Interaction with the world and players.

Not just a treadmill that force me to do the same thing over and over again for gear progession.

for the most part, pvp. though if pve didn't exist i might be more inclined to turn to another game quicker. i played an mmo about a month ago that really disappointed me because you had to level up to enjoy the pvp. i didn't like that at all. constant grinding and questing gets boring, imo.

Originally posted by gravesworn
What kept me playing darkfall was the constant fear of loss and hope for gain. Cant say anything has got me as excited and as alert as that game.

Kind of a gambler's mentality, no?  Well, I can say I hate gambling, which would explain why "fear of loss" does nothing for me.  I understand the hope for gain though, but oddly, it's not partnered with a fear of loss for me.  A brief fear of dying is okay, but fear of loss like in free for all loot PvP......uhm, no.  As a matter of fact, if that's in a game, I won't play it.  For instance, I liked UO POST TRAMMEL.  You won't find many who would say that, but I enjoyed the game much more then.

What keeps me playing a game is some amount of freedom and a sandboxy feel to the game.  Notice I did not say a pure sandbox.  The game I played the longest was EQ2, then WoW, Fallen Earth, and now I'm sure GW2 will win one of the "longest played" titles in my collection too (not counting single player games which I also have a list of longest played).  I played UO and like I said, preferred it after Trammel was added.  I don't particularly care for PvP and I love crafting and PvE.  All players are different, hmm?

To stay long term, a game also must have a beautiful game world and lots of places to explore.  If the game world isn't beautiful, like say EQ2 (parts of it are, a lot is not), then it needs to have other things that I find vastly entertaining like housing and carpentry or collections.

Originally posted by Muerte_X

Originally posted by tank017
Freedom, freedom to create my own journey, my own quests.no premade quest/theme park style attaching a leash around my neck, pulling me in one single direction.challenge is another factor, I want it to be challenging to get to end level, I don't want to gain a level for sneezing.Basically, the opposite of todays mmos lol..

THIS.

   I would add/elaborate with a ruleset that allows this freedom and the social aspect of guild cities/seige warfare. The games that I have played the longest get me invested with this, because it is not some script that hits an endpoint (or in the case of raiding, a script that plays like a broken record at endgame), but a neverending challenge of politics, warfare, and wealth accrual that you can use to build the landscape around you.

ditto, so far GW2 (for me) has some of these aspects.and no im not a fanboi, i actually just bought it on a whim said wtf, was not going to buy it. honestly glad I did.

What keeps you playing an MMO longterm?

For me, that'd be the Gameplay.

The usual, Guild mates/friends, fun &  interesting Pve/Pvp Content & Class Balance

Community > Content > Alliance PvP like in Lineage

Originally posted by Calerxes

Originally posted by nariusseldon

I did (and prob will for a little more) play WOW longterm (2-3 year?) but there is no apriori reason why i should play any MMO longterm.

MMOs are games .. if they are fun .. i will play. In fact, after MOP, i probably will move to F2P MMOs and hop around.

The OLD games? I got disgusted with UO during beta. EQ got too grindy (horrible camping) in a year. WOW is the only one that holds my attention for more than 1 year.

 

Why? thats the theme of the thread.

Why .. that is a good question.

I suppose because WOW has interesting enough combat mechanics, and enough non-repeatable content (at least while leveling). And also becuase there is a drought in ARPG. To be honest, after a while i got bored with WOW too .. but expansion & content patch sometimes get me back.

Example .. WOTLK gets me into raiding. Got sick of it so quit after 1 or 2 tier of content in CATA but LFR brought me back.

I am still debating whether to play MOP (as i have quit for a while playing D3).

Replayability: multiple distinctive races, classes and levelling paths. The latter requiring either multiple separate solo quest paths or distinctive mob-grinding* combined with some distinctive solo quests** so even if you levelled up the same race / class combo in the same zone there were still different ways of doing it.

Sort of like Skyrim or Morrowind or Fallout 3 except with multiple start locations and without the "kill the dark lord" type quest that starts from the beginning.

*distinctive mob grinding means mobs aren't all the same so mobs might be solo or grouped and each type of mob has some special characteristic that makes fighting them different from other mobs

** class based or faction or morality choice based so different ones are available depending on choices you make

Originally posted by tupodawg999

Replayability: multiple distinctive races, classes and levelling paths. The latter requiring either multiple separate solo quest paths or distinctive mob-grinding* combined with some distinctive solo quests** so even if you levelled up the same race / class combo in the same zone there were still different ways of doing it.

Sort of like Skyrim or Morrowind or Fallout 3 except with multiple start locations and without the "kill the dark lord" type quest that starts from the beginning.

 

*distinctive mob grinding means mobs aren't all the same so mobs might be solo or grouped and each type of mob has some special characteristic that makes fighting them different from other mobs

** class based or faction or morality choice based so different ones are available depending on choices you make

This is what Lineage 2 did well each mob had its own strengths and weaknesses that make it difficult for certain class to fight solo and there were open world raid bosses that required big groups to tackle also different level mobs roamed the same areas so you had to be on your toes.

Server-wide sense of community... Something most modern games are sorely lacking in.

Bren

Simply put:

Stuff to do / incentives to log-in / progression / fun / community.

Aesthetics: Character customization, dyes, templating, costumes/outfits that I'm not forced to pay more for (the big reason f2p is anathema to me).

Collectibles/mini-games: Fishing, Cooking, First Aid, Butterfly Collecting, Woodworking, Housing, Furniture Crafting as well as a HUGE number of pets and mounts.  And I mean huge.  Like...at least 100 pets and 20 mounts, minimum.

Raiding: I like raids, but it doesn't need to be 'ZOMG HARDCORE RAID NAOOO!!!'.  Raids in and of themselves are just big groups of players attacking a boss with a decent smattering of mechanics in a closed environment (sorry, open world bosses don't qualify as raids if pvp exists imo).

Consensual pvp: self-explanatory. Forced pvp is evil incarnate.

Lore/secrets: I want lore, and I want exploring secrets.  This would be gw2's biggest appeal to me.

Traps: DDO's claim to fame.  I love the way traps exist in DDO, and wish randomized traps/puzzles existed in other games.

Dungeons: Lots and lots of dungeons with good lore behind them.

I think saying 'community' is simultaneously obvious...and impossible.  A community is people, and a bad community is -still- people.  No changing that.

Endless character progression with a purpose...... nothing else matters.

ATM, only EVE provides this.