General Discussion

Theres a popular topic I've seen before here which was something along the lines of- what would your perfect mmo be using which aspects of different mmos.

Okay, now an alternative to this is what would your perfect mmo using aspects of Non-mmos, ie single player games(rpgs?) or maybe multiplayer games?

So, crafting, combat, quests, storyline, world for instance, from which games?
Heres a few of my ideas:

Combat, I quite liked from Vagrant Story on the PS- that had some depth so that is one maybe I'd like to see in a mmo. Or combat like Ninja Gaiden with its martial arts- though this maybe quite limited to single player.

Setting: A Tomb Raider kind of environment with its dungeons is quite nice.

Movement/Moves: Again Tomb Raider where you're jumping up ramps, crawling up and down vines and stuff like that.

Anyone else's ideas? Maybe some would be inspired by Oblivion or Morrowind on some aspects?

I've been a console gamer a great deal longer then I've been a PC gamer, so I might be able to come up with a thing or two here...

First off, gameplay would be lightning fast and combo-driven, playing more like a game like Devil May Cry (with a great deal of choices in weapons and styles of combat).  Lots of rolling around and counterattacking in battle would result, and people would surely enjoy it.  It may be needed to do an instanced system similar to that of City of Heroes to compensate for the lag that may result from large groups of characters doing crazy combos, but it could still be very enjoyable in practice.

The character and setting style would be stylized, done with a dreamy, fantastical tone that could easily be compared to that of Shadows of the Colossus.  It would not be photo-realistic, it wouldn't even try to be, and it would be much better off for it.  Other influences for the settings would include Bioshock and the Legend of Zelda games, resulting in a blend of fantasy and turn of the 19th century technology.  Steampunk, more or less.

That's not to say that there'll be simply giant monsters and nothing else.  On the contrary, enemies would be as fantastical as the settings, ranging from strange fanged beasts to self-aware rustbuckets, and even blends of the two.  Again, Bioshock and the Legend of Zelda would be major influences here.

There will be a mechanic that would allow a team to take control of an airship for travel, as well as for Guild Vs. Guild combat.  The flying pirate ship combat, including ship-boarding and the ability for a single player to personally man specific cannons, would be heavily inspired by that of Skies of Arcadia, but would played in real time.  There would also be a smaller, single-player version of this that would be played via personal aircraft such as gyrocopters and wingcycles.  Taking on one of the Guild ships with one of these single player crafts, however, is not a good idea.

Lastly, as I do like the exploration aspect that a few people have brought up, there would be rewards for simply exploring the world.  This would be done somewhat like the system in Skies of Arcadia.  By finding particular landmarks, ranging from entire islands to lost treasures inside of hidden tombs, you would get a reward.  In fact, finding these landmarks would result in gaining Explorer medals, which could actually be warn on your character if you'd like.

Speaking of which, your characters would be incredibly customizable from day one.  You would be able to have access to nearly all of the options for character creation at the outset, and would likely start the game with a unique and interesting character, at least as far as appearances go.  (And yes, I know this is also based on City of Heroes, but I feel that it's important to have.)

...and that's about all I can come up with offhand.

hmm interesting.

Spyro the dragon with some crash banticoot... the first one.

such good use of such bare bone mechanics.   It takes a true game designer to evolve complexity from simplicity.

for the perfect example of complexity from simplicity look at Go, and Mancala(with the right rules).

I'd really like to hear from some other MMORPGers on my previous post.  It doesn't seem like that bad of an idea, does it?

I thought this would be a really interesting thread, but seems maybe its already done some place, or people really aren't interested in it. Interesting and imaginative replies from those that did reply though =)