What's your opinion of a really great MMO.

[Akujin]

Now, realizing that this a loaded question and will be met with a lot of subjective thoughts, but that's entirely why I want it as well. Everyone (likely) has their own opinion what makes an MMO great. And can relate it to one they've played, or are playing, because of certain elements they find it them.

This is not a comparison against XIV thread, we've had many of them. XIV vs XI. XIV vs WoW, etc.

This is more about why do/did you enjoy THOSE games so much, that they to you, are more fulfilling than what you may be experiencing now?

For myself personally..

I enjoyed XI for how incredibly large it felt, particularly coming out of Bastok, or Windurst. It felt like Gustaburg just stretched on forever at some points. Leveling was a grind, but the party element was much more relevant and in some cases did build up comardrie between players, generally I imagine it's how all Linkshells formed, between people who partied, enjoyed each other, deciding to take it further. It's how I eventually joined my shell that I remained with until I eventually left the game.

I did not exactly enjoy the grind, but I expected it. Traveling was also much more interesting, while some may have found it easier to travel from a starting city to Jeuno that first time, I found it to be pretty rough.

Plus the fact that you had to actually buy your maps, rather than having them automatically given to you. While I enjoy that feature in XIV, the sense of exploration, it can go either way.

One particular memory was with a party of people I was with, at a lowly level 18, we hopped the ferry from Selbina to Mhaura, to explore, trying to get to Windurst. We didnt have the map for that first area right there (cant think of the name), so we're running blind, trying to avoid everything that could kill us, easily. We eventually got separated, I died, ended up home pointing back to Selbina. But it was still fun. Exciting, dangerous. I personally liked that sense of danger, that thrill.

GW2 was like that, exploring, but knowing that if I went too far (which happened), I could find myself overwhelmed and dead pretty quickly. It was fun to see how far I could go before eventually I got to a point I couldn't go any further till I was more equipped. Stealth mode was on all the time (not a literal thing, just saying, trying to be sneaky).

Never really played any others, did WoW for about a week, it was amusing, but I was still invested in XI at the time and had to choose one so I chose the one I was already heavily involved in.

Sadly, my days in XI got to become pretty boring, often logging into the game out of a sense of obligation, but simply standing around in my mog house for hours, doing absolutely nothing.

[Sapphic]

For me, the MMO i really fell in love with was Star Wars Galaxies in 2003. You where pretty much thrown into the world knowing nothing, and the size and scope, plus the freedom was overwhelming. Optional open world PvP that was all about the Galactic Civil War and contention between guilds. No power creep. An awesome economy where everything was player crafted and everything ultimatelly broke so had to be replaced. The complexity and depth of the crafting system which made you look for and find a crafter that made gear how you wanted them.

I used to have a room in my house full of crates of armor and weapons!

I remember first guild I was in, Guild house on Dantooine Strong beast lairs spawned right outside the Guild Hall and we where trapped until we could get reinforcements to help clear them so we could leave! 15 minute waits on the shuttles. But it didn't matter as always was either PvP happening to watch, especially on Naboo and Tattoine or musicians and dancers would do their thing, so you would get buffed/healed while you waited. A huge RP community adding their thing.

Hunting monsters for the DNA to combine into new and fun Creatures.

Certain worlds where dangerous, you had to go hunting with 20 people for the high paying missions, only buffs available where smuggler buffs (in the early days) which had an annoying habit of incapping you when they ran out! Usually just as a patrol of Nightsisters decided to check what all the noise was about. Seeing my first player Jedi, making me decide to unock Jedi on my twi'lek. Unlocked April 2004 with 29th proffession, Squad Leader. Will never foget!

A time when our bases where under constant attack by Rebel guilds, always outnumbered, always holding them back by the skin of our teeth.

Even loved Jump to Lightspeed, especially the PvP in it.

I could go on for days XD
Then the Combat Upgrade came :S

[Richiealvian]

Final Fantasy XIV.

/thread

[Obysuca]

Pre-Aby XI.

/thread

Fixed it for you

[KoujiMoreno]

For me...

-The combat system of Tera
-The crafting system of FF14
-The music of FF14
-The raid system of WoW
-The craft bonuses and applications of WoW
-The community of FF11
-The class system of Rift
-The beauty of Tera (that beginners area was goregous) with the size of WoW's maps
-The danger of FF11
-The healing system of DCUO's nature class
-The support system of DCUO's controller class and FF11's BRD
-The lore depth of WoW with the presentation of any of the newer numbered FF games
-The PVP system of WoW
-The UI of FF14 (no addons)
-The FATE/RIFT/DE system of Rift

There's probably alot more, but that'd be enough to give me a boner.

[Vaer]

None of the MMOs out right now in their present form.

[Gormogon]

For me a really great MMO would basically be FFXIV ARR with the following additions and changes.

Customization added to...
Limit Breaks - More in the direction of FFVII and FFX
Summons - FFX, FFXI, Type-0 - part of summoner limit break. Enkindle diversity per summon. GF (Guardian Force) implementation.
Materia - More like Ragnarok Online's version of their Monster Cards System.
Minions - More like Rangarok Online's version of their pet system
Companions - Some of our mounts becoming useable companions but have specialized roles like the fat chocobo being a healer, drake a tank/melee dps, elbst a melee/caster dps.
Weapon/Gear - Items have attributes like FFX. Different gear sets all upgradeable like the relic weapons allowing for end-game diversity.
Cross-class abilities - existing cross-class abilities changed to accommodate the other class such as blizzard 2 on Summoner restoring a couple of MP or even granting a chance to give aetherflow.

Additions
Trance - Single player version of limit break. Innate abilities get increased in some way. Nothing major but noticeable. Like proc rates increasing, crit/speed rates, certain abilities doing more damage or having their radius increased, etc.
Sub-jobs - Like FFXI but not entirely. You can get a trait or a sub-job ability the trait or ability will change to accommodate the primary job.
Open world dungeons - Rangarok Online and FFXI mix.

As for the jobs to be added. Would like to see a Samurai class/job that plays like Auron and a class/job that plays like Vincent and a class/job that plays like Garland.

I can think of a few more but these things right here if everything in the list happens.