Since there have been a lot of heated debates, and a seemingly large supply of negative threads and post. I figured a positive thread about what people like about new MMOs would be a good addition to MMORPG.com forums
I think one of the mechanics I like most is combat, which is a major thing in many games especially MMOs. Combat mechanics have evolved a lot with games like TERA and BDO having amazing action based combat. It is a very different feel to it than even in WoW where its the typical waiting for cooldowns to do activities. However, in WoW...Demon Hunter is a HUGE step up of any class in WoW with how fast paced and how much action the class has. I think Blizzard designed the Demon Hunter for those who want a fast paced action style class.
What about you guys? What do you like about MMOs these days? The ones that came out during the WoW time frame and newer.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
Apologies for being negative on your thread.
Battlegrounds were a great addition as well and queue anywhere was much appreciated. Although I was never a fan of arenas.
The plethora of addons was also a big improvement imo. Performance meters are excellent at showing your own progress over time as well as a way to hold people accountable. LOTR purposely preventing them just allowed for lazyness in players and simpler mechanics.
Improved story content and cutscenes were also welcome when it comes to leveling.
GW2 only displaying nearby quests was nice as well. It reduced clutter.
Dynamic events are a great idea but I haven't seen anything that really does anything more than rotate events one after the other. I'd prefer to see something more "dynamic".
Cross-realm zones is fine for leveling but terrible for battlegrounds. I wish games like WOW consolidated servers much more often and kept battlegrounds server based.
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/380139/poll-tab-targeting-vs-action-combat/p1
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/425736/who-doesnt-like-neither-tab-targeting-or-action-combat/p1
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/439291/what-is-your-favourite-mmo-combat-system/p1
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/446675/tab-targeting-dead/p1
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/460869/why-hate-on-tab-target/p1
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/372244/is-the-new-action-oriented-combat-the-future-of-the-mmorpg-genre/p1
Also, don't be that guy
Anyway
Group finders for non-raid is definitely a nice feature, made it a lot easier to get into groups and less spamming in chat non-stop to find a group
The other thing I really like are Auction Houses/Brokers (and similar systems). In the old days, you had to stand around for hours spamming chat non-stop to sell items. Will never do that again lol. I remember in Asheron's Call chat being spammed so much by people trying to sell things. That was really annoying
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I HATE performance meters. With a passion. DPS / threat meters, in my opinion, does the opposite of what you suggest - they stifle creativity and make gamers lazy. I played LotRO for years and never saw what you are suggesting.
LotRO, given that the game didn't use enrage timers for any bosses, never cared about DPS and in my experience this resulted in much more creative solutions to bosses. You could "brute force" it - bring lots of DPS and just kick its ass quickly. Or you could get creative - more buffs, more debuffs, more CC. The lack of DPS meters and threat meters inspired the players to find new solutions. Sometimes it would be "do more damage", but most times it involved better coordination. Whilst I have never played WoW, LotRO had (past tense) the deepest and most interesting combat mechanics I've ever played.
Anyways, to the OP, the features / mechanics that I have enjoyed since 2005:
1) Deep combat mechanics
I love combat and I love beating things because I made the right decisions. MMOs are the only genre that have provided me with combat mechanics that have kept me engaged for long periods of time. LotRO is top of the list - between resource management, emergency cooldowns, support classes and inter-class dependancy, no MMO that I've played has come close to offering the combat depth of LotRO. Sadly, it's been dumbed down to oblivion now, but at launch and for a few years afterwards, it was excellent. The switch to action combat has removed that depth from the genre, but I'm hoping CU will bring it back.
2) User Interfaces / Addons
Early user interfaces sucked. A lot of them still do (here's looking at you Wildstar!). But, overall, UI's have improved a lot and addons have made them even better.
3) Huttball
Whilst I mostly despised SW:TOR, I found immense pleasure in Huttball. I generally prefer my PvP out in the open world, fighting over keeps and stuff, but Huttball was just a pleasure. It was PvP, but also a sports game, but also using my RPG character. More of this please!
4) In Game Voice Chat
I'm not sure if anyone other than LotRO did this, but having played a game with in game voice chat, then played MMOs without it.......wow, what a difference! As I'm sure most of you already know, voice chat makes grouping 10x easier (assuming someone leads). Having it built into the game made grouping a pleasure. The PUG scene in LotRO shits all over everything else. Not only are people friendlier, the success rate is so much higher than text-only PUGs. More, it made the PvP scene infinitely better. It meant 24 people from 24 different guilds could join together in a raid and, with the flick of a button, have piss easy communication. Nothing I have ever seen in my time in MMOs has done more to promote a positive grouping mentality in the community than in game voice chat.
Beyond that....meh. Most of the things I love about MMOs (open world pvp, grouping, social stuff) was around before WoW, and most of the innovations that have come post WoW have been moving the genre away from what I enjoy.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
~~ postlarval ~~
When I played EQ1 my main was a 'chanter. For those who never experienced EQ1 in a group an enchanter had two function: crowd control on a groups of mobs so that the party could then take them down in smaller numbers and to cast buffs. A lot of buffs. On all party members and all party pets. Those pullers rarely checked to see if you had to redo buffs - but expected you to cc; everyone else would get ansty if there buffs were going down.
So I took time out to solo mobs. A lot of 'chanters seemed to think this wasn't possible. It was. And it was soooo restful.
So better solo content - on one level I don't see any harm. Although I "agree" that solo rpgs will usually offer a better experience.
I know what you mean though and I think the answer is "what is an mmo from the game company's perspective?".
Now there have been lots of threads in which you, me, everyone and their dog have weighed in but - at the end of the day - the only opinion that matters is that of the publisher. And their goal is not to make "an mmo" or "a solo rpg" but to make "a profitable game".
So today we usually get a game that (tries) to appeal to more people "the many, not the few". And if that means we get solo and multi-player stuff combined then that is what we get.
So in summary what it comes down to is that the whole point of an "mmorpg" - as far as the publisher is concerned - is to make money.
What is it about combat you like because what i am seeing is more a case and proof that there is nothing newish in modern mmos,everything has already been done,leading one to believe these newish devs are just copy cats or not smart enough/creative enough.
Seeing so many mention stuff already done long ago really says a lot about lack of knowledge in the gaming genre of mmorpg's.
Tim Eisen said server stability ! Would love to agree but is not a fact.All depends on how recent we are talking when claiming MODERN.There have been some games,especially when first released needing que ues,so it is nearly impossible to test server stability if you limit connections.A perfect example is the very old 15 years FFXi,they allowed massive connects,so many people were banging into each other and massive lag in some areas,yet the server never booted any player i can remember nor did the servers ever fail so yeah just saying,this is again nothing new for stability.Point being,if you limit connections you are not proving anything with server stability.
DmKano has at least got a few ,i was thinking nobody really knows enough to claim MODERN ideas.,
I'll weigh in on his mentions.
Destructible world's..YES a very good SORT of modern idea ,although done long ago in fps's it is newish to mmo's.
NONE of the rest is a positive for me,a complete negative actually but skip to 11,yes higher graphics.However see this is why opinions MATTER,we have all heard for years from MANY talking about art style and such,personally i prefer higher end work but many have said they like lower end work.
Deep combat...haha this happens to be my most sought after req for a mmorpg,FFXI already 15 years ago and why i struggle to find a newish game because they do NOT have combat depth to the same degree of FFXI.BTW combat covers a lot of areas,NOT just your player,it involves the mobs as well for example a FFXI Renkai system and player to player combos NOT solo combos.
bottom line?Would love to hear about newish ideas,frankly i see very few,yes Huttball but that is not a plausible idea for most mmo's,it sort of fit SWTOR's LORE design but would look retarded if trying to do it in say a knight/chivalry mmo.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
To be honest,i have played a LOT of gaming and i struggled to think of one idea that is new to modern gaming.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Multiple talent specs
Removal of elemental resistance gear
The whole point of an MMORPG is to provide the potential to play with others, in some on a rather grand scale... not the need to do so.
There are many elements of MMORPGs that solo RPGs simply don't emulate. As such the latter isn't a true replacement for playing solo in the former.
In my short trial of BDO I found the one balancing task I encountered (a wheelbarrow) to be rather annoying and I never got into moving about carts and such. There were a lot of aspects of that game (such as the nodes) that I found rather contrived and thus off putting. That may be because they didn't seem to me all that well explained. The combat style was interesting though.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Max level armor is just gaudy crap in nearly every MMO. Whenever possible I go back and make my armor look like what I was wearing as a newb or mid-level character.