Is it the satisfaction of reaching that level cap?

Is it that little 'AWWWW YEAAA'  feeling you get with each passing level?

Is it the shiny attraction of loot that drops from your slain enemies?

Or perhaps is it the social aspect?   Just hanging out with your friends and guildmates?

I suppose my question might be a little twofold.   What do you love best as you're playing,  and also, what do you automatically look for whenever a new one is announced?

Personally, I'm a loot whore.  If it drops, its going into my inventory,  no matter what its worth.  Unless its the most worthless little piece of scrap that isn't worth a thing, I enjoy the feeling of a nice sack full of the spoils from my victory.

Secondly, I need an auction house.  Or at least some sort of rudimentary trading feature or chat channel where I can push and sell my wares.   Yes, I am 'that' guy. 

If a game has neither of these,  then.. meh.  No thanks.

How about you guys?

I jumped on MMO bandwagon because of social aspect and the feeling that character I create actually could affect another real life player. To experience the game world that is not static due to other players action, especially players created events like random concert that happen from time to time in LOTRO or when there was a cross country marathon from west of The Shire to Bree, or simply a group of player stack hundreds of cars in the middle of the street and light them on fire to let them all explodes at the same time. It's the randomness from other real life players that single-player game can not deliver.

I have fun when I start on MMO's games at first, but after a while I start to feel the world in the game is getting smaller than the first time I exploring, the static contents start to show. The game doesn't allow players to really make some random mark on the game world any more. What I'm looking forward to is to have players gain control of the world events again. Even the most silliest things they will do, it still make the game world interesting for me to login everyday to see what's new and have a laugh after a long, tired day.

It's the thing that I'm not the only person in a game mostly and because they last longer then a single player game.

For me it was the pvp, social aspect, and having an effect on a persistant world..

Which we have been getting less and less of these days..

That's simple, other peoples. When I play single player games, I'm playing with a piece of hardware. It feels artificial. You play it over and over again and is always the same. While in a mmo every day is different. You don't know what to expect because your companions and your enemies are not npc but real peoples. So the difficulty and challenges are not predictable and most importantly your not interacting with a piece of hardware that is sitting in your room.

I like doing stuff with random people. 

Run through a low level zone and see a newb pounding on a bee? I'll go and help him out for the rest of the day, because I enjoy it.

The next day I'll plan a hard encounter and do it with 5 other people with similar interests.

The day after I'll play with my crafts a bit, looking up the best places to buy ingredients and sell them on the auction or leave my bazaar open for the night.

Then I might level up a bit, get a group together and go somewhere to have a good time but not overdo it, or it starts to feel like a grind. 

On the next day I'll hop in to some optional team based PvP just for fun.. and in the best case I might get a little reward for winning.

These are all things you can't do in a single player game. And the experience lasts for a long time. That's what I like.

Social aspect is the main one.

I also enjoy persistent worlds: ones I can explore in and that feel like a well-fleshed out virtual world. The bigger and less instanced a world is, the better, though instances can be done well (GW did have some really cool areas despite being an instanced game).

Storyline is important but I'm finding myself less and less inclined towards the quest-based games. I prefer games that have on-going stories that the players are truly part of, like EvE for example. There are no real quests in the game, just some story arc missions, but the game has a huge amount of lore partly because CCP supports players writing the lore in the game's universe and partly thanks to the live events.

Worlds players can change are good too but it can be a double edged sword if it creates too much lag for users.

I actually don't care about loot, or leveling, I like two things mostly,

Character customization, this includes visual and statistical.  So I need a good character customization system.  I also need a good way to customize the way my character plays, pick abilities and stats.

Going on an epic adventure, for this I need a few things.  A good combat system, since I fight most the time combat better be goood or the game is a bust.  Well made content, whether PvE or PvP, fine tuned content with attention to detail is what I require.  And an immersive world, by immersive I mean the world has a lived in quality and the people behave in a believable manner.

I enjoy playing games with other people.  I like grouping.  To me playing a MMO without other people is like taking a shower with a raincoat on.

Sadly the grouping element in todays games is lacking.

People like playing MMOs as a single player game.

I have no real life friends that play MMOs.  Being 64 years old most of my "friends" think I have returned to my childhood since I play computer games. (OLD FARTS)

Originally posted by kb4blu

I enjoy playing games with other people.  I like grouping.  To me playing a MMO without other people is like taking a shower with a raincoat on.

Sadly the grouping element in todays games is lacking.

People like playing MMOs as a single player game.

I have no real life friends that play MMOs.  Being 64 years old most of my "friends" think I have returned to my childhood since I play computer games. (OLD FARTS)

 I kinda dont think peeps like playing MMOs as a single player game. Its more like where attaining char development, ie: levels/items is concerned, they want to be able to achieve objectives independently of other players, YET still have events that include group play. The problem with this is, in today's context, in MMOs that encourage grouping, they do this in a way which results in needing a team of lets say 10 players to be able to lets say attain an item they want, and this makes it tiring in the long run to achieve itemization for example. Again, its an opinion, some like it this way, some do not. I myself have no solution to make the 2 sides cohesive, a game that can offer an answer to both sides of the story will do well for sure.

I do it for the social aspect, everything else branches off that.

I PvE with friends and guildies to help them level or get items

I PvP with friends and guildies because it's fun and more organized

I craft simply to be able to equip my friends and guildies, in my 12 years of MMO I've never crafted for monetary gain but for friends.

When there's absolutely nothing to do (different times, not enough ppl to do X things), I just sit there in front of the PC and chat with everyone.

If I want to solo I play a single player game.

Originally posted by Pedrob

I do it for the social aspect, everything else branches off that.

I PvE with friends and guildies to help them level or get items

I PvP with friends and guildies because it's fun and more organized

I craft simply to be able to equip my friends and guildies, in my 12 years of MMO I've never crafted for monetary gain but for friends.

When there's absolutely nothing to do (different times, not enough ppl to do X things), I just sit there in front of the PC and chat with everyone.

If I want to solo I play a single player game.

I used to play them for the people and the commuinty.  I could enter a game and for the most part knew that at least 80% of the people I'd encounter were relatively decent and I could get along with them.  Now that doesn't happen and the ratio is the other way around.  I have to slog through 80% of undesirable people just to find the few that share the same mentality as I do and as time goes on it's less and less worth it for me.

That along with the multitude of things I could do in the older games.  I remember quality crafting, quality PVP, and exactly the kind of PVE I enjoyed.  But since then that game has changed from what it used to be to something barely resembling it's former self and no other games seem to offer it at the same level, so I sit here and wait while testing out other things to do as a replacement hobby.

I enjoy banding together with other people for a common cause other than loot.

The setting gets me there, The gameplay keeps me playing initially and good people to fight against and with keep me over the long haul.

Originally it was the fact that I could explore and quest in a big game world that others were actually exploring and questing in as well.  Even if I wasn't very social when I first started MMOs and couple years back, it was just the idea of having other players in the game world with me.

Eventually I began RPing and I started looking more at the social aspect of the game...Being in an RP guild and RPing with guildies and complete strangers.

Now...I kinda have a number of things that draw me to MMOs.  I came to really enjoy PVP in general, sieges, minigames, etc.  But I really find myself enjoying, and looking for, openworld PvP in mmos.  I also enjoy a good raid.  That is BIG with me.  I need nice, long, and difficult dungeons...that give nice loot!

But still...most of all I look for a world that has potential for good RP...mainly a world I already know, thats why I love LotRO, AoC, and am really looking forward to Warhammer 40k. 

So...I guess I'd have to say I'm drawn to social aspects of MMOs.   Whether it be raiding with guildies, PvP with friends, or just some good RP.

For me, it was having an ever-growing, ever-changing world where I cannot consume the content in a weekend, with other people to talk to and interact with.  I want to be able to take my own path and not be dragged around by the nose as most single-player games do, I want the freedom to go where I want, do what I want and advance at the speed that I want, without anyone else telling me otherwise.

Too bad that so rarely happens these days.

Massive Mulitplayer Online Roleplaying Game

    The roleplay part, but since I've never seen a decent roleplay in an MMO I pretty much don't play them anymore...people talking IC and saying "Lol, this party sux, ok bye" was pretty subpar roleplaying...and that was them trying....so I play mostly single-player games now.....atleast the scripted npc sounds/is written like someone of adequate intelligence. I just come here to troll and look for prospective MMOs I might enjoy.....

Originally posted by Dirkzen

Is it the satisfaction of reaching that level cap?

Is it that little 'AWWWW YEAAA'  feeling you get with each passing level?

Is it the shiny attraction of loot that drops from your slain enemies?

 

 

How about you guys?

If its any of those, you MIGHT be better served in a single player RPG. Granted the last 5 years of "MMO" have mostly been single player RPGs, so there oyu have it.  

Its the massive changing virtual dynamic world, with people to depend on and socialize with.

Not arcade games like WoW with monthly fees tacked on. 

Originally posted by Illius

I used to play them for the people and the commuinty.  I could enter a game and for the most part knew that at least 80% of the people I'd encounter were relatively decent and I could get along with them.  Now that doesn't happen and the ratio is the other way around.  I have to slog through 80% of undesirable people just to find the few that share the same mentality as I do and as time goes on it's less and less worth it for me.

That along with the multitude of things I could do in the older games.  I remember quality crafting, quality PVP, and exactly the kind of PVE I enjoyed.  But since then that game has changed from what it used to be to something barely resembling it's former self and no other games seem to offer it at the same level, so I sit here and wait while testing out other things to do as a replacement hobby.

I've seen a few people mention this, but thankfully, I haven't come across this yet.  Maybe I'm just lucky, but in the past few games I've played, I've been able to find decent guilds and people to group up with. It seems to depend on luck and what phase of an MMO one joins in. I find the best time to join is a little bit after an expansion pack has been released: just after a lot of the bugs have been smoothed out and the server is laggy and just before people start disappearing off to other games because the shine of the expac has worn off. I've come across some very nice players and have been able to join good guilds by doing that.

A positive anecdote: I tried Tortage levels of AoC recently. I was worried about the community after having red bad stuff on forums like mmorpg's and was very pleasantly surprised about how nice and helpful it was. There was not one rude person in the trial chat and people answered any questions anyone had without being condescending towards the person asking.

The only thing that has really changed in my eyes is the lack of 'realm pride' sorts of aspects I felt when I first started DAoC up in late 2002. Those were amazing times! Maybe it exists in a game I haven't tried yet, but so far I've not come across those tight player interactions.

For your second paragraph, let's hope that some new titles will reinvigorate the genre and that some of the new releases will have elements that are enjoyable.