Which elements are a must for MMO RPG's?

[KoreanAim]

Basically what Kira said.
PVP has to be balanced. Pvping in Blade & Soul is nearly impossible since u get matched up with people of different levels, there should be a range match-up for sure to enjoy the experience.
Events ingame to encourage playing, mmorpgs bores people after some time. B&S just made a roulette event where u had to spin every 3 hrs or so to go thru a sort of table based on a dice, and as far as u get, better the rewards.
Nice chill out music, not essencial, but is needed.
So far i couldnt find a mmorpgs with custom fighting system, something like gunz where you could cast skills based on keys taping-pattern, and not like, 12345. Would be awesome to have that cause it gives more dynamics to the game.

Btw, whats this project about? you're planning in making your own game or something? or just collecting info?

[Yuzan]

End game content, every ****ing mmorpg is missing it. /done

[slugheady]

Basically what Kira said.
PVP has to be balanced. Pvping in Blade & Soul is nearly impossible since u get matched up with people of different levels, there should be a range match-up for sure to enjoy the experience.
Events ingame to encourage playing, mmorpgs bores people after some time. B&S just made a roulette event where u had to spin every 3 hrs or so to go thru a sort of table based on a dice, and as far as u get, better the rewards.
Nice chill out music, not essencial, but is needed.
So far i couldnt find a mmorpgs with custom fighting system, something like gunz where you could cast skills based on keys taping-pattern, and not like, 12345. Would be awesome to have that cause it gives more dynamics to the game.

Btw, whats this project about? you're planning in making your own game or something? or just collecting info?

I'm working on just the document for now, we'll see how things work out from there. I just need some info from several people on what they would like to see in an MMO . Thanks thus far.

And I believe there is a good reason there is no end game content for MMORPG's, they aren't supposed to end...

[Layne]

so from these post i think we know which elements are a must for mmos.

- boob physics
- loli clothes
- glowing items
- open world
- balanced pvp
- gothic loli clothes
- miku haircut and clothes
- nice bgm
- big raids
- open world
- shiny glowing elements

[slugheady]

Right now my list looks a bit like this:

-Balanced character system: As obvious as it sounds, all characters must have the same potential.
-Expanding game content: If MMO's stay the same for a long time, people will lose interest.
-PVP Hall of fame: Most of the gamers love their fame, therefore a Hall of fame would work pretty good.
-Quality crafting system: Basically players need to be capable of creating their own weapons, and not only finding them.
-Epic gear: Unique items motivate players to keep on hunting / crafting.
-Guild system:`
-Quests: Some people just love quests, random quests / story line quest.
-Character customization: People need to empathize with the character they create.
-Proper fighting style: Since PVP should be a big part, fighting style has to feel natural and proper.

The basic concept I'm working with is somewhat different then most of you are familiar with. We're thinking of giving worlds a limited time to register and a player cap, when it's filled another will open. Basically all different servers. Each world will have a basic beginner town but beyond that there is just a world filled with hostile villages / cities that can be inhabited by clans / guilds. Not really quest focused, very much co-op / teamworkish focused. Eventually at later stages in the game it should look like a big clan war going on. Also after some amount of time, if you can't register, the player count will slowly decrease therefor you can be in control of continents in the world.

This system would also allow you to play this game for a few months, quit for a year and not be a big noob when you return, it opens up several worlds in periods of time where you can have a fresh start.

[Aether]

-Pvp/Pve
-Open world
-Good gear
-Leveling System
-Self places stats or auto scaling stats (obviously so you can make yourself OP)
-Donation gear (Obviously needs to be OP for Trolling people)
-A good story line (or something good to make up for it)
-Good graphics
-Unique monsters
-Unique Terrain
I think that would be a good start for a good MMORPG.

[DDaggerDD]

this is a bit interesting to me, i've been working on trying to produce a break through "mmorpg" however it couldnt fall under that heading anymore after all the changes my team and i plan for. Design stages only at the moment. Anyway, an modern MMORPG design team should note the "MMO" and "RPG" genres, it's important to have many 'roles' a player can play and once one role is completed to the likings of a player, they can move onto the next. So, roles are important, and I don't just mean 'fighting classes' as a role a player may take on in a an MMORPG can also be the role of a famous weapons smith, an amazing wild forager, a hero to a specific small village, etc. The more different types of roles, the better.

But as for PVP, the more a player can do, the more room gameplay can expand on its own. So if you make a jump attack skill bound to one key that jumps and attacks for you, then thats all that move will. do for gameplay. but when you have junp separate and can attack on your own while jumping, you have the same thing but you could do more with more features and have players do the rest instead of doing it for them and then you wiuld have to keep doing things like that for em once you start making the game too simple.

[Dualage]

Generally something that can lure people in and at the same time have a great friendly UI. Something I dislike is having a giant tutorial explain to me EVERYTHING right away at the beginning; I like to just go and do things while having some sort of small aide rather than outright "Do these before you can even hold a sword".

Once we're past that stage it's really dependent for me. I prefer something that holds replayability and reason for me to continue after I've done basically everything (sure that part is a LONG process, but honestly. there are games out there that die off once you hit top level).

Phantasy Star Online was surprisingly good for replayability. How? Weapons and Armor have distinctive values, making rare drops become hunted often so people can get that high% (stronger in regards to Phantasy Star)/ Weapons that go as far as requiring Specific character ID colors (randomized as you create one; dependent on the characters used in your name), playing on Ultimate (Level 80+), and having drops as steep as 1/2000 where you may only find 16 of those unique monsters during said hunt. The only downside was PSO probably has the worst exponential pacing as weapon choices don't really matter until Ultimate (Or Very Hard on Episode 4); making a lot of the rares found in Hard/Very Hard very janky items; usually used when you have nothing else stronger.

Runescape's replayability is almost non-existent, but honestly it really doesn't need it unless you've played the past 10 years and have done everything you can. It's definitely not the best out there, but it does things that most MMOs don't, and that's generally being able to play without engaging combat with any mobs for the majority if you wish to do so; WHILE progressing. Albeit it is an extreme grinderfest, it's still a decent stable MMO; very good for a Java platform and a browser based MMO.

So for a list, I'd go for...
- A progressive tutorial that isn't completely "in-your-face" and not mandatory to do everything before you are set free
- A way to make it long-lasting; most MMOs get people to level 50 then they are simply done with nothing else to really do
- Balanced combat mechanics; it's problematic when everyone is a warrior because they have no cons while the others have about 10
- "Something for all". Some like to PvM while others like to PvP; separate different worlds/servers so both sides (or more if they exist) can enjoy
- Relatively decent scaling so that you don't feel like you HAVE to grind to get anywhere, but not so fast you don't max out in a week... difficult to do earnestly.
- Lore... this one speaks for itself. You play an MMO, and you REALLY want to try to get into what's going on in terms of lore, but you also want to play ASAP. This is probably the hardest part for any MMO to do considering lore is outright ignored by the majority of players. It's only problematic because usually to progress, you need to know what the hell is going on, but at the same time you don't care because all you want to do is just beat it for reasons(lol Runescape). Though this part isn't entirely an MMO killer, it's something I find that seems to be ignored and barely tampered with, so players tend to not care and just move on
- Ranking system; this simply encourages some players to play all they can and try to reach top-scores. Even better when there's multiple categories as there's more space for players to reach to
- Economy balance; We ALL know how MMOs get when the player market gets stupid. There are usually solutions to this, but it depends on the game... Unfortunately my example of Phantasy Star Online is bad considering the private server I go on made the prices of everything ridiculous... costing some items 3000 Photon Drops (which are rare items dropped by any mob in Ultimate at a 1/125 rate. Considering it's a dungeon based game with limited amounts of mobs per session... you can see how this is bad)
- Frequent updates; by frequent, I mean maybe weekly (or if developers want to go all out, bi-weekly). The reasons are obvious enough. Fresh new content. Game-breaking fixes. Overall longer-lasting atmosphere to players old and new.

Just some things I could think of. But here's a big NO-NO for ANY MMO to ever commit. NEVER EVER make your MMO a Pay-to-win service. Even going as far as beneficial pay services can become a stretch to this. I know these games need to make $$$ somehow, but making players pay to advantage over others really deters a lot of people. Due to people simply being unable to utilize any e-services such as paypal or simply using a credit card (where most countries have a legal age requirement). I honestly think the best way to make money (as an MMO developer or manager or w/e) is to do what a lot of MOBAs have been doing. Offer 2 different in-game currencies; one purchased with cash and one you get for playing in-game and make premiums offered to both sides; with obvious discounts to those who purchase.

Last, but not least.. ENJOY THIS WALL OF TEXT NO ONE WILL READ.

[DDaggerDD]

^ dualage, i read all of that lol. Got some good points. seems legit.

p.s. you remind me of bankai/naomi from aeria gunz.

[Wuzzup]

-Levels and Ranks
-PVP
-PVM
-Good gear to wear
-open word
-A Raid That contains 2+ players
-Monsters of all levels
-Quests to help you out leveling up and entertain you
-High Quality