What's the best MMO design decision of all time?

[Morreion]

Leaderboard: What's the best MMO design decision of all time? (Massively)

Comments:

This first comment is the most often-mentioned design decision in the comments thread:

I would say the best design decision that comes to mind for me would the Star Wars Galaxies Pre-CU and CU Crafting System. This is, by far, the best crafting system even implemented in a game. It was complex, it fueled the economy and wasnt a cookie cutter start from day one and be the best. To become a well known crafting in SWG it took time, patience and skill to fine toon your crafting skills to make the best items you could and then to market them so people came to you over the next Joe Craftsman in the house in the next city over.

UO teleport runes/marking/gateways

Being able to mark where you have been and then drop it so a group of friends could follow you, great stuff.

SWG's original Skill Box system.

That is still, imo, THE best way to handle skills/abilities/etc. Sure, it wasn't balanced properly, lent itself to a handful of 'top' templates, and was very grindy during it's time. But the system itself was a fun approach to use and could be re-done a bit better with stat distribution and what have you.

Mentor systems. This allows friends to play with one another regardless of actual level, scales content, properly implemented rewards mentored players for effort and time, and potentially will extend the life of your game!

Diplomacy system in Vanguard. Absolutely brilliant idea, perfect implementation, fits great into the world and gameplay. And guess what? It never appeared anywhere else which is very sad.

The decision that control of Darkness Falls went to whoever was controlling the RvR in DAoC.

I have to say that Darkness Falls in DAoC was the best specific design mechanic IMHO. This was a huge dungeon with raid areas that dropped good loot and coin, only 1 of the 3 realms could access it at any one time (whoever had captured the most castles in RvR). But you could log out a character in DF and sneak around killing enemies even if your side didn;t have control of it. It was a great PvE place where RvR could happen unexpectedly.

The best general design mechanic was the whole game of UO It was awesome. And yet so much of it hasn't been incorporated into today's games.

[Regolyth]

I have a couple that I really like, and the top two are things that I haven't seen in any other MMO since UO: thievery and treasure hunting. Stealing items from other places has been such a unique aspect in gaming. You're not having to worry about seeing a red player and running from them, fearing them killing you and taking all of your stuff. No, you had to be careful who you stood close to at the bank... who knew who could be watching?! Then, it was fun as the thief! Some of my most memorable moments in UO were stealing something from someone and trying to get away with it. Whether it was someone's bank check they just created at the bank, or some random guy in a dungeon toughening up his skills (which was a different kind of dangerous, because generally thieves were horrible at defending themselves). And treasure hunting was great! You created a map, followed it's trails around the entire game, then dug up buried treasure, and a few fiends to boot! It was truly and adventure.

But as to what's listed that I agree with, I think that rune marking in UO and Darkness Falls in DAoC were both great. I also love the crafting system and skill-based progression in UO. RvR in DAoC was also a lot of fun.

[Laethaka]

As long as we're talking purely design, not execution, maybe WAR's public quests? Back during the beta and the first couple weeks of launch they were so fun and really complemented gameplay.

Stage 1 was usually running around helter skelter killing or gathering a lot of small stuff, meeting people who were skilled and well-geared to stick with. Stage 2 would bring out some elites to start stressing class roles and encourage group formation. Then Stage 3 would have a boss that would test how well you'd formed a group up to that point. Often by the time the PQ ended, I'd find myself in a decent group and we'd start talking about harder side quests or PVP to head off to.

Yep that was a nice.... month

[Regolyth]

Good call Laethaka. I forgot about those.