A great write up that Blizzard should think about

[jahasafrat]

What a load of nonsense. An MMO as decribed by the OP would absolutely heinous.

[Eliot123]

Harsher death penalty would be horrible. They had that in City of Heroes, it was called debt - every time you died, you would get a bit of your xp bar red, which meant you were gaining only 50% xp instead of 100%. Also, it was cumulative - die 10 times, and you had a loooot of debt to work off. I think I was around level 33 (out of, what was it, 50?) and I died maybe 20-30 times, not in a row, but never out of my debt range. In the end I just gave up on that char because xp was so insanely difficult and slow to gain.

As for the rest of it... all horrible ideas. Some of them remind me of vanilla WoW. No thanks. Not everything in the past was better (like, oh I don't know, having to RUN EVERYWHERE FOR 40 LEVELS -.-).

[wych]

Can't say I agree with all the points, but i'm certainly not going to talk out of my ass and claim that WoW in its post-Vanilla/TBC incarnation is particularly good from a quality point of view. It may be a highly successful game from a gaming/business point of view; but then the same is true of Justin Bieber and the music industry. Of course, WoW is a business first and foremost; but financial success is not the same as good quality.

As somebody who loved Vanilla and TBC I can't think of any way they are better games than the current incarnation of WoW past the community and nostalgia goggles.

[enchanted]

While I do agree with him to a certain extent however, the MMO market changed and its not what it used to be so definitely this wouldn't work out. If he wants to play old EQ there are special emulators for it called project 1999 if I'm not mistaken. Also the death penalty is fine and so what does he want to make it like runescape for instance you die and lose all your things or keep 3 items? I find that stupid honestly... But back in alpha if you actually simultaneously died in WoW you actually lost abit of your xp. Glad that didn't make it to beta even.

[Holtzmann]

Can't say I agree with all the points, but i'm certainly not going to talk out of my ass and claim that WoW in its post-Vanilla/TBC incarnation is particularly good from a quality point of view. It may be a highly successful game from a gaming/business point of view; but then the same is true of Justin Bieber and the music industry. Of course, WoW is a business first and foremost; but financial success is not the same as good quality.

That's as subjective as it gets, though. I don't want to defend Justin Bieber (by the light that shines upon all things, no!), but the greater point is that while you and a lot of people don't like him, the people who do like him tend to think of him as the best thing since sliced bread. What happened with WoW was a demographic shift. People who played it back in Vanilla and TBC have different tastes from who play it now and the market itself has changed.

[Trakanonn]

The easier a game gets, the quicker it dies.

I want a game like Everquest 1 pre 2003/2004.. That SLOW process of leveling is what created the amazing memories people have of that game.

[Soulwind]

Even if it were a "great write up Blizzard should think about", that isn't something the author should say. Especially when it's a list of some of the most stupid ideas that are suggested here everyday.

[Austilias]

As somebody who loved Vanilla and TBC I can't think of any way they are better games than the current incarnation of WoW past the community and nostalgia goggles.

Well, that's where we disagree. The whole issue is a matter of opinion, but everything after WOTLK has been pretty mediocre to me, being generous.

[Ielenia]

5. Quests Should Be Rare and Special

6. No Instancing

So you want few quests... so the whole population is forced to grind-grind-grind killing the same monsters over and over and over to get to the next level?

Also, no instancing. Do you want guilds to COMPETE against each other over who gets to storm Throne of Thunder this week, no matter their faction? Or at all?

[Hotsforyou]

Boy, is that guy going to take MMORPGs back a decade if his ideas are ever taken seriously.

Which is exactly what should happen.

[Tojara]

Maybe some of those points I'd agree on to an extent, but the reason this game became as big as it did to begin with was because it REMOVED everything you have on that list as being an 'improvement'. Even in Vanilla, possibly the harshest version of being unfriendly towards players was a big improvement over MMOs of the past.

Sounds like you just want a sandbox MMO, which I'm sure some people would dig.

I do wish there were more tools in the game however to make your own events though.

[wych]

Which is exactly what should happen.

And kill the MMO market again?

No thanks, everybody was sick of the bullshit that is in the OP.

[Shefu]

Somebody give this guy a cup of coffee and something to calm him down. He's like Ghostcrawler in player form calming that what he thinks is what's best for the game.

sigh at these freakin' gaming radicals...

[Holtzmann]

Which is exactly what should happen.

Well, you always have the option of playing the MMOs from a decade ago. If they're not available anymore or have small playerbase, that should tell you something about the viability of their design decisions.

[Deleted]

The easier a game gets, the quicker it dies.

I want a game like Everquest 1 pre 2003/2004.. That SLOW process of leveling is what created the amazing memories people have of that game.

Yep, this is what some people don't seem to realise.

[MoanaLisa]

A fantasy game is whatever you want it to be really. In terms of difficulty and the rest I don't think it's possible for the game described to be viable any longer. While quite true that some people would certainly sign up for all of that and enjoy it, the point now is not to change what already is but to concentrate on a new game that would have the chance to try this fresh.

Grogo, the main point that I disagree with is that Blizzard should think about this. They shouldn't. The game described is not WoW, never was WoW and never will be WoW. It's another game entirely. It's a game that I might play. But I don't want to destroy all that is WoW, for all of its virtues and faults, to turn it into something else entirely.

[Tojara]

And people don't have amazing memories of WoW? That's a fairly bold statement considering all I hear constantly from people is memories of Vanilla, TBC and sometimes even WoTLK.

People are just spouting their opinions about what makes a game good for THEM. Everybody has a different idea of what an MMO should and shouldn't be. Most of these ideas however are fairly niche and exclusive to a very small amount of players, making it not very popular to a wide base.

[ComputerNerd]

Not new ideas, as really most of that has been banded around by players upset that a game can provide a good experience to players that are not them, players they deem lesser or inferior due to some excessive standards.
Blizzard have seen and discussed this sort of stuff for years, so it is not anything blizzard should be paying attention or thinking about when they have done that plenty.
And rightfully dismissed much of it in the process.

[Thage]

Which is exactly what should happen.

Yeah, because Everquest is still doing such a fantastic job.

- - - Updated - - -

So you want few quests... so the whole population is forced to grind-grind-grind killing the same monsters over and over and over to get to the next level?

Wasn't the number one criticism from MoP release that people got sick of grinding dailies? How fast would this game hemorrhage players if the only option to level was grinding mobs in groups?

[Herecius]

Player drama is good? Quests should be rare? Soloing should be discouraged?

I'm... not sure this is an effective direction for any MMO that does not want to go quickly bankrupt, and is not EVE online, should want to take.