The Ultimate MMO -- Principles on what to make when designing the WoWkiller

Attention all MMO makers,

Back in 2012 I went through ideas discussing what would make the perfect MMO. It was in March that I sent a few of these ideas to a friend. Here they are.


1. There are no levels, however there are hundreds of skills that you can boost up and can still get you far in the game (similar to runescape)

2. Completely customizable armor. Merchants with a level high enough can mix and match different designs compared with different materials to create the ultimate armor and sell it for tons of gold

they unlock different designs/the use of different materials too, but for the materials they have to find their own in order to craft and sell (but those are general MMO crafting rules)

3. Quests change from different NPCs. Since all NPCs can die permanently, it switches around so that no person will have the same quests once its complete, its complete and another person will have a quest

these quests also match up to the different needs of the area, for example if there becomes a wolf infestation by means of random event or just no one being in the zone to kill them, a NPC "generates" a quest to kill a specific amount of wolves

4. In ultima online, there was a system where if too many of one creature were killed, they would start fading out from the world and a different being would start taking over, probably something that was lower in the food chain

the problem with it though was that players would kill everything, so they would all die out

#4 uses a similar concept, but to remove the flaw of that Ultima found, the creatures will get a "survival of the fittest" perk that makes them way stronger, and more of a match to other players

now this would be limited in low level starting areas so that newbies don't get instakilled, and in case things don't work out there is also random events that are generated by developers

5. Artifacts. Extremely hard to find, the only hints being small clues inside the universe. Extremely hard to get because of all the obstacles, Artifacts are highly-powerful pieces of armor/weapons/etc. that there are only ONE of in the entire game. This makes it so that players can work together to find them, or that one player can be all-powerful (which sounds bad but is important as you will find later on)

6. Dynasty system. Even with the toughened monsters, it is pretty hard to die in this game because of the NPCs-PCs working together and the alternate routes to going up in the world. but eventually your character will die, and when it does, it will not come back

so, that seems really bad, right?

wrong. With the dynasty system, players can marry PCs or NPCs to create strong bloodlines of characters that flow in the family. each child will have some negative/positive traits that their parents had, and though they will have to work their skills up again, they can inherit all the items that your previous character left behind

so basically, your character dies, you reincarnate as one of your NPC children

so what do your children do while NPC, you ask? They spend this time doing different tasks and roaming town that will let them gain their own skills

you can also influence what your child does in order for them to get the skills you want them to have when you die and reincarnate as them

7. Destructible Environments Entire NPC towns, mountains, and likewise are subject to the devastating forces of both erosion and explosives. These can leave paths of destruction across places that use to be homes but were subject to ruin, causing whole new places to explore all on their own. Players can't just grief whatever they want, however- if some guy just starts throwing dynamite around, he'll be killed by the city guard, with one exception that leads me on to the final, and ultimate, feature...

8. Players create the world. NPC Town Sieges. Entire kingdoms entirely made by players. This, combined with all the other previously mentioned features, creates the main reason why this is the ultimate MMO.

The only way to perfectly explain this is from a specific point of view:

Meet Robb. Robb, and his friend Thelion, are the owners of a large guild. Robb eventually finds a peaceful plot of land far from civilization in the game, and decides to make a town, specifically for his guild, there.

With the town founded, Robb is given a new view -- called the Strategic view -- where he can build buildings, recruit NPC guards, and more with the resources his guild has collected. He decides to give Thelion second-in-command, giving him also the Strategic view with the exception of things that Robb does not allow Thelion to do. Things go on, and eventually the Guild town becomes a kingdom, as big as some of the NPC kingdoms in the game. People -- NPCs and PCs alike -- flock to the new city to seek refuge from an influx of PC-bandits in the south. One day, Robb finds something big -- thanks to an anonymous tipper, Robb finds the location of an ancient longsword artifact called the Ebonsword of Glory deep in the frozen mountain of Lok'Thagar. He sets up an expedition, lead by him, into the mountain. After a long journey with some casualties, the group finds the sword, which is given to Robb. Over time Robb becomes obsessed with the sword and starts to get tyrannical. Thelion notices this, and gets an army of revolutionaries and fights Robb's loyal faction. After a long, bloody, and destructive war that ravages the countryside, Robb is slain. From then on both PCs and NPCs remember the event, and it is forever known on an official timeline of the game.

So that's about it. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

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