What comes next for MMORPGs?

[Tek7]

As popular as World of Warcraft is, it's still only a set of minor improvements overlaid (with very shiny art, granted) on a design model that's starting to show its age in an industry where games like Braid, Portal, and Trine are starting to shine.

Games like City of Heroes have already solved major flaws with systems like Sidekicks, where higher-level players are temporarily reduced in level so they can partner with a lower-level friend.

We may never get rid of the level treadmill. But with some new MMOs in alpha or beta using Unreal Engine 3, it's possible we'll see the first visually impressive and financially successful MMO FPS/RPG hybrid with a large player base in the US. (I don't think Neocron has a large enough US player base to count and I don't consider World War II Online a MMO FPS/RPG hybrid based on what I've read.)

When I started playing video games in 1985, Super Mario Bros. didn't have any save functionality, no simultaneous multiplayer, levels had only one exit, and levels were strictly linear. The original SMB is still fun to play, but if someone were to release a platformer with 32 levels (not counting the Minus World) and no save feature, people would flip.

My point: Platformers have evolved. So have first-person shooters, role-playing games (in which there is NO excuse in 2009 to feature random encounters), shmups and other genres.

It seems MMO developers are dragging their heels when it comes to innovation--and understandably so. MMORPGs are expensive to develop, expensive to promote, expensive to maintain, and expensive to expand. Few companies are willing or even able to take the risk on a revolutionary MMO. Just as you probably wouldn't expect Transformers 3 to revolutionize the American action blockbuster, it's probably unreasonable to expect anything but "baby steps" when it comes to advancing the MMO genre.

Still, it's an interesting point of discussion, especially since we have so many MMO experts in the community (whether they recognize themselves as such or not). Many current MMO players on these forums played at least one MMO prior to picking up World of WarCraft. They understand a game doesn't need 9 million subscribers to be financially successful or fun. (If anything, Dark Age of Camelot was usually more fun because it had a more mature player base.) I'd be interested to hear their opinions, as well as anyone who discovered the MMORPG genre through WoW.

 

[vibrokatana]

- Remove the grind

There needs to be a way to reward players without necessarily rewarding excessive playtime. At the same time you need to make amends for players who are not as skilled. In the end MMOs need to embrace the social aspect more and strict adherence to content less. Sequential events don't make sense in a persistent world, so it doesn't make sense to make a player follow a certain path.

- Drop the fantasy

We are tired of elves, orcs, gnomes and trolls. As much as I like swords and magic, it is getting old. Think up something original kthxbye.

- Open up the content

Allow players to customize content beyond switch hair styles and color. In a lot of cases players are forced to choose between stats and their preferred look. Allowing players to create their own areas, like a house or a shop (ala galaxies) gives them something to do besides grinding away.

Allowing players to make their own areas/content would be pretty awesome.

 

[Keero]

Maor spacesihps and LAZER BEEMS! pew pew

I would like something other than Fantasy too. How about... destructible environments? That could be cool. o.o

 

[vibrokatana]

Maor spacesihps and LAZER BEEMS! pew pew

I would like something other than Fantasy too. How about... destructible environments? That could be cool. o.o

Part of the issue with environments is morphing vertices in real time AND updating the clients synchronously. With added latency and the amount of data needed to be transmitted in realtime this isn't really practical. However items like buildings and such could be destroyed as it would be pre generated or at least predictable. Just don't expect to poke a hole in a wall :\

 

[Keero]

Auto Assault had it. o.o

And it also deeeeaaaad now.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

A few of my ideas

Actually I have a solution to just about all these issues. Sigh I'll never get to make my games so I might as well mention a few here.

SELF PERPETUAL CONTENT is the important thing and all MMORPGS should be centered on it (can't say it loud enough). MMORPGs content may be vast but what's around the corner is predictable and developers could not possibly add content quickly enough for a truly evolving world. To this end more game play ideas need to be player driven. I suggest...

Quests for items of power: Every rpg around has the player collecting things for a climatic conclusion at the end of the game (orbs, elements , etc.). Why not have multiple items of power for players to collect in a MMORPG.
1. Each would spawn in pieces at random but spaced out points and require collecting.
2. Bearers of a piece would be open to pvp combat from anyone and be able to detect which direction a piece is in (think highlander).
3. Knowing a person has a piece could only be determined by holding a piece yourself or a rare item (and even then only give you a direction). The game itself would allow killing players anytime but attacking a player without a piece would give you a very stiff penalty.
4. Collecting all the pieces would in essence make you a boss level character (requiring multiple people to take you down) and allow you to put a useful buff on your followers. This means people would both flock to join your group/clan for the buff and flock to attack you for your item of power.
5. Defeating a holder of an item of power would only get you one piece of it the rest would respawn in the world again to be collected.
6. You could also only hold an item of power for a limited time before needing to visit that item's "place of power" to renew it or it would be automatically respawned again. Of course rival groups will try to take it from you when you try and renew it giving another reason for guild vs. guild combat.

I've got other rules too but it's too long to get into (like you can't hold two items of power, be double buffed by items of power, preventions for log out running and holders of items of power are damaged by each other automatically in close proximity preventing team ups).

Game Masters: Find honorable players and reward them with a free account if they become game masters. They would be much more than just admins they would have the ability to create simple custom quest sequences. Creation would be pretty simple add NPC at xy coordinates, with custom text, add destination point, spawn monster/item at destination point if you've talked to the NPC, give reward to player on monster defeat or item retrieve, etc. It's seems like it would be ridiculously simple and easy to implement and add loads of replay value. Game masters could also disguise themselves as a player of any class or name. Imagine pretending to be a newbie and rewarding those who help you. I've got a game story idea for this to fit into as well. The hardest part would be simply finding players who would not abuse the system. Note: I'd also give the ability to display banned grievers/hackers/botters avatars in medieval type cages or with their heads on pikes as an example to others...

Don't divide players: Having set groups of like horde or alliance is always going to have balance issues (on Battlefield Heroes the balance issues are horrible). Plus what if I want to hop over to the other side and play with a friend over there? I shouldn't have to re-roll a new character to do it. I much prefer player created clans and benefits should be directed to encourage them. I'm thinking stock buildings/castles could be purchased and added in game at server maintance times. Should one clan "rule" a server too much GM's could encourage the growth of others with their abilities. I can see GMs finding and empowering "champions" to slay a person with an item of power should they get to powerful. It would fit very well into the game with the story I have in mind (you know wise old sage/wizard mysteriously appears to a young hero to help him slay the darkness that rules the land).

Randomly appearing dungeons: Think of the movie Krull. Random floating castles appearing in the sky (I know Krull's didn't float) would be quite a surprise for players to suddenly find at familiar places. Other dungeon spawn types could be cracks opening in the ground, distortions in space time, giant monsters swallowing you, etc. You could even have the option for players to learn an ability to predict these spawns.

Towns being attacked: Towns are to boring. While I want some main towns to be safe places I'd like other towns to be able to be attacked at any time by hordes of NPC monsters/enemies. Imagine being in a town and hearing the church bell ring as a warning. Better get ready to defend it or it will get burnt to the ground.

Client based appearances: I've always been annoyed that no matter what you do in a MMORPG NPCs will still be doing the same thing. If a town appears half destroyed and you complete a quest to help repair it will never look repaired. This is because MMORPG makers seem to think all clients need to display the same graphics. As long as the collision meshes remain the same why not display different graphics to different players before and after completing certain quests. Furthermore why not have more NPC's only visible to players on certain quests? This would lend immensely to the illusion of a changing world.

More frequent transport spots: I don't mind long rides but most people don't have all that time to waste. Typically once you visit a town you can go there via a transport service. I'd just have more transport points along the main routes. In my story idea riffs in space time are common so you'd just have to find one once to open it for use. With all the random and custom content that can occur with my other ideas taking a walk may still be worth it sometimes though.

The main thing is these things are all player driven. A changing world where anything can happen will always be more exciting than a static one. Other things are...

No classes: Most MMORPGs determine abilities from picking a class. I'd reverse this and determine your class from what abilities you choose providing a system that you could learn any ability you want. Similar abilities would enhance each other but if you want to be a healer who wants a sword attack you could do it. You'd have a limit on how many abilities would enhance each other, like say 7, so you would encourage many duel custom classes. For example if you had a limit of 20 abilities at any given time you could have 7 healing 7 sword, 3 agility and 3 strength.

No levels: Actually I'd keep levels but just make them only minor enhancements on your stats and have a low cap on them. The real training would be on abilities. Use an ability a lot and you'd get better at it. Which abilities you have equipped would effect your stats. This way is more like real life where you get better at something from practice. I know that your may be thinking it will be boring to have to grind up an ability you only use once in a blue moon but the exp required to master one would not be a lot. It would require enough exp grinding to prevent swapping abilities quickly. Having multiple abilities would be what keeps you busy. This should encourage swapping single abilities to experiment but discourage swapping them all as it would be like re-rolling that character. You'd have a starting set of abilities but most would be earned via quests in game. I like feeling like I built my characters up not just assembled them.

Mini games for crafting: With crafting it's rather boring to put things in a slot and have to push the same button sequence over and over again. Either make each a full fledged flash level mini game or make them simple enough I can set it up to be done automatically. I can easily see Tetris, Bejeweled, Desktop Defense styled mini games used for crafting. I mean come on if Final Fantasy 7 can have Chocobo racing and breeding and Final Fantasy 8 can have a complete card game MMORPGS can do better.

FPS style MMORPGS: This would address latency issues and the game itself would not necessarily be an FPS, just set up that way server wise. It could be done if a MMORPG maker partnered with or owned a server rental service. You'd make renting a server only slightly more expensive than an account and throw in an account with every rental. Items/exp would only be accrued on official maps but with a server rental you'd have the option to run customs and choose which instance runs. Trading/LFG could be done via a web paged based master server (all of which would be themed to not take you out of the experience). Want to go a space trade run? Post you are hiring escorts, hire them, go to a server, space pirates could join and try to take your cargo. Same thing could be done in a medieval type game. Note this idea is for a different game than the others.

Billing: I don't like to buy something and feel obligated to play it. I suggest billing be done more like game rentals as in a weekly manner rather than monthly. Most people didn't have a problem with game rentals back in the day. You could buy "tokens" and each token would be worth a week of game play. After a week a token would need to be used to continue to play (with a warning before it is). If you played for a month continually the price would be the same as regular monthly fee MMORPGS but if you wanted to go on vacation it would turn off and not cost you money. Tokens could be packaged to give a discount as well if you bought more at one time.

Anyway I have a ton of other ideas all of which are libel to be used before I will get to T_T . GTG, hope it made sense I had to post before I could check it a lot.

 

[Elader Arkon]

Oooo MMO Discussion. I love them so I should probably put in my 2 cents in regards to what has been posted above.

SELF PERPETUAL CONTENT
There's a group at a university working on something that could have great ramifications for player content, especially (IMO) in MMOs. It is, in its own words: "a multiplayer online video game and a research experiment in automatic content generation driven by player preferences." How far it goes is up for debate, but it could potentially grow beyond just weapon choices...

Don't divide players:
This is probably my only serious point of contention. I believe its the competition aspect that makes an MMO shine. As long as the sides are on more or less equal footing (Alliance vs Horde) with no seeming bias towards one side (here's looking at you WAR's Destro) there is a greater sense of community that can be built and used to a developer's advantage. I don't think it should be limited to always two sides, and splitting players up too much is a bad idea (who knows how the 40k MMO is going to handle this without making large segments of its potential playerbase very unhappy).

Randomly appearing dungeons
Randomly appearing dungeons would be an interesting idea, however it could get complicated really fast, or it could be more of an annoyance. It gets complicated if say the dungeons are truly random (at least, within the confines of the lvl reqs/area it appears in) due to the generation of content and its subsequent client update, or it could be an annoyance (grr, where's that stupid dungeon today...)

Client based appearances
Blizzard has started using its phasing technology to great effect in WoTLK to achieve some of the very things you mentioned. They've been using phasing for years to make things invisible (grr rogues...) and now they've moved on to npcs who will move/disappear entirely depending on what you've done in the quests. The look of areas can change as well. Its really cool when it happens. Anyway, here's a quick article about it

No classes:
I think you would have to be very, very careful with this one. most players tend to group towards what is the absolute best builds, so without a class system pretty much everyone could wind up being one build or more likely, there wouldn't be much diversity in skills. Though if done right, it really could be revolutionary.




Anyway, my final thoughts on the subject of MMOs.
I think MMOs could do a whole lot better, but the hardest part of developing boils down to the individual consumer. Some people want their PvE, PvP, grind/no grind, weapon and armor progression/or not, etc. etc. There's probably a reason people haven't tried too hard to emulate EvE where pretty much everything is player driven (though I would looooove to see more MMOs influenced by that game) so a developer needs to decide what their target audience is going to be before they even put pen to paper. And as for other posts about not enough spaceships and laser beams... Warhammer 40k is coming. Yes, I am heavily biased towards that universe.

 

[vibrokatana]

No classes: Most MMORPGs determine abilities from picking a class. I'd reverse this and determine your class from what abilities you choose providing a system that you could learn any ability you want. Similar abilities would enhance each other but if you want to be a healer who wants a sword attack you could do it. You'd have a limit on how many abilities would enhance each other, like say 7, so you would encourage many duel custom classes. For example if you had a limit of 20 abilities at any given time you could have 7 healing 7 sword, 3 agility and 3 strength.

No levels: Actually I'd keep levels but just make them only minor enhancements on your stats and have a low cap on them. The real training would be on abilities. Use an ability a lot and you'd get better at it. Which abilities you have equipped would effect your stats. This way is more like real life where you get better at something from practice. I know that your may be thinking it will be boring to have to grind up an ability you only use once in a blue moon but the exp required to master one would not be a lot. It would require enough exp grinding to prevent swapping abilities quickly. Having multiple abilities would be what keeps you busy. This should encourage swapping single abilities to experiment but discourage swapping them all as it would be like re-rolling that character. You'd have a starting set of abilities but most would be earned via quests in game. I like feeling like I built my characters up not just assembled them.

The main problem with being able to roll your own so to say is how unbalanced it can become. I liked how planetside handled qualifications. As you leveled you got more points you could use concurrently. But you had the option of refunding them to reroll. So you could be a pilot one day and a tank driver the next.

Mini games for crafting: With crafting it's rather boring to put things in a slot and have to push the same button sequence over and over again. Either make each a full fledged flash level mini game or make them simple enough I can set it up to be done automatically. I can easily see Tetris, Bejeweled, Desktop Defense styled mini games used for crafting. I mean come on if Final Fantasy 7 can have Chocobo racing and breeding and Final Fantasy 8 can have a complete card game MMORPGS can do better.

Crafting is going to be boring no matter how it is. The biggest issue is having bzillions of materials which you need to collect. Reducing the complexity to a few materials, or just currency would make it so every player could participate. But then that would pretty much ruin any economy so I doubt any company would do that.

FPS style MMORPGS: This would address latency issues and the game itself would not necessarily be an FPS, just set up that way server wise. It could be done if a MMORPG maker partnered with or owned a server rental service. You'd make renting a server only slightly more expensive than an account and throw in an account with every rental. Items/exp would only be accrued on official maps but with a server rental you'd have the option to run customs and choose which instance runs. Trading/LFG could be done via a web paged based master server (all of which would be themed to not take you out of the experience). Want to go a space trade run? Post you are hiring escorts, hire them, go to a server, space pirates could join and try to take your cargo. Same thing could be done in a medieval type game. Note this idea is for a different game than the others.

Changing something to an FPS doesn't eliminate the latency issues, it actually tends to compound it. Instead of renting servers you could offer a higher level subscription for benefits, for instance a base or berthing for a players ship, etc.

You can actually run other windows besides the game window. So you could for instance stop the rendering thread while the player browses servers. Then when they get ready to join you can show the actual game very quickly.

Web interfaces tend to suck for concurrent tasks, and launching programs from them is usually more complicated then it has any right to be. However there are browser based plugins that could accomplish the same thing. Unity3d and Torque both have their own.

Billing: I don't like to buy something and feel obligated to play it. I suggest billing be done more like game rentals as in a weekly manner rather than monthly. Most people didn't have a problem with game rentals back in the day. You could buy "tokens" and each token would be worth a week of game play. After a week a token would need to be used to continue to play (with a warning before it is). If you played for a month continually the price would be the same as regular monthly fee MMORPGS but if you wanted to go on vacation it would turn off and not cost you money. Tokens could be packaged to give a discount as well if you bought more at one time.

Some MMOs in asia bill based on hourly consumption. However, I have a feeling any company doing so would be a grinder of the worst degree to maximize profits. What I would like to see more of is allowing players to play for free in a limited capacity. For instance the "planetside reserves" and DnD Online.

For an MMOFPS you could offer a higher level subscription with an instanced base where you could do research, etc. Another idea is to offer ships and charge for berthing fees. The bigger/powerful the ship the more players would need to pay.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Don't divide players:
This is probably my only serious point of contention. I believe its the competition aspect that makes an MMO shine. As long as the sides are on more or less equal footing (Alliance vs Horde) with no seeming bias towards one side (here's looking at you WAR's Destro) there is a greater sense of community that can be built and used to a developer's advantage. I don't think it should be limited to always two sides, and splitting players up too much is a bad idea (who knows how the 40k MMO is going to handle this without making large segments of its potential playerbase very unhappy).

I don't think there is any contention whatsoever here. Competition is a great aspect in mmorpgs I just eschew having sides that permanently divide the player base. The same ends could be achieved by providing great rewards to promote the formation of large clans while retaining the freedom to come and go as you like. All the effort that goes into creating areas the other side will never see could go to making those rewards pretty enticing. Basically large player created groups should be the impetus for much of the content that happens in the game not pre-scripted good and evil sides. Player created conflicts could have an impact on the whole server whether you are involved directly in them, in a clan, or a clanless bystander living through it on the server. I also try to avoid the good and evil aspects of sides as I don't think anyone should enjoy being evil (though some developers claim their sides not to be good or evil they pretty much always lean one way or the other). I actually find the fact that so many people enjoy playing evil (not evil the funny type but EVIL) characters in games disturbing and disheartening. I'm like why would any honorable person want to fantasize about doing evil things???

Randomly appearing dungeons
Randomly appearing dungeons would be an interesting idea, however it could get complicated really fast, or it could be more of an annoyance. It gets complicated if say the dungeons are truly random (at least, within the confines of the lvl reqs/area it appears in) due to the generation of content and its subsequent client update, or it could be an annoyance (grr, where's that stupid dungeon today...)

I want a true treasure hunt, I want the unexpected, I want to be able to find something that only I know about and can't be found via a google search XD . You can never have any of those if everyone knows about them. Most of the random dungeons would have to be endgame type stuff as lower level players would not be able to access the whole map to find them. There would be a way to find most of them via abilities but you'd never know where you'd be heading next and I want that feeling. One of the better (and I use that term very loosely) parts of Silkroad was coming across one of the random boss spawns or hunting them down with a party.

Client based appearances
Blizzard has started using its phasing technology to great effect in WoTLK to achieve some of the very things you mentioned. They've been using phasing for years to make things invisible (grr rogues...) and now they've moved on to npcs who will move/disappear entirely depending on what you've done in the quests. The look of areas can change as well. Its really cool when it happens. Anyway, here's a quick article about it

Cool I didn't know they had already done it. I had thought of it years ago and certainly before Wrath of the Lich King :/ (I've never played WoW btw).

No classes:
I think you would have to be very, very careful with this one. most players tend to group towards what is the absolute best builds, so without a class system pretty much everyone could wind up being one build or more likely, there wouldn't be much diversity in skills. Though if done right, it really could be revolutionary.

The main problem with being able to roll your own so to say is how unbalanced it can become. I liked how planetside handled qualifications. As you leveled you got more points you could use concurrently. But you had the option of refunding them to reroll. So you could be a pilot one day and a tank driver the next.

Balancing will be tougher than most mmorpgs to be certain but I am sure it could be done with reasonable effort (and ongoing nerfs ). Any greater customization options to a character's abilities will create difficulties balancing but that's exactly what I want, less limits on customization. It's like having to use the Ambassador on TF2. In some situations you have to use it if you want to be effective but I have no desire to be a sniper. I want a game that lets you play how you want to play not be stuck in playing it the way everyone else does. That's not to say a single player should be able to do everything by themselves. Limits are necessary and allow other players to fill needed gaps in teams. I want an mmorpg that lets me create and grow a class of my choosing to role play and not have to settle for a class that has abilities I can't associate myself with.

The thing about re-rolls is I don't like it when it's really easy in an mmorpg. I like to feel like I am role playing and growing stronger in my chosen talents in an mmorpg not just swapping classes anytime I wish. I'd just play TF2 if I wanted that. It's a balancing act between the freedom to change and the feeling of having earned something special from your game time. I never played planetside so maybe it's great I could not say .

You can actually run other windows besides the game window. So you could for instance stop the rendering thread while the player browses servers. Then when they get ready to join you can show the actual game very quickly.

Web interfaces tend to suck for concurrent tasks, and launching programs from them is usually more complicated then it has any right to be. However there are browser based plugins that could accomplish the same thing. Unity3d and Torque both have their own.

Since you mentioned Torque and web pages have you seen this ^^ http://vimeo.com/3969658 . I can so see that working on a console panel inside a space flavored mmorpg. My actual idea has a FPS game with you accessing a console in your ship (on your computer first). Once you find a server you want to join via that console you would have a hyperspace type of animation but the game would never leave your control or have a loading screen as the ship itself would "move" and the hyperspace animation would transfer you seemlessly to the server. It could even make for some intense moments as you are under fire trying to leave the server by "connecting" a new gateway to warp out (cargo gained during the time on the server could be lost if you just DS'ed). I am all about seemlessly integrating the experience.

Some MMOs in asia bill based on hourly consumption. However, I have a feeling any company doing so would be a grinder of the worst degree to maximize profits. What I would like to see more of is allowing players to play for free in a limited capacity. For instance the "planetside reserves" and DnD Online.

For an MMOFPS you could offer a higher level subscription with an instanced base where you could do research, etc. Another idea is to offer ships and charge for berthing fees. The bigger/powerful the ship the more players would need to pay.

Hourly consumption would be horrible, definitely worse than monthly. I'd be under the pressure to get in as much play time as possible and never enjoy it or take my time. I could have said daily fees but that seems too frequent as well. You want to give people a chance to save money but not feel obligated to play becuase they only have a short time so I thought weekly would at least be easier than monthly.

Speaking of "free" mmorpgs that have paid store items I have not found a good one. Every one empowers paying players over non paying players or takes a lifetime plus 2 to grind up to a high level. I don't mind grinding a little bit but I'm not going to commit myself for an eternity. Plus even with the exp boosts it still takes forever. I think most free mmorpgs deliberately lack content or you might be able to stand the grind without buying an exp enhancer.

My problem with the free limited feature model is, unless it's just cosmetic, I don't like the concept of "I win becuase I have more real money than you" in a game (I get that in real life enough XD). As long as the playing field is even I wouldn't have a problem playing with paying customers but I think a lot of others wouldn't either and that's not going to generate enough dough for game makers.

 

[XionTawa]

Actually I have a solution to just about all these issues. Sigh I'll never get to make my games so I might as well mention a few here.

SELF PERPETUAL CONTENT is the important thing and all MMORPGS should be centered on it (can't say it loud enough). MMORPGs content may be vast but what's around the corner is predictable and developers could not possibly add content quickly enough for a truly evolving world. To this end more game play ideas need to be player driven. I suggest...

Quests for items of power: Every rpg around has the player collecting things for a climatic conclusion at the end of the game (orbs, elements , etc.). Why not have multiple items of power for players to collect in a MMORPG.
1. Each would spawn in pieces at random but spaced out points and require collecting.
2. Bearers of a piece would be open to pvp combat from anyone and be able to detect which direction a piece is in (think highlander).
3. Knowing a person has a piece could only be determined by holding a piece yourself or a rare item (and even then only give you a direction). The game itself would allow killing players anytime but attacking a player without a piece would give you a very stiff penalty.
4. Collecting all the pieces would in essence make you a boss level character (requiring multiple people to take you down) and allow you to put a useful buff on your followers. This means people would both flock to join your group/clan for the buff and flock to attack you for your item of power.
5. Defeating a holder of an item of power would only get you one piece of it the rest would respawn in the world again to be collected.
6. You could also only hold an item of power for a limited time before needing to visit that item's "place of power" to renew it or it would be automatically respawned again. Of course rival groups will try to take it from you when you try and renew it giving another reason for guild vs. guild combat.

I've got other rules too but it's too long to get into (like you can't hold two items of power, be double buffed by items of power, preventions for log out running and holders of items of power are damaged by each other automatically in close proximity preventing team ups).

Game Masters: Find honorable players and reward them with a free account if they become game masters. They would be much more than just admins they would have the ability to create simple custom quest sequences. Creation would be pretty simple add NPC at xy coordinates, with custom text, add destination point, spawn monster/item at destination point if you've talked to the NPC, give reward to player on monster defeat or item retrieve, etc. It's seems like it would be ridiculously simple and easy to implement and add loads of replay value. Game masters could also disguise themselves as a player of any class or name. Imagine pretending to be a newbie and rewarding those who help you. I've got a game story idea for this to fit into as well. The hardest part would be simply finding players who would not abuse the system. Note: I'd also give the ability to display banned grievers/hackers/botters avatars in medieval type cages or with their heads on pikes as an example to others...

Don't divide players: Having set groups of like horde or alliance is always going to have balance issues (on Battlefield Heroes the balance issues are horrible). Plus what if I want to hop over to the other side and play with a friend over there? I shouldn't have to re-roll a new character to do it. I much prefer player created clans and benefits should be directed to encourage them. I'm thinking stock buildings/castles could be purchased and added in game at server maintance times. Should one clan "rule" a server too much GM's could encourage the growth of others with their abilities. I can see GMs finding and empowering "champions" to slay a person with an item of power should they get to powerful. It would fit very well into the game with the story I have in mind (you know wise old sage/wizard mysteriously appears to a young hero to help him slay the darkness that rules the land).

Randomly appearing dungeons: Think of the movie Krull. Random floating castles appearing in the sky (I know Krull's didn't float) would be quite a surprise for players to suddenly find at familiar places. Other dungeon spawn types could be cracks opening in the ground, distortions in space time, giant monsters swallowing you, etc. You could even have the option for players to learn an ability to predict these spawns.

Towns being attacked: Towns are to boring. While I want some main towns to be safe places I'd like other towns to be able to be attacked at any time by hordes of NPC monsters/enemies. Imagine being in a town and hearing the church bell ring as a warning. Better get ready to defend it or it will get burnt to the ground.

Client based appearances: I've always been annoyed that no matter what you do in a MMORPG NPCs will still be doing the same thing. If a town appears half destroyed and you complete a quest to help repair it will never look repaired. This is because MMORPG makers seem to think all clients need to display the same graphics. As long as the collision meshes remain the same why not display different graphics to different players before and after completing certain quests. Furthermore why not have more NPC's only visible to players on certain quests? This would lend immensely to the illusion of a changing world.

More frequent transport spots: I don't mind long rides but most people don't have all that time to waste. Typically once you visit a town you can go there via a transport service. I'd just have more transport points along the main routes. In my story idea riffs in space time are common so you'd just have to find one once to open it for use. With all the random and custom content that can occur with my other ideas taking a walk may still be worth it sometimes though.

The main thing is these things are all player driven. A changing world where anything can happen will always be more exciting than a static one. Other things are...

No classes: Most MMORPGs determine abilities from picking a class. I'd reverse this and determine your class from what abilities you choose providing a system that you could learn any ability you want. Similar abilities would enhance each other but if you want to be a healer who wants a sword attack you could do it. You'd have a limit on how many abilities would enhance each other, like say 7, so you would encourage many duel custom classes. For example if you had a limit of 20 abilities at any given time you could have 7 healing 7 sword, 3 agility and 3 strength.

No levels: Actually I'd keep levels but just make them only minor enhancements on your stats and have a low cap on them. The real training would be on abilities. Use an ability a lot and you'd get better at it. Which abilities you have equipped would effect your stats. This way is more like real life where you get better at something from practice. I know that your may be thinking it will be boring to have to grind up an ability you only use once in a blue moon but the exp required to master one would not be a lot. It would require enough exp grinding to prevent swapping abilities quickly. Having multiple abilities would be what keeps you busy. This should encourage swapping single abilities to experiment but discourage swapping them all as it would be like re-rolling that character. You'd have a starting set of abilities but most would be earned via quests in game. I like feeling like I built my characters up not just assembled them.

Mini games for crafting: With crafting it's rather boring to put things in a slot and have to push the same button sequence over and over again. Either make each a full fledged flash level mini game or make them simple enough I can set it up to be done automatically. I can easily see Tetris, Bejeweled, Desktop Defense styled mini games used for crafting. I mean come on if Final Fantasy 7 can have Chocobo racing and breeding and Final Fantasy 8 can have a complete card game MMORPGS can do better.

FPS style MMORPGS: This would address latency issues and the game itself would not necessarily be an FPS, just set up that way server wise. It could be done if a MMORPG maker partnered with or owned a server rental service. You'd make renting a server only slightly more expensive than an account and throw in an account with every rental. Items/exp would only be accrued on official maps but with a server rental you'd have the option to run customs and choose which instance runs. Trading/LFG could be done via a web paged based master server (all of which would be themed to not take you out of the experience). Want to go a space trade run? Post you are hiring escorts, hire them, go to a server, space pirates could join and try to take your cargo. Same thing could be done in a medieval type game. Note this idea is for a different game than the others.

Billing: I don't like to buy something and feel obligated to play it. I suggest billing be done more like game rentals as in a weekly manner rather than monthly. Most people didn't have a problem with game rentals back in the day. You could buy "tokens" and each token would be worth a week of game play. After a week a token would need to be used to continue to play (with a warning before it is). If you played for a month continually the price would be the same as regular monthly fee MMORPGS but if you wanted to go on vacation it would turn off and not cost you money. Tokens could be packaged to give a discount as well if you bought more at one time.

Anyway I have a ton of other ideas all of which are libel to be used before I will get to T_T . GTG, hope it made sense I had to post before I could check it a lot.

All of these, plus all the other stuff here suggested have all been tried and failed...Much older MMOs (10 years ago and before) tried many of these and they just didn't work...

Town being attacked is good, but most people complain becuase they needed something in the town...no levels and no classes uber fail...it has been tried and many MMORPGs and NEVER worked... Mini games crafting is in many games right now, and it alright, but I never liked that, I love the crafting in EQ2, it isn't very boring...Monthly billing is best...so that it fits all types of gameplay...

EDIT: What many are talking about here are along the ideas of old school MMORPGs, which people are staying away from...Blizz is talking about some stuff for WoW that is really starting to impress me, and I think the things that are going to make a good MMORPG are things none of us ever think of that we get surprized with... I think to find the perfect MMORPG for you, you will just need the right story...I hate scifi and love fantasy, I think FFXIV will take me, because I love FF and it will be a very good MMORPG if it is anything like FFXI...and in my opinion a good FF MMORPG that caters to all types of gameplay would be the perfect MMORPG for me...I think the idea of a good or perfect MMORPG is really in the eye of the beholder...

 

[Elader Arkon]

The more I play WoTLK content, the more I'm impressed with what Blizzard has been able to pull off. They heir wildlife acts more 'natural' with herds of stuff to be found in the starting areas, predators attacking prey, long patrols moving about the area. With just this the place really seems to come alive. As for towns under attack, they take the middle road: The enemies remain outside, engaged in fights with defenders there. It gives a pretty good feeling about the peril of the town. WAR has its leveled cities which is imo a better concept, but I haven't played it enough to have actually seen it in action (played the beta shortly before it came out).

A problem with truly random dungeons is they would be rather generic grind fests for better gear. Half the fun of dungeons is the dungeon itself. And a good one takes developers a lot of hard work to create. An easier way to accomplish what you are asking would be to have a continually growing 'stockpile' of developed dungeons that are there for the instance generator to pick and choose. Loot could be randomized, possibly even mobs, but not the dungeon itself. (though I think TESaggerfall had random dugeons. I never played it so I wouldn't know how well it worked)

@XionTawa
I doubt there is much of anything that hasn't already been tried if not in an mmo, then in another game. The key is to take the concepts and expand and build upon it to take it to a whole new level. Take for example Halo: That game didn't have much at all in the way of new ideas, but it plucked some great ones from a few different sources and created something that was wildly successful.

 

[Tek7]

I doubt there is much of anything that hasn't already been tried if not in an mmo, then in another game. The key is to take the concepts and expand and build upon it to take it to a whole new level.

I told my wife a few days ago that the current trend in game development seems to be mixing genres, with some impressive results. Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure mixes puzzle and platformer; Trine does the same and throws in a physics engine. Knights in the Nightmare for the DS mixes the "bullet hell" sub-genre of shmups and strategy RPG. The Puzzle Quest series combines puzzle and RPG.

Mixing genres in a single game is nothing new. Blaster Master for the NES (released 1988) combined side-scrolling platformer (similar to Metroid) with vertical run and gun gameplay (similar to Ikari Warriors) and even some vertical shmup elements in boss fights. (Standard disclaimer on YouTube links: Video is fine, but there's a high probability that someone uses profanity or crude language in the comments.)

Two of the most critically acclaimed JRPGs in recent years are Persona 3 FES and Persona 4. Both of these games incorporate elements from niche sub-genres. The Social Link system borrows from the dating sim genre (a sub-genre of adventure games) with most relationships the character can form being platonic. (The relationships that can develop into romances are not sexual in nature.) The dungeons in both Persona titles are randomly generated, calling to mind the roguelike sub-genre of RPGs. Combining elements of these two sub-genres (neither of which are popular in America) and aspects of traditional console RPGs (i.e. leveling to improve character stats, upgrading equipment, items with bonus stats like +1 Agility, etc.), Atlus delivered two solid RPGs in a genre saturated with embarrassingly generic titles. (For reference: Persona 3 FES scored a 89 on Metacritic; Persona 4 scored a 90.)

In short, MMORPG developers would be wise to look at other genres and incorporate fun gameplay elements to create a better MMO experience. SOE is already doing that by including minigames in their free MMORPG FreeRealms.

There's more to it than fusing genres, of course. Next generation MMOs will need more powerful technology and innovative game design. But while creating the new, it's important not to discuss lessons learned from the old.

The more I play WoTLK content, the more I'm impressed with what Blizzard has been able to pull off. They heir wildlife acts more 'natural' with herds of stuff to be found in the starting areas, predators attacking prey, long patrols moving about the area. With just this the place really seems to come alive.

How cool would it be to incorporate an extensive wildlife simulation model similar to real world examples (like RISKMAN) in a MMORPG? Some animals could migrate, populations could fluctuate with the season, patches could introduce new species that affect existing populations, etc.

Complex simulation models could be used to enhance the realism of other world elements like weather and plant life, too. One shortcoming of most MMOs is that the world--which is supposed to be a living, breathing thing--is almost entirely static.

Imagine taking a trip to a faraway location during a certain in-game season to hunt a certain type of bird, chase storms, or collect a certain type of flower.

 

[vibrokatana]

Imagine taking a trip to a faraway location during a certain in-game season to hunt a certain type of bird, chase storms, or collect a certain type of flower.

Imagine wasting hours of your time to travel to some ill corner of the world. To arrive and find that every animal and plant has been driven to extinction because everyone has over farmed it.

 

[Morfy]

It seems MMO developers are dragging their heels when it comes to innovation

The reason behind that is the $. Developers look at WoW and other successful games and see how much money they have made. With the huge time and resource requirement to produce a game(like you said), it's just more financially sound to use proven elements of the MMO Genre.

I am looking forward to thenext huge leap in the gaming industry but nothing I have seen upcoming in the next few years will be it.

 

[XionTawa]

I miss all the old MMORPGs that had monthly events that added new features and sometimes completely changed the state of the game...like, entire islands being destroyed, and new islands being discovered... You don't see game changing changes like that any more...Blizz tried with the Zombie invasion in WoW, but according to their forums 90% of their playerbase disliked it so stuff like that will not happen often...but stuff like that used to be what MADE MMORPGs...

 

[Neirai the Forgiven]

Look at Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I will now go back and read this whole discussion before saying anything else.

 

[XionTawa]

Look at Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I don't think it will be some amazing, history changing game, I mean seriously...we don't know much about it anyways...so why do so many think the game is going to be amazing...?

 

[Neirai the Forgiven]

Player-driven storylines. Every class has its own story. In that story, you end up making a whole bunch of ONE TIME ONLY decisions that you cannot go back and change. Therefore, gameplay is not The Same Thing, But With A Different Class.

The whole thing is voiced, very well. Emersion, Emersion, Emersion.

It's BioWare.

Seriously, watch the documentaries.. they're very impressive. BioWare's goal is to add player-character development to MMOs.

 

[XionTawa]

Seriously, watch the documentaries..

I have been...I am just still not impressed, because I have seen big name companies do the same thing they are and produce poop... I want to play it, then I will be impressed...

 

[Odale]

I would like to see more mini movies in MMO's (more as in more than one). Regular games like FPSs and RPGs have them... why not MMOs too?

They wouldn't have to be more than 15 to 20 seconds long and would just show simple drastic actions like someone getting killed or a cinematic entrance to someone's facial expression... I think it was the Sonic game for the Dreamcast that had intro movies for every zone you entered. They were not annoying, took no time to finish and let you know the feel and the attitude of the region at the same time too.

I feel that MMOs lack the immersion regular RPG's like Zelda and others do. They (many of them) feel as though you log in to a server just to progress a character by jumping through the same hoops over and over... there is no substance to the hoops at all.