Character affinity.

I create a character, I level it, I define it. If the character feels like a shingle the same as all the other shingles in the roof, I won't stay.

Originally posted by Arakazi
Foolish optimism and community. 

I had to lol at the first part.  Been there and done that with a couple of games that made their way into the rotation and should have been kicked out long before they were.

What kept me playing Final Fantasy XI for over 7 years (prior to Abyssea), and Lineage 2 for over 4 years was basically the same in both, despite them being very different games.

1. Long progression curve with there always being something else to do, a new goal to work toward - or several goals - and achieving them was never trivial or "fast". Your focus was kept on the short-term goals, rather than worrying exclusively about "getting to end-game" or "reaching level cap". There was no idea of "the end game is all that matters", because there was so much along the way that mattered as much, if not more.

2. Community with accountability. I mean the entire server community, not just my circle of friends or clan/linkshell. Your reputation mattered. Your actions had consequences - whether good or bad. You would get to know of people by reputation alone, long before  you ever got to meet them "in person".  A good personality and attitude could get you far in FFXI, even if you weren't the best player. Conversely, being a jerk would inevitably catch up with you. There was no fleeing to one of your 5 alts to escape the consequences of your actions on another character.

A crappy attitude and lousy personality would have you marked as "Kill on Sight" (KOS) in L2 and if you didn't watch your step, life in Aden would become quite difficult for you.

3. Neither MMO was designed around the idea of being  "a game".  They weren't "theme parks". They were worlds, filled with a variety of game-like and non game-like content.

4. They kept the player in the equation. This is also known as "no hand-holding". Rather than pointing out every last detail of what to do, where to go, who to talk to, what to kill and what to collect, those MMOs gave you enough information to get you going, and left it up to you to work it out for yourself. Too many MMOs these days remove the player from the equation, leaving you to do little more than just follow the arrows to the clearly marked areas on the map where your quest items are clearly marked with a bright red name, or have sparkles coming off them that you can see from 100 meters away. I don't think many MMO players these days realize just how different an experience it is when you're left to figure things out on your own, instead of having it spelled out for you. Sure it's "faster and more convenient", but it's also mind-numblingly brainless and boring.

5. A focus on experiencing the journey, not just getting to the destination.

Well, I certainly do have few words about this topic. :P I've found that there's few key factors that keep me playing an mmorpg longer.

Slow leveling speed

I really like leveling up my characters and just exploring the world, doing quests, crafting, grinding mobs for materials etc. When I reach the "end game" and only thing left for me to do is raiding, I quit. I like doing instances with guild or random groups but no, not the same ones for hundred times in hopes of some gear.

Lots of skills

And with this I mean skills that make the character classes complex and unique. If we have to have classes, I hate when everyone has dots and heals and almost the same skills. No one is unique and if there's PvP, there isn't that much tactics required.

And I hate "streamlined" or dumbed down games we now get. Heck, I've spent big chunk of my youth playing Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 on various roleplaying servers. Everyone familiar with NWN and DnD rules knows that a mage is more than fireball or lightning spam. 

One of the reasons I could never really get into Diablo 3 or The Secret World. I really expect more from my games.

Real PvP

I just love when PvP happens open world, let's say, like a random encounter in the middle of adventuring - not in some battleground instance which teleports you out of the main game. I never liked any sort of PvP minigames, capture flags, deathmatches or whatever that is considered as PvP grind for gear.

I think last time I really enjoyed PvP was back when WOW and EQ2 came out. There were areas where both factions were questing and conflicts did happen. Also, I think it was in Warhammer Online, where you had to defend or capture some open world objectives for your faction. That was cool too.

Of course this open world PvP causes the retards to grief low level players with their high levels, but it also allows you to go tease these "big guys" when they try to quest. I had fun killing some higher levels in SWTOR with my low level agent. :P

No F2P or  pay-to-win cashshops

I like paying a subscription over F2P model. If the game is good, I have no trouble giving back to the devs. Also, it weeds out the freebie leeches, kids that are TOO young and keeps the community IQ somewhat tolerable.

One annoying thing in F2P games is the damn advertisements everywhere. You can't even release a silent fart without a "BUY NOW!" popup jumping on top of your UI.

Cash shops with stat boosts, super Jesus health potions, Godlike gear enchants, whatever makes you superior over the non-paying customer is a big buzz kill for me. Only thing that I really accept personally are custom skins, emotes, vanity clothing & gear.

Challenge

Game has to be challenging. Not the way that you have like two usable skills and low hitpoints, when the mobs are demigods. That is just stupid.

• You can train a monkey to press 1, 2, 3. If that works for every single mob in your game, I'm not playing it. Some variety please.
• If I can solo the whole content and there's no need for teamwork, I'm not playing it. I wasn't looking for an online singleplayer game.
• If the game has same mobs all over again when I level up from 1 to top, it's just f*cking boring and I see that as the Devs only slacking. "I already learned how to kill these when I was level 5. I can still kill these at level 35 since they are the same mobs with no difference. Throw me something new."

Nowadays..nothing.

Someone up above mentioned slower leveling curve, and I'll throw my hat in on that one.  In the older games I played this allowed me to group with people I liked for extended periods of time to just relax,  hang out, and kill stuff.

This brings me to Community.  I used to like the mmo community but it has changed... and I probably have too.  With regards to that statement I can no longer stand most people that play mmos nowadays.  I have to dredge through a lot of crap just to find those few gems worth talking to and it's starting to not be worth it.

All in all I think I've all but lost interest in games.  I spend a few minutes on this site reading up on the latest releases just to see what's due to come out soon and more often than not end up passing on it all.  I guess I just don't care anymore.  I got other things to do I suppose.

Originally posted by sirphobos
Basically, when I get to the point where I've seen everything in an MMO, I get bored.  As such, Everquest is the only MMO to every hold my attention longer than six months, as it was designed such that the average player never reached the end of what was available at any given time.

What I miss from EQ1 are random items that NOBODY knows what they are for.

Originally posted by Illius

This brings me to Community.  I used to like the mmo community but it has changed... and I probably have too.  With regards to that statement I can no longer stand most people that play mmos nowadays.  I have to dredge through a lot of crap just to find those few gems worth talking to and it's starting to not be worth it.

I had a sad lol at that...meh.  Much like the market changed, the community changed...

A mix of coffee, alcohol, and OCD.

Oh and good PVP and responsive controls.  Lag is a real downer.

1.  Things to do besides the level grind, to be able to explore, craft, work on a guild city / house, guild runs in a newbie area (think aid station).

2. Long leveling curve, give me a goal in years not days.

3.  Community, good and bad, thay all make the server revolve, you need heroes and villans to give a server the spark it needs.

4.  Everything you do has consequence wether it is to further yourself, guild or rep or to destroy it.  You are accountable for your actions.

5. Risk Versus Reward, you take the risk or time to do something you are rewarded for completion.

I really don't know. The things that I liked in WoW are things that I don't want to see in other games; quest hub/spoke throughout the progression of my character, talent trees and weak crafting. I played WoW for about three years. I also played a lot of hours in Global Agenda, but I think it's because it wasn't WoW. It really was a lobby based shooter mmo, and it was great.

Now? I've spent a ton of time in Minecraft, but I don't think that means I want the next game I play to have Minecraft's features. I think Torchlight 2 is going to be my next game, and maybe, just maybe GW2. That's only a maybe though. I'm not even sure I'll play it.

comunity.

a good group of guys you play with and a tight all arround comunity. nothing else keeps me for very long.

SLOW (EQ) leveling curve. Sick of playing games, hitting max level in a week and waiting for new content. I want to feel like I'm always advancing my character. Whether it be leveling up with AA's (or some sort of max cap progression) crafting, earning positive factional reputation to go to KoS areas.

LESSSSS quests! omg so sick of 50 quests per level. I just want to group up and kill normal mobs. FORCE us to group, tired of solo playing a character to max level in a week. Mobs need to be much stronger, no charcter should be able to solo... its a MMO for christ sake, make us group. This solves the community problems as well. No one wants to group up with pricks. This will force players to play nice together so they get invited back to exp grind groups.

/sigh... I miss old school EQ 1 so bad

btw, i now realize i hate children playing games as well, no more f2p bs. Make them 18+ CC manditory. I cant throw money at a game fast enough for this to happen. Devs are targetting the wrong demographic...

fml, i have had nothing to play since EQ and DAoC. "Maybe next year" is getting annoying.

Currently, nothing, but what WOULD make me play an MMO long-term?

Content.  Lots and lots and lots of excellent, non-grindy content.

Community.  Decent human beings that I actually want to spend time around.

Fun.  If it's not fun all the time, I'm not playing.

Since those three things are entirely absent from most MMOs, I don't play any.