Like the choices, except the Mushroom thing, not sure I could take it serious.  I liked the idea of the undead as well as dragon and Demon choices.

A Magic MMO is as easy to create as they come.  Combine the Magic format with Heroes: Of Might and Magic design and you have your MMO. 

Combat can be turned base and you can move around as an Avatar on the different planes.  In order to collect mana you have to defeat other players or zones. I also say that when you have pvp, each player will randomly select a card from their deck.  This card will be your reward if you win.  And the card that is selected can not be played at anytime during this conflict. 

OP, I felt a lot of what you are saying and recently I have joined a clan.  The clan I joined has helped me out with groups and making the game a lot more enjoyable.  pm me if you want me to introduce you to some others like us.

Great observations, many of these were very similar to my own.  I however like the game just for what it is, a basic grind with pvp being the big draw for the masses.  I would add that DF needs to upgrade their crafting system.  IMO this would increase the number of subscribers and long term playability quicker then most of the other issues.

Be Paranoid!!  This is not to scare you but a good tactic to follow to keep yourself alive, as much as possible.  The number of players is about right.  Too many more and then the game would be unbareable in my opinion.

The player base as a whole is very mixed imo.  I typically stay off the general chat channels since most of the times it is a bunch of immuture boys ranting.  I had a great time soloing but the game is much better if you join a clan.  

Good luck and happy hunting.

8/10

PVP is incredible and trust me I am not any good at it.

AI is the best out there imo. The crafting is very basic and not very imaginative.

Environment needs to be added. I ran for an hour as a newbie from one side of the continent to the other and only saw 2 deer. I am not saying to make it overpopulated with the extras but there needs to be balance. New patch should make up for this.

I cannot agree more that the community is like dealing with a bunch of 13 year old boys who were left home by their parents for the weekend (no offence to the 13 y.o. population out there). If I have to hear about how big their male parts are again or having them ranting some homophobic/racist remarks to each other everyone will end up on my ignore list.

The AI is great and I love how the mobs use the environment to their advantage as well as they are more than happy to take those amazingly long shots at you as you run from them. I played Fallen Earth for a few months and their AI was something that is pretty basic. I would like to see them take on the AI of Darkfall.
 

I would love to see M&B system in an mmo. I have played a little of DF and the system has similarities to M&B, and imo the closest out there.

I get bored with auto attacks and I am a casual gamer, I just want a little more realism in mmo's.

I have always said that if they just make aoe spells/weapons really aoe.  And let friendly fire happen that would add a lot to mmo's.  So the next time the fighters go rushing into battle and some one casts a fireball well everyone dies. 

You shoot an arrow, make sure that your friends are out of the way. Or how about not letting people walk right through someone else on the battlefield. Simple mechanics can go a long way.

I like the idea of using the F2P crowd for target practice....ugh...I mean AI.

Why not set up a MMORTS set up like Mech Commander in the Battle Tech Universe.  You could set the time period up before or after the Clan invasion.  

There could be a few "Home Worlds" in each "House" that are basically off limits from invasion.  That is where you could group up with other commanders and then hop on a jump ship to a specific world and then the RTS begins.  As you take more worlds and complete more objectives you grow in rank and then are able to aquire new technology, mechs, Drop ships, resources, abilities...  That way if you log out you do not lose anything specific other than the world that you were fighting for. When you relog you start back at the "Home World" where with a quick jump you can move back to the front lines.  The worlds can have a max number of players, a "Commander and Chief", someone who assigns the starting locations and objectives to the other commanders as well as bonuses for the owners the deeper you are into enemy territory.

If you wanted to include mercenaries this would be a great way to have the ability to go and fight who you want when you want.  Just pick up the next contract either from a player or from a npc.  Mercenaries would have their own "Home World" as well so they can group sell and buy the supplies that they may need for the next mission.

If you put the time period during the Clan invasion, specifically the early years, you could have players be part of the Clans.  Players then would build their invasion forces outside of the realm and then compete with other players through the course of bidding for the amount of resources that they plan on using in order to invade a given planet.  The House planets could be either other players or be non-players.  If you included the scenario with the mercenaries and Houses from you then would have three factions at the same time.

I personally would prefer the pre-Clan invasion time period.  The possibilities are endless imo.  Drop ships = spawn points; Missions like raids, recons, frontal assaults, siege of cities.... Optional Careers like resource gathers and salvage crews....

The only reason why they do not build a MMORTS is because for the most part developers like the masses of people are sheep and pretty much follow the herd (again imo).

P2P for me.  But if I have to pay it had better work and better be as advertised or I take my money some where else,

I have not really found F2P to be all that successful other then Guild Wars and that is a pretty stagnant world with nothing but preplanned zones or battle grounds.

Overall I thought the article was pretty good in presenting the potential of some of the mmo's.  Some ideas I agreed with some I didn't.  I thought that Fallen Earth should be a little higher on the list  and that the final three were basically a "give me".  I really enjoyed reading about some of the the other more obscure games that have potential, according to the writer.

For me I think one of the mmo's that has the most potential is Force of Arms.  I have been following the game for a while and really like the open ended aspect of the game play and creativitiy in the storyline that has been put into the game so far. 

AB,

Thanks for the link that really helps.  Some of the discussion on the board is very Insightful and made me think about whether I really would want a NWN MMO or not.

I have heard reall basic rumors of a Neverwinter Nights MMO?  Has anyone else heard these rumors and whats your take on it, if they were to be  true.  I personally would be really excited to see something along those lines happen.  (Of course it would depend on who was making the game as well as other details)

ionlyneedit, I am in the same boat.  I wish I would never had left.  The days of roaming through the catacombs and the keep raids.  Unfortanaly they were not able to make WAR as fun as DAoC.

I agree completely with the Dana. What’s the point of having requirements that only a few can run, unless you want to focus on that small market. That does not mean that your mmo has to be "simple" or unchallenging. System requirements do not make for good development and well thought out stories. I think the real problem is that developers throwing out garbage because enough sheep keep covering the developmental costs.

Look at Force of Arms.  www.forceofarms.com

The game has some really neat possibilities and is very similar in some aspects to Battle Tech. I have been following the game for some time and will fill the void of a Battle Tech mmo.

Plus I heard that microsoft has the rights to Battle Tech. and if that is the case we will never see it for the PC.  They would put it out for the 360 instead.

Like D3mis3 I too have really enjoyed the game but due to my ADHD I do not stay much more then a year or two with any one game.  I started CoH on day one and can say that overall the game is really solid.   CoX I will be coming back in the near future I am sure.

Yes the pvp is a little bit of an after thought but still not absolutely horendous.  My favorite toon is a scrapper and yes in some ways he is gimped but I dont worry too much because its fun to roleplay the powers in my opinion.

I will say the crafting I never really got into and usually I enjoy crafting in some of the other major mmo's.

I would pick TR as one of the bottom 3 mmo's that I have played, but everyone to their own.

Thanks for the shot.