Greatest MMO features that somehow never got copied

[Genjiro]

CoH had the sidekick system in place before anyone iirc, then later the exemplar system. It really is a great feature.

Also, yea the jobs system was amazing.

[Lusiphur]

SWG : Offline resource harvesting.

Fuck having to do that shit while I play. Actually SWG had that set up very well in that if you did it actively you got more and better resources. However, you could just leave harvesters ticking overnight for a decent return.

[Sharmai]

EvE:
Give you the building blocks and let the players build the world.
Single Server or Massively large servers

[Kais[]]

the sidekick/exemplar system. needs to be said more. i'm tired of not being able to play with/help friends who are lower level unless i want to roll a new character in tandem with their levels.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

We all know that making a good MMO is much about succesfully copying stuff that works.
Here's what I really miss from previous MMOs:

CoH's level of customization: You can change just about anything on your avatar that you could think of.

[Morannon]

Originally Posted by Bristlebane

EQ2 mentoring is probably one of the best things in an MMO ever implemented.

I second this. CoH did it first with their sidekick system, but SoE did it much better with mentoring.

[Soriak]

I have to repeat it: The UO Houses were just fantastic and actually meant something. Being in a good location made it easier to sell your stuff on your vendor. This is what I miss most about the game...

Asheron's Call's guild system - specifically, vassals. You get invited into the guild by someone and through that become his vassal. As you gain exp, he will gain a small share of what you make (though you don't lose any). As you progress through the game and get to a higher level, you'll start inviting people of your own. Others will become your vassal, providing you (and those above you) with exp.

It's a great incentive for people to assist newbies and get them involved in the game. I can't believe this has never been copied

[UnchainedAcolyte]

City building with the opportunity to have transportation to/from the cities, bonuses to certain skills, and mayoral elections. (SWG)

The ability to own something other than houses or a guild hall, like a cantina, medical facility, etc. and the ability to boot people from your establishment after entering if you so chose. (SWG)

Viable non-combat, social professions/skills that didn't have a combat skill/level requirement (medic/dancer). (SWG)

The ability to play a non-humanoid race like dragons (Horizons).

The ability to multi-class/hybrid-class/trim classes back in a level-based environment, balancing multi-class benefits with slower leveling (Horizons).

[Jaded]

I have to repeat it: The UO Houses were just fantastic and actually meant something. Being in a good location made it easier to sell your stuff on your vendor. This is what I miss most about the game...

You know what I don't miss about the UO housing system? Seeing a house on every 9x9 piece of flat land in the freaking world.

[Auryan]

DAoC and EQ2: Tanks being able to give defensive boosts to other tanks, or intercept/mitigate some of the dmg they'd have taken.

[TheOkapi]

Originally Posted by Jaded

You know what I don't miss about the UO housing system? Seeing a house on every 9x9 piece of flat land in the freaking world.

Yeah, having to zig zag across 90% of the "wilderness" is pretty lame.

[Auryan]

Second Life: Furries and porn!


On second thought, no.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Genjiro

That's a big can of worms, and I'd put a big asterisk with it adding mostly with the ability to modify your UI. Shit like decursive (hey I'm good since I can spam click a fucking box whooptie) and the fucking retarded stopheal bullshit made it so any retard could raid and not be a dumbass.

I'm fine with being able to customize maps, or anything where the information is available to you already, but anything which adds control over the interface and lets you manipulate the interface at a speed which you normally couldn't do shouldn't be available to players. There was too much player abuse of the modding system, like the hunter mod that showed the race of a player when normal tracking gave no such information.

I would agree. I love the mods for customization and then combat parsing, buff bars, cast bars etc. Different mods for casting spells with different clicks is fine.

However automation and exploitation is never good.

[Grizzlebeard]

Vanilla EQ: The "sword on the ground" or "follow the clouds" trick for directions.

The fact that maps in early EQ were so woefully useless and direction sense was a skill that could lead you in completely the wrong direction if it wasn't levelled actually forced the players into learning every nook and cranny of a zone. In doing so you couldn't help but feel a sense of immersion in the world. Sadly, that would never wash now in the era of piss-easy transport but I still remember running around Greater Faydark spamming the fuck out of direction sense and /loc.

[Draegan]

I wonder how much different WOW would be without a map or minimap.