The Perfect MMORPG...?

[Raa]

Perfection is boring.

[Mordraugion]

The perfect MMORPG is just outside your door

[Duraza]

tell us what it is in your head.

My ideal game is one that revolves around the players. Of course it has to have decent game play, intresting settings, and frequent rp. However the biggest thing I want is a game that is literally like real life in the way that what one player does can change everything. I like the idea of settings to play by but only as background history. I want a game where what a player does is just another piece of recorded history, we each can affect the world around us.

So where am I going with this? Lets say we had a game and within the game we had cruel tyrants ruling the country. I could choose join these tyrants, maybe oneday becoming an equal to them. Or maybe I could be the one who takes down the goverment itself, killing all of these evil rulers. Then who knows what will happen. Maybe I will be able to rule, maybe the other players will rebel agaisnt me, maybe the leftovers of this old kingdom will take me down. What happens in the game is left completely to the player. Maybe I'll just be a merchant all my life. They can fight their wars but I want no part of it. So I just sell my goods day by day. Maybe I'm a spy, attempting to infiltrate an enemy organization. Maybe I'm just a humble guild leader/member. I could be a bartender.

In other words I want a game that is pretty much commanded by the players who play it. There can be 2 rl years of war for power in the game and suddenly it becomes peaceful till someone is able to murder the new leader. Pretty much no rules, no limits to what you can do. Your given a setting and you play.

The perfect MMORPG is just outside your door

RL works too though. However I doubt I'll plan to become an evil warlord and take over the American goverment anytime soon.

[Draklar]

In the perfect MMORPG, 99.9% of deaths would be permanent.  This would annoy everyone to no end, and hence it wouldn't be perfect.  So no such thing as the perfect MMORPG.

It's a matter of design.

If you provide players with a cliche mmorpg, then yeah. It will be annoying. But if you release a game that is yet another uninspired mmorpg, we're not talking about a good game to start with, are we?

Octir, I'm not sure what you understand by immense leveling [experience]. If building up of character system-wise, then yes. Leveling and role-play can be merged beautifully.
If you mean grinding, then perhaps there is a way. But I never tried to find it.

[Silavur]

Really the perfect game for everything we talk about is pen and paper role playing. Dungeons and dragons, LARP.  In those games if you don't roleplay, you literally die. But the leveling is of course almost as pertinent. So how to take those ideas to a computer game? I'm not sure of that either.

[Ironstark]

aslong as we dont have to pay to play in a few years this game is EXTREMLY close to perfect!     

[Sangwa]

The perfect MMORPG would require a very realistic environment and lots of Game Moderating. Perma-death of semi-perma death, GMs controlling main organizations (guard, government etc) and a strict role play policy where people would be kicked out and sent to role play guides whenever seen being incoherent or inappropriate.

I would enjoy that.

[Rongar Elani]

I guess I'm not the only one having a Holodeck on his wishlist to Santa.. Either that, or mescaline

[Aileey Emaner]

I say its imposible... because even when the best MMORPG is out, it will only be the best for some time, better games will eventually be created, and ''perfect'' means there's nothing better than it.

Although PS really is the best totally free to play MMORPG ive seen so far, and one of the things i like the most of PS is that ITS MAC COMPATIBLE! which is awesome cause theres a really really really really really limited number of free mmorpgs for macs, since mac wasnt made for gaming... Aaaaanyway, i love PS 

[Earl_Listbard]

The perfect MMORPG would require a very realistic environment and lots of Game Moderating. Perma-death of semi-perma death, GMs controlling main organizations (guard, government etc) and a strict role play policy where people would be kicked out and sent to role play guides whenever seen being incoherent or inappropriate.

I would enjoy that.

How would people make strong characters if there was perm death implemented?

I mean, the moment you get your character maxed, lets say you head back to town, lag, really badly... and a npc kills you. :/

[Parallo]

What constitutes strong would obviously change. We have a definition of smart in RL but if RL did not have death it would be different because of unlimited study time.

[Earl_Listbard]

What constitutes strong would obviously change. We have a definition of smart in RL but if RL did not have death it would be different because of unlimited study time.

Yeah, training would have to be super easy though, because a character's life expectancy in a video game has never been high.

[Parallo]

Well we are talking about the perfect MMORPG so issues with lag deaths and bugs resulting in death would be minimal. People in MMORPGs are simply too reckless. If they did not rush into every fight then the expectancy would be higher.

[Sangwa]

The perfect MMORPG would require a very realistic environment and lots of Game Moderating. Perma-death of semi-perma death, GMs controlling main organizations (guard, government etc) and a strict role play policy where people would be kicked out and sent to role play guides whenever seen being incoherent or inappropriate.

I would enjoy that.

How would people make strong characters if there was perm death implemented?

I mean, the moment you get your character maxed, lets say you head back to town, lag, really badly... and a npc kills you. :/

Who cares about strong characters? I, for once, would love having a MMORPG where my char would really make sense, because he and I would agree about living with care.
Your choices would really count then. I couldn't care less if I would have to see three or four of my characters die on me, or if one I played for two years died against a rabid dog right after it had slain a horde of undead. The fun is about witnessing the story and being a dynamic part of it.

[Draklar]

How would people make strong characters if there was perm death implemented?

I mean, the moment you get your character maxed, lets say you head back to town, lag, really badly... and a npc kills you. :/

If we're talking perfect MMORPG, it's rather safe to assume it should have a strong "RP" factor. As getting strong and maxing out have nearly nothing to do with roleplaying, they can be cast aside here. Yes, character progression is an important factor in RPG, but the way most games present this doesn't really fit the initial idea. For example progression of the character isn't background to the story, but the story is background to the leveling. This represents hack&slash, not roleplaying game. Likewise, characters that start from "0" is another opening to hack&slash games. The roleplaying ones will usually provide player with decently skilled character and make it progress, but maybe only slightly (remember: background).

On the contrary, perm death opens up possibility of exploring many different characters. If game supports such situation, as opposed to pushing player into the same sort of character over and over again, then this can actually improve both gameplay and roleplaying experience. If characters don't start from "0", it won't be that annoying either. Ironically enough, perm death becomes a positive phenomenon.