Greatest MMO features that somehow never got copied

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

I suppose. What thread hasn't been as of late? It's like a goddamn plague.

I suppose we could wait to all the EQ or bust kids/adults die then we can all move on.

[...]

nah, everyone will be playing future_mmo_01 and bitch when everyone brings up WoW.

"I'm serious guys, grinding honor while /afk in AV really gave me a sense of accomplishment!"

[Ellsworth]

Originally Posted by Dumar

shutup with this nonsense. no one knows what players want because there's only been ONE type of mmo game in the LAST DECADE.

He said many, I said some. Evidence we have is that WoW is not like that, and its been massively successful. Whereas other MMO's have, at best, been scraping by successes. What we know seems to suggest I'm right.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by ...

nah, everyone will be playing future_mmo_01 and bitch when everyone brings up WoW.

"I'm serious guys, grinding honor while /afk in AV really gave me a sense of accomplishment!"

At least it would be something different.

[Draegan]

I'm so happy Dumar posted. Dumar's derails are still mildly interesting to read.

[Niceshot23]

... kind of off topic but still, within reason (hasn't been implemented yet, but one day it hopefully will)

I read an article a couple of years back and saw a small documentary a few weeks later about this scientist that was studying the theory of evolution so he wrote an application in which he created a few micro-organisms ... and a small world .. then set them free with basic rules and boundaries ... then they evolved over time ...

I agree with the whole AI stuff ... knowing where an npc stands 24/7 is a dull and a copy/paste from one mmo to another ... it'd be nice if they can make them roam world wide ... let them get hungry, sleepy ... give them a home, favorite tavern ...

unique quests for mobs that spawn up world wide completely randomly and after a quest is complete, it despawns ... things like that

[Tancred]

Originally Posted by Dumar

there has been one. the others have failed because of implementation or other issues. not design. learn and understand this difference.

You cannot tell me that Planetside, UO, Shadowbane, Habbo Hotel and Runescape are the same in design terms. Or are you using your own special definitions again?

Originally Posted by Dumar

maybe you should know that i do ai work professionally. it would be EASY to add tons of stuff not seen in an mmo. not hard at all. really basic things too.. but nope.

You do AI work professionally. Game AI? Realtime AI? Realtime AI involving dozens of concurrent agents? It's a very broad field. It's also the number one issue that clueless cunts spout about when complaining about MMO design. Complex and clever AI is not necessarily fun. Nor is it generally efficient enough for use in MMOs.
I've also done professional AI work. In games. That are published. And that's not all I've done in games development by a long chalk.

Originally Posted by Dumar

i don't have expectations for this industry anymore. i have more expectations of my toilet moreso than this industry. at least it flushes reliably everyday. this industry has shown time and again, especially with regards to mmos, that they neither have the capability or are even interested in making games focused on the player experience. before wow, there was hope. but not now.

I'm sure your bitter tears sustain them. As soon as you start labeling developers as lazy, uncaring, unambitious or incapable you cross the line from legitimate analysis and into pathetic, clueless bitching. On behalf of game developers everywhere, fuck yourself.

Originally Posted by Dumar

maybe you should jump in and see how far the rabbit hole goes? might learn something. i've worked at international corps and been in GOOD dev teams and BAD dev teams. the games industry is unique in that the "professionals" usually don't fucking know the difference between design methodologies and "cool gameplay ideas".

Again on behalf of game developers everywhere, fuck you and your clueless generalizations. Most existing design methodologies will get you some stable code to work with. They will not provide you with fun. How do I know? Perhaps I learned a thing or two when I worked on a release title for a brand new console that showed only 86 bugs during QA and passed through the technical approval process at the first try. Oh and was fun enough to review well and sell 500k copies.

Originally Posted by Dumar

ps, you can leave the flames at home. burn your own house.

Fuck yourself.

[Zalere]

Anarchy Online – Chat functionality (Linking Text to Ads, Item/Helpbots, /level commands, merging guild chats, etc)

FFXI’s Subjob system. Seems to be a big one for many here.

[Neric]

Planetside was awesome! Unfortunately the concept doesn't works in a fantasy environment. MMOs and FPSs have a different pace of action anyways and hardly fit together.

[Nabi]

Originally Posted by Izuldan

The FFXI Auction House was like it's own mini-game.
.
.
.

Great memories =) The real euphoric moments wasn't the cheap 2,000 gil items.......it's when you got a 1,000,000 gil item for like 10 gils.

I think part of the reason the AH system worked in FF XI was because the AH UI was terrible. I loved the mini-keyboard layout for actual gameplay, but AH UI was a pain in the ass. IIRC, once you bid on an item it told you whether you were able to buy it a that price or not and kicked you back to the main AH menu. Then you'd have to go through the item categories and find the item again to rebid. The AH also had no search feature. So trying to find and see if someone put up a 1,000,000 gil item for a lot less was pretty tedious and the main reason why the AH worked so well. I don't think it'll work very well if it was implemented with a more user friendly UI.

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Originally Posted by Dumar -
i don't have expectations for this industry anymore. i have more expectations of my toilet moreso than this industry. at least it flushes reliably everyday. this industry has shown time and again, especially with regards to mmos, that they neither have the capability or are even interested in making games focused on the player experience. before wow, there was hope. but not now.

Originally Posted by Tancred -
I'm sure your bitter tears sustain them.

CRAWWWLING INNN MY SKIIIINNN...

[Kreugen]

Dumar likes to forget that at some point there has to be an actual game to play. The "non-interactive world simulation MMO" genre just hasn't flowered yet.

[furiouss1]

The EQ1 LFG tool is by far the best thing ever implemented in any MMO.

Asheron's Call 1. As much as I enjoyed the vassal system in Asheron's Call 1, it was very easily exploitable. The exp chains were completely broken. I did like the system when the game was first released though. It gave players incentive to help new players which in turn created a stronger player community. Any more in almost any MMO, if you aren't created on the first day a server is up, you're hosed. There is no player community any more. All I see now when a new player asks a question can only be described as a hazing.

Anarchy Online. Missions missions missions. Group missions.

Anarchy Online. A challenging and REWARDING tradeskill system.

CoH/CoV. Character customization. With the ability to look different almost every day of the week.

Asheron's Call 2. No vendors. No trade-bots. The best way to get rid of gold sales.

WoW and Dungeon Siege. A Developer group that works with it's players and encourages UI changes and addons.

Asheron's Call 1. Monthly updates that include new content every month at no extra charge.

[Bongk]

Originally Posted by Ellsworth

He said many, I said some. Evidence we have is that WoW is not like that, and its been massively successful. Whereas other MMO's have, at best, been scraping by successes. What we know seems to suggest I'm right.

haha, tens of millions of dollars of profit is "Scraping" by now?

[Inconsiderable]

Originally Posted by Nilden

Most MMO's lack terribly in the AI department. In fact can anyone name an MMO with good AI?

Darkfall's latest Dev Journal makes such claims:
WarCry Network : Darkfall Dev Journal #25: Philosophy

Originally Posted by Neric

Planetside was awesome! Unfortunately the concept doesn't works in a fantasy environment. MMOs and FPSs have a different pace of action anyways and hardly fit together.

Huh? You mean "slow everquest clones" with MMOs? Last time I checked upcoming games like Darkfall, Spellborn, etc and even oldtimers like Neocron (Cyberpunk) have a fast combat pace and "Crosshairs".
Even Guildwars is a very fast game if you played the right class in PvP.