A Helping Hand

[Deus Ex Machina 100]

I am a young, aspiring game developer currently finishing up college. For the longest time, I've noticed the uncaring behavior of gaming developers go untested, from watering down masterpieces, to chopping them up in to DLC, I have watched as the companies I once adored started concerning themselves more with profit than their own creations. The time will come where the next generation of game developers will be responsible for cleaning up the mess companies like Blizzard left behind.
What I want from you, Nostalrius, is feedback.
Aside from the obvious, what specifically made Vanilla WoW appeal to you? To clarify, what you would demand from a developer who's hope it is to offer you a potential alternative to this mess Blizzard has left us with?
What DO YOU WANT in an MMORPG?

[Docholy]

Find a way to play vanilla wow and you'll find your answer.

[Vaulken]

What engines/languages are you trained in?

[Kadmium]

In decreasing order of importance:

1. Immersive huge seamless World, no loading screens and no instances. Meaningful interaction for the players with the environment, the trees, the rocks, the minerals, the elements etc. With a large population per server to go with this, Nostalrius was laggy at times but I thought it was extraordinary how many players from both sides I was able to encounter in EVERY zone, that alone made it the best mmorpg experience Ive had, even more so than the vanilla back in 2004-2006.

2. Player created content driven, both PVP and PVE. no stupid cut scene storylines that call everyone HERO. This includes the meaningful travelling, e.g. you clear an old mine of monsters, you make a camp their, bring in players with mining skill, mine, move the mine on carts, protecting them with your warriors, then move them to frontier towns or capital cities for profit.

3. Strong tools to support community building and player interaction, relates to no.2.

4. No hand holding useless features such as achievement or GPS systems, those should be achieved organically by the players, e.g if a player is famous for exploring the terrains, then the community should revere him/her as such and seek their help when stepping foot to new territories.

5. Horizontal progression, meaning beating the next new boss, getting the next level, looting the next item is NOT the only way to progress in game. E.g players could be able to control a new piece of land as progression, a player should be able to obtain a unique spell that he can apply to the benefit of the other players as progression. A blacksmith after making hundreds of gear for players now has the recipe to make a unique sword that only he can created, making him progress and valuable. Possible elimination of the concept of lvls and making gear consumables that you need to repair/replace/craft/buy constantly.

6. Skilled based combat system that does not make a veteran too powerful against nubs, e.g someone that has played for a year should not be able to kill 10 players that started yesterday.

7. Dynamic npc behavior according to time of day, time of year, weather, their numbers, their mood, their mindset, their circumstances etc. E.g dwarves keep travelling from mountains to ancient ruins and are very protective of their treasures, yet they do not mind small number of players approaching for trading. A big attack on a player town by the orcs have been repelled, they retreat to the thick forest and block off the road through the forest, robbing players coming through and forcing players to dispatch small raiding parties to protect their merchants.

7 is a good number to stop at, there is more, but I feel like these could be the elements of the next generation big mmorpg I would love to play. As you can tell I'd like the gameplay to be less of a carrot on a stick but more of a community created fun using a well made virtual world.

[Kadmium]

I forgot to add, minimum instant teleportation, it should be extremely valuable and used strategically.
nothing ruined wow more than flying mounts and LFR instant teleporting to instances imo.

[Benevael]

I played WoW right from November 2004. My guild had cleared 2 or 3 bosses in Naxx when TBC hit.

What made Vanilla and TBC great was very simply the social aspect of the game. The fact that you needed to strive with a large group of people to take down end game content (40-man raids). And also the fact that the ceiling is very, very high - so high that very few people ever reached it in retail (Kel'Thuzad), and doing it required an epic, herculean effort, min-maxing every fight.

As others mentioned also, the sheer size of the world is important. Teleportation to dungeons and flying mounts were a huge mistake. Half the fun was exploring every nook and cranny over years of time.

On the PVP scene, similar reasoning with the high amount of effort and dedication required to reach rank 14.

If something takes effort, it has value. If it is handed to you, it has no value.

[Drain]

"If something takes effort, it has value. If it is handed to you, it has no value."

The most important tagline for a MMO that Blizzard forgot all about. It's just hilarious how easy the game is now with all your fancy heirlooms.

[jacobsimonsen]

I want everything vanilla had. There is so much, could probably write a book.

[Docholy]

What makes vanilla so good is it has something for everyone, not everything is made for everyone. Heck the same held true for BC and partially for wraith until Blizzard shifted mid gear to appease everyone at once.

[Reserverue]

I agree with almost everthing Kadmium said.

A Huge Seamless World with at least psuedo realistic elements is the core of an Immersive MMO


If I can't explore the whole world in a year than that makes it all the more deep