MMORPG - MMOCrunch - World of Warcraft

There has been much debate about what a MMORPG should be. Should developers do away with level grinding? How about gold and item farming? Include or don’t include PvP? Create a in-game story line or let the players roam free? How should the fighting system work? So I’ve decided to write down a list of features that I would like to see in a MMORPG.

• No Level Grinding - Sorry to those of you who enjoy playing 100+ hrs before you finally have a character that can do cool things, but I’d rather get to the good stuff right away. I think the player should get X amount of points during character creation and those are all the stats and skill points they get the whole game. So once you have created your character you’re maxed out. You can than get some better items/weapons, but you don’t have to go around killing rats just to level up.

• Quick Travel for Everyone - Traveling to a location to do a quest or to meet up with some buddies shouldn’t take 10-15 mins. The point of games is that there exciting, I shouldn’t have to watch my guy ride a horse for 10 mins before getting to where I want to be. Just warp me there and let me play.

• Few Quests - Yes, get rid of quest grinding. I don’t want to help your uncle clear out his basement of rats, find your sister who is lost in the woods or go to a town on the other side of the world to deliver some cookies to your mother. These are pointless and BORING quests. Quests should involve massive boss fights and should be relatively quick to get to. I don’t have 5 hrs to do 1 quest 1 time. One to two hrs tops to get to the end. Or create something where once you get to the boss you can save that spot so you can get back later. There should only be around 10-20 quests in the entire game.

• Boss do NOT Drop Uber Items - If bosses do not drop the best items in the game then there will be no item farming. Completing a quest should be a 1 time event in the game, once it’s done, I don’t want to do it again unless it’s to help someone who hasn’t done it. So what reward should players get? Maybe a reputation reward. Maybe a item that is cool to have but not vital to the game. For example in LOTRO it would be cool if I could put armor on my horse. While having no practical use in the game, it’s definetly cool to have and you would be the envy of everyone who didn’t have it.

• Random Item Drops - Again I’m against any type of boring grind so I think all weapon and item drops should be completely random. All stats on these items should be random and can drop off any and every creature. This would completely do away with item farming and if you were to get an uber item it would be 100% unique and give the item some real value.

• PVP is a Must - I’m sorry for those of you who do not like PvP, but this is what makes the game interesting. MMORPGs shouldn’t be about grinding to get all the best stuff, it should be about surviving in a hostile and violent world. However I would make some changes. First I would give the player about to be attacked a 3-4 sec warning if they are in a safe zone. Lets say I wanted to attack some helpless sap oblivious to the fact that I was about to stab them in the back, I would have to first select the fact the I wanted to attack them. This would warn the player saying “so and so is about to attach you” The player would have 3-4 seconds to get ready or run before I could actually attack. Outside of safe zones the player would get a shorter warning or none at all.

• Corpse Looting, yes! - Sorry, but if I kill you I should be able to take 1 item. Now this is a bit harsh since most players spend a lot of time collecting their items, so everyone should have a few slots where they can select items that are unlootable. However if there are only 5 slots and you have 6 uber items, sorry but your going to lose that item if you die.

• None Storyline Driven Gameplay - Game storyline is vital to any game as well as to MMORPGs. However I do not believe that it should be the driving force behind the gameplay. I don’t want to wait for a content update before I have something else to do. There should definitely be a storyline, but it should only be a backdrop for the game and not be the game. The players themselves should be the storyline. Not everyone person wants to be a good guy, some people want to play the evil side, so let them. Servers should be setup where players are fighting against other players for land, control and world domination and not just a never ending stream of boring monsters.

Well thats what I want in a MMORPG. I’m sure I can add a few more points, but thats the big stuff. I want a game doesn’t waste my time, doesn’t force me to grind 95% of the time I’m on and most importantly FUN! If you know of any MMORPG thats gets close to this please let me know. I’d love to play it.