R P G A M E R . C O M   - R O U N D T A B L E

Future of MMORPGs

!

!

Liv: Ok! Next sub-topic.

Liv: What would you like to see in an MMO?

Curtis: YAY.

Curtis: My forté.

Curtis: Ok, well personally, MMOs are ancient in terms of gaming evolutions.

Curtis: I mean, think about it - if you take an MMO and took it offline, would it be as much fun? No.

Curtis: The main reaons people put up with the current MMO design is because it is just that - an MMO.

Curtis: I, however, think game designers have lightyears of room to expand.

Neill: I would love to see a better trading system - I have yet to play a game whose trading system was "good."

Ross: I would like to see MMOs whose servers don't crash. Ever.

Neill: I'd love to see pigs fly too, Ross...

Derek: More quests that aren't generic.

Rebecca: If an MMO is P2P, I'd like to see a variety of ways to pay for it - not just Paypal or credit cards.

Rebecca: I know that City of Heroes, Evercrack (hehe) and WoW sell prepaid cards, but that's mostly because they're well established.

Curtis: I think Phantasy Star Online had the first mold breaking system.

Curtis: No longer do you point and click. Instead, you have a sort of action battle system that engages the player and is more exciting.

Curtis: However, the downfall of PSO was that it was not an MMO, and there were a total of 4 generic dungeons.

Ross: 4? Geez.

Neill: I'd like to see an MMORPG with something along the lines of Oni's combat system (the hand to hand part, not the guns part).

Curtis: I think if you took a greatly enhanced PSO battle system, put it into an MMO format, and added numerous other things, you'd have the grounds for an MMO to break the WoW monopoly.

Jordan: I'd like MMOs to be more like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals - it COULD be played alone, but it was much better in groups.

Jordan: The fact that MMOs MUST be played online is a turn-off to many gamers like me.

Jordan: Some people actually LIKE having a soul.

Ross: They wouldn't really be MMOs if they weren't online, though.

Jordan: Well no, but they could still have a single player campaign.

Ross: Combat systems are something that could do with an overhaul. I don't mean in the Star Wars Galaxies sense, either.

Curtis: Yeah, agreed.

Curtis: That brings me to my next point - Star Wars Galaxies.

Curtis: Star Wars Galaxies was lightyears ahead of it's time in terms of concepts.

Neill: I really enjoyed the combat system in Guild Wars. Agro management really goes way, way beyond point and click, even though it is the same interface.

Derek: Indeed.

Rebecca: Gameplay-wise... geez, I wish I could think of something. I've never played any of the really big P2P ones like WoW.

Curtis: I was one of the few "Entertainers" of SWG, and I must say, this class HAS to be explored more in MMOs.

Ross: Curtis: Heh. One of my first characters was a Master Musician.

Curtis: It's got so much potential.

Curtis: Yeah, me too. I did the whole Master Musician/Ent track.

Rebecca: So you played at Mos Eisley?

Curtis: Actually, I played during the time Coronet was the place to be.

Curtis: I hear Coronet is dead these days though.

Ross: Actually, I played in Coronet.

Ross: Mos Eisley wasn't always the only starting spot in SWG.

Curtis: Anyways, I think classes like these, these Entertainer classes, have the most potential to expand.

Curtis: I would like to see a full fleshed-out Musician system, Dance system, and so on.

Rebecca: Hey, you guys gave me an idea - different character classes.

Rebecca: Not just the generic magic elements and sword fighters, martial artists that actually did damage.

Ross: I liked SWG's mix-and-match class system.

Liv: I love the idea of having random character classes that are different from the normal ones.

Curtis: That's when we have to start talking logistics because servers have limits.

Rebecca: That's very nice, but who would play them?

Curtis: I would.

Ross: When you said Dance system, I just pictured a DDR MMO.

Curtis: Haha, riiiiight. Just what we need.

Liv: Now THAT would be awesome, lol.

Neill: You mean a club?

Rebecca: Ross: Well, that would solve America's obesity epidemic.

Curtis: But I think, if you take the Musician mold that SWG introduced, and allowed a sort of Spore-type design where players created their own content, I think we have the possibility for a great system within an MMO.

Curtis: Of course, that would be just one of several "classes."

Curtis: I also think social classes and combat classes need to be completely seperate - one shouldn't have to choose to be a musician over a combat class. It's not fair, and it takes fun away.

Liv: Ok, a little bit more and then we'll need to move on to the last sub-topic. =)

Neill: I want to see more MMORPGs with Guild Wars style equipment systems.

Neill: I can't stand grinding just to have decent weapons - my time is limited.

Ross: As much as I'd love to say that open ended-ness is a great idea, the current MMO market in North America doesn't seem to think so.

Derek: I'd like to see more flexible skill tree based games than class based ones.

Ross: Yes, exactly!

Curtis: Bleh.

Curtis: Well, I think the MAIN overhaul that needs to be done, in any sense, is a combat system overhaul - THAT is the one thing that needs DESPERATE work.

Curtis: I'm so tired of Pointing and Clicking and its various spawns.

Derek: Agreed.

Rebecca: I remember hearing from one of my letter writers while doing RPGamer Idol about all the cool MMO's in Korea. They mentioned one called Yogurting, and I actually went on the site to check it out - looked rather fun.