This has been an insanely entertaining game. I bought it 7/18 and have had a blast ever since. To new players I do have a few tips:

• Matchups can be grossly imbalanced, meaning you could be rank 20 and be pitted against someone/groups in the 200s that has a FAR better gun(s) than you
• Sporadic lag
• System req are pretty high and demanding

If you get past some of the imbalances and find a group you can stick with you will have a blast.

 

It's pretty :D

That's new and exciting right?

Aion in my opinion, still needs some depth. It is polished, game play is smooth (accept when getting up from sitting down to combat is a bit slow), but that's it. Is the game a failure? Absolutely not. It'll be interesting to see where Aion goes and what it does. But if you're looking for something new and innovative, Aion is not. Arial PvPvE is interesting. I could live without the flight timer. However, the game is worth checking out while in beta and you can form your own opinion.

Reading through a lot of these posts it seems as though people want classic vanilla WoW back. While I live in nostalgia from time to time, with my Windfury procking and criting on poor mages still brings a devilish smile to my face. I would venture to say, keep the existing content but adjust the levels in the zones. So maybe have Outlands be from 38-48 and Northrend from 48-60. There are some talents I deeply enjoy and would hate to see them go, so maybe a reworking of the talents. Maybe with a reworking of the zones and maintenance of existing raid content they could keep the new content. Now as far as the gear goes if Northrend was from 48-60 that it would drop equivalent MC gear to prepare for BWL.

While I would hate to see BGs go, I think a reworking of the outdoor PvP should change. I may be wrong in my assumption but people are missing the larger scale battles rather then the 1v1 stuff that has been brought on by capture points on maps… In writing this I fear I know why Blizz had to dumb stuff down to only 1v1 crap and that’s because of “fairness.” People got their feelings hurt and got upset because of large groups attacking them… If that is the case, how sad a day it is.

I figured I would throw this question out to the community for all those who left, or are considering leaving WoW. What would bring you back to WoW?

These are some things that would seal the deal for me:

1) Hero classes for all (except Death Knights) classes to evolve into
-- a. Maybe a level 70 chain quest that will take the average player on average 6 hours to accomplish
-- b. Evolving into the hero class is optional but comes with benefits
2) A fresh and new look into PvP
-- a. Broaden the exp gained through PvPing
-- b. More world PvP with objectives, assassinations, and rewards
3) Gear customization (optional)
-- a. Dyes
-- b. Add crafted features to armor (e.g. more spikes, knobs, frilly things if need be)
4) Meaningful crafting!!!!

Creativity costs money, especially to implement it. Even with some of these features looked into in more depth could really turn into its own game. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would add a little more variety into the game, giving those who left something be proud of and return to WoW.

Originally posted by Xasapis

There isn't much downtime in Aion, the mechanics are just different, ie you need to actively contribute to regen instead of just wait for the bars to refill. It's a different approach to the post combat regeneration.

Also the mobs not being paper thin is a subjective preference. Personally I like them that way, they felt really weak in other games.

I agree it is a different approach, it just may not appeal to the masses which is both good and bad.

WoW was a great game, however, I agree with most of the things stated in the OP. Aion in my opinion still needs some work in PvE balancing. Even with a dps melee class in the low levels in painful. The time it takes to kill a single mob and the down time afterwords is too much.

Unfortunately many of us have been influenced and even spoiled by Blizzard's innate ability to make things easy, hold us by the hand telling us it's going to be okay, and making it a game for everyone. Aion is not to that point where everyone new to MMO's or longtime veterans can pick it up and say with certainty "this is the game for me."

Just my two cents

P.S. No I'm not playing WoW at the moment, and have been clean for a few months, there are problems that stem ferther then just class balancing that Blizzard hasn't addressed, but these promblems may be the very thing that makes the game what it is.

Champions - Melee DPS
Hunter - Ranged Nuker
Rune Keeper - Nuker

So it depends on what you like to play. I've only gotten to lvl 19 in lotro and that was on my Champ. Hopefully someone else has more enlightenment then I do

DDO Is actually pretty fun. However, with everything instanced it can be kind of taxing to sit through. Playing the trial (if it's still available) is well worth it.

EQ2 Is also pretty fun, my problem with it is there are too many class choices. I have some serious A.D.D. when it comes to committing to a single class when there are so many to chose from

LoTRO Nice game, just not my type of mmo.

I'm personally waiting for AoC and WAR, so I guess I'll just keep sitting on my thumbs until then.

The rolling combat bar is pretty interesting, and it all depends on how you look at it. Generally in games like WoW you'll have a series of attacks that you perform and you're hitting 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, and so on performing those skills. This just simplifies it. Instead of hitting 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, you're hitting 1 [bar 1, skill x], 1 [bar 2, skill y], 1 [bar 3, skill z], 1 [bar 4, skill a], 2 [bar 5, skill b]. You can place your skills in any order and any rank on any bar. The bad thing about this bar is you need a flexible skill deck so you can compensate for difference situations. So in a way it simplifies things, other ways it complicates things.

Thats my 2 cents

I guess it all depends on how you look at it. You could look at it as, those women that are single will have the pick of the litter, or those women would be subject to hundreds of messages from random guys. Could do it like the clubs do it (at least where I am) women get in free and men pay to get in, to help even out the numbers. Also it could turn into just a gamers singles website, since console games are still hot.

Over the past month I have been working on an idea for an MMORPG Singles website where single players can email, chat, and possibly send custom ingame messages, and other cutesy stuff like that. I have been able to find a MySpace group for MMORPG Singles and another site OkCupid.com where you can search for single MMO players.

My question is this, is there a market for this, and if more services are offered is it worth paying for?

Thanks

I was thinking of something similar it would be a mix of goth, flight combat, fantasy, and sci-fi. This would be the structure

- Goth (Factions)
    - Wearwolves
    - Vampires
    - Slayers
    - Neutrals

- Fantasy (Classes & Races)

- Sci-Fi
    - Invasions
    - GM Events

- Flight Combat
    - Something similar to SpaceCowboy/EVE

So the player would select what class and race they want then select a faction (refer to Goth), then the Sci-Fi and Flight Combat would just be icing on the cake.

What's truly wrong with Fantasy MMO's? Is it the fact that there is no real substance to the game?  According to the poll they've just been done to death. This is a small poll number, but it's still says something.

Ok, is there a successful way to break the fantasy mold?

Fantasy MMO’s have spread across the industry like wildfire, this is due heavily to WoW’s influence and people wanting to jump on the WoW bandwagon.

My question is this, what genera of MMO would you like to see in the future? Granted this is fairly vague and there is a lot more to an MMO the its genera.

Non-Fantasy – Something based off of real events

Fantasy (Sci-Fi) – Futuristic in every sense

Fantasy (Medieval) – Castles, Swords, Magic

Fantasy (Post Apocalyptic) – A world in turmoil or a world that has recovered from this catastrophic event.

Fantasy (Pre-Apocalyptic) – The end is coming and the goal is to save the planet

Fantasy (For the love of… Give me something new!) – No more of this cookie cutter *&^$, give me something new!

Other (Specify) – A new genera

I think you make a very good point WiccanCircle that the devs are tailoring the games to a more fast paced FPS based audience. However, if you look at Fury which was supposed to be this fast passed fantasy FPS central fighting system, from what I’ve noticed they aren’t doing that great.

Hypothetically speaking, if a game were to come out with a three tiered leveling system as in

1)    Follow an in depth story line
        >    Slowest way to level but overall enriching
2)    Complete side quests that are associated with the story but play no effect on the overall story
        >    Faster way to level, still getting the feel of the story
3)    PvE and PvP grind
        >    Fastest way to level with no real in depth feel of the game

This would tailor to all crowds. Perhaps even break these things into servers. It would give the FPS people their need for a quick fix and still accomplish something, it would give the casual players time to feel involved with the story and know what’s going on, and it would give the RP players the immersion needed to feel full field. I’m sure I’ve missed some things, but it’s a start.

This came to me last night, how would a more in depth class system fair in the games of today? What I mean is, if there was a world with an enriching and thriving magical element and as you progress through the game you can define your class based off of these magic types. For example (think FF VII)

-    Black = Dark magic – DoT + Draining HoT
-    White = Light magic – Healing + HoT
-    Red = Fire magic – DoT + Burst Damage
-    Green = Forest magic – Root + Damage
-    Blue = Water magic – Root/Slow + Survivability
-    Yellow = Earth magic – Strength and Damage Mitigation

With these different magic classes you can define your class even more. If I were a warrior and I built my class up using Yellow and Red then that would define the skills I would get and would also define my strengths and weaknesses. Naturally classes will have their opposites and magic types will have their opposites as well. The point with having different magic types like this is to allow for continual tweaking of your class. If you want to go with a rainbow magic build so you could be a jack of all trades and master of none, or you could change magic types at any time with some repercussions in the short-term.

What are your thoughts?

Unfortunately I’ve had some traumatic experiences trying to roll play, that aside, roll playing is something that many people enjoy and with no real creative outlet it’s becoming more difficult in modern MMO’s

Truenorthbg did hit it on the head, gaming companies are forcing the idea that MMO’s are meant to be adventure based. Ujirik also made a good point, if a game company would put the time into R&D for a game, taking and adapting a single player RPG (of their design and not yet published) I think the MMO market would either conform to the new idea or there would be a split in the industry. I for one would like to see a split in the market, having more game companies make games like console RPG’s but online would be just an amazing site to behold.

What about an actual storyline to follow? SWG had legacy quests which were great IMO. So if a game were to offer an immersive quest/story lines to take you from level 1 to 50 (if that were the max level) would this help at all? For me if I could have a leveling system as follows I would be thrilled

    -    Immersive story line that will take you from level 1 to end game
            o       Slowest way to level but the most enriching
    -    Side quests that are enjoyable
            o       Somewhat faster way to level, still following the story of the game but not limited to everything it has to offer
    -    PvP/PvE grinding for leveling (skills and level base)
            o       Fastest way to level, you wont follow any of the games stories lines
    -    Doing something that matters for everyone
            o       Contributing to the overall world for the greater good

Unfortunately I don’t see the gaming industry breaking away from trying to tailor to the 45 min a day players. However, with an adaptive system being able to tailor to all players shouldn’t be a problem, but in all likelihood, implementation is slim to none.

Reading through the forums there are many great suggestions on how to improve MMO’s. However, are these suggestions just treating the symptoms of a bad MMO or are they fixing the real problem.

Many people have suggested getting rid of level based systems and implement a skill based system. If a skill based system is implemented and I have to use skill “Hack n’ Slash v1” 100 times to gain a more advanced skill. I see no real difference between this and a level based MMO, you’re still having to level something in the end.

- So, what are the real problems with MMO’s?

- Is the gaming community ready for a new innovative MMO?

- Would putting the RPG back in MMO’s help solve the problem?