I ask this because sadly as it is, i find myself not entirely happy with anything released these days. I obviously don't expect anything to meet my hopes entirely but i can still keep my hopes up. I'm creating this to find out what you all would want in your own dream MMO, this isn't meant to be a rift vs wow thread, or a bash on any mmo because they all have their goods and bads obviously, so please don't turn it into one of those. I may however highlight some of the bads in WoW to illustrate points, but for the record i do enjoy wow, i'm not complaining just hoping something amazing comes out soon. (go go swtor). A lot of it will seem highly WOW based, but i have more expeirence with this MMO than any other by far.
In no particular order:
Graphics: Graphics despite peoples' gripes about them are highly important to me. I don't enjoy looking at things that look extremely outdated (WoWs trees). Cutting edge graphics can be achieved while having a lower version of the graphics for people whose computers aren't the best. It makes a best of both worlds, and at the same time allows for some of the amazing graphics that computers today are capable of.
Customization: Oh how i'd kill to have customization in any game. There are two views i see, the "eve view" and the "wow view" i absolutely despise looking like everyone else. There are millions of players that look the same in WoW, which makes me beyond sad especially when gear looks so similar. An idea that occured to me that we are able to choose our clothing what we like in the game, it can be bought with money in the game, but when we kill "bosses" or do things of great value, we get essentially gems. This allows you to customize your characters looks while maintaining the feel of getting better and stronger. However i'm not sure how well this would, i just know that far too often i have almost stopped playing some of my favorite characters because their current tier looks abysmal.
Content: I know this is on a lot of people's minds and i may get some bad shit for this but i'm honestly kind of idk bored with the whole tank healer dps roles. It's a brilliant system don't get me wrong, it works amazingly but it is so unrealistic. and i say that in the confines of what makes these games realistic in themselves. Most of what WoW or other MMOs do is within their own set realism, throwing fireballs is okay in WoW because it's a magical world. However regardless of the situation i find it hard to believe that a 100 foot tall dragon will attack someone who's calling his name (a taunt) and saying mean things, over the guy who would most likely kill him (the dps), or the person keeping everyone alive (the healer). Furthermore, the whole idea of tanking is realistically confusing to me, so... your tank gets hit by fire breath, your healer does what, heal his charred skin? He doesn't look focus from nearly being burnt to a crisp? How does the healing even remotely work, does he get a cut and then the healer just like magically seals his wounds? Like i said it's a brilliant style of play but i honestly have no clue how tanking would work in RL (if that were possible), there is nothing in my mind to support it from a lore perspective in the least. I have no clue of any alternatives and this may honestly be the best way to do it all, i'd just be more than open to new suggestions.
Flow: Oh how amazing it would be to see flow in combat again. Some games do it amazing, others not so much. When i play a character i want to feel like it's a person, not a robot. A nice flow from spell to spell, move to move, anything frankly would be nice. Furthermore i would love to feel like i could actually be good at this game. I used to play a mage in Wotlk, arcane even. Even with same gear i would manage a solid 2-6k dps more than any mage i ever saw in any raid, even those who outgeared me. I don't know why, it could have been that i perfected my gear down to the dps point, or i knew exactly what to do in every fight and when, but in the end it wasn't satisfying. I just felt like the difference was how hard i pushed the buttons : (. I don't like having a rotation, as odd as that sounds. In real life i don't keep punching every time you fight someone in the same way, i'd love for dynamic play styles (less arcane mage, more frost dk)
Immersion: All 4 of those points lead into immersion. When i say immersion i say something like, caring about your character, identifying with your character and the storyline they live in, having real relationships (like friendships) community, and being invested in the storyline. When you add things in like the fact that tanking makes little to no sense (i mean if someone were to attack me, and i had to choose between the calling someone a name or the guy about to shoot me my main concern would be the guy with the gun), and character customization in some guys has made you an almost exact clone of everyone else it makes it hard to want to feel like youre someone special in the game. I want to want to read/listen to quest text again. I want to want to find out more about the main lore characters and see it represented in game, not just in a book that 90% of the community hasn't read.
Any thoughts? i know this would probably never happen but eh we can all hope.