Originally posted by ArChWind
/inbeforetrainwreak

trainwreck? im doing this to learn, not to cause a said "trainwreck". 

Large overland world, entrances to a multitude of interesting things all over the world, things to do other than exploring / fighting, and a home where my character lives / works.

plenty if not all devs ask actual players what they want when they make a game.. issue is almost no one wants the exact same thing.. me personally i love having a huge pool of skills which lets me essentially make my own class.. others may like the structure of set classes. I like little hand holding but minimal others like a lot others like none at all.. that's really the issue you have 100 people telling you they like 100 conflicting things what do you do?

I think one major issue many games have is they stray to far from what they want or thought up when creating a game and try to please everyone and you just cannot do that. But on the flip side if you don't listen at all you risk alienating all but hardcore followers.. so again what do you do?

Balanced gameplay.

Large, immersive world (this almost always happens by default).

But most importantly (you win MMO of the Year, automatically, if you succeed at this):

The incompatible playstyles to mine find a different game to camp/grind.

(Now you have a clue why this might be a trainwreck...)

Originally posted by AgentAnarkii

Originally posted by ArChWind
/inbeforetrainwreak

trainwreck? im doing this to learn, not to cause a said "trainwreck". 

 if you get enough answers you will understand the train wreck theory here.

/passes popcorn

Originally posted by Raithe-Nor

Balanced gameplay.

Large, immersive world (this almost always happens by default).

But most importantly (you win MMO of the Year, automatically, if you succeed at this):

The incompatible playstyles to mine find a different game to camp/grind.

(Now you have a clue why this might be a trainwreck...)

Only a trainwreck if the insults start flying from "carebears"(i dont call them that) and said "hardcore" players(which again i dont call them that, nothing about playing a game is "hardcore") 

I want to play in a non-instanced world that truly changes and evolves but I could care less for all the other 'sandbox" trappings like an architectural and interior decoration simulator, or overly-complex crafting.

What I really hate is to see events recycle for the next customer. More thought and effort has to go into providing enough fun things to do, without using the event recycler. Orc threats that grow, evolve and migrate...offshore spawns and invasions...that sort of thing.

Class or skill based classless...I lean toward the classless but either can be fun. Graphics and sound have to be at least representative of 2013.

just a few thoughts...

Thing is... there's no such thing as "what do the players want"... instead, there are millions of "what do I want"s... and actually I'd dare to say that it's most likely that more failures in game development have come from listening to players and trying to please everyone instead of following the original design.

Personally, if you were to ask me about my perfect MMO, it would probably be close to how GW2 is now, but with TSW style of dungeon boss design and maybe with a seamless world, but only as long as it could be done while keeping the level of detail the world has now. Some people might like it, but not be perfect for them, other people would be bored to tears with it, and so on.

Housing is something I don't care, for example, for other people is a mus have. Some people wouldn't consider playing a game with no open world PvP, others would add full loot to that requirement, while for me it just means a game I'd avoid like the plague, and so on.

actully i disagree with you OP because there are a few games where the devs listen to the populace to much, and things dont pan out well. instead of the devs doing what they know need to be done to solve a problem they instead listen to the players who dont actully know the full story most of the time

i do agree that devs should take into consideration what players want but not to the point where they gtive in to all the whining, especilly with flavor of the month nerfs

Originally posted by Swiftrevoir
Without a novel containing every one of my personal wishes for a game, I would have to say it would have to be an experience that felt like my first MMORPG.  I want to feel some magic in my games again.  I can tell when a publisher just wants my money as opposed to when they want me to share in their dream of a virtual world.  They can have both, but if one is missing I simply feel like I'm being duped by the experience.

Pretty much exactly how I feel. Thats why I am still playing my first mmo.

"No Devs have ever thought to ask this question and actually consider following through with the answers..."

"im doing this to learn"

Step One - abandon the bittervet talking points.

A virtual world.

This means a place where there are things to do for all types of players. There is room for people who like to adventure, craft, trade, or do other things which are meaningful in the context of the game. Not everyone wants to fight all the time and do a gear grind progression. But a sense of progression is important to a lot of people. If there is pvp, it should be meaningful in some way. 

A world is not a lobby-based game where you go off into instances to chance shinies. That's exactly what I don't want. Games now focus too much on action-combat-graphics. That is too superficial.

I want to a world to explore and learn about. Combat may be a part of it, but it is not the main or the only thing to do.

For me, the concepts of Vanguard are amazing. Or UO. If I want pvp, Chivalry (not an mmorpg) works well. If I want a world, I have to look into some older games, sadly.