible! i mean, enough to make and decent gamer puke! and all of you who've played FFXI know exactly what i'm talking about! in that game, all the enemy models look exactly the same! all the yagudos look the same, all the crawlers, all the orcs, everything is the same for each race regardless of level or place, and character models too, there needs to be substantial user-imposed variety, persay, maybe allowing users to doodle their own face designs or something like that, lots of character customization, so they don't all look the same
• Console/PC crossover, while PC-specific mmorpgs are nice, i like what FFXI did, they crossed over to PS2 and soon to the Xbox 360, i mean, both is just as fine, if you really want it, then they could make a keyboard for the console like PS2 so u could use that to play instead of a controller if you want
• Graphics, graphics, graphics! i know they're getting slightly better, but i mean, look at it, we've got Xbox 360 and PS3 coming out! and look at their capability! new mmorpgs could seriously deal some damage with stunning graphics! especially since these new systems (i'm 99% positive) will only run on ethernet, and like PS3 (not sure about 360) support 802.11b and 802.11g, as well as wireless connections, there wouldn't be as much lag based on graphics and system conflicts, now as for PC mmorpgs in this category, you could have a nice implementation where PC's of a lower caliber could view the game with lowered graphics to reduce their lag, while computers of a higher caliber could view much better graphics with the same connection speed, all dependent on what the computer could handle without creating lag, i don't know if this can be done, but i'm sure someone can and would find a way
• UPDATES!!! if you're gonna make an mmorpg, at least update it constantly, make new quests, add new areas, new items, new mobs, etc., constantly! and also, you could hide things in the game that no one knows about, i don't know, hide items or areas to where if a player somehow stumbles upon an item or a new area, then there could be an update or something that would allow access for others to it because someone "discovered" it, wouldn't that be fun to actually have "discoveries" in a game that no one could use (or would even know about for that matter) until someone discovered it (i think EQ2 did this? correct me if i'm wrong, but that's what i think from reading about it)
• CUSTOMIZATION! everyone wants to enhance their game experience, so why not allow users to customize their UI? i know WoW allowed you to do this, and although i was unable to experience it firsthand, the concept is a very, very good one! you could have it as advanced only to where only true programmers could do stuff and come up with some awesome stuff that they could pass around the internet for others to use, or you could have that for totally awesome stuff and effects and a newbie-fied version to where it would be easy to understand, and although the customization level would be low, they could still use it
• User input! this frustrates me A LOT!!! If i ever felt like strangling a video game company to death, it would be Square-Enix! If you're gonna have an awesome mmorpg, then listen to users' suggestions! if you start getting a sizeable amount of mail about something people are suggesting, then by hell, do something about it! i don't know how much people have been going on about how awesome a blue mage would be in FFXI, and i know tons and tons of people (myself included) have sent suggestion emails into SE suggesting a blue mage! i mean, come on, that's a classic final fantasy job! but what i'm saying is, if people suggest a new race of some type, or a new job of some type, and a large amount of users show interest in it and support it, then do something about it! customer-satisfaction here~!
• Large world, ever-increasing, let the people help! Offer some small incentive or something, like, say, a month free coupon or maybe a couple or something dependent upon the help they provide (ie. of course, better incentives for designing a mob completely than inventing a quest or something), if you suggest a quest, or design a monster, including users making the 3d monster model on a company-provided modtool or company-supported, user-made modtool, as well as the animations that correspond to the monster's movements and attacks, like i said before, customer-satisfaction, let the users help shape their own world! oh and as a side note, huge worlds are much better, allows for more exploring
• PvP! there always needs to be some form of PvP in every mmorpg! even if you set aside separate servers for it, then by all means do so! people love to test their abilities against their friends who may be of a different class or race for bragging rights and such, i think WoW did an absolutely beautiful job on the PvP system, FFXI? well, their plane spun, crashed, burned and died, also, their shouldn't be any "decentives" i guess, i dunno how you would say that, for PvP, as in, no exp or item loss, but if people really wanted to, they could bet on their little match, like, one person puts up one of their items and another person puts up one of theirs, winner gets both, but that would only be an option
• Mini-games! we all love mini-games! every game has 'em! so why not mmorpgs? i think an all-around general mini-game for mmorpgs could be a card game of some sort (obviously thinking of Tetra-master at the moment, but you know, be original with it) to be played against other users, cards gotten, of course, from monsters, or bought through shops, or stuff like that, but like PvP, it could be something where you could either bet for each other's cards or just be played for fun with no detriment to either party, but of course, it doesn't have to be a card-game, spread it out based on what kind of mmorpg you're playing here, it could be a car-racing mini-game for some kind of futuristing technology kinda mmorpg, or (persay) if there was another Final Fantasy mmorpg, chocobo breeding and racing (and of course, after a time they would die and you'd have to start over again)
• Crafting! need i say more? FFXI, WoW, EQ2, all mmorpg games have it now, it's something that's just there, you don't question it, maybe refine it a bit, but it's a must i gotta say
• Multiple characters and Server choosing! one thing SE did with FFXI that i hated was that they charged you for more than one character and they didn't even let you chose your server! you should be allowed to chose your server and maybe have a max of say, ten characters per server (that's pushing it a little, so maybe less) and you can hop around servers at whim (of course, your characters couldn't move servers, but i have another idea i'm gonna express in a minute) One job per character and multiple character creations, that's the best way to go in my opinion, the only mmorpg that i know that has split from that path, was, of course, FFXI, so leave it the way it should be, ya know Square?
• Server differentiation: to alleviate stress on servers from users overcrowding certain servers (although this thought could very easily backfire i know, it's still a thought) have each server be a different environment and allow characters to move between servers via maybe some gate or something, but have it so that if a user wanted to, they could conceivably stay on one server their entire play time and level all the way to their max without switching servers so that people don't crowd to a new server after every 5 or 10 levels or so
• Gamer-type variation! this is a must and i know it! allow users to solo or party on a whim as they choose to level up, quest, missions, do dungeons, etc., have soloing a viable option but have partying, not an absolute must, but a better choice (ie. it's better to be in a party because of easier traveling and better exp maybe) but you can also solo, it'll just be a little harder, and along with soloing/partying, i would definitely like to add casual/serious gamer! this is a severe problem i see with mmorpgs, they're geared either to really casual gamers or really serious gamers, but there's not a happy medium in any game i know of as far as i can see, for a good mmorpg, you need to have things that serious gamers can get on and do that may take hours or so or just lots of dedication, but you also NEED to have stuff for the casual gamer to do that they can sit down for 30 minutes or an hour or so and do that would still keep them interested in the game, but wouldn't take hours upon hours of dedication to do, this is where my mini-game thoughts come into play, but the balance between soloing/partying, and casual/serious is a MUST for an mmorpg, or otherwise you get a baby game people breeze through in no-time or you get an ungodly hard game that takes away a person's life, literally, just to stay at or get to a decent level or something
• Money, i think the $13/15 per month right now (or whatever it is in pounds or whatever UK uses, please excuse my negligence and don't flame me for it ) is ok, i think charging by playtime would be nice, but it would seriously undercut the company's funds to pay employees and their ability to provide the best experience possible to its users

Well, i'm sure there might be something more i'd like to add, but i've already been at this for almost 45 minutes now and i'm sure to have forgotten it by now, haha, i'd also like to add that anywhere i mentioned PC's, i would also like to add in Macs, because i know there's just as many people in both categories, and like, i have a friend with a Mac, but i have a PC, so we have trouble finding games we both like and are on both platforms, so companies, if you're gonna design an mmorpg, make it for a PC-Mac-System cross where all three can play in the same space and share an equal experience in the game (you also get the most users and money from this ) well, so this is my idea for all the necessary qualities of a perfect mmorpg (if such a thing could ever exist ), these points could, can, and should be broadened to include any developer's ideas and etc., this can be formed to fit any kind of mmorpg made, so use it! well, my 2 cents, what does everyone think? (i know this could never get to a developer and help them to make a kick-ass mmorpg, but i just felt like saying something, i was bored, needed somethin to do) cheers~!

[Chris W]

*gulp*

i currently play runescape - there is a members version for £3.20 a month, or free to play area. Tis quite old school, but still hopelessly addictive!

pristontale has also come highly recommended to me.

[Richard M]

Two of my friends speak highly of Guild Wars which is free to play online.

[Kuragari]

hhmmmm, pristontale looks interesting.... i must try it out when i get home from work today!

[jtwn]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

*gulp*

i currently play runescape - there is a members version for £3.20 a month, or free to play area. Tis quite old school, but still hopelessly addictive!

Runescape....the rpg to play if there is one.

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by jtwn

Runescape....the rpg to play if there is one.

oooh do you play? f2p or p2p?

[jtwn]

Free, but I only used to play it yonks back when there was one server...getting back into though, going to upgrade to members

I think WOW is great!

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by jtwn

Free, but I only used to play it yonks back when there was one server...getting back into though, going to upgrade to members

have you played since the RS2 launch? it is rather different now! but still highly addictive

look me up.... M0nkey84 ... I am normally on world 88/89 (members)