Angel

1. remove the practice of endgame content
2. skill based system instead of the level grind
3. eliminate the institution of the grind
4. a system balanced economy so new players can participate
5. true player determinism

"You basically just used extra words to say 'WoW is part of pop-culture"."

And this is why it was called an 800lb gorilla at the end of the article. The author knows they are pointing out the obvious. Some times is just needs to be done. What is obvious to one person may not be obvious to another. Often, pointing out the obvious encourages or fosters discussions that result in substantive advances.

This is a recent paper... the tentative introduction for the second part of my upcoming, yet still potential, Masters Thesis. This represents a large conceptual chunk of what I am doing and thinking. Do not feel obligated to read it, especially if you are prone to using the term "ivory tower" in a derogatory fashion. I'm not building an ivory tower for myself. it's more of an off white cinder block fallout shelter...

http://wetwyered.com/wordpress/?p=102

Wet Wyered!

They have awesom ideas about how games should be made and a solid IP in the wings for a steampunk MMO. All they need is the seed money and they will take off!

Don't bank on SWG going away. The people who play it now are into the sandbox element primarily and then the SW element. Everyone I know who plays SWG will not be evacuating to TOR... If for some reason SWG is closed down most people will migrate to SWGemu.

A fine statement except Age of Chaos is a MUD, not an MMORPG by definition.

Psychology tells us, irrefutably, that long distance relationship can only be sustained for so long. Intimate physical contact is a necessity in romantic human relationships, period.

your argument can be inverted to say that within a gaming environment you "pay" by playing through content, by experiencing all of the nuances of a game. people who have a feeling of entitlement beyond that of game play will purchase the rewards with real money.

An income outside of a game world is not part of a game world. it is external and not part of that server and IPs persistent existence.

This is one of the key points of contention. Most people who become involved in these fantasy world do not appreciate when the balance is thrown out of whack by what they perceive as intrusive advantages. Just because you have money to burn in the real world does not necessarily mean you should be able to burn it in a fantasy world.

Again I say, it depends on the what the game was design for and the audience it is targeting.demographic research shows that most people who play MMOs do not have that extra real world cash. They play these games primarily for some limited escape. In other words they play these games so they can perhaps experience something other than the financial limitations they may be saddled with in real life.

If your target demographic does not have money to blow on virtual goods don't ever offer virtual goods in exchange for cash beyond that of a subscription.

If you all are going to address the issue of MT in MMOs you have to stop with the dismissal of "vanity items".

In games with crafters those vanity items infringe on the crafter population. point of example: EQ2 players are obsessed with "appearance gear". The armorers and tailors make items that are used as costuming and cloths. The EQ2 community had screamed out for better appearance gear for years. SOE threw in "cloths" for players that took the form of a single skin in a verity of colors for each sex. This did not satisfy so they screamed some more.

Then, SOE introduced MT with appearance gear for sale. those "vanity items" are items PLAYERS could make within the existing crafting system. Instead of providing more for the community of crafters to make, they sold them for cash dismissing them as "fluff items" and marginalizing their crafting population.

MT does not provide "fluff" or "vanity items" it dismisses a good portion of the player population as being worthless and unimportant.

If a system is designed for MT as incentive to spend money, that is one thing. Though fought with problems that is the way said game was designed. Ultimately if you are going to design for MT don't include crafting.

"too advanced and it looks like it, standardized classes and equipment by classes beyond a strict military environment should not be used."

This is true enough, but can be solved by "framing". my solution to this for a project I am working on is to frame the entire world in a frontier/exploration theme. Think about history. As people moved west even common people had access to some military hardware or equivalent weapons technology. We still have to play it a little on the conservative side but it has been working out.

If the world you are creating is rooted in more realism as is current only the military, policing forces, a few citizens with the right permits, gangs, criminals, cults, and whack-jobs would have high profile weapons. The rest would be "just citizens".

Now, one could argue that PCs could be members of the military, a policing official, one of those few citizens with the right certification or licensing, in a gang, a criminal, a cultist, or a whack job. There is a president in much of the science fiction in literature, movies and TV shows out there for this idea. (Side-note: being just a citizen of a science fiction world is actually far more attractive to many potential players than other players and developers realize... exceptional citizens like scientists, politicians, and such but "just" citizens none-the-less)

I agree with the melee combat issue. but, again, framing is really essential. It can be done quite well in combination with some skill sets but. stealth abilities can lead to hand-to-hand confrontation. It would not be easily archived and would be infrequent of an occurrence. You are right in that most combat would be at range rather than up close in the general scheme of things when dealing with science fiction.