[kohl]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

We also need to make sure there is great loot in the dungeons, that there is an altar nearby if you need to summon your corpse, make sure the penalty for summoning your corpse isn't too painful so people will take some risk and explore the depths of the larger dungeons, etc.

Did you guys ever discuss breaking the paradigm of the 'static world'? You run around a zone and you see camps of mobs. You go into a dungeon and mobs are deployed in little squads. You always know what to expect.

How about putting a dynamic spin on the world such that monsters or NPCs kinda do their own thing? It could be something simple such as you and your group of buddies in a hostle area, and 5 NPC thugs jump out and try to mug you. It could be something more complex like a faction of NPCs building an outpost that you could attack and destroy (destruction triggered by killing a boss, taking an item, killing X number of them, etc).
Finally, you could go the route of having NPCs send you to an area which begins a scripted event that would tie into your AES system.

What this touches on is the excitement of the unknown. People are used to knowing what to expect; its so controlled. There are zone maps online; even mob spawn placement guildes and maps. This is one aspect of PvP that appeals to people so much; the fact that you don't know what to expect. If you could apply that in some way to the world with regards to mobs, it might give that extra bit of incentive to go explore, because hey - you don't know what the heck you might find.

Edit: incidentally, I realize there is a place for static mob spawns. I just think its about time we had games where world was a bit more "alive"; that it wasn't like a big hand had come down from the sky and placed the creatures of the world in strategic locations.