Modern MMO's

The problem that MMO developers face is making in MMORPG with a single player experience. With single player and console gamers playing MMO's who expect a Massive Single Player Shared Persistent Online Game with a massive amount of players. They want the character creation to have all the bells whistles the ability to customize every detail about their character with sliders. They want to control every part of their character progression upgrade their skills and traits and change how they work and lastly they want the ability to affect and impact the world itself which is usually accomplished in PvP where developers give them the tools and say have at it and I think the 1st MMO that figures out how to incorporate a single player sand box experience will be the 1st MMO to create a new standard.

At the very least, I think I'll be able to see that MMO in my lifetime. I hope.

On a concept level, the idea sounds like recent animes like Accel World, Sword Art Online, Log Horizon. The concept of "no limit" and an ever changing world in a way, rewritten by an "alive" and intelligent game instead of actual developers. On another note, all 3 of those are virtual reality game oriented, maybe that is what is missing in the equation? ;)

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They want to control every part of their character progression upgrade their skills and traits and change how they work

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Sad thing is that developers seem to remove this from games nowadays. People don't want permanent choices anymore, or at least that is what developers think.

They have already started.

It's called EverQuest Next and EverQuest Next Landmark.


Ultimately what I look for in an MMO is ever changing, I like content updates that keep the game new and fresh, when I think of content updates I reminisce of the Asheron's Call monthly update days back when they were with Microsoft.

When I think of character custimization in a simple form, I think of Ultima Online and it's no levels Elder Scrolls style skill system.

The things that used to keep me playing MMO's are long gone sadly. They've stream lined loot tables, they've instanced everything, they funnel XP into your character, but manage to keep you feeling underpowered because the system is based on gear stats.

There were back when I played Asheron's Call (AC) 126 Levels, and only a few had reached level 126, it was a big deal, but even at lvl 100 I felt plenty powerful and that made the game less trivial, I could do most things on my own and AC had the best loot table, it was for lack of a better word random. Yes higher level creatures had the chance at dropping better loot, but you could get rare color palettes, low quality high damage weapons (low quality equipment was good for tinkering skills to maximum, but you wanted equipment with the maximum base damage it can have)


They need to make MMO's about the journey now and not just the singular destination. They need to make it so you can always play with friends (since everyone has more time to play at different moments)....Level syncing ala GW2 of CoH, Make your character always feel powerful at all points in the game. Keep a way of leveling up consistent so that even at end game once you reach it there's always a casual tread mill you can progress on if you wanted to.

Sandbox content like building ala EverQuest NExt, that's a HUGE deal, that's a level of customization that will make you lose hours just crafting a home.

In between content patches have friends meet that can DnD style their game night, a dungeon master, etc. Like NeverWinter Nights online kind of has.

Immersion on a grand scale with the world. Weather patterns, weather that reacts to the seasons, weather that reeacts to story elements, adaptable textures that react to the weather being placed on it

The list goes on....


Character customization, I want a jolly fat man who sits in town drinking all day, and selling bread....I want his life to be as meaningful as someone who slays dragons but all a matter of perspective.

Mine craft + pso2 + ffxiv + ? = profit