Developers Corner

AltiVerse, although is comming along quite nicely, but before we go any further, we have one question that needs answering...What do you, as a community of MMO Gamers, consider most important in a good MMO?

Please take the time to answer it, every answer will help us determine how were going to move forward in our project.

Sincerely,

Jak Zodiac

well thats a bit of a toughie but personally for me 4 things come up

1)it has to be bug free game breaking bugs are the top of the hate pile
and it has to finished when released

2)IMO it must not under any circumstances be lvl based grind crap

3) fun is more important then realism

4)your players have to have easy access to each other

there are many more that go into a good MMO and there are far too many to put in and i had trouble limiting myself to those 4

Originally posted by caemsg

well thats a bit of a toughie but personally for me 4 things come up

1)it has to be bug free game breaking bugs are the top of the hate pile
and it has to finished when released

2)IMO it must not under any circumstances be lvl based grind crap

3) fun is more important then realism

4)your players have to have easy access to each other

there are many more that go into a good MMO and there are far too many to put in and i had trouble limiting myself to those 4

Well for one, number one (1), in my opinion, should be a given - no if, ands or buts about it.

I have to agree with number two (2). While it's fun the first couple times around, I think it's become more of a chore than anything else.

Sort of mixed on number three (3). I can't say for sure that if a game had great gameplay but horrible graphics I would play it. The game should look decent (and I hate to bring this up, but graphics like WoW isn't bad) but shouldn't be overly done to the point of steep system requirements.

And number four (4) should be a given in an MMO - unless you're speaking of summoning stones, waypoints or teleports to travel to another player in-game.

I'd like to add that if this MMOG is an MMORPG, character customization is a must. And I mean a wide variety. One of the main reasons people play MMORPGs is because they can identify with the character. I absolutely hate it when I look like everyone else. And not just in terms of physical features, but also gear equipment as well. City of Heroes/Villains did a fairly decent job of this in my opinion.

Moving on - crafting. This definitely needs to have it's rightful place in an MMO. WoW does a horrible job with this. The professions are almost useless with few exceptions. Crafting gear should be one of the main ways to obtain some of the best pieces of gear. And Final Fantasy XI does an excellent job with this in my opinion. Their legendary items are a HUGE grind - litterally. But then again, it's legendary - not everyone is supposed to have it. But again, everyone has the option to obtain it - not just the lucky ones.

The game interface needs to be user friendly - extremely user friendly. When I first played EVE Online, I had absolutely no clue what was what without that tutorial. And even after that, I didn't use half the other stuff because I didn't know what they were for. It's OK to have a lot of stuff, but organize it and make it easy to use and understand. God knows people don't want to be sitting down reading for the first 30 minutes of the game. A lot of games have this decently done, but I think WoW does an excellent job of this.

Now, I want to say Player-Housing but there's all kinds of debates and issues. Personally, I would love the option but I feel it should just be confined to Guild housing. Something to the extent of what Age of Conan, City of Heroes/Villains and even WAR.

And I think I'm posting too much when I don't even know what kind of MMO you're making.

1. Enjoyable gaming experience

2. As few bugs or errors as possible on release. It can have bugs but we hate it when they are game breaking bugs. Example: Freezing, crashing, black screens, etc.

3. Balance the leveling process between killing monsters and quests, not too many of either to make it repetitive or boring but not to few either. There should be a balance. No player likes to grind every level.

4. Be original and creative in quests, dont just make them into 2 categories: Kill X of Y monsters, Find x of y items.

5. Lots of different types of armors or weapons. In looks and types.

6. No clases based on sex. Example: Last Chaos, Diablo 1/2. Let us choose sex and class.

7. Make "end game content" type of dungeon or activitist for every class. Many dungeons for a range of say 10-20 lvls, 20-30 lvls, etc. Dont make it a boring experience when starting and only make it interesting for end game stuff.

8. Try to make the game world feel real and alive and cities too. Sort of like The Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

9. Try not to make the game be based around how high level you are or how elite your items are, make a balance between that and skills, sort of like Guild Wars.

1. No developer created quests, lore, cities, dungeons, PvP arenas, etc.  The devs should create the world.  The players interact with that world and each other in competitive or cooperative ways to create all that happens.
    
2. A well balanced, natural economy built into the world, on top of which players have the tools to build their own infrastructure and economy that can fail or succeed at various times depending on the situation they create.
    
3. No resources being spawned and dropped out of thin air.  If it is a natural component of the mob OR they picked it up or harvested it from the game world in real-time, then fine.
    
4. No classes or levels, just an increase in a vast number of skills that apply to a vast number of situations. (see #1)  Also no showing of arbitrary numerical stats.
    
5. Intuitive controls that let players build and manage resources from the individual scale to the world empire scale.
    
6. Large varied, dynamic (deformable, climate, weather, etc), seamless (no instances) game world.
    
7. No willy-nilly teleportation that makes the game world map distances meaningless.
    
8. Less clutter and immersion-breaking user interfaces displays.
    
9. Much more customization of character at the start, with many things that can be changed regularly.
    
10. Multiple world types instead of just copies of the same map on a different server.  Some worlds have lots of magic and monsters of various types.  Other worlds have less or more or different types, different resources or varying amounts as well.

 I posted this elsewhere, but since you asked specifically I brought it here for easy reference.

I find a open environment is very fun, where I dont have to go to certain places, I can really explore where I want when I want, and the Level based system is nice, but too high of max levels (Over a 100)  just makes it feel like a grind. And a open world pvp system, always a plus in my book.

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Originally posted by Digibane
AltiVerse, although is comming along quite nicely, but before we go any further, we have one question that needs answering...What do you, as a community of MMO Gamers, consider most important in a good MMO?
Please take the time to answer it, every answer will help us determine how were going to move forward in our project.
Sincerely,
Jak Zodiac

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Flexibility is key, and having more options is almost always a good thing. Never keep your players from playing with each other if that's what they want to do, and never force them to if they don't. Content should be interchangeable and provide progress only in its specific field (or have an obvious reason why it would do otherwise).

Of course player freedoms is the single most important feature in any mmo, but there are a  few specifics that are a must in my book I want a game to play with my friends.. and right now that is very hard if not impossible to find.

1. I must be able to play it with my real life friends and everyone enjoy the game.

    This includes many different activities, for differnt types of players and moods so that we can all have enjoyable activities in the game.  These must have activites are:

It cannot be a tech or mech game.. many of my friends refuse to play anything sci fi.

It has to be affordable so that all my friends can afford to play it, just because I can does not mean they all can.

 A well thought out pvp system with many different zones. Noncomabt zones, pvp anything goes winner takes all  zones, duel zones, gambling zones, pvp same lvl zones, multicombat zones where you can fight hundreds of players all at oncein massive wars, pvp  training zones,  pvp fortress war zones.. ect.

Non combat skills for my friends that are not good at pvp, so there is always something to do in the game if you do not feel like fighting at that time.  If they want to play the game and never fight another player they do not have to and can enjoy the game anyways.

Quests for my friends that actually enjoy doing them.. I personally think they are a chore but for some of my friends they are a must have.

 All of the actvities in the game are made to be fun and profitable for the different types of players instead of repetitous and boring.

No one of the activites are required for you to do well in the game, they are choices so no matter which activity you enjoy you can do that and do well in the game, you can choose to do them all or choose only the ones you enjoy and still have fun in the game.

I can help my friends by giving them items in game  and doing activities with them. No item binding or untradebale items with the exception of player reward items for great accomplishments earned by players in game. I can give my friends christmas presents , birthday presents, and randomly give items to new players if I wish.

2.  Every item in game can be player made and is tradeable with the exception of player reward items that are earned by those players.   Items can still be dropped by monsters and players but they can also be made so that there is not only one source or activity in order to get ahead in the game.

3. A good merchant system so that I do not have to stand there repeating what I am selling in chat. I want to sell it fast and be done with it so I can get back to what I consider fun.

4.No kiddie graphics, they make my eyes bleed. I do not want cute toons.

5. Highly customizable characters, human race preffered but can wear and make in game many different types of clothing, armo,r costumes, weapons, and items.

If you want to look like a bear you can make a bear suit, if you want to look like an orc you make an orc suit, if you want to look like a devil you make a devil outfit if youw ant to look like an angel make an angel outfit. No other classes needed, just make the items in the game to customize armors and clothing and all items in game can be used by all players not just a select class. your appearance has nothing to do with abilities and you can have the ability to mage in range armor melee in a santa suit . If the items are made slotted or upgradeable their bonuses could be determined by what you do to them not what they are. so you could give your santa suit +40  melee defense if you wanted by adding the right components to it.

You can have the ability to change hair color, eye color, gender, and body style in the game after initial creation if you choose by going to a makeover shop and making changes.

6. Good player rewards for their efforts. Show the players they are appreciated by giving them something useful. For example like special teleports to take them places faster, special  device that allows you to spy on other  areas while in another town. there are so many useful things that could be given to players for their efforts in game that  can be thought of, so I hope they could put a little effort into it instead of letting players having nothing to work for other than their own satisfaction. That is always a disappointment.

7. Fast gamespeed, no waiting for things to happen because something is always happening. regardless of the activities waiting in a game or padding it with useless space only hurts a game not improves it. If I have 15 min to play I want to be able to get something done rather than sit there waiting on something.  useless space between towns, waiting on crops to grow ect.. = boring I want to be doing something not just walking or standing there looking at a plant to grow, I play for fun not to wait. I would rather