General Discussion

Here on the mmorpg.com forums we tend to bicker about how much game X is terri-bad and why game Y is awesome-sauce. But I wanted us all to take a moment and truly appreciate some of the innovative ideas that have gone into the games, even the ones we hate... for instance:

Innovative Zone: Kedge Keep in EQ - A completely underwater dungeon. Remember to keep up your water-breathing or you die... no ifs ands or buts about it.

Innovative Scripted Encounter: Undead House in DDO (don't know quest name) - One of the rooms the floor dropped out on your entire party and literally dropped you right into a huge fight.

Innovative Gameplay Element: Combo system in AoC - Not perfect, but a step in the right direction for "real" fighting style games. Was certainly fun while it lasted.

Innovative Gameplay Element: Traps in DDO - Never has an MMO taken the trap to such a level. Having a keen rogue in your party could be the difference between life and death!

Innovative Raid Encounter: Nefarian from WoW - Every class would get called upon one at a time and had to react in a way that was either the epitome of their class (mages AoEing) or the opposite of their class (Breaking Hunter bows if they were equipped)

...you get the idea.

Innovative Gameplay Element #1 - the random item stat generator of Asheron's Call 1. Great fun and mystery to keep you interested during the grind. And strangely, never picked up on by another mmorpg since.

Innovative Gameplay Element #2 - the crafting and resource system of Pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies. But too much thought and reading required here for todays brain dead mmorpg buyer I suppose.

Originally posted by Meltdown

Here on the mmorpg.com forums we tend to bicker about how much game X is terri-bad and why game Y is awesome-sauce. But I wanted us all to take a moment and truly appreciate some of the innovative ideas that have gone into the games, even the ones we hate... for instance:

Innovative Zone: Kedge Keep in EQ - A completely underwater dungeon. Remember to keep up your water-breathing or you die... no ifs ands or buts about it.

Dark Age of Camelot had entire zones underwater. I'm not sure if it was before or after EQ though.

Innovative Scripted Encounter: Undead House in DDO (don't know quest name) - One of the rooms the floor dropped out on your entire party and literally dropped you right into a huge fight.

Innovative Gameplay Element: Combo system in AoC - Not perfect, but a step in the right direction for "real" fighting style games. Was certainly fun while it lasted.

No... no, does not deserve this. It wasn't the first game with directional any time combat, and it did NOT do it well. My vote for this would go to.... Ultima Online, just about anything in that game. Especially placing items on the ground and letting other people interact with them. If you see it, you can take it and mess with it.

Innovative Gameplay Element: Traps in DDO - Never has an MMO taken the trap to such a level. Having a keen rogue in your party could be the difference between life and death!

Innovative Raid Encounter: Nefarian from WoW - Every class would get called upon one at a time and had to react in a way that was either the epitome of their class (mages AoEing) or the opposite of their class (Breaking Hunter bows if they were equipped)

Innovative raid? I dunno, I think either EQ or DAoC should get the credit for the best raids. (Caer Sidi and the Trials of Atlantis raids for DAoC... and I only assume EQ had some good ones.

...you get the idea.

Innovative travel - CoX

Sorry that's all I got.

Innovative PvP Combat - WoW:
...one of the very very few MMOs out there that requires you to move around, to avoid LoS (line of sight) for the most part, enhancing strategy and force mind games on your opponent. PvP in WoW shines, because it's not like most MMOs in its genre where PvP involves standing in front of your opponent, waiting for cooldowns - erhem, click-click I win...pressed the button faster than you. PvP combat in WoW is sooooo good, it makes grown men cry when they get pwned by a 12-year-old with pimped out gear (twink) running around them, cc'ing their butts to kingdom come. Yes, proof is in the hundreds of complaint topics found all around MMORPG.com in reference to youngsters who know their game pwning thirty-year-old noobs. Priceless.

 [Battlegrounds, Battleground Quests, Arena, Arena Teams, Arena Team Rating, Personal Rating, Different Levels of PvP Gear, PvP Gear For Different Levels, Camping Till Spirit Rez (Ganking Epitome)]

Proudly said from a retired WoW player and owner of the "/igotpwned, /wowsux, /gamequit" trademark.

player housing - Ultima online; place houses out in the world itself

travel powers - city of heroes made nice use of vertical movement

overlapping buffs - city of heroes had overlapping buffs that turned little squishies into supermen

manufacturing - crafting in EVE is fairly painless. Acquire the blueprint then run off some items at a factory

realtime dodging - asheron's call 1

 costumes - city of heroes; was fun and fairly painless designing your character. Was nice loot was de-emphasized (that;s probably changed now with Inventions though)

max level character (skill before time) - Guild wars allowed pvpers to create a max level avatar that was pure awesomeness

buy orders - EVE Online; these rock. If you want an item, merely put up a bid for it preemptively

persistent pvp  - EVE; its not fun using something you worked hard for like a POS but at least via the Soverenty pvp system you can see it coming.

bottlenecks - EVE; It's a masterpiece how assaulting Alliances can lockdown their enemies and box them into their own space cutting off supplies and escape. Too bad I've been on receiving end of that more then the aggressor

Player Housing/Buildings -  Istaria (Horizons)

Open World - Istaria (Horizons)  (innovative albeit poorly implemented)

Crafting - Istaria (Horizons)

Travel powers - City of Heroes/Villains

Grouping effectively with players of different levels - City of Heroes/Villains

Player toon customisation -  City of Heroes/Villains

Dynamically create a duplicate of  zone when to manage overcrowding and reduce the number of servers - Everquest 2

Tactical approach to raid, group and solo battles - Everquest 1

Player market - large market with good search functions - Everquest 1

Looking for group interface - Everquest 1

Family friendly world - Everquest 1 (this may no longer be true)

Reasonable graphics that run on average PC's - WoW

Innovative Class Design - Dark Age of Camelot - Despite being an early game, DAOC still has some of the coolest class designs out there, from the Friar (staff-wielding, cloth wearing, melee healer) to the Animist (caster class whose power comes from dropping mushroom like immobile pets who can cast root and nukes on those passing by) and many more.

Innovative Class Design - Vanguard - Vanguard has a lot of interesting classes, but the Bard class deserves a special honor as the first class I've seen where you can build your own buffs and abilities by combining the parts of songs you learn as you level.

Innovative System - Deities in Everquest 2 - EQ2 really took a step forward when they allowed characters to choose which deity they worshipped and have it actually matter in the game - choose a deity, do quests to go farther along their path, and you get items as well as a stat-boosting pet, but most importantly you get an altar for your house where you can sacrifice items to get various blessings and miracles - powerful abilities that can often save you in a tough fight.

Innovative System - Travel in Vanguard - Vanguard was one of the first games to bring out flying mounts, and is still to my knowledge the only game with an active sailing system where you can build a ship and sail it anywhere you want in the world. City of Heroes definitely revolutionized travel in MMOs but Vanguard gets the nod for the fantasy genre.

Innovative System - Spell Upgrades in Everquest 2 - Instead of just having spells and combat abilities be static that you get once and forget, EQ2 gives you the basic version for free and it's up to you to try to upgrade it as best you can for more damage, more healing, and a better spell all around. I especially like that they tie this into the crafting system - allowing you to get upgrades from player crafters, as well as dropped from monsters, all the way up to the sought after Master I spell.

Multi-classing - Istaria (Horizons) - your toon can become proficient in the skills of several classes