It is a tricky question, because I'm aware people are valuing different things in a game. But if you look away from Entropia, WoW, EvE and the other games you might play - and you could start all over building your own game - what would it look like? If you do not have to take into consideration coming up with a story to base the creation on, but only had to think about the features, which would you prefer? This could be anything, ranging from "It has to be an RCE", "it should probably allow me to do the following...", "Avatars are a must" (as opposed to, say, ships, "intricate skill system", "PVP", "it should be fantasy themed" (or, science fiction/realistic), etc. What about the involvement of people. Do you believe it would be a great thing, if you had some influence on the games developments? Or could invest in the game in other ways than through buying la's (JUST an example again). Let's think over the limit here :) nearly anything is possible and only your own imagination holds you back! It would be neat if your answer could include the "what kind of gamer are you" results. Maybe it will allow for some basic identification of features desired by certain types of players. And the discussions here are free :) Use it wisely...
ok, should be scifi for sure, dont like elves should be planet based, so no little spaceships flying around I would like to somehow design your own stuff. Not like SL but by choosing different stats for weapons fo instants. So choose a basic weapon housing, add a type of barel, add a scope, add a laser sight (can choose from a lost of different types), choose ammo type, choose max amount of damage, change colors and stuff. This will go for other items as well.
For me personally the perfect game would be something of a mix between Grand Theft Auto and Sims...simply a sandbox based game with endless possibilities in a huge town/world with roleplaying elements such as XP being distributed into different skills such as "physique" and similar attributes. Also the availability to be free, like if you wanna be a lawabiding citizen you can try and open stores or be a average factory worker..or sell crack and have a few whores you pimp out Congratulations, you just described Star Wars Galaxies although it has some flying if you want to do it,not a necessity
Can probably come up with some more stuff, but I dont like star wars (dont like the movies either) so maybe that is not for me.
So, the personal influence and creativity should be main? Maybe not even when the game is running, but also before a game (or while a game) is being made? When I think of games like WoW and Lotro and D&D online, they are very nicely made, but there's hardly any creativity in them. You follow a path and a bunch of quests and you know exactly what to expect. Is this a part of the creativity, you wish for in a perfect game? Do you believe that the unknown - the unexpecable (as we have it through loots of Globals and Hofs in EU) of some sort is important for players to maintain their interest for a game? Does the possibilities of making social bonds, societies, easy ways to communicate mean something? I have played a lot of games and lots of them have shitty ways for communication ... I also found myself easily bored in those games (which could be connected to my game type of course ;) ) What about battles ... you wish to create (craft, discover) - how do you wish the battle fields to be? PVP too?
theres alot going for EU. from the current general base id have more ownership and a sim city style development based around player/soc grinding to "improve" land quality or facilities. i like the idea FPC has with selling tp, trade centres and other improvments, i'd base the business model far more on this than decay/micro payments. There would also be a better RCE model built with emphasis on realness of economy rather than cash. ie, finite resources in an area or extraction becomes more expensive as the "easy" material becomes exhusted, alternative materials could be used to different costs/durability. there would be a real trading model with demarcation between areas, so you'd have to transport ores and items into a new area, so generating real supply/demand there was a nascent project a year ago for a player based project, and i worked through some of these ideas with others, i think it would have worked well. ( it was when we realised MA retained full control of everything it died and why i think Postmoderna should develop its own platform.) think simcity/SL/EU/Elite (with out the space).
Sure PVP should be there to even though I dont do that a lot, but it is one of the things that attracts people to a game. It would also be nice if you could be part of more then 1 society or group of people. Also you should have a PM box so you can send people a message when they are offline. A lot of diversity in the cities and towns on the planet