Teala's Wickedly Cool MMORPG.com Blog For The Masses

Just my thoughts on MMO's, roleplaying, game companies, and the people that play these games.

Author: Teala

Am I the only player left in the world that wishes to see an MMORPG that is built around a virtual world, filled with wonder and adventure and has combat like that which we see in a game like Mount and Blade where player skill and knowledge of the weapons will determine the outcome of a fight instead of some random number generator?

Seriously...I am getting seriously bored with today's button mashing hotkeyed games that are full of flash and auto targeting. Where is the excitement and the fury of a battle where you face your opponent in combat with just your shield and sword, where your characters life is one sword swipe away from death? OMG how I would love an MMORPG with Mount and Blades combat system.

Unless you've played Mount and Blade you'll no doubt not understand where I am coming from, but once you've tasted the style of combat one finds in that game you'll find yourself wishing and longing that you could play your Blood Elf or your Tauren in an MMORPG with that kind of combat.

Plus where is the dungeon crawls? OMG not the lame arse dungeons we see in current MMORPG's. I'm talking dungeon crawls that require you to be on your toes at all times because of tricks and traps and all manner of beasties that hide in dark. gloomy places and jump out at you making you flinch because it happened so fast. I'm not talking the strategically placed MOBS that always spawn in the same place in a dungeon like you see in WoW or a lot of these other MMO's. I'm talking about ruins that have catacombs beneath them with narrow passages and chambers filled with all manner of horror and death to those that may wonder into them looking for a long lost wondrous treasure. One dungeon that I loved in one of these recently released games came from the game Vanguard. I know...I know...just hear me out.

See this place sets the mood first. As you approach the entrance to this dungeon you notice the area around it goes all gloomy and you know that something sinister is afoot and it makes you sit up and be prepared. The sky goes dark, a mist covers the ground and the trees have cobwebs and gnarled branches and you hear strange noises...OMG it can freak you out.  Then to top it off there is a sign at the entrance that warns of the death that awaits those foolish enough to enter.   This sent shivers up my spine because when I played I heard tales of this place from otehr players telling me to avoid the heartache and pain that I would find in that place.  They told me to literally forget it and move on.   To wait until I had a lot more experince before attempting it.    They were serious...and I soon learned why.

Once inside this dungeon of terror, you encounter spiders and such and  the way the lighting is done a small spider can cast a huge shadow on the wall and you think to yourself OMG how big is that spider we're about to encounter? Then some spiders drop from cobwebs that cover the roof of the spider tunnels and some spiders pop out from around dark corners right in your face - making loud hissing sounds as they gnash at you with their nasty pincers or try to stick you with their stinger. OMG that dungeon had it going on and I will never forget the time I spent exploring that spider hole from hell. That is what a dungeon should do and it should be a challenge to make it in and out alive...and that one truly was a fun, memorable romp.

OMG I am so sick of having to grind for gear! Please of please...just let me find some decent armor, a good sword and maybe a bow that I can use to slay my enemies that will last the lifetime of my character! I do not need some flaming sword of death or burning skull staff of doom! N0... just a simple scimitar and shield is all I ask for. To many games are so gear centric that that is what the games all about is gear! So much so that when you do get that good gear you discover that your character looks and behaves just like the next Joe/Jill gamer # 420, 678....doesn't that get old? God I hate it.

I so wish for the day when I can customize and create a unique character that looks totally different and plays the way I like and wish to play in a virtual world and not some never changing world of pre-placed - never changing mobs whose AI is so predictable that you can set up a macro to kill them because they always behave the same way. I know game designers can do better - so do it!

Details - details - details.   WoW got this right when it comes to details.   Watch your character one time.   They fricking breath!  Yes - just watch.   They are animated to show your character breathing.    When in cold areas and they exhale you see their steaming breath~!   That kind of detail you'll not see in other games.    This I would like to see and more.    When a game designer takes the time to polish the details it makes the game that much enjoyable to play...is it really to much to ask other game designers to pay attention to the small details as they do with the big ones?   I think not.    So come on...when you make game - make it seem alive and not dead and stagnate!  OK!  Blizzard did a great job here in a lot of ways...I just wish it wasn't so theme parky.   Plus  I wish we players had more impact on the world itself and - like over hunting an area causes certain mobs to migrate or not hunting causes things to occur...like certain MOB's become so abundant that they start randomly attacking towns and villages and can even over run them!   That is what we need.  

OMG I am telling you...the time has come for a game that pushes the limits of technology and gives us a hybrid virtual world/theme park/sandbox/fps/rpg game. Seriously...now more than ever we need a game like like this. We need designers to go back to the basics and look at this genre and shake it up the way WoW did. We need innovative game mechanics that put the action and game play truly into the hands of the gamer to allow them more control than ever before on how their character, looks, behaves, and acts in a game and how they can impact that world through their actions and interaction with it.

A game like this can be made - come on designers - use your creative brilliance and really give us a cool arse MMORPG the way one should be made!  Surely I am not the last gamer who loves MMORPG's that wishes for such a game?
 

Not far from where I live, there is a stand of woods that I often go walking through.   Trails permeate all through them from the many kids that play there and often when I go walking along those trails I can hear the kids playing off in a distance and it takes me back to my childhood days and the many times me and my brothers and sisters played in woods not so different from this.    We would play pirates, Robin Hood and  all manner of games, like hide-n-seek.   We'd go on adventures to discover some long lost buried treasure(of that which we never did find) of some King that once ruled over the land(though not likely seeing how we lived in the Pacific Northwest - didn't care - we were kids and we imagined).

Our swords and spears were sticks.   We slayed many a foul beasties in those dank, dark woods, and oh the tales we had to share when we got home with our mother of how we fought off  the dragon that lived in a cave(an old mining tunnel that had long since collapsed and only went back about 30ft or so)...didn't matter to us though - a dragon lived there and we slew it!   LOL!  So much fun.

Today, I sit on my balcony overlooking that stand of woods not far from where I live and wish that I could somehow magically go back in time to those days when I was a kid and go adventuring again.   What a magical time that was and oh how I miss them.    

::sigh::

Well those days have come and gone, child hood is over and frak I grew up!   With it came, work, relationships, a job, rent, marriage, kids, a husband, pets, car payments, and a myriad of other things that tends to muck up our lives, like drug addictions, the passing of friends and family,  the world going all crazy and going by so fast it makes you wish even harder that you could turn back that clock and be a kid again when all you had to worry about was eating, playing, going to school and doing a few chores.

What does one do when they wish to be a kid again if even for just one day?  You do what a lot of us do.   You play an MMORPG!  Yeah for MMORPG's!  We can forget the world and our lives for brief stretches of time and become that child that ran around in the woods slaying the beasties with your wooden sword and finding the buried treasure.  We may have to grow up and be adults, but nothing says we have to stay there all the time.   Online virtual worlds allow us to escape the realities of our lives and take us to places we dreamt of as children, when we only had our imaginations - only today we can see those castles, the cave where the dragon lives and those beasties come to life in a way that they some times haunt your dreams while you sleep.  

Even though we now have these virtual worlds, I see the woods and they call to me...they say, "Come play Kristi.  There is a foul beast that lives here that needs to be driven out or the lady of the castle will have to remain trapped behind the cold damp walls of the tower for ever more."    Virtual worlds online are only so good...but my imagination is stronger.   Oh to be a kid again..if just for a day - once in awhile.

I'm not a hater of SOE's games.  No on the contrary, I actually love their games, despite what some people may think and say.   True story.   No really...if you look at the games I have played and what games I have stuck with the longest all of them are SOE games!  That's right.   Planetside being the longest, followed by SWG - preNGE and of course Vanguard, followed by EQ2.   No other games kept me playing for as long and regularly as SOE games have.    So what you are about to read is not me hating on SOE, but stating my opinion on a company that just continually shoots themselves in the foot and drives players like me(that happen to like their games initially) away.

With that being said.

It was recently noted that John Smedley wrote a blurb in his blog about oh how he loves the game Planetside.   What a huge crock-o-(not gold)!  Sorry Smedley, but I and many others find this very hard to swallow and I've swallowed some pretty disgusting stuff in my life(like a bug once), but this,...this caused me to run to the bathroom to hurl(well OK maybe I didn't exactly hurl, but  I did choke a bit - really).

>>> click here to read what Smedley wrote  <<<

Of all the people in the gaming business and especially one as high up as Smedley is, and someone with a reputation of being the anti-Christ of gaming, he of all people needs to be extremely careful in what he writes. 

Saying things like, 'Damn I love Planetside. I really do.', (chokes a bit) sorry, I almost threw up there.   So he really loves Planetside(takes a breath) sorry, almost threw up again.   Is this guy for real?  Seriously, does he think we were all just born this morning?   He must.   Either that or he thinks he has some very powerful Jedi, over the Internet, mind tricks that can presuade us that what he states is the truth.  

After all the BS with EQ over the years(like incomplete expansions sold to unsuspected players - finished up later in patches) and the debacle with the SWG NGE, games like the Matrix tanking, and their piss-poor management of Vangaurd after they took it over.  This is why it is so hard to take anything he says at face value, because anyone that has played SOE games knows that if he really cared about gaming in general he wouldn't have done and continue to do things that drive players away from their games.

NOTE:  Free Realms is a free to play game - so I don't care how many people have created accounts to play a FREE TO PLAY GAME!  There that is out of the way , because I know, I just know someone is going to bring it up.

NOTE:  Other than Free Realms(which I remind you is a free to play game and anyone and their mother can sign up) none of SOE's other games, which are pay to play, are really doing all that well with the exception of maybe EQ2, the rest are on life support.

For years, yes years, players of Planetside have begged for updates, bug fixes(ones that have been around since day one!), expansions, and just general acknowledgement from SOE that the game would be maintained and worked on in some form or another.   Sure Planetside has had two expansions and a couple of cool things added since it's launch, but if you look at other MMORPG's and the number of expansions and additions they have gotten, Planetside is at the bottom of the list and the game has been around since 2003!     On top of that when players were begging for SOE to do a little advertising of the game when it started to loose subsrcibers, what did SOE do?  They merely offered a recruitment key(game key) and a limited playability and then failed to follow up with advertising!   No..it was the players of the game that used guerilla marketing techniques to try to boost the games player base and get the word out about the offer- not SOE.  

Very few games have got the kind of die-hard fans as this game does.    Go to any website that is about MMORPG's and visit their forums and you'd be hard pressed to not find a dozen or more post over the years asking for a Planetside 2.   Seriously.  Even on the forums here at MMORPG.com we'd see a post that would be titled, like, "Why No Planetside 2?", or "Think we'll ever see a Planetside 2?".    What do we finally hear.  SOE is going to be making a Planetside 2.    The crowd goes wild!  "Yeah...finally!",  "OMG I cannot wait!",   "It's about frikking time!"

And we hear this, 'Damn I love Planetside. I really do.'  

You know I should go to the airport and get some barf bags to put near my desk.   It would be so much simpler than to have to run to the bathroom every time this guys opens his mouth and says something that can turn a players stomach.

Anyway, tell us again Smedley how you love Planetside.  Please...oh please.   Because after all the years of neglect that you've shown the game and the fans of that game...it just sounds so genuine and truthful.  

Who do you think you are kidding?   SOE's head muckity muck is delusional.

I have no doubt that SOE will make a new Planetside.   What I fear is that just like some of SOE's games, once it is made they'll neglect it, if it doesn't hit a certain number of subscribers, and we'll once again be left with a game that will slowly die.   I played Planetside from the day it was launched up until 2007 and resubbed briefly in 2008 and again this year 2009.   I can say..."Damn I love Planetside.  I really do."  And you know it is the truth.

Wow...a post in the forums today made me all nostalgic.   I started to remember when the Internet was in its infancy...yes I was there and yes I am old enough to remember.   ::sigh::   Let's not talk about my age though, because I hate the fact that I am getting older!   So onward we go into this little journey of remembrance.

It seems like another lifetime ago and to be honest it was.   I was just a teenage girl living on a ranch in the Northwest of the US.   My father had always had a love of gadgets so we always had access to things like calculators and the first computers that were on the market back in the day when they were new like the TRS 80 and and Apple II.   Though I was an infant when those came out we still made use of them for playing games and what not later on when we got older.    Dad had the latest greatest and we got his old stuff to dink around on.    Didn't matter if it was already obsolete - we had lots of fun playing those older games and stuff on them as we grew older.

We played games like the old Gold Box series of Dungeons and Dragons.   Yes I was into gaming back then, I had brothers(many brothers - 4 to be exact) and they were all into swords and sorcery stuff back then and of course me being a bit of a Tomboy and always running with the boys I got hooked on the games as well.    Had to.   I wasn't about to let my brothers have all the fun.   So I played their games with them.   On the weekends after chores and doing whatever when the sun was up, we'd head into the game room where the computer was and start playing those old games for everything they were worth.    OMG we had so much fun and the hours we burned were many.    My love for computer gaming grew out of us all huddled around that one computer having a blast as we adventured through the lands of the Forgotten Realms.   Though the graphics were archaic at best, back then it didn't matter, we still had our imaginations and it filled in the gaps of those sprite graphics.   

Then we got our first modem and we could dial out and get on BBS's.   This was the infancy of the Internet.    Way back...back even before AOL.   On these BBS's we found games!   Yea!  All prose and no graphics.  But what these games back then lacked in graphics they made up with story and game play.   Some of those older prose based MUDS were really deep in story and rich in lore.   The cool thing was we were able to play with others that shared our love of fantasy games.  Thus began my love for online gaming.

Later we kids got our own machines and with it came the age of the Internet and AOL.    When we first got AOL I was really curious as to what it offered in the way of games.   So off I went in search of games.  At first I was drawn to the prose based gaming forums scattered about chat channels of AOL.   Like the Red Dragon Inn and Red Star Station.   It was all free-form and no real rules except the ones we created ourselves and agreed upon by us players.   We could weave our stories and roll our virtual dice and play together - the words on the screen were our world and our imaginations fed and created them.   What a wonderful fun time we all had back in the day.    Seriously...back before UO and such we had Gemstone and it was all prose with a couple of graphical interfaces.

I remember the numerous discussions we had back then even about the future of online gaming and where it might go.    This was back in like 1994.    Back then I was like, someday we're going to be able to control a virtual avatar and run around in virtual worlds slaying monsters and crawling in dungeons and doing whatever.   Many people seemed to think computers would never be able to handle such stuff back then...but I thought differently.   I was sure that someday it would happen.    That day soon came with games like Diablo and Ultimate Online.   Though it was still 2D we were closer to seeing 3D virtual worlds than ever before.

Then in 1999 came the release of EQ and soon after Asheron's Call and I knew I would be an online gamer for the rest of my life.   Here  I am 10 years later and I am just as enthusiastic about online gaming as I ever was and do not see me ever not being an online gamer.    I am not really sure what it is that keeps me playing these games other than I just love that it enables us to be a part of something not real - it is a window into make believe worlds where we players can be more than just mere mortals.    We are warriors, healers, thieves and vagabonds wondering along tendrils of light, in a virtual universe, in search of adventure that cannot be found in our real world.    We are online gamers, dreamers of dreams, and the games we play are part of us and we are part of them.

I've been thinking, if I were Blizzard I would create something totally opposite of what I currently have. What does that mean or imply? Well right now they have a game that is considered a thempark game in WoW and is fantasy based. So what do you do that is the opposite? You create a sandbox game(the likes of which has never been seen) and make it a sci-fi based game. Yeah! Woop, woop, ...::does her happy dance:: woop, woop...

Seriously. Blizzard came in and showed all the other companies how to make an MMORPG, one way, the theme park way and succeeded. What do they do to top themselves and all the other companies who have or are working on an MMORPG right now. You beat them in the other aspect of online virtual game worlds by taking the best of all those other sandbox games and make the ultimate sandbox game with a sci-fi theme.

So how does Blizzard do this? We know Blizzard has said that this time around that they are going for a totally new IP, one of their own making. They have all ready done the fantasy theme and they need to go in a direction that is still fairly open...so I'm guessing they're shooting for the sci-fi crowd. There is but maybe a half-dozen sci-fi based MMORPG's on the market and in the works and most of those are centered around players just flying space ships. This is great for them. They can come in and fill a void that needs filled. God knows we're swimming in elves and dwarfs. How about some exotic aliens for a change?

Then they'd look at all the different MMORPG's that are sandbox based games like old Star Wars Galaxies and Ultimate Online and all the others and then make a sandbox game that makes all other sandbox games look like child's play. They basically create a game filled with all the things good in a sandbox game and tell the players - "Here's the playgrounds new sandbox, and in it you'll find some really cool buckets, sand shovels, and all the things you'd expect to find in a sandbox and more!"

More?

Yeah...like we've included some prefab stuff to help you get going. There are these cool places that are pre-built, however, what you do with them is your business. Like see this planet. It needs players to make it work. Here are some cool things so that you can make it work. There's also some cool areas on this planet you might like to explore. Then look over here at this world, awesome isn't it. It has it's own little thing going on, but it still needs players to make it work as well and oh look, over there is a planet close by and the inhabitants don't get along with anyone from that world so be careful - they have been raising an army of their own and Intergalactic War looks imminent .

So what I am thinking, maybe Blizzard will create this awesome sci-fi sandbox/theme park game that will once again redefine how we look at MMORPG's. They give us the ultimate sandbox in a sci-fi setting laced with bits of theme park game play.  They took and looked at how MMORPG's were made after games like Diablo and Ultimate Online and saw that they could do it even better.   The one thing that has yet to be done better is a good sandbox game.   We've had all of maybe three or four really good sandbox games, like UO, SWG pre-NGE, EvE and Vanguard. 

The market is just ripe for the making of a great sandbox based MMORPG right now.   People are getting tired of elves and orcs and wizards.   The market is saturated with WoW wannabe's and is only going to get worse.   So this makes me think Blizzard will do what others are not doing and go the sandbox route.

Go ahead and tell me that wouldn't just make you want to do a happy dance of your own.
 

Dear McGyver's of game design that is also known as Blizzard,

This is long and sorta windy, but I think some of my suggestions are worth making note of, if not all of them - yeah...I'm just that good at coming up with ideals for games.  ::innocent grin::  But that is neither here not there...just please, oh please read my letter and then think about it.  Think about the cool things I am suggesting.   There are some cool things here!  Just keep reading. 

World of Warcraft is an awesome MMORPG for what it is. Is it the best? No. Is it perfect? No. But for the most part the game is the game that set the new standard for MMORPG's. However, I think there is some things that Blizzard could have done to make the game even better. Are you reading this Blizzard dudes and dudettes? If not you should be - all the way to the end. Full of cool ideals. Really. You'll thank me in the end if you add this stuff...seriously...but - OK...later we'll discuss that later. In the mean time, please read on. 

One of the things I really hate about WoW is that we're stuck in a rut when it comes to being unique in how our characters look. My Blood Elf huntress looks like many other Blood Elf huntress's. That is one thing that kinda really just grinds my gears. There's my character standing on a street in Dalaran and wouldn't you know it I see three other "me's" amongst the 40 odd other players that are milling around doing whatever. I really wish we had more hair styles, more armor choices and for all that is good in the land of MMORPG's - please Blizzard give us some dyes for our armor! OMG would I love to be able to dye my characters armor to a color of my choice so my huntress doesn't look like 30% of all the other level 80 huntresses. Just giving us dyes would go a long way in allowing us to be a little unique in looks.

Another thing. This is one that actually gets me ticked in most MMORPG's I play. Why, oh why, when I find a weapon that makes my character feel like I want to play her more, do I have to give up that really cool looking sword or bow because she out leveled it and have to upgrade to a weapon that I find really fugly and unappealing? Just once I would love to be able to play an MMORPG and not have to constantly upgrade my weapon as I level because it only does X amount of damage. Here is an ideal. How about you let me keep my weapon and as I level so does my weapon I found and really like! Yeah. How can you make this happen? Just allow us to visit a weapon smith and have it upgraded. I do not care if it cost X amount of gold or requires me to go on some maniacal killing spree to kill Alliance members(I'll do this anyway - 'spits toward Stormwind' Alliance Elderberry smelling humans) to get a stone of special sharpening or maybe go on a quest to get a gem that can be socket-ed into the pommel to make it better. Just let me keep my weapon of choice! I have found some weapons in World of Warcraft that I liked the looks of but can my character keep it and use it through the game. No! I can keep it in my bank vault and pull it out and use it to do low level quest, but that's about it. As far as I am concerned this is something all MMORPG's get wrong. Maybe that is why I like Mount and Blades weapon system best. My character in Mount and Blade found a really awesome scimitar and hasn't used any other weapon since. Why? No need to. My skills with the weapon make it better as I use it. So the weapon can be used by my character until I retire her - which is very cool. Finding that perfect weapon that just clicks with your character is part of making our characters unique. Would Conan be Conan without his Sword of Crom? Would Elric be Elric without Stormbringer? Well how do you expect my character to be more than just herself without her weapon of choice - the one weapon that makes her slayer of all things Alliance! She needs he Scimitar of Alliance Slaying! " For the Horde! " See you could allow us to name our swords even - now that would be so really cool. I know of a couple of games that allowed you to do this. Name your weapon that is. So how about it Blizzard? My ideal would just rock! You know it would. So come on and do it!

Speaking of weapons, why is it that in every MMORPG I have played I cannot pick up and inspect all the cool weapons and armor and what not scattered all over the floors or hanging on the walls of the dungeons we crawl through...hmmm? Now tell me if this wouldn't be awesome. It would be awesome if some of those weapons and armor can actually be random treasure finds in dungeons. Those swords, spears, axes, and bows and myriad of other pieces laying around a dungeon could be more than just mere eye candy. What if you allowed our characters to find a nice piece of loot just laying around a dungeon from time to time. It has always been a real pet peeve of mine that in all those dungeons and ruins we see all this awesome weaponry just laying around collecting dust and you mean to tell me that there is not one good piece in there somewhere? Not even one? Conan fell into a tomb out in the middle of nowhere and found an awesome sword just resting there against the throne of a long dead - somebody.   Why is it to much to ask for our characters to be able to do the same? Make it random and make the stats random as well. This will not only get more people wishing to do instances and dungeons, but OMG it'll bring the unknown back into the game and have players dreaming of finding a nice weapon, a shield or maybe a piece of armor that they just happen to stumble across, not unlike Conan the Barbarian.   He gave me this ideal you know.   After recently watching it for the millionth time and then playing some WoW.  I put the two together and thought...yeah...this really sucks.  He can just stumble into a hole in the ground and find this awesome sword and we on the other hand have to kill these really powerful - always huge - monster or giant thingy to get the good stuff.  That is just not fair.   Surprise us now and then - OK.   Have something glow blue as our character inspects the area with her magic cursor of pointing to indicate that, "Hey!  Look at this...you found something cool just laying on the floor!"

OK, another thing that really chaps my lips - from talking so much about MMORPG's and that is, in many MMORPG's NPC's can fight from horseback and mounts - even flying ones. They do in World of Warcraft, why can our characters not do the same?! We can in the whatever arena their in Northrend - you know the tournament place. So why not allow us to do it everywhere? Put it some rules and what not I do not care. Say there is a percentage of a chance that we can get knocked off. Doesn't matter, just make it happen! Imagine flying on your War Hippogryph and you see a swine smelling Alliance member flying on their 'whatever yucky mount they fly' and you attack them - in mid-air! ::sings:: "Yesssssssss..." would that be like so very, very cool! Flying down toward your enemy in a dive(yes this needs added, too, Blizzard - you know - a screaming dive, your mounts wings swept back, picking up speed - woohoo!) your war lance - ( "Oh yes! We need these, too! - ::huge grin::) lowered and aiming right for the enemy. Then with a huge thunderous crash of metal against metal, mount against mount, the feathers flying as they hit each other the fight is on! If I am lucky I sent the poor bastage to his death - falling from 1000 ft. If I am not, then we go at it - in flight - a fight to the death! Now this would be so really cool! Please of please Blizzard...please give us mounted combat. On land and in the air. You do this and I will love you long time!

Oh and about our mounts. Give our mounts attacks as well. Like kicking, or bashing with the front hooves, or racking with their claws, and oooo...lightning from their eyes! No joking around here. I know this is possible because I've seen NPC mounts that can do this. So why can our mounts not do this? In Wyrmrest in the Dragonsblight area there are mounts that shoot lightning from their eyes - yes they do I've seen them. Oh yes...so please, oh please(I beg alot I know...but I have no shame and do not mind doing it for the masses - really) give us this stuff, too. Why should NPC's have all the fun?

We need houses, or apartments or something. Something where we can add cool furniture and stuffs! Think Sims, but in a World of Warcraft kind of way. We could display trophies of war, unique quest items we've gotten on our travels or the heads of Alliance enemies - well this would be nice you know. I do not care if you have to instance them. It would just be cool. I know people will hate this ideal. But I like it. ;p

Read how it can be done below when I discuss Guild Halls.

Guild Halls? Anyone for Guild Halls? Why do we not have guild halls in World of Warcraft yet? I know the arguments and they just do not cut it. World of Warcraft needs Guild Halls and Blizzard needs to make this happen. How can they do this? Through the use of instances. Why do this? So guilds can have a place to meet for raids and to store guild related stuffs. Sorta like a the guild bank, only better and bigger. It can also be a place for guilds to display "future" guild achievements, like banners, tabards and the like. This way when you invite a potential guild member to be a visitor they can see just how active the guild is by the tabards and banners that they may see hanging from the rafters or on the walls of their guild halls.

So here is what you do. In each of the main cities there can be a building or structure with a door and this door is actually a portal to be used by members of guilds. Simply entering the portal sends the players character to their guilds hall. The guild halls could be an instance made up of a few rooms or it can be an actual place on a piece of land or maybe an island with a couple of structures on it - one being a guild hall. There could be choices to styles in how the guild hall is structured and looks. For instance you could choose a Nordic looking theme, or something based on Tauren architecture, or maybe you prefer the Undead style. Then give us tools to move objects around in them to decorate the halls(this would also work for player houses) like in the game Sims. You have the means to do this and the art resources to create something like this and guilds will love you even more. Why this is not all ready in the game has always made me wonder - isn't it time we have them?

Blizzard you created a cool world when you created Diablo and what did that world have that made it awesome? Randomly generated dungeons to crawl around in. Yeah. So what about doing something like that in World of Warcraft. Mix it up. Figure out a way to do this and then scatter them across the land and people can find the entrance just by happenstance. Go one better and have the randomly generated dungeons scale to the level of the players involved.  Now this...this would be so very cool. I know you can do this. So make it happen. This would make World of Warcraft even better!

Inn's and Taverns are they just merely a waste of resources and space in game? I am beginning to think so. Some of the most wonderful looking places to be found in the game are the taverns and Inn's. The problem is few players actually use them. I go into them all the time hoping to see other players hanging out in them, but to no avail...nobody uses them. So here is what you do. Give us a reason to use them. Put some mini games in them. Whether it be chess, checkers, darts, card games, roulette, or a game of bash the mole! Just put something in them to get people to come into the Inn's. Maybe give us a unique buff for spending time in an Inn. I know there is an exp bonus all ready in place, but just being in a city gives us that so why bother going to an Inn? Please, please, please Blizzard think about this. It would be so cool to someday be playing and travel to say Orgrimmar and hear music coming from a tavern and then to walk in and see it full of players mingling and just having fun - together - in a tavern!

New race of water based elves. Ride dolphins or seahorses or maybe even sharks. Oh yes, I would so love to see a water based race of elves. What if the High Elves(aka High Born or Quel'dorei) of Kalimdor who were exiled split up and some went to the sea. Now they return in the form of a great race of elves that come from the sea? Of course they would most definitely be Horde because they Night Elves and the High Born do not get along at all. So this would be awesome addition to the game. Here is one thing that would make playing this race unique. After spending so long underwater and with the use of magics, the new race of High Born can breath underwater naturally like others breath air. For a now Sea Elf to venture onto land they must make use of potions or magic as air breathers must to travel in the water. Now this I could get into. I playable race of elves that come from the sea...tell me that wouldn't be so very cool. Blizzard can do this.

Also...oh yes there is another one of these >>> "Also", add  some fluffy roleplaying stuff like for instance. Fortune telling sorta stuff. All for fun, but imagine my character wishes to be say a wondering kinda gypsy fortune teller. Allow her to learn the skills(through quest of course) to obtain the title of Fortune Teller. During these quest she can obtain the tools necessary to perform such things as telling fortunes like crystal balls, tarot cards and the like and depending on the race the various means of telling a fortune would be different. Like trolls would use Voodoo and make use of throwing the bones. LOL! We could quest for a gypsy wagon pulled by a mount from which we can practice our craft. Having your fortune read can give players a buff say of there spirit or maybe their wisdom. Or it might have a negative effect. (Well the trolls do say, "Stay away from the Voodoo, man." Just do something cool and make it fun and make it so people will make use of them. There are all kinds of cool fluffy roleplaying skills you can allow our characters to learn and to become other than just Fortune Tellers as well. Like Minstrels who can travel the lands and play music for people and because you listened to the minstrel you get a buff of some kind - if you drop a little coinage into his coffer. :) See where I am going with this. See the possibilities. Do you not feel the magic coming from my words off this screen as you read this? LOL! Well you should because this is just another thing you can add to the game to make it so very awesome and players will love you for it - I know I would - really - please.

One last thing.  There is this really cool ideal I have been messing around with in my head for some time.    Every now and then in the game we go on a quest and every so often we are accompanied by the quest giver - sorta like a henchman of a sorts.   This got me to thinking.   I do this a lot you know - thinking that is.   Just because I am a blonde does not mean I cannot think from time to time - because I do.   Anyway, the ideal is this.  What if we can hire one, just one henchman to be like a travel companion on our journeys through the World of Warcraft.   Now before I get skewered by the players that will hate this ideal I'll just spit it out.   I would really get a kick out of having a Tauren henchman as a travel and adventuring companion.   Think of it like this.  Han Solo had Chewbacca, Batman had Robin, Robin Hood had Little John...well I need a cool arse companion as well!

How can you do this?  Make it possible through a quest.   This quest gives us a new skill - leadership or something like that.  By having this skill we're allowed  to hire "a" meaning one,  henchman.   Now the henchman will of course fight for us when the need arises - similar to a pet.   However there are rules one must follow in order to have this henchman and what it can and cannot do and what you can and cannot do with them.   You cannot for instance send a henchman blindly into a building to take aggro and to sacrifice themselves so you can rush in and take the treasure and leave.   Nope.  Henchman do not commit suicide.   No instead a henchman will only attack if you have initiated the first strike.   Then they will join you...if and only if you have kept them well rewarded for fighting by your side.   In other words.  This companion does not work for scraps.   They will get part of your loot.    A cut of action.  A piece of the pie.  

Your henchman will level with you, similar to a hunters pet.  They will have all the skills of that class they are.  You cannot have a henchman that is the same class or race as you.  You can purchase them armor and weapons using their own money they have on them and you can even send them money, armor, weapons and items but you cannot take from them - ever.   You cannot use henchman while grouped with others - at all.   You cannot use henchman in PvP fights or battles at all.   If you do not regularly pay your henchman they will leave you.   Then you'll have to go take the quest to get a new one all over again.   If you do loose a henchman it will become harder to get a new one because your leadership rep will take a hit.  The more henchmen you loose, the harder it will be to obtain one.   Loose to many and no henchman will ever join you - ever.   If you get your henchman killed to may times doing stupid stuff...they will leave you.   Why stay by your side if all you do is get them killed.    So they will leave you.   This will of course have an adverse effect on your leadership skill and well you know what that means because I have all ready gone over it.

Give henchman issues.  Sure there are pros to having henchman, but think of the cons as well.  Yep.  Henchman may sound really cool, but some maybe a little troublesome.  Some might be narcoleptic and fall asleep right in the middle of combat.   Some might be ninja looters and loot that really nice piece of armor right out from beneath your grubby little hand before you can get it.  Some might be clumsy and bump into you while you're trying to get that spell off interrupting you.  Some might even run in terror if they feel the battle you are about to fight might get them killed.   Evil I know...but that is the cost of having a henchman.   With a little thought this ideal could be tweaked here and there and it would make for a nice addition to the game.   

So there you go Blizzard. Here are some ideals to make World of Warcraft even better. Feel free to use any and all my suggestions free of charge and you don't even have to give me credit for coming up with them. No really I insist that you just keep this between the two of us and I'll not say a word. I promise. I really do not care. At all. I just wish to see them in the game. That is all I need. So make this stuff happen. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!  (again I have no shame and will beg if need be if only it will help you add this stuff to the game).

Sincerely,

An MMORPG addict, errrmmm player, who dreams of playing an MMORPG with really cool stuff in it.  Like sharks with laser beams that shoot from their eyes(hint, hint).

A loving fan who really doesn't like World of Warcraft all that much, really, though she plays it all the freaking time!

Kristi  ^_^

Wow Kristi, the title of your thread is laughable at best.  How can you say such a thing?   Simple.   Because it is true.  It is true so long as game designers miss the very things that made World of Warcraft a success and fail to follow suit.   Before you start flaming me and tossing insult bombs my way, please "read" why I think the way I do.   Then if what I have said still makes you wish to flog me with a flaming cat-o-nine tails and then laugh as you toss salt onto my wounds - have at it.   I can take it. 

OK, so why will no new premium AAA pay to play game ever kill World of Warcraft.   Well to begin with, you have to look at the one thing that made World of Warcraft such a success to begin with.   Blizzard knew their player base.  They knew their target audience.    They went so far as to even ask players what they would like to see in their game and then to top it off they didn't even have an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) like so many other games.   Blizzard was really open and honest about their game.   No hush, hush or we're not saying, or we cannot discuss that right now.   Nope.   Blizzard developers and designers said this is what the game is and this is what you're getting and if we cannot do a particular thing this time we'll try to get it in at a later date.    That in itself was awesome and no game company to this date has been so open about their game,   

Then lets look at the game.  It was designed to be played on computers that your average house hold might have.  You didn't need a super computer to run the thing.   If you're computer was nothing more than a monitor attached to a hand-held calculator from a gumball machine, you might find in your local super market , WoW could probably run on it.   World of Warcraft was programmed by the McGyver's of the game design world.   They managed to create a game that was huge in scope and yet easily accessible by the masses.    Anyone and everyone could play World of Warcraft on their computer.  

Advertising.  Blizzard got this right and continues to get it right.   They advertise their game and they do it like no other company does.  They target their audience with great graphical theatrics type posters and cardboard cut-outs.   Go into any legitimate game store and you see what I am talking about.   You can't help but gaze at the colorful box covers or the beautiful unique artwork you'll see on their display stands.   Like a fancy plumed peacock looking for some loving Blizzard's colorful advertisement screams - "Look at me!" - and people do.  Then they buy it - because it looks so very colorful and wonderful - in a Disneyesque sorta way.   Blizzard's art department knows their stuff.  They know how to make people sit up and take notice and their advertising people make use of this.   It works - because World of Warcraft is constantly in the top of games sold across the world.

The game is simple to learn.   You do not have to be a rocket scientist to play World of Warcraft when you first get into the game.   Again this comes into the realm of accessibility.   Blizzard took a lot of the steep learning curve that generally comes with a game of this genre and smoothed it out.   Then once the person gets a feel for the game the learning curve goes up a notch.   Then another and then another.   World of Warcraft is what most games should aim for - easy to learn but hard to master.   There are many ways to build a character and then to play that character once you get to the end game.    It takes some serious number crunching and knowing how to spec out your toon to get the most out of them and it is not for the faint of heart.   I say this because once you figure out what it is you'll need to do in order to optimize your character to get the most out of them - you, like me want to just scream.   OMG I have to do what and go where to get that?  It's going to take how many people to do it?  Are you kidding me?   Nope.    Once you get to that level of play in World of Warcraft you are definitely crunching the numbers and learning to master the game.

Let's look at another aspect that many people over look.   The game is filled with fun and funny stuff.    The people at Blizzard have a wonderful sense of humor.   Their game is laced with Easter eggs and satire the likes of which have never been seen - except maybe in your favorite episode of Family Guy, the Simpson's or South Park.   Seriously...you have to admit, those things help take the edge off and they seem to do it when you least expect it.    This is good.   It lightens the mood and reminds you, the player, this is game - enjoy it - do not take it to seriously.   LOL!  You know subliminal messaging is alive and well and Blizzard does it so very well.   Remember "Stay away from the Voodoo man."  LOL!  OMG you have to love it.

Polish and more polish and when you are done with that polishing - let's polish it some more!  Face it.  Blizzard gave gamers the kind of game we like.   A game almost devoid of bugs and polished like no other game that came before it.    The game in this respect has not been matched since.   Oh sure there have been other games that were pretty much bugless when launched like City of Hero's, but City of Hero's was not as big and did not have the same kind of seamless world nor the depth of game play World of Warcraft had when it launched.   What Blizzard did was set a new standard for how games should be when they are launched and no game company since WoW's release has even remotely come close to how polished and bug free World of Warcraft was at launch.    If more companies put as much effort into the little things as well as the big things in their game and made sure they worked as well - there would be more games with subscription numbers as high as World of Warcrafts.  Unfortunately though to many of these game companies do not seem to realize this one very important aspect to a successful game.    So get to polishing - woops!  You missed a spot!  "Where?"   There silly developer - right there!  ::points::  Hopeless I tell you - just hopeless.  When are the other companies ever going to learn.  ::shakes her head::

Know your audience!  Know your market!  Know your product!  Blizzard knew this.  They knew it well before WoW Online was even a thought in a designers mind .  Remember these are the same guys that delivered such games as Starcraft and Diablo to the gaming masses.  Let's take Diablo.   Diablo was one of the most played games online even before Ultimate Online was out people were playing Diablo.   Diablo had upwards of 4 million people playing it at one time.   Think about it.  That was back in 1996!   Even then Blizzard was doing something right.   They gave players what they wanted and they learned how to do it.   Is it any wonder why World of Warcraft is such a success?  Seriously.  Think about it.    Blizzard cut their teeth many years ago when they designed and launched Diablo.   They knew they had a goldmine - even back then.   Foreshadowing of things to come?  Possibly.  But one thing is for certain, that experience Blizzard garnered from Diablo was incredibly valuable to them when it came to creating World of Warcraft and it shows.   Sorry people, but Blizzard was way ahead of their game when they launched World of Warcraft and they can thank Diablo for that.  Diablo showed them the way and Blizzard took it and ran with it.

They took the knowledge Diablo gave them, and the knowledge of other online games like Ultime Online, EverQuest and such and then made World of Warcraft.   They knew what they wanted in their game and then set about doing it.  They took this from EQ and that from UO and that from DAoC and oh yea that from AC2 and this from Diablo and then made them part of their game and did it better.   They didn't try to re-invent the wheel - Blizzard created it!   What the others had done before in MMORPG's was "try to invent a well running wheel".  One that didn't wobble or creak or go thump, thump, thump when it was running because it wasn't round enough.  They all just managed to get by with their thump, thump thumps and wobbly, creaking wheel.   No Blizzard took that wheel and made it round, and then they added a rubber tire to it, and then they took that tire and galvanized the rubber and they added treads and in the end Blizzard gave us the wheel we were all looking for.   They could do this because Blizzard really did invent the wheel long ago...and back then they called it Diablo.

These key things are why World of Warcraft was and remains such a success.   Until other companies follow suit and use plays out of Blizzards play book - there will never be another game that is as successful as World of Warcraft and there will never be another game that kills it.   Sorry.

Addendum:  Do not think I am advocating game designers to make nothing but cookie cutter games like World of Warcraft because I am not.  What I am doing is pointing out the key ingredients as to why World of Warcraft is such a success.   That is all.   If game makers like Funcom and SOE ever expect to get the kind of subscription numbers Blizzard sees with their games then they need to really just follow the simple steps Blizzard took to make WoW.   It didn't take rocket science to figure out what made WoW such a success.   It just took common sense and that seems to be one thing that many game companies and publishers lack.

 Another Addendum:  This article is about a pay 2 play subscription game and its impact on other premium p2p games and how they do in the North American and European Market.   Sorry I was not more clear about this.  I  did not realize that so many people that visit this website are from anywhere but the US/Canada and Europe.   Forgive me for making that mistake.  Thank you in advance.

Back in May of 2003, when EvE first came to life I gave it a shot, played for two months then dumped it.   Another game came along and stole my heart and my play time and it seemed to fit more in line with my style of gaming.   That game of course was Star Wars Galaxies...the promise of freedom to be what we wished to be in game came with it and that is what I was looking for in a game.   The choices were so many and I was hooked.   I never looked back at EvE again - though it was sci-fi and right in-line with my taste for sandbox game play, Star Wars Galaxies gave me worlds to explore, and soon we had space as well, and with the micro-management of city building, crafting and running businesses - SWG was my game - the mother of all sandbox games and I loved it.   Then in late 2006 their came an announcement that SWG was going to be changing.   In November those changes went live and that day I canceled my account - my gaming heart was crushed.   In one fell blow the Gods of gaming had destroyed the one game that truly gave me the virtual world I had been looking for and took it away.

So I wandered the digital verse of gaming once again looking for a game that would appease my hunger for a game that gave me as much freedom as my once beloved Star Wars Galaxies had done.  As the years went by and new games came and went I grew desperate.   I knew somewhere out there, there had to be a game that would  once again be "my game" - "my heroine" - "the game that would steal my heart."

I routinely visited various gaming related websites hoping to hear news of up and coming games or to learn that an old game was adding something that might bring me back to playing it - but nothing.   I was regressing backwards...I started playing single-player games again.    I was soon craving that need to be a part of something bigger, to be involved in an online game again a part of a gaming community - something a single-player game cannot give a player.   I am a gamer - my main hobby is playing games and MMORPG's are my drug of choice.  

So as I once again began my quest for an online game to fulfill my gaming needs I kept seeing the game EvE advertised on various blogs and game related websites.   I told myself, you can't go back, you would be at a huge disadvantage because their are gamers that played EvE from day one and are still playing it and there is no way you can compete with them.   Then I learned that CCP had made some changes to the game.   New people could come to the game of EvE and not have to worry about getting gate-camped 24/7 and that security measures had been put into place to ensure that new players could get a foothold in the game so they wouldn't feel as if their was little hope of ever getting anywhere in a game filled with veteran players.

My curiosity got the better of me and I started reading up more and more on the game.  I all ready knew the game had a huge online community, but I never knew just how huge and how fervent of a community it had until I really started digging deeper into it.   I also learned that the game had become much more complicated and challenging due to all the updates and expansions that game has gotten over the years.  This really started to look like something I could get into.

So I took a chance.   I clicked on one of  CCP's ad's for the 15 day free trial(I no longer had my old game of EvE - having given it to one of my brothers long ago) and proceeded to download it.   Once I had it downloaded I clicked on the install EvE and in very short order I was creating my first character.   Having read up on the game I knew somewhat what I was doing and soon had my first character and was ready to proceed on my new EvE gaming experience. 

That first day I had to push myself away from my gaming rig because I was hooked.   Since that day I have played EvE every day and look forward to playing it the way I use to be with Star Wars Galaxies.   Because in EvE I am free once again to create a character that is unique.    There is no cookie cutter classes in EvE.   There is no road signs pointing you in specific direction or anyone forcing you to go anywhere you do not wish to go because that is how the game was designed.    I am free to choose my characters destiny and to make her as I see her and to take her on journeys of my own making.   EvE gives me, the player, the game world in which I am free once again to choose my own path and to see how far I can take my character in this virtual universe.   It has the game tools in place for my character to do this - it is truly a sandbox game and it maybe the last of the sandbox games - yet still new because true sandbox games never grow old - they just keep getting better with time.

After many days of typing up part 4 I trashed it.   I just couldn't post it.  Why - you may ask.    Read below.

You know I can sit here and tell you all these wonderful ideals for what I would consider to be my dream MMORPG, but in reality, and in the end, it is all just a dream.   Sure I can look back over the years at all the other MMORPG's I have played and say, "If this game only had this and this it would be perfect."  or "If the game designers did this and changed that...omg this game would truly rock."  And I have many times, but the truth is, we will never have our dream MMORPG even if we designed it ourselves.   There would always be something we'd like to change or tweak or add to make it that much better.    I dunno what the future holds for us in this genre.   If changes come it seems to come slowly.   One thing I do know and that is that someday a game designer will eventually create a game I will enjoy playing.   It may not ever match up to what my dream MMORPG would be like, but if it manages to allow me to escape into a world of fantasy for a few hours a week and have "fun" doing it - that is all I can ever really ask for - to just have fun.

Ladies and gentlemen please
Would you bring your attention to me?
For a feast for your eyes to see
An explosion of catastrophe

Like nothing you've ever seen before
Watch closely as I open this door
Your jaws will be on the floor
After this you'll be begging for more

Welcome to the show
Please come inside
Ladies and gentlemen

Boom
Do you want it?
Boom
Do you need it?
Boom
Let me hear it
Ladies and gentlemen

Boom
Do you want it?
Boom
Do you need it?

Boom
Let me hear it
Ladies and gentlemen

Ladies and gentlemen good evening
You've seen that seeing is believing
Your ears and your eyes will be bleeding
Please check to see if you're still breathing

Hold tight cause the show it not over
If you will please move in closer
Your about to be bowled over
By the wonders you're about to behold here

Welcome to the show
Please come inside
Ladies and gentlemen

Boom
Do you want it?
Boom
Do you need it?
Boom
Let me hear it
Ladies and gentlemen

Seriously...this song by Saliva pretty much says it all for part three of this blog entry - My Dream MMORPG. I couldn't say it better myself. Truly, you'll be begging for more. So onward we go into the mind of a gamer girl who is so jaded that she has finally decided she would spill the beans on what she wishes to see in her dream MMORPG. Make sure your seats and trays are in the upright position and your seat belts are fastened.

Before I really get started, I wish to touch on something. Ships and their importance in this game. Kirk had his Enterprise, Reynolds has his Serenity, Solo his Falcon, and Bikirk her Sol Biance, and so should you. I dreamed of having a ship of my own in an MMORPG. Oh sure we got them in SWG, EVE and other such games that allow players to have their own ships and they truly do rock, but not like they should. There is just not enough to them to make them our ships and what you can do with them is limited. Not in my MMORPG. Ships in my game are just as important as the players. Think of the roleplay possibilites one can partake of in their ship with other gamers...omg...the sky is the limit for all sorts of roleplaying, quest, missions sitting around just shooting the breeze inside your very own fully customizable star ship!

Yea in my dream MMORPG I'll be able to have my dream ship. I'll be able to deck her out as I want, with the things I want, inside and out! Give her a special paint job, and then make sure her name is painted on her hull for all others to see. You'll not only be able to walk around outside your ship, but the inside as well. Yes...that is just as important as anything! Seriously. Being able to walk around inside your ship is of the utmost importance in my game. Why? Because it is a roleplaying game and your ship is just another tool(albiet a very special to your heart tool) to RP with!

Just like a player can increase their skills, your ship will be up-gradable and increase what it can do. Some ships will be space bound always do to size, however, some will be able to go planet side and actually land on them. Yes, atmospheric flight will be in my dream game. The game will use cut-scenes to show your ship going from space to the planets atmosphere, but once in the atmosphere you're back in control. You'll have to land her. There will be space ports for players to make use of. Some will be nothing more than huge parking lots, others will be more elaborate...but your ship will never just blink out of existence nor get stored in a data pad - ever.

Depending on the size of the ship you may have to hire a crew to man her, either NPC type henchmen or robots or real players or a combination of al lthree - it'll be up to the player how they hadle this aspect. Ships will come in all shapes and sizes and use various means of FTL (faster than light) travel and some will have to make use of worm gates because they don't have FLT capabilities.

Space flight is all twitch, and so is combat with ships. In my dream MMORPG you'll be able to board enemy vessals and take their cargo, kill the players on her if you like, and leave her a derelict - drifting in space. Sooner or later a scavanger ship will come along and chop her up for parts and material, maybe even a player ran scavenger ship. Remember, in space, nobody can hear you scream. Well..not exactly true. See if your ship is registered with the Galactic Confed (known as just Confed) or the United Planets of Earth (UPE) then there is a good chance if your ship is attacked and you can ID the attacker, send off a mayday and let the authorities know you are being attacked by space pirates or raiders and you may still die and loose your ship and cargo...but atleast you'll make it much harder for the pirates to get away with it. See in my dream MMORPG you can help generate game content simply buy playing the game. When you send the info in about your attacker...that info goes up on Galcom and UPE central databases. The authorities make that info available to all other players to warn them of where a pirate attack occurred adn who was responsible. This will allow the players that choose to play pirate hunters and bounty hunters to gain information on where the last known position of the pirate or raider was at...making it easier to hunt them down. Oh yes, once you decide to become a pirate or a raider, be aware...you'll be hunted.

Note: Players can choose to take out insurance on their ships and of course insurance on cargo.

Now...what will players do in this giant sandbox game to occupy their time. As I have mentioned the game will have quest/missons, but much of the content will be generated simply by how the players play the game. Those players that wish to be merchants will need goods to sell. So their will be awesome crafting in this game. If their are crafters then there will need to be players who gather the raw materials for the crafters to make all the various items that will be available in game. This opens up huge opportunities for playes to set up networks to buy, sell, and trade goods among one another. Not going to go into detail here on how this would work, not enough time, but I have actually worked this out on paper based on my experince with the game SWG pre-NGE.

Now as I mentioned there will be hard written quest and mission, but there will also be dynamic content added to the game from time to time. What is dynamic content? Dynamic content is content that can change as players interact with it and change its nature or manipulate it and some of it is randomly generated. For instance. A new alien species is introduced as players come in contact with them, they will eventually be intergrated into the game or they might be wiped out - due to a virus or maybe intergalactic war. Again this will depend on how that scenario plays out. Randomly generated content could be a player coming across a derelict space craft. Like there you are in your ship. You're in FTL between two star systems and suddenly you are yanked out of FTL space because you recieve a distress signal from a ship. You scan it for life forms and there is none showing. So you and your crew decide to board it to see what she has on her. You dock with her. Board her and find she is full of cargo and her crew had mysteriously abandoned ship via escape pods. No reason given why - they just did. Suddenly one of your crew members learns why. The ships main drive system is off line and leaking high levels of deadly gamma radiation in small burst. So do you risk a random burst of gamma radiation(which can kill you instantly without the proper shielding) and go for the cargo, or do you leave and report that derelict ship to the authorities so they can take care of it?

Another example I'll use is from one of my stories this game is based on. My main characters had needed to repair their ship after an encounter with UPE authorities. So they set down on a planet that was friendly toward them and they had contacts on. While there the main character went out and got totally wasted and ended up running up her gambling debt with one of the casino's that happened to be owned by one of the local crime bosses that also happens to be the local goveranor of this planet. Having a bit of a relationship with this local crime boss, the main character knows how dangerous he can be when he demands that she pay up her debts before leaving the planet. If she doesn't he'll put a bounty on her head in Confed controlled space and that is the last thing she wants or needs. She also doesn't want her companions to know once again that she has gotten herself into trouble. So she figures out a way to get out of trouble and make a little money on the side. She scans Gal Com for bounties that maybe available on the planet they are on. Sure enough there are a half a dozen, but one in particular caught her eye and not only would it pay of her debt - but make her a little extra on the side. No the main character is not a bounty hunter perse, she is more a merc/pirate/trader - but not really a bounty hunter but her skills are more than capable of hunting down and taking out a wanted felon. So while her companions are busily hunting down parts and repairing the ship, she goes after her mark. Even though she has a hangover (alcohol and drugs will have an effect on your character so be aware of this). She goes into town and begins her hunt asking the local merchants and or various people on the streets if they have seen a particular person. Eventually she is pointed to a local brothel and goes there. Once there she buys a drink and ask the bartender if the guy in question is still present, she slips him a couple of hundred "Quill" (quill is the name used for Confederation money) to get him to fess up. He nods and points to a door in the upper part of the brothel.

Then she waits. Soon her mark comes down, a local hooker by his side. They come down the stairs and he stands at the bar and the hooker still hangs on him. The mark mostions for the bartender to bring him a drink. Then my character makes her move. She takes out her PDP, punches up the info from Galcom and slides it down the bar to the mark. She has to make sure it is the right person. The mark glances down and see's the wanted poster on the PDP for him on the view screen and realizes someone has hunted him down. He feels safe though. He knows this bounty hunter will not dare make a move on him here on this world - atleast so he hopes. This is how it plays out.

Carvel doesn't look up as he glances at the wanted poster on the PDP. "So...and what is your point? Do you know who I am?" He says with his heavy english accent.

"Yep."
"Then you know you can't touch me bitch."
"Is that so?"
"Yea...because if you do you'll never leave this rock again."
"I beg to differ."

Others in the bar of the brothel move away from the two knowing that this can only end in one way. Tash takes another drink of her scotch, her head still pounding from the neverending hangover from the night before. Drinking more she knows will deaden the pain and steady her nerves - as it always does. She also knows Carvel is dangerous, he's all ready proven how deadly he is since he is wanted for murder in half a dozen star systems. Then again, Tash is wanted in every system in UPE space, so they should be about even.

"Aey...I know who you are. There is a bounty out on your pretty little ass in UPE space. I could retire on that kind of money." Carvel taps a few keys on Tash's PDP and then slides it back down the bar to her.  A wanted poster appears. "Wanted: Dead or Alive - Tasharra De'Nar - 100 million credits. A list of crimes from murder to terrorism shows up on the poster. Tash notices the bartender looking at the PDP screen. She hits the off button while looking at him, her glance alone lets him know that he'd be stupid to even move at this moment.

The hooker that once stood next to Carvel slips away toward the back of the bar. Carvel takes a sip of his drink and sets it back down on the bar. "We going to do this Tash..." before he finishes his sentence, Tash steps back from the bar spins and kneels as she releases a well aimed kyber blade toward Carvel. Carvel turns, draws his sidearm from it's holster on his hip and lets a round fly just as Tash's blade catches him mid-chest. The hooker, behind the bar now, let out a scream that pierces the air like a sharp knife. Tash falls back to the floor as the round from Carvel's pistol rips through her shoulder. Carvel looks down at the blade that is sticking out of his chest up to its hilt. He then looks at Tash as she slowly gets on her feet, her left hand applying pressure to the wound he had given her. She winces as blood spills out between her fingers and looks at Carvel through painfilled eyes. Carvel stumbles back and steadies himself with his free hand with the bar. His pistol falls to the floor as he looses his grip on it. "You killed me...you bitch."

"I know." She answers.

Carvel's legs give out and he falls to the floor with a defeaning thud. Tash looks around at those present still applying pressure to her wound. She looks at the bartender. Call the local authorities..and get their asses out here - now! The bartender nods quickly and moves toward the com booth. Tash walks toward Carvel's body and kneels beside it. She takes her bloody left hand and removes a small device from her belt and takes a sample of Carvels blood. She pushes a button and gets a DNA match. She drops to the floor and sits against Carvel's body. Those present slowly make their way out of the brothel through the swinging portal doors and disappear into the various crowds.

Skip to what happens next.

Tash shows the local authority the bounty and the matching DNA. An officer kneels and takes his own sample. He nods to his partner. One of the officers slips a memory crystal card into his PDP and punches a couple of keys and then removes it handing it to Tash. Tash will need to take the card to the local authorities main office to collect the bounty to prove that she has elemented a known felon. She first goes to a local med center and gets patched up. Then she collects her 50,000 quill and goes to see Raffe, the local crime boss she owes money to.

A couple of hours later Tash walks into Raffe's office. One of Raffe's goons stops her as she enters. Raffe looks up from his desk. "So...you have my money Tash?" Tash nods to Raffe. Raffe notices the bandaged shoulder. "Looks pretty nasty and painful sweetheart...the guy must have been good to have even touched you."

"He was fast...just not that good of aim."

Raffe motions to the goon at the door to let her approach. Tash walks forward and stops in front of Raffe's desk tossing a small cloth bag onto it. "30 g's, that is everything I owe you." She looked at him with disdain, she really had no clue why she even delt with Raffe the way she did, she actually hated him, but she also knew that when times are lean Raffe could get her jobs nobody else could. Raffe picked up the bag and leaned back in his chair and poured the chips out into his hand. "Very good sweetheart. It was a pleasure doing business with you - as always." He smiled up at her as he placed the chips back into the small pouch.

Suddenly one of Raffe's girls burst into the office and quickly steps over to him, leaning in close to his head she whispers something into his ear. Tash steps back one step from the desk as Raffef's eyes lock onto her's. He stands and pushes the girl next to him to the floor and Rafffe's goon moves toward Tash. Tash draws her pistol and points it at Raffe's forehead. "Don't Raffe...don't do it, tell your goon to stand down or I'll drop you they way I dropped your naphew."

Raffe motioned for the goon to stop. Looking down the barrel of Tash's pistol into her eyes. "You fucking little bitch...that was my naphew." Tash just shrugged her shoulders and winced slightly while doing it. "Money is money Raffe. What the hell do you care if your sadistic little naphew is dead?"

"You're dead Tash...!"

"Now, now Raffe...let's not get our panties in a wad. You know that isn't a good ideal. I'm one of your best customers and I make you plenty of money, all your naphew ever did was bring heat down on you. The way I see it, I helped the both of us out on this one. I cleaned up a mess you yourself have always wanted to clean up and I just took out a business competitor that didn't make you a third of what I have made for you. In the end we both win."

Raffe puts his hands up and smiles at her with his wry crooked smile. "You know...you have a point. My brothers son has been more than I can handle and a serious pain in my side." He slowly sits back down in his chair and motions his goon to move back away from Tash. The girl on the floor picks herself up and moves to Raffes side and he slips his left arm around her slim waste. "You know Tash I under estimated your convaluted enginuity...pure genius." He laughs. As he laughs the goon at the door and girl at his side laughs and Tash places her pistol back into the holster at her side. "We'll be in town a couple of more days Raffe...if you have any jobs you need done locally, just send us word." Raffe smiles at Tash. "I might have something. I'll get back with you and Trin on that."

Tash smiles, turns looks at the goon with a steady glare, her hand still resting on the pistol at her side as she walks to the door. Raffe watches her leave admiring Tash's female form. As she leaves Raffe calls out to her. "Someday Tash, I'll own you...you'll slip up one of these days sweetheart and you'll be mine."

"Dream on Raffe...dream on." She closes the door behind her.

Now of course, this is written in book form and not exactly how something might take place in game, but I feel something like this could be programmed into an MMORPG if the right game mechanics are created for it to play out in such a manner. In my dream MMORPG, that is how something might go down in game. There are many ways in which Tash could have gotten out of trouble with Raffe, she just chose a different way to do it. In other words - quest or missions may have multiple ways to accomplish them. All Raffe wanted was his money and he didn't care how Tash got it. So Tash used her head and found a way to elimanate a competitor and make money and still pay Raffe what she owed him - completing the mission. Frakking cool huh?!

Just so you know what you just read is not the original script from my story, it is a hacked down version of it. The original is a lot longer and part of a group of short stories. What you just experinced was player made content. Tash's actions caused another action and this in turn caused another and another. This is just one small example of game play in my dream MMORPG.

Next: Part 4 of My Dream MMORPG  "The best is yet to come!"