Most of you have been playing Wow for many years. I would guess that you are all gamers in general. And have also played other MMORPGs and PC and Console games.
What in your opinion are the most important aspects of a game. The vital element(s) that carries the game through many years. What makes the game worth playing and enjoyable for you. And helps the game over time to become very popular and legendary. What in essence would make your ideal mmorpg Epic.
Examples:
Graphics
Story
Lore
Fighting mechanics
Character Creation Options / Customization
Dungeon Structure
New player Self Intuitive entry at newbie zone
Ease of Travel around the World Map
Quest Identifiers
Voiced NPC Dialogue
These are only a few game aspects. Please feel free to add as many of your own game aspects as you feel are important.
I would personally prefer if WoW was more like super smash bros and I could just play the game in the game modes I want.
Would be cool if you take those characters you make for a fighting game into a world to do the usually quests and stuff… the game would be much better then what it is right now.
Got to cover the RPG parts well. The more options cosmetically the better. I would put fighting mechanics in this as well. When we finally have a talent tree back and if it’s as good as I hope, we will have the option to go away from the cookie cutter setups and still be effective in many game modes. Again the more options the better.
Community, the MMO side of this story. Despite all the toxic issues that people love to talk about WoW still has a great community. From these crazy forums, to casual guilds, to those hard core souls that deep dive into M+ and raids and all in between. We may question the way we can accomplish these interactions, for or against LFG and the like but every good MMO needs tools to help us connect.
Adventure and exploration on a huge map. With no level scaling. If your a level 20 and go into a level 50 zone you need to be careful while you explore. This makes it thrilling. And then later the fun of coming back to the level 50 zone as a level 75 and wiping out the mobs that killed you so many times in the past. This also gives you a chance to solo/farm the dungeons in the zone.
I was going to say player housing. But I already have it in wow. My garrison. In actuality it’s great player housing A fortress no less populated with NPCs and shops and even your very own NPC fighting companions that follow you around and help you fight. What more could we ask for.
For me the most important aspect is hard to just narrow down to 1 because there are a few important aspects that all need to be had in order for the mmo to even work imo.
But since you are asking for one I think this one could be the most important.
Great Leveling experience - This can make or break an mmo. If people are bored leveling they could end up leaving the game before even hitting max level and seeing end game. Leveling is like the first impression of the gameplay.
But the other aspect that I was debating on was End Game. With a horrible end game or no end game you won’t retain players.
@OP your examples are all very important as well among other things you didn’t mention but sounds like you just wanted us to give 1 that we feel is the most important.
It is the cumulative effect of all those things present. Each MMO has it’s own combination but if we start removing them, the game suffers as the opportunities to interact decrease and immersion diminishes.
Constant progression. Most non-MMORPG games end at some point, I guess WoW does too but they are still releasing expansions and there are so many things to do, so many achievements, this is why World of Warcraft is my dream game. Fun for years and years and years.
The most important thing for any mmorpg that is world baised is world building and civilization cultures. So i guess you can say lore, which is the center of any rpg.
Each race having specific cultures, laws and norms is spice to world building, and the role playing aspect of being apart of these races. Class restrictions helps keeps that feel and culture of it.
Also i am rather intrigued with the sepereation of magics and what each can so in a cosmology scale.
Story, pure and simple. What are you doing, where are you doing it, and why are you doing it. Need to be able to buy into the why or the game isn’t worth it.
You want to be a person, in the world, doing stuff. Except you have super powers and get to fight monsters. The more options I have to adventure, open a store front, find cool stuff, and make friends, the better.
End Game (mentioned this in my last post) because this keeps players playing. No end game or a bad end game and people will leave.
Ability to change appearance. This may seem like a small thing but to me mmos are all about your own character. You want to put yourself into the character so being able to change appearances at will is big. New World is an mmo that I actually love also but you are not able to change your character appearance which really bothers me.
PvP. I am not much into mmo pvp, but this is a big side thing which is still very popular. Having a great pvp system/maps/etc. can really add to an mmo. I wouldn’t make a pure pvp mmo though as others have tried it only to re-do their game to be more pve. ie. GW2 and New World.
The world itself/ambiance. Having a great world (doesn’t need to be realistic graphics or hard core) with amazing lighting and ambiance can draw people in and make them want to just go out and explore and not even have to do anything but just enjoy the views. Music I would tie to this also as music can play an important part.
Dungeons and raids are important as this may fall under end game but people love these things. I know I have stayed in WoW since day 1 because I love raiding. Having come from SWG way back then I had no clue what dungeons and raids were since SWG didn’t really have them so that really kept me playing all these years with never taking a break from WoW in general.
