My only interests in mmorpg's are community and PvP... Ryzom's losing interest fast at this point, and I'm not one to whine for the lack of 'contents' or 'quests' in a mmorpg. I am a strong believer that those things are to be left for single player games.
What would be morrowind without quests? Boring, no people around to talk to... the only thing to do is quests and exploration. Same for NeverWinter Nights solo: without quests the game is nothing. A massively multiplayer game doesnt need such things as contents, it needs community interactions.
PvP is one form of community interraction, PvP is also an important part of roleplaying.
To be really happy with a mmorpg, it would need to have:
- events organized by gm's.
- a roleplay community
- tools for roleplaying (useless stats wise items like clothes, chairs and benches where you can sit, food, anything that can create the illusion of a real world)
- PvP, duels are not enough... what kind of immersion do you get from challenging someone in comparison to playing in a world where you might be ambushed or assassinated ?
UO had most of these right... but the way they handled PvP was a joke, PK's became a problem; and the few solutions they tried were awful. On EQ blue servers, the PK system was bad: if you decided to become a PK, you would lose all the benefits of grouping with people who decided to stay carebear - they could not buff or heal you. The situation was much better on the Team Servers (Vallon and Tallon Zek) and the original Full PvP one (Rallos Zek)... Sullon Zek was mostly a mess for griefers though.
Personally I think games should allow a full PvP system, no one being safe. BUT to avoid the PK problem, allow everyone only 1 kill per week of a specific person / account; with the possibility of a remote proposal of a duel. This idea might not be clear to everyone but imagine a situation where:
You're minding your own business, hunting alone. You know you have to stay on your guards, you're already aware of mobs being quite aggressive, but that players could ambush you;
what would you lose from dying from a player? Oh well, some of your time... but no xp, no money,... what would the killer get? A useless trophy that only serves to prove he's killed his victim.
but that same killer will not be able to kill you again before a week, unless you both aggree on a duel that could be sent remotely... allowing for ambushes. It would be rather hard to grief someone that way, being tied to the account this would require a whole guild's dedication to kill you just to grief you; too much effort for most people anyway and easily traceable.
People who would initiate a fight (flagging themselves as "PK") would lose that death limitation for a while... maybe a couple of hours; allowing angry mobs of people to chase the evil killer
But seriously, full PvE even with events is not enough...
