Greatest MMO features that somehow never got copied

[Goliath]

Everquest faction system and complicated city/town system. Each race having their own little area.

Not really MMO, but Diablo merchants randomly having magic items. This would be great in MMO's to get rid of excess gold supplies.

[Necrolyte]

Ultima Online
- character advancement system: chopping a tree raises lumberjacking, fighting a monster with a sword raises Swordsmanship
- housing/vendor system: you could custom-build any type of house you want and actually create a store/tavern/whatever and setup NPCs that sell drinks or your goods. When we first started getting MMOs, this is the type of thing we always heard, but it just never panned out except in Ultima Online.

Shadowbane
- probably the best concept for a PvP-based MMO, but was plagued with errors and a poor launch. It also had some flaws with the 'end-game' in that when people lose their city they tend to quit, or when people dominate an entire shard, they also tend to quit.

Final Fantasy XI
- subjob/advanced job system: why hasn't every MMO allowed you to play ONE character, and simply advance in all the different classes from L1? It's easy to fit into most lore, and it makes sense that you can progress your character any direction you want as you play him. There's no law stating that once you become a warrior, you become too stupid you can't train in archery and become a ranger.

- auction system: other people have gone over the pros and cons, but it's the best AH system in any MMO

Everquest 2
- mentor system: allows players to 'become' lower level with their main characters to play with their friends, while still gaining some exp/AA from stuff like exploring dungeons you've never been to before.

Everquest
- sense of community: it will never be copied, and it probably shouldn't be, but the fact that everyone relied on everyone else at high level meant the best community to ever be seen in a MMO. When you were L50, you knew everyone that was L50 on your server... in fact, you probably knew quite a few L50s of your class on other servers.

[Surlok TP]

EVE's economy.

EVE's player run zones.

EVE's ability to set factions to guilds and players so you know who you liek and who you don't like long after you have forgotten.

Early in SWG crafting was really important and certain crafters became well known as people who could make items of much higher quality than other players, I never got into crafting in that game but I was familiar with the local weapon smiths and such because certain people had the knack or whatever to make a better item than the other guys. I thought that was pretty cool. These guys would set up shop and small cities of people would pop up around them. With local trade and everything,very cool.

EQ2's housing, I like their housing and I like how you can set up shops in your home and crafting stations,and people that buy from your shop receive a discount over buying off a broker, useless for lower priced items I guess but great for high priced stuff.



EQ2's Appearance tab. Yeah I look like I am running around in lvl 10 newbie armor but fuck whatever I like how it looks and I can wear that shit without it effecting my actual stats. This is similar to dyes I suppose but without the side effect of hot pink toons,and plus it's another side of the economy since people generally buy the things off the bazaar to make the outfit. This is seriously fucking cool and seems so simple to implement. If it's so important in PVP disable the function when in arenas in WoW or what have you.

CoH's character customization... yeah right like we'll ever see this again =/

FFXi's Jobs or conversely being able to betray in EQ2 and change classes based off that. Kinda cool to be able to level as a Bersker and decide I want to be a raid tank and do a quest and I am a Guardian.


Lot's of stuff from EQ already mentioned.....For all the shit it gets it sure did alot right.







Of all these things, if I could have one change or one thing added to all modern MMO's. It would be to have your server and your name mean something again. What you know,how well you play . I have a TP on the end of my name because when you posted outside of your server forum in EQ you added your server prefix, it meant something, It meant you were Surlok from Tholuxe Paells and what you said stood on your characters reputation and this extended even beyond your server. I liked people knowing who you were on your server and you knowing who people were.

I liked that I could run past someone in EQ and I knew what guild they were in and often even knew their bloody name just by looking at them and that was with generic model EQ armor, that's fucked up but I knew. You could tell the guild the person was in and you often knew of the person before ever meeting/grouping/raiding with them. Apps were simple grabbing non guildies for groups was simple.


I think of all the games I have played this is the feature I miss most,a coupel games I played pre wow ,managed to retain this meaning and games like EVE seem to as well since it's only one server ,but something like WoW? who fucking cares who you are, who cares that you are a fuck head to everyone in every gorup you've ever been in and you fuck people on TS trades and you ninja and who knows what else. You have to try really really really fucking hard to become known as a useless tit on your server in WoW and even then people will still guild you and group you. A game with that kind of population shouldn't be so forgiving to useless people but it is,and that's sad since games with much lower pops(EQ) had not tolerance for this even if said players were of classess that were highly sought after.

My greatest regret actually is how I left EQ,because I was so inolved I didn't leave an I am leaving post or anyhting,just informed my GL and left,never checked the boards again, cit off all ties for many many months,because I was worried that if I read the posts I would come back and at the time in regards to my actual life,coming back was not an option I could pursue. I developed a good name before I ever got into high end raiding and alot of people knw me, I spent hours in that game helping people for no reason at all other than It just felt right to do. I felt good about it, I helped people in game for hours which I wouldn't do for strangers in real life. It ultimately gave me a good rep in game but I never pursued it to that end, I helped because I liked to. I liked being part of the community. These days I am a cynical prick in game and avoid contact with people as much as possible outside of whatever guild I am in. Not sure why I became that way,probably spent to much time reading the wow boards, I dunno.

[Froofy-D]

Snakes that kick.

[Maxxius]

Fish that kick.

[James]

Monks that kick.

[MrFwuffers]

no fucking maps, going to places by word of mouth.

[Ninajrr]

no fucking maps, going to places by word of mouth.

fucking this.

city maps, fine, but unexplored territory maps? fuck that shit.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Yeah, because intrepid explorers never made maps or anything...

[Heylel Teomim]

Nah I'm sure they had maps, but I doubt Marco Polo explored ancient China with an auto-updating overhead display with radar for interesting and useful herbs on it.

- C

[Kazgrim]

Alot of the things mentioned where in fact stolen from other MMOs, everyone mentioning "EQ2's mentor system" which was lifted straight from COH, someone said VGs unique class mechanics (more than just mana) which was lifted from WoW. Not to start the "well that was stoled from ___" debate til we're back to Meridian 59 days or anything, but those are two prominent examples of things that were clearly stolen from another MMO.

i'm one of like 5 guys who really liked AC/AC2 so I'll give a nod to:
Allegiance/Vassal guild system from those games
Tactician Class from AC2 (the class mechanics were just awesome)
The skill system was ripped off by WoW (WoW talents are based on them), so I'll say their respec system.

[Believe]

Originally Posted by Kazgrim

i'm one of like 5 guys who really liked AC/AC2 so I'll give a nod to:
Allegiance/Vassal guild system from those games
Tactician Class from AC2 (the class mechanics were just awesome)
The skill system was ripped off by WoW (WoW talents are based on them), so I'll say their respec system.

I agree! And I must be one of those 5 too >_>

[Ellsworth]

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.

How long has it been since you played. First of all, who cares if a hunter knows what race a person is? Are you saying it was that game breaking that a hunter might be able to tell if you were opposite faction from the tracking? I've never even heard of such a mod. Its uses are very minimal.

Secondly, Decursive has long since not been what you're saying it is. Stopheal bullshit? What it would stop a heal if the target was 'full health'?

If that exists now, its a surefire way for your healers to lose their tanks on most encounters, and I don't believe the client allows you to do this.

Saying that Blizzard orginally allowed mods to do to much, thats a reasonable statment, but in general, the way WoW handles mods is a freaking awesome, and I'm not currently aware of any mods that 'cheapen' the game.

[Ninajrr]

Yeah, because intrepid explorers never made maps or anything...

Yeah but player made maps are completely different from an ingame official map (in that they suck/can be wrong). Of course, internet accessability of information is certainly a higher amount these days so you're right, something would need to be done to weaken this aspect (some sort of randomizing of layouts for each server, maybe).

The fact is though, presenting the map system as an innate feature of the game sends the player down a direct route of "look it up" rather than "figure it out". A direct route many of us dislike.

[Ellsworth]

Originally Posted by Ninajrr

Yeah but player made maps are completely different from an ingame official map (in that they suck/can be wrong). Of course, internet accessability of information is certainly a higher amount these days so you're right, something would need to be done to weaken this aspect (some sort of randomizing of layouts for each server, maybe).

The fact is though, presenting the map system as an innate feature of the game sends the player down a direct route of "look it up" rather than "figure it out". A direct route many of us dislike.

Many? Maybe some.

Some being a small enough number that if they made a game and all of you out there that want this went and played that game, the game still wouldn't be able to be profitable [no doubt it would also come with steep death penalties, and slow level grinding and no instanced content at any level]