What are your top 5 MMO must-haves?

ThomasN7

As more and more MMOs release, our options grow. That said, most MMOs utilize the same basic features, styles, and mechanics. Almost all of them feature combat, RPG progression, questing, avatars, classes, etc. These are the things we usually judge when choosing which MMO to play. We will say to ourselves, "Hmmm, I won't play that because it doesn't have this or that feature." or "Oooh, I'm definitely playing that because the game has these specific qualities!"

What are your top 5 MMO must-haves? Do you only play fantasy-themed MMOs? Does a thriving player-driven economy make your list of requirements?

My personal list includes:

1. Polish and a general lack of bugs

I know -- I chose the wrong genre if this is my top must-have! Unfortunately, I get really annoyed paying an initial box price and then a monthly fee to support incompetence...

2. Meaningful PvP

"Meaningful" is a loaded descriptor and includes things like progression through PvP (gear and XP), ranking, consequence, and obviously a story- or design-driven purpose/reason for it all.

3. Class variety or variety within my class

Warhammer Online has 24 classes which are a little bit different from each other. That's cool. World of Warcraft has 10 classes but allows you to specialize through numerous talent combos. That's cool too!

4. Casual-friendliness

"With great age comes great responsibility." I had plenty of time to game/grind when I was in high school and college but now I'm pushing 30 with a family, job(s), and a house. I don't mind working for something, but please don't insult me with tedious design that makes things difficult for no good reason.

5. Interesting and diverse PvE

I'm a PvP-junkie first and foremost, but I still realize that variety is the spice of life. I enjoy PvE a lot more when it isn't mindless, repetitive, lazy, and generally grindy. For instance, I enjoyed WoW 1-70 but the raiding endgame and daily quests weren't my idea of fun.

What is your top 5 ?

 

Source: www.massively.com/2009/07/30/the-daily-grind-what-are-your-top-5-mmo-must-haves/

mrroboto40

Originally posted by SaintViktor



What is your top 5 ?
 

Something to do once you reach level cap, something worthwhile, good guild social aspects, as well as guild levels, that is something I loved about WAR.

And all of your above.

Inzra

Kinda difficult saying what is a must-have i think.

I know what I would prefer to have in an ultimate mmorpg, but as for the games we have access to... or at what point I wouldn't play a game even if it was the best around...

I.e. I won't play a game if it doesn't have PvP, but if no games had PvP I might still try to figure out which one had best PvE in the wait of a PvP game

That would support the mmorpg genre anyway.

Xeronn

0: NO INSTANCES. EVER. IN ANY FORM.

1: No Instances . This is critical , I have a severe adversion to instancing , and whenever I look up a new MMO , this is what first and firstmost draws my attention . If it`s instanced , it`s not for me

 

2: Free PvP. I can live with consequences for ganking , guards , criminal status , whatever , but if the game has "you can not attack this" message , strictly prohibiting PvP just "because" , ...not for me

 

3: Fuctional Economy and significant Death penalty : These ussualy go hand-in-hand . Land owning , teritorial warfare , resources and crafting meaning something

 

4:Much variation in classes/builds , classless if possible , skillbased

 

5: Minimal NPC interferance , i like player-driven games not single player rpg`s with chatrooms

 

 

RedwoodSap

1. sandbox design, no linear task driven theme parks

2. large open world, no instancing of any kind

3. complex crafting of desirable items

4. meaningful death penalty, preferably hefty experience loss

5. PVE with some worldly element of  lootable PvP, not just arenas and duels

 

Czzarre

Although I agree with many of what you list. I wonder if that is for a mature MMO.

If you apply those standards to a new MMO once released , I wager few to none will meet your criteria.

We have to adjust our expectations that every game wont be as polished as one thats 4-5 yrs old

They will always be bugs

Classes and variety increase with time

etc

Rajen

 My top 5 'must haves' are for games that are releasing in the future, not already active games.

 

1. Must have a friendly community (goodbye WoW =D)

2. If there is PvP, the abilities needs to work seperate from PvE so class abilities that are nerfed for PvP do not experience the nerf when enganged with PvE targets.

3. Game needs to revolve around PvE religiously, if PvP is enabled it should not have any effect on gear/nerfs/etc

4. Fun group oriented play, but not forced group play, you should be able to solo effectively in case you can't find a party

5. Must be fantasy based, not scifi/space based.

Meh i'll put a 6th one on here because this has always been a peeve of mine...

6. Characters need to move around smoothly and realisticly, not like robots! I think I have only seen 2 MMOs able to make characters flow instead of having blocky movements. a next gen MMO can not have this.

 

The only game I have heard of that really matches this is FF14, FF11 had a great community but the forced group kind of made me stop playing after several years. It is also PvE only and will be released with zero PvP content so that tells me the game will be based around PvE heavily.

 

But yeah that is my 15$+/month or whatever requirement^^

ThomasN7

1. It has to be polished. No need to play a monthly fee for a broken game.

2. Fun. I don't care what kind of mmo it is, if it is dull and boring I'm not playing.

3. Customization. If I can't customize my chracter the way I want to then I'll be disappointed but not a game breaker.

4. Must be soloable. I like grouping and I group very often in mmos. If I only have an hour or so I do not wish to be standing in an area lfg for 30 min just to find a group.

5. Complexity. There has to be some kind of challenege in the game. Making it super is just because devs want to make a profit is not my idea of fun.

Jquik

 #1  by far is polish. coding that actually works how it supposed to. which is the main reason why i never got into warhammer, everything about the game seems awesome, classes, rvr etc. however the atk/cast delay coding issue is enough for me to never even touch the game again.

jfk35824

Let's see....

 

5.  More to do than "go kill x of y " missions....i need a *story* and i need more to do than *just* kill things

4.  I need content.  I like to explore a world, and its culture.

3.  I need something other than a fantasy game.  There are lots and lots and lots of those, more variety please in settings

2.  Graphics and smoothness of play that create immersion that a mid level laptop like mine can support easily.

1. First and foremost, something I can *AFFORD* both to buy, and to play.  Essentially, I want all of the features and content of high end games like Champions Online, DC Universe, Aion, The Secret World, etc. with multiple price points so that I can afford to download or buy a box, and then afford to continue play after the first month. $50-$60 initial outlay, plus a sub fee, and then item shop fees etc. on top of it for more than one game, is far too much for my family to support. If the industry doesn't do something about it, I'm just going to have to let my daughter have a WoW sub, and quit playing in the genre' myself (I wish I liked WoW, I don't). 

Inf666

1. Game has to be fun.

2. Intense combat (FPS + manual dodge/aiming + low HP)

3. Grinding (Quests)  is not connected to character progression or success of player.

4. Sand box on all levels.

5. Long travel times + Item decay or loss of  items on death.

 

Vrazule

First and foremost, it has to be a game.  Not a business model, not a simulation, not a social experiment.

Seondly, it has to have casual contet for end game, not just the beginning.  No preferential treatment to hardcores and raiders.

Thirdly, the game needs to focus on the replayability much more than the long grind to end game.  Gratuitous time sinks that emphasize the business model rather than game play are a big turn off.

Fourthly, the game has to focus on adventure.  I'm not interested in being a crafter, nor am I interested in being held hostage to them either.  The adventure aspect has to be avatar based, no twitch combat in any form.

Lastly, the game had better not be based on the 'Holy Trinity'.  Being ball and chained to a tank or healer is incredibly annoying.

 

Hence why I only play Wizard 101 at the moment and why I enjoyed City of Heroes much more than any of the other traditional MMOs since EQ.

Kyleran

1)  I want a game just like EVE, but based more on a fantasy theme that has Avatars.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still play EVE, but it would be nice to have a change once in a while.

2)  OK, released in a state that's reasonably stable, playable and fun.  Doesn't have to be perfect mind you, but lets try and make it somewhat pollished.

3)  I like PVP, but hate seeing "ganking" rewarded.  Mechanics should be put in place to strongly encourage more fair fights (i.e. if you attack a player fighting a npc, npc sheers off, heals to full health and attacks you instead.)

4)  Free of explots, hacks, macroing, radaring and cheats.  Yeah, I know, a tough one, but the company should be ever vigilent and quick to stomp on such activities.

5)  Better enforcement of civility in the game communty.  Somebody has a really bad name, change it.  Someones behaving badly in public channels, shut them down quiickly.  Actually, how about having employees who do nothing but moderate public channels?

5.5)  If a game must have multiple servers, let us move freely between them when we chose to, so that we can always game with our friends.

 

 

 

johnspartan

1. Community building - doesn't have to be anything particular but motivations for players to play together and group together either temporarily or more long term for guilds/etc. but also more server/faction/realm pride and involvement.



2. Character advancement - doesn't matter if it's gear or levels or skills it just has to feel good. I have to feel myself becoming more powerful and being more badass.

3. Customization - my toon, the look of my gear, customize my abilities/skills etc. the more the better



4. Presentation - this includes graphics and interface but also animations and interface and sound/music and the way the character models look and move and the design of cities/towns and zones etc. pretty much everything audio/visual and polish/bug free



5. Adventure - be it exploring or combat or trading or crafting, quests or dungeons/raids or PvP it just has to be fun and exciting not the same old bland crap every new MMO seems to keep pumping out.

tupodawg999

Either...

1) 100% PvE, slow-paced

2) Lots of races and classes and low level quest  variety.

3) Complex crafting

4) Complex politics - many factions with allies and enemies

5) Part questing and part mob-grinding with the best mob-grinding in big open dungeons

Or...

1) 100% PvP, fast paced

2) Multi-team RvR focused on channeling players to large battles

3) All xp, gear, levels from PvP

4) No tiers - all in together

5) Terriotorial control with the possibility of winning the war by taking enemy capitals / homeworlds

Firekyo

My  5 MMO Musts are:

Community - Logging on every day without having any interactions at all with the thousands of people around you is kinda... Depressing? I like games where the community is social, active, friendly and helpful. And most importantly, alive.

PvE Content - I like games where the next leveling zone isnt exactly the same as the other one. With entirely different mobs, not just the same vectors with a different skin (OH LOOK THIS ONE HAS RED ARMORZ KEEL). Also, on the subject of leveling zones, I like being able to choose where I go, instead of having the cheap leveling roads like alot of games I've previously played. Also, since it kind of conects with PvE content, quests; these quests should reward a reasonable amount of xp and/or funds. On the note of PvP, I liked what warcraft did with various battlegrounds, although this eventually became routine, it was fun having the choice of what you wanted to do. Aside from battlegrounds far away from the safety of cities, I really like being able to take the fight to the enemy's doorsteps . Death penalties and PvP gains are really of no importance to  me.

Storyline and Lore - Although every game is a grind, I like it to be an interesting grind. I don't want to do "Kill xxx" quests for no reason all the way until end game. Need's some sort of connection to it all. Also the scenery must catch my eye, and me unique and different with each zone, and all of this in the end must bind to a giant impossible to finish end-game thing. Kinda like how Warcraft does Lich King and Guild Wars does the whole Role-Playing characters. Otherwise I just quit, since i lose interest really fast...

Solo friendly - My prefered playing style is solo, only teaming when I really can't do something solo. It would suck to hit a dead end in a game just because I can't get a team. Obviously raiding for phats is different, I would love to do that, but having to do a team to kill some field mobs for a 1% drop chance on an item is weak.

Customization - I loved SWG for being able to customize every single thing about your character's apperance, and i loved Anarchy Online for being able to customize all your skill points. I dislike having 3 sets of hair styles, faces, and classes to choose from. (Although sometimes I continue to play eitherway.) And I dislike having 4 skills to input new skill points into (Str, Dex, Vit, Int). Gimmie some choice!

All in no particular order

rikilii

1.  Ability to mouselook without holding down a mouse button (i.e. mouselook toggle)

2.  PVP

3.  A big world, but with instanced dungeons

4.  Good graphics and/or art direction

5.  Movement in 3 dimensions (i.e. not SWG).

 

I can think of a lot more, but those are some fundamentals.

Scot

Most of those are on my list, but number 4 splits us. Most of us don't want a easy game, a big chunk of us don't want a solo game too. We need a variety of play styles, not every new MMO trying to be everything to every man.

Nadril

#1 Polish. This really goes without saying, I don't want to play a game which resembles a beta client.

#2 Fun and "meaningful" PvP I like PvP that seemingly has a goal to it. It doesn't really have to be much, but just something so that it doesn't feel like a plain deathmatch. PvP does need to be exciting though!

#3 Visually Appealing I'm sure this is odd to be up here. What I do mean though is I want the game world to be interesting. I still think Anarchy Online looks pretty cool because it's game world is quite interesting. I think Age of Conan looks like ass because it's so dull and lifeless.

#4 Interesting Combat Really goes without saying here. I want to have choices to make in combat, I want to have multiple ways to look at a combat situation. Combat also needs to be fluid though, something that WAR was terrible at and probably one of the biggest things that took me out of that game. WoW is a great example of fluid combat, it's too bad I just don't like the games PvP :P

#5 Interesting content While I love PvP, I still also really like to have some interesting content in a game. This is pretty ambiguous and I intend it to be, because it doesn't really matter to me what the content is.

Lamarak

 My top 5 - these are my thoughts on less obvious ones that always bugged me.

1. If crafting in game, its solid and meaningful.

2. If PVP in game,  its handled seperate from PVE,   nerfs that need for pvp do not affect my PVE play ( big one)

3. Dont allow add ons, i feel they make the game a job and can make it to easy.

4.  Solid communication from Devs and class designers - 

5. Trained and friendly GM in game and relatively easy to get a hold of. 

Palebane

1. Clean, smooth, modable interface.

 

2. Balanced class-based PvP.

 

3. More than 3 factions.

 

4. More than 2 character races.

 

5. A move away from loot treadmills, with emphasis on player skill rather than gear.

thinktank001

 

1.  Smooth Gameplay

2. Good UI

3.  Low Lag

4.  Active enforcement against cheating

5. Adequate Customer Service

 

Wow, I just noticed that all 5 of those have nothing to do with the content in the game.  

green13

My top 5...

1) Payment model

I never would have thought I'd have to worry about this before.... recent developments. I've always played subscription mmos. I don't like RMT or shopping malls.

2) Engaging and varied combat

Good example: City of Heroes.

There's a really wide array of abilities and many of them have status effects (eg. knockback, knockdown, anti-knockback, sleep, disorient, slow etc. etc.). Many of those effects interact with each other so that a power might be useful for one thing while solo'ing, but also have other uses when combined with particular powers that other people in a team might have.

Bad example: World of Warcraft (end-game raids)

Raids are generally mindless repetition of a learned sequence of steps. It's literally the same thing over and over and over and over.

3) World factor

Good example: Ryzom

Beautiful artwork, seasons, a complex harvesting system and mob AI that has mobs interacting with each other (i.e. killing each other) independent of any player actions. It makes the world feel alive.

Bad example: City of Heroes

Outdoor environments are largely similar in appearance and players spend most of their time inside instanced missions.

4) Community

Communities have generally been reasonably good in most mmos I've played. I won't name and shame the ones I didn't care for, though.

5) Variety and choice

Good examples: Darkfall, Ryzom, City of Heroes

Darkfall (yes I hate it) does have a skill system I like. I think it mixes uncomfortably with the full-loot and open pvp, but by itself I like the skill system.

Ryzom has a similarly open skill-system, though the method of advancement isn't as straightforward as Darkfall's. Ryzom does have an excellent harvesting/crafting system though, which gives you something to do other than combat.

City of Heroes scores well for the dizzying array of different characters you can make by virtue of selecting both a primary and secondary powerset (like Titan Quest) and for costume customisation.

Anarchy Online had some interesting character customisation options with implants and so forth. I liked them, though I think they were probably too complex to really have broad appeal.

Bad example: City of Heroes

City of Heroes score poorly on this one for me, because the game design is a bit one-dimensional. There's combat, combat and more combat. They've introduced crafting but to do that  you need recipes and parts or influence (currency) to buy them - all of those you acquire via.... that's right, combat!