We at Empire Games are looking for what players feel are the must needed features for a MMO to be great. We know that these features will depend on the style of game for an example a Social MMO won't have the same set of features as a MMORPG but we are looking for in general what are the must have features. We look forward to your guy's assistance on our many projects ahead!

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

Agree, and very harsh death penalties!  XP debt, or paying repair costs doesn't make ya learn anything or become a better player.  Learn from your mistakes and attempts.

No mini-map or heck no map at all is good too....I wanna go explore and get lost or have to draw my own maps...hehe

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

My sentiments mirror this completely. 

I would like to see more social aspects that bring together a community rather than elements that push others towards solo play.  I would also like to see more emphasis on the roleplaying aspects of the these games and helping to foster greater immersion of these worlds.  As an example, words like "l33t, lol, wtf" would instantly be replaced with something more appropriate in terms of emotes or pure replacement of the text.

Less focus on gear, grind and loot... more focus on community and bringing that feeling of a world were many are connected.

Since you were asking for "must haves" and not "nice to haves" I'd say that decent graphics is about all. I'm open to pretty much everything else and won't judge until I've tried. But without decent graphics I won't even as much as consider it. If you wanted "nice to haves" I'd say that less gear, grind and loots focus and preferably more tactical gameplay á lá Guild Wars. Doesn't necessarily have to be skill based, but skip the level system. And that's about it.

EDIT: An absolute must have: stability. I've played WAR and constant crashing and lags ruin the game.

Originally posted by Souvec

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

 

My sentiments mirror this completely. 

I would like to see more social aspects that bring together a community rather than elements that push others towards solo play.  I would also like to see more emphasis on the roleplaying aspects of the these games and helping to foster greater immersion of these worlds.  As an example, words like "l33t, lol, wtf" would instantly be replaced with something more appropriate in terms of emotes or pure replacement of the text.

Less focus on gear, grind and loot... more focus on community and bringing that feeling of a world were many are connected.

/Agreed!

Rather than so much concern about monster loot, make most gear, weapons craftable. In game housing like in UO or SWG would also be nice...make the players part of the world...not just visitors.

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

Exactly. The only thing I would add/change would be that instead of clumping skills and no levels together, I would say skill based system, and no levels or classes.

Second, I would have to add player housing/cities. Very important.

Agree, and very harsh death penalties! XP debt, or paying repair costs doesn't make ya learn anything or become a better player. Learn from your mistakes and attempts.

No mini-map or heck no map at all is good too....I wanna go explore and get lost or have to draw my own maps...hehe

I couldn't disagree more. Harsh death penalties don't make a better MMO. Trying to find my corpse in EQ was NOT fun, just a frustrating timesink. And death was rarely a lack of skill but being in the wrong place when someone brought a train through. Exp point debt is a nice balance of no death penalty and too harsh a penalty.

No map?  Are you serious? Do you know how many people are directionally challenged?  Not being able to find my way around has been a factor in why I have stopped playing some MMO's. Not the only factor but it contributed. And I know many others who feel the same. Do we need question marks over quest givers heads? probably not, we can talk to npc's. But a mini map is a definite need.

1. Encourage group play.

2. Do not incourage solo play.

3. Dynamic world. Players can actually change the game world in some way, not just thier characters. The more they can change the game world, the better.

4. PvP and PvE, preferably in an RvR set up so players can choose when to engage in each activity.

5. Character customization like City of Heroes or better.

6. Crafting where players make the best items in the world, but NPC vendors so you can always purchase something you need, or sell something even if not at the best price.

7. Class system with different branches for each class, OR skill system  with caps and penalties for taking skills from different disciplines. No system where you use it to go up in the skill for it, like swing your sword a billion times to raise sword skill, shot your bow a billion times to raise bow skill.

8. P2P, no item malls.

9. A map. I went on vacation, have been busy with work, etc. I have no played the game in several weeks. MY CHARACTER should not get lost because of that. HE exists in the game world and should rememer the way back to the city, like I the real person remember the way to the grocery store.

So some people want to turn MMOs back into crap no one plays again?  AH I get it=)

Originally posted by Josher

So some people want to turn MMOs back into crap no one plays again?  AH I get it=)

Not everyone likes WoW, but 11 million subscribers do. You're in the majority. Don't worry, they'll make plenty of games for you.

For the love of God, a dynamic world,
no static NPCs, no static quests, no static towns. And NPCs don't just sit there, they do stuff, they have jobs, removing them hurts a town, and more can be recruited.  A town may exist one week and get wiped of the map the next. A small village can become a fortified castle over time.

No exp, you raise skills not levels, and that could include non combat skills. 
This will solve so may healer didn't get enough exp issues it's not even funny.
Someone could do just crafting, just healing, just summoning, they could do what ever they wanted.

No classes, don't limit player creativity.
Sure it could hurt balance, I'll take player creativity over balance any day of week.

Eventual perma death and full looting - this will solve equipment grinding and end games issue.
For those that say I don't want to lose everything I've worked for, it's not a job, it's a game, and perhaps you will stop looking at it like a job and more like a game if you could lose everything.
 

I think when you are looking to create a new MMO, you have to keep in mind that almost everything is subjective.  Every post here has stuff that not everyone will agree is a must-have.  As far as I am concerned, there are only a few must-haves in any MMO.

1. Stable servers - MMOs are an addiction for a lot of people.  Downtime and crashes are like the drug dealer holding the bag over your head and saying "You're not trying hard enough"

2. Good support - Similar to stable servers, you have to be ready to maintain relationships with your fan base, and assist with any problems they encounter in a timely fashion.  Lack of support will drive away players faster than almost anything else.

The following suggestions I consider nice to have, but they do depend on who you ask, whether or not they are considered essential.

1.  Good graphics - If you are looking to capture hardcore gamers, you will want at least decent graphics for the people who upgrade their systems regularly.  I personally have gone back to Ragnarok multiple times, so it's obvious that it's not an essential requirement to me

2.  A reasonable level cap - If you are going to have a level cap, do not make it so that it takes more than, say, 1000 hours of play time to reach.  The reason I quit zero online was because after an entire summer of playing, I had not reached the level/rebirth cap on my main unit (there are 3).

3.  A variety of entertainment options - If you want to target a specific niche, then you can ignore this.  If you are targeting the entire MMO market, however, you must pay attention to all aspects of gameplay.  These include...
     A.  Storyline
     B.  PVP
     C. Solo-able PVE
     D.  Small group and
     E.  Large group encounters

4.  Customization - Allow the player to tailor their experience to his or her needs.  A great example of this is the customizable UI in World of Warcraft and Vanguard.  If they need 50 hotbar slots for skills, let them have it.  If they want the ability to create hate trackers and raid organizing add-ons, give them the ability to do so.

5.  Unique experience - After the past 4 to 5 years of MMO popularity, people are looking for a little something new.  Have something that sets yourself apart from the mainstream.  If your players are saying "It's just another WoW clone" you're in trouble.

6.  Listen to feedback - You are already doing this by listening to posters on this forum, and it is encouraging to see.

1.  Time of day independence.  Make it so that a player can play when it fits his schedule, rather than having to schedule his life around a game in order to be effective.  Assuming that players will schedule when they're going to play days or weeks ahead of time in order to group with people is a flagrant violation of this.

2.  If you're going to have combat, make it interesting.  There are a lot of ways to do this, from a fast tempo that requires players to react quickly to a slower tempo that leaves more time for strategy.  If combat consists of start auto-attack, go to the kitchen to get something, and then come back to find that you've killed the mob, that's not interesting.

3.  If you encourage or require players to group for content, then make it easy to group.   Saying you get double experience in a group does not make it easy to group, if players have to spend half their time in the game trying to find a group.  Making it so someone who wants a group can usually get one that a priori could be good (reasonable levels, classes, etc.) within a few minutes of logging in makes it easy to group.

4.  Minimial or no grinding, where "grinding" means doing something stupid for the sake of leveling that you wouldn't seriously consider doing if it didn't level you.  Killing ten furbolgs may not be grinding, but killing one thousand surely is.  It's not an issue of having a high level cap or a low level cap, but rather, of having adequate content to get you there without having to do boring things to grind levels.

5.  If you're going to have pvp, then either balance it or make it consensual (or better yet, both).  For a definition, pvp is "balanced" if at the start of a battle, it isn't immediately obvious which side will win to someone who knows nothing about how skilled the players involved are.  A level 50 against a level 10 is not balanced.  Five level 50s against one level 50 is not balanced.

There are a lot of other things that are desirable in a game.  The ones I just listed are the common game-breaking ones, apart from the obvious things like heavy lag, servers down, lots of bugs, or not doing anything about cheating and glitch exploitation.  A lot of the posts on this thread seem to be "I'd like a game that did this, even if most other people wouldn't".

First and foremost, make it a game, not a social experiment.

Secondly, if you are going to cater to multiple play styles, such as grouping and soloing and raiding  and so forth, then treat them all equally.  Allow all of them access to content and a chance at the best rewards.  No more of this damn elitist crap in a game please.

Thirdly, you need to have meaningful exploration and it needs to exist for all play styles and the entire level spectrum.

Fourthly, if you are going to do crafting, make it so that it serves the purpose of supplying consumables and for upgrading dropped equipment.  Do not allow them to make everything and therefore reducing if not eliminating a very big incentive to adventure.  Getting experience is not enough, we need those Swords of Tittanic Doom dropping as well.  Farming gold to buy that Sword of Titanic Doom from a crafter is not fun.

Fifthly, if you are going to allow for guilds, do not for one instance forget about those many, many people who do not join guilds.  Creating special content for guilds and raiders is a very slippery slope of resentment and eliticism that does not belong in a video game.

Unless you are shooting for a niche game, you might want to avoid making PvP a focus.  If you do PvP, make it an integrated part of the game, but the primary focus should be on PvE.  PvE has the largest audience draw and is the most likely component for retention.  PvP is a nice added component for flavor.

You need a large variety of classes and or skill sets.  They need to be distinct and meaningful and entertaining.  Players don't just want their characters too look individual, but be individual as well.  On that topic, do not make certain classes or skill sets superior to the other.  Support characters need to be just as fun, engaging and competitive as the rest.  No more of the healer always staring at the health bars crap, implement systems that allow the healers / buffers to do their thing easily while still being able to participate in battle.

Try to build a game that has replay value.  In essence, make it about the journey, not how long the journey should take.  So many people are burned out on the old premise that you put in artificial mechanisms with the sole purpose of slowing or even halting player progression.  This leads to boredom and fatigue.  If there is tremendous replay value, then who cares if you level quickly.  Diablo I and II are pefect examples of multi-player games that allowed for great replay value that had very fast leveling with tons of loot drops and yet people never got tired of playing them over and over.  Progression was fast paced yet retention was extremely high.  These games have been out for years and years and still have more online players than most MMO's on the market.

Lastly, you need to innovate.  We've reached the saturation point with old school MMO paradigms.  It's time for the genre to move forward into new territories.  Not just new types of content and subject matter, but new kinds of game play mechanisms as well.  We are already seeing new games fail, not just from poor launches, but because they are nothing more than a rehash of what we've already been doing for the last 10 years since games like EverQuest and Ultima Online.  Slapping a new skin on the same old crap isn't going to cut it anymore.  Stop resting on your laurels and get smart.

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Originally posted by JamesP

We at Empire Games ARE looking for what players feel are the must needed features for a MMO to be great. We know that these features will depend on the style of game for an example a Social MMO won't have the same set of features as a MMORPG but we are looking for in general what are the must have features. We look forward to your guy's assistance on our many projects ahead!

---

Anyways in an MMO, I look for:

- Partly skill, partly level. Things like Age of Conan and LOTRO have.
- Open world, I want someone of a sandbox to play in but with story lines. I would prefer at least 2-3 epic storylines (LONG quest chains with a great story, complete with cutscenes)
- Fast paced combat. AoC was a step in the right direction, Tabula Rasa got it nearly perfect. I'm tired of click... wait... repeat... combat. I want to not be fully dependent on MY skill as a player (I have FPS games for that) but it should be partly.
- The devs need to understand that "More HP = Longer Combat /=/ Fun" named mobs and bosses can't just have more HP and a basic slam/knockback move. They need to have actual strategies involved. Tabula Rasa had a few bosses of the such, as does LOTRO.
- I want to feel as if I accomplished something with each level. Best example is EVE, with each rank to each skill I am able to use a much cooler ship/item. A bad example is LOTRO, which every FIVE levels I can get new armor that isn't much of an upgrade from my old stuff.
- Variety of loot at each level. Best example is WoW, kahoodles of gear to choose from at any given level. Bad example is Tabula Rasa, only 5 or so different types of armor and weapons to choose. Although it was to retain the lore behind it.
- Large areas to explore, HUGE, ENORMOUS, GINORMOUS. Got the point? I want a lot to explore and not just a big desert, or a forest. It needs to be speckled with cool landmarks and buildings. Maybe special randomly generated bosses. I also want a reward for doing it.
- Player owned structures. Players should be able to build houses, stores, shops, crafting halls, gambling halls, taverns, stables, shacks, apartments, monuments (imagine being able to erect a large golden monument of yourself before you quit playing. One that any player can come by and read your lore. Not only that, but coming across one would be an awe-striking sight.) Everything. This connects to the above point, as if they can build these the players can speckle the landscape.
- High quality, free of spelling errors, decent graphics (in this age it's inexcusable to really have nothing below the quality of Lord of The Rings Online for new games), and a great marketing campaign (preferably one that pairs with some big company like Nvidia, ATI, or Logitech). It should also fall under the Games for Windows logo as it helps sell a bit and gives the game more functionality.
- It MUST have an engine optimized for multi-core processors and multiple video cards.
- Character creation must be in depth, NO just picking from 12 faces, hairstyles, facial hair, and a special thing. Give me sliders to shape my face and length of my hair in different dimensions. The newer WWE games have a customization system like this. I also want to really be able to pick my background and skills, akin to Neverwinter Nights 2 or a little-known game called PlaneShift.
- Must be Linux, Mac, and Windows Vista-64 compatible. Need as players as possible and Vista-64 and Linux-Distros are more and more common it needs to be able to run on them out-of-the-box. Also make sure it runs on Windows 7 all fine.
- NO BIG FRAKKING BUGS! I don't want another Assassin's Creed, or TR, or AoC release. The release should lack large bugs, and fewer little ones.
- Rating of T. E rated games are generally boring as they lack combat or serious themes, M tends to be too violent or nudity. T is a great middle ground which pulls a large audience.
- If it does have mature content (like the breasts in AoC) allow it to be turned off. Frankly, I don't want to go to the main hub city and see a bunch of naked chicks dancing.
- Functionality with common programs used with MMOs like TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, and various stat trackers.
- Allow Add-ons and easily movable UI. Preferably something like WAR's UI system.
- Combat must not be the only way to progress, I must be able to craft and progress as far.
- I support classes, although each class should be able to, with enough training, use other classes stuff. Look to EVE, at the beginning you choose a class of sorts with allots starting skills and then you can train in anything if you meet the requirements. Although classes should be easily recognizable. I should know when I see a warrior, or a ranger, without them being pinholed. Warriors should be able to use bows, Archers shields, and rouges heavy armor with enough training.
- The Engine needs to support many resolutions.
- NO INSTANCING! Apart from dungeons. Everything else needs to be open.
- One server, until you surpass having around 100k people on at once, I suggest a single large server. Being you follow one of the earlier requests of lots of space. Keep as few servers as possible. No server should have less than 20k players on at a given time.
- Do not offer a lifetime subscription, they generally make people mad when the game ends prematurely. Do not offer it until the game has been going steady for around 2 years.
- Must have both grinding and quest grinding as options to level. Although there must be other ways as well.
- Let skills train by time. Such as EVE, I want to be able to train swords to 25 while I mine.
- Dynamic world, players need to change the world with structures, and craters left from legendary spells.
- None of the "Top player gets a special spell" crap. If you're skilled enough, you get it and keep it. The only game this system works for is something like ArchLord in which they do a castle siege and the winner is ArchLord. This works because they kill the old ArchLord.
- Players should be able to flag themselves for anywhere, anytime PvP. Once you get enough players for a second server it should be a FULL PVP server, not just NvN or RvR, but Dog-Eat-Dog, Everyone-Vs-Everyone.
- Don't make the shelf price 50 bucks at first. We're paying per month here, make it 20 at release and keep it there.
- Offer a long, long 30 day trial. These one or two week ones don't give people enough time to level and really try the game. Just restrict some of what they can do.
- CLASSES MUST PLAY DIFFERENTLY! The main no-no is that a ranger feels like a warrior. This curse lays upon AoC where playing a warrior or archer results in the same combat system. If I'm an Archer, let me AIM my bow. If I'm a warrior let me just lock my target in and hack away in a fit of rage. If I'm a healer let me see the battlefield with my inert sixth sense from above and make sure I see who needs healing. And if I'm a rouge give me a sense of speed and agility (motion blur anyone?) and let me single out my target (major DoF blur anyone?).
- Allow full First Person View play. That like Vanguard or TR.
- Let players also build personal and public boats and zeppelins and other things of the sort, that charge people to use them.
- I want my mount. And I don't want to have to walk 20 miles to get it.
- I want a ship or aircraft I can board, walk around, customize, fight, and use even at low levels.
- I want both land, sea, and air combat. More detail in above two points.
- I would also like ships and aircraft so large that they need a crew. It would be awesome to have an aircraft so big it needed a 40 man guild to operate it fully fighting another of the such. Look to games like Battlefield where players operate different things on a vehicle, one may drive, one gun, one command, one bomb, one sight the bombs in, etc.
- I want player feedback to count.
- I want it to live in any way possible even if it starts going down. Go to FTP and use a cash shop.
- If I'm paying per month, no cash shop.
- You should offer one free server transfer per every 3 paid months.
- Veteran prizes are a must. Preferably things that just looks awesome.
- Trophies such as in WAR are a must. It's awesome to walk up to someone and have all your greatest achievements adorning you and being visible.

I think that's it...

Thank You,

- Eric

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

Sounds a lot like UO back in the day

Originally posted by sinjin

- Skill based not level based

- Persistant world very little instancing

- non-combat classes

- Player driven economy

- decent graphics

- massive world to explore

- indept social aspect's. 

These are the things that stand out most to me and are a must have becuase there is no MMO's on the market that provide all these rich features.

This is a good list, however level-based can work too.  Basically, players (some of us players, that is) want a "world" and not a "theme park."

To feel immersion, you have to be able to feel the joy of hard earned rewards and the fear of dying or losing gear/experience.  Those elements bring gameplay alive, make achievements valued, and punish careless gameplay.

And very, very important is a good zone-wide (not world-wide) chat system.  This makes zones sort of come to life.

The world can be "massive", but not too "massive," because players get discouraged if they find themselves too alone in wide empty zones.  Not that a few zones can't be wide, empty, and lonely (i.e. barren deserts, haunted swamps, etc...)  I think it is always easier to remedy a world that is too small (by adding zones) than a world that is too large (by merging servers).

City and town hubs should be crowded and have reasons for players to return; reasons such as safe havens, places to sell, train, auction, camp/rest, etc...)

From reading what you all have put a recuring theme has to do with new ways to handle combat. How would you guys feel if we made it so mobs could learn from fighting against you. Each time you went up against a mob you would never know what new tactics they would try and you would never know what the out come might be. We are looking into using some form of ANN (Artificial Neural Network) to make this learning possible. We are also looking into using Learning Chatbot technology to make it seem like NPCs are real players.

Originally posted by Khrymson

Agree, and very harsh death penalties!  XP debt, or paying repair costs doesn't make ya learn anything or become a better player.  Learn from your mistakes and attempts.

No mini-map or heck no map at all is good too....I wanna go explore and get lost or have to draw my own maps...hehe

I'm in favor of harsher death penalties too but not because people will learn any faster. A smart player is going figure out what they did wrong whether you penalize them or not. I think stiff death penalties will help get rid of the FPS rambo mentality. Also it will cut down on people using death as a means of transportation.

I'm not a fan of the mini map either in games where it doesn't belong. You could argue a mini map in a sci fi game does belong. I do think the regular map should be much less interactive and more like a real map. Let me figure out where I am on the map using landmarks or terrain features. That way the possibility of getting lost is still there.

As for other features I find necessary...

A player driven economy, NPC's should not buy or sell anything.

Careers that do not involve combat. If I want to make my living as a crafter or politician then so be it.

Grouping should be strongly encouraged.