Slow paced combat. I like spells with 10 s cast time and I think ordinary fights when killing xp-mobs should last 2 min or more.

I think its much better to kill 10 mobs/hour than 100mobs/hour. I dont want action combat and there should be no need for twitch skills, fast reactions or being able to aim whith precision when playing MMORPG:s.  Most companies focuse on action and fast paced combat today. I dont like that at all...

I miss the city raids in the early days of SWG. There wasn't really much worth exploring for except maybe hunting for night sisters.

The early days of SWG were awesome. Going out in 20 man parties to hunt random stuff on Tattooine. It was actually kinda nice having to set up camps to heal your wounds and giving players a chance to socialize a little.

I also miss some of the actual challenging solo content.

It's a lot harder to make actual friends in games now days too. Especially with things like cross server LFD. Meet plenty of trolls though.

It's nice being able to run dungeons quicker, but LFD is a community killer. I think a server wide LFG channel is enough.

Originally posted by Murashu
It's hard to narrow it down to 1 thing, but I would have to pick the endless journey. In EQ I never felt the need to rush to end game because there were always multiple dungeons available at every level and by the time I did reach max level they had alternate abilities allowing me to continue progressing my main character.

This is why i have played Vanguard since release and will carry on playing it even while playing GW2.Like EQ1 the game offers multiple dungeons at all levels and some are actually vast.On top of that you have a vast world that is fully open and explorable with vast oceans that are sailable and vast sky that can be crossed on the wing.

After playing five plus years i can say that i still have not done everything thing in the game,that just gives you the full scale of the game.

Single greatest thing?

The journey being AT LEAST as important as the destination. AKA there are a lot of little destinations along the way whose whole is AT LEAST as great as the final destination.

Originally posted by Theocritus
    Two things really: Quality grouping and a solid community....Havent had either since WoW was released in 2004.....

You have been playing the wrong MMOs then because both your concerns are still out their if you know where to look.

No hand-holding.

No gps, having to figure out by myself, no glwoing "?" marks over npc, no arrows pointing where I 'need' to go, etc

Of course system had it's flaws cause it was way too static and, over time devs instead of doing more fun & complex quests inflated their number and made literraly hundread upon hundread simple ones.

Current system IS made quests and system BORING.  Especially that it is usually coupled with easiness of open world content.

Even GW2 one while it is going in good direction - it STILL DOES have insane amount of hand-holding - events pop out on my map and mini-map showing where I should go to participate, game feed me with what EXACTLY need to be done in events, etc

Originally posted by Loktofeit
Community tools and community support. In the bright-eyed and naive effoft to create one big happy lovefest on the server, developers have designed mechanics that actually work against community building and make it more difficult for player bonds to form in game.

Yeah, I'll go along with this sentiment.  It seems the more developers tried to improve MMORPG gameplay, the more damage they did to the community.

These days people point to LFG and DF tools and hold them up as evidence of socialization, not realizing they are the result of a lack of community instead and provided as a solution to an inherent flaw in modern game design.

Probably four things:

1) Fear of dying.  The Plane of Fear in EQ1 sure would have played a lot different if when you died you respawned outside the portal with all your gear, lost no experience, and just had to pay 5 platinum to repair your gear.

2) Endless character progression.  For me, today, I often lose interest in a new MMO because I reach the end, do everything I can do on your character within a few months, then don't want to sit around for half a year for a new content patch before I have something new to do.  EQ1 had epic quests, the AA system, a long leveling curve, and challenging raids that weren't beaten a week after an expansion came out.  Some people call this a grind, I call it something to look forward to.

3) Large raids.  I know a lot of people hate them.  But to me, there's only so much you can do with 8-10 people, and 10 people doesn't feel "massive" at all.

4) Open world dungeons.  Nothing really to explain here.

I miss most off all the dificulty level as the new mmos are all easy mode except maybe TSW but that also has no death penality.

Difficulty makes peeps group to over come hard mobs and thats what made old mmos great cause you had to make friends or you spent your life kiteing greens which droped junk.

* Community-driven content

* Living world with players everywhere

* Adventure, unknown dephs, unwalked paths, secret groves etc

* Large scale PVP, large scale PVE (40+)

* Long lasting PVP / PVE encounters (like Vanilla BRD or AV)

* Death penalty that actually matters

* Anti-homogenisation of classes/specs/ etc (like, not every class has interrupt, not every class has slow, not every class has stun, etc)

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Loktofeit
Community tools and community support. In the bright-eyed and naive effoft to create one big happy lovefest on the server, developers have designed mechanics that actually work against community building and make it more difficult for player bonds to form in game.

Yeah, I'll go along with this sentiment.  It seems the more developers tried to improve MMORPG gameplay, the more damage they did to the community.

These days people point to LFG and DF tools and hold them up as evidence of socialization, not realizing they are the result of a lack of community instead and provided as a solution to an inherent flaw in modern game design.

 

Some tools are actually nice to have. It'd be a real pain in the ass if all you had was /say to look for a group.

Might work if a game had taverns with mini games or something to pass the time while you wait for more people to show up.

I think it's more about the bottom line though for developers, and bored players = unhappy players. Unhappy players = lost subs. So we have things like LFD.

Originally posted by Bl4ck3nD
Freedom

this stuff

I'd say it's the slower pace.

Combat was slower, levelling was slower, travel was slower, crafting was slower, getting gear was slower, buying things from crafters was slower, we had downtime and could lose xp and there wasn't this constant need for action. And this slower pace created a community because to have a community you first need time to communicate with the people around you.

Modern games cater to a different demographic. Logging in, having action right from the get go, combat, run, combat, teleport, combat, run, teleport, log out - who needs other players? The games even make the groups for you while you run. No need to stand still. Action!

risk vs reward

exploration

A real virtual world with a functional virtual society.

It's the defining feature of this genre, and developers have gone to great lengths to eliminate it.