Paraphrased from
this post on
Mahogany Finish.
EVE -- Single-Server Structure
EVE -- Free for All PvP (no hard factions except player-created ones); see
Kings of the Hill and
Because It’s Not Over Until I Say It’s Over.
EVE and UO -- Player-Driven Economy; Absolutely essential. The more precious resources are available outside the reach of the law’s long arm, but to prevent radical inflation in the newbie market (as seen in World of Warcraft and elsewhere), lower-tier resources remain a necessity in “end game” crafting. All but perhaps a few items awarded for participation in one-time-only events can be crafted by players. Newbie quests may award final products, but most equipment is left behind upon dying. Most quests simply award money. There are no NPC vendors.
EVE, UO, Shadowbane, others -- severe death penalty in some form.
EVE, UO -- Shallow character advancement; i.e. skill system. New players can contribute to most aspects of gameplay early on, while advanced players can specialize. Nobody is so advanced that they become immune to lowbie attacks, or so advanced that basic items become useless.
Tale in the Desert -- crafting system.
WAR -- Tome of Knowledge (of course).
WoW -- tutorial. Pretty much sums up the entire game; ridiculously accessible, simple, basically fun. I prefer my games with a LOT more depth, but WoW nailed the tutorial. I thought Tortage was too long, and the heavy private instancing meant that newbies were kind of shocked when they set foot on the mainland (people can kill me now?!?).
EVE -- going to borrow from Dwindlehop
movement and combat tightly integrated. always be moving during combat... separation of combat movement (ship velocity) and combat escape (warp drive, jumpgates).
Vanguard -- massive NON-INSTANCED dungeons. The dungeons in Vanguard absolutely blew my mind. The level of detail, the size, the sheer spectacle, and none of them were instanced. Groups shared the dungeons but could trigger bosses keyed to them on distinct advancement paths. I could go on and on about even some of the lowbie dungeons.
Runner-ups
-----------------------------
Vanguard -- unique classes (bards compose music, necromancers assemble their golems from dead body parts, etc.); I'm not in favor of a class-based system, I just thought Vanguard's classes were extremely well-implemented when I played recently.
EVE -- interface. I love how much information you can get if you know your way around it. The obvious trouble is that the deluge of options and information is overwhelming even to players who have been in the game for months.
WoW -- interface. Perfect for a game in which you don't need a ton of information to play well, with easy modification for those who want more.
EVE, WoW -- built-in voice chat. EVE's is somewhat better than WoW's, in my experience, but both are simple enough and you can understand people at the other end.
EQ2 -- zone art and layout.
That's it, I think. All you people who put meaningful, world-changing PvP and WoW's battlegrounds in the same list should be ashamed of yourselves.
I find your ideas interesting, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Author
