This isn't really to start completely new ideas yet, but I think it would be useless and interesting to catalogue some of the MMO games that are not taken from the nearly identical "medieval fantasy RPG" mold. That means if the game could have a graphics facelift and a few gameplay tweaks and suddenly become WoW, it's a cookie cutter MMORPG. What we're looking for are MMO games that are not the same old thing. EVE Online would represent a big enough change in setting to be considered a new game - Puzzle Pirates innovates enough with the interaction to be a new game. Browser based MMOs have lots of 4E type conquest games, where you manage an empire, not a character. So what other games fit the bill for MMO (lets say that means a persistent world with support for more than 500 player at once), yet go beyond the "avatar kills stuff gains levels/skills/points, goes to new harder areas and maybe fights/trades/talks with other similar avatars" type of derivative RPG MMO gameplay.

moving Utopia into a 3D graphical game would be an innovation really.

I'd like to see someone implement an economic based game, like the IBM's commercial version of economic software. Basically, it's only available for very large cooperations who spend tonnes of money to educate/test staff's ability on the market etc. At the moment, the entire concept it
(a) too complicated for non-professionals
(b) too expensive to own

If you can port that system to games, I'd say it's both beneficial to entertainment and to the education industry.

in short, virtual companies.

I think that the current MMORPGs should focus more on how to make the world dynamic. As far as I know, some of the newer RPGs are doing this with a storyline that unfolds and new events occur every few months. I just feel that I have no impact on the world around me and I have to wait months for something interesting to happen.

Now this is a common complaint among most MMORPGs (I haven't played too many of the newer ones except for EQ2 and WoW) but I think it may be feasible if careful consideration is made to what should change and what should remain the same. I don't think it's important to be able to dig holes in the ground or to see my arrow stuck in a tree one year from now, but I do think it is important if I receive a quest to go wipe out my goblin camp with a group that it isn't the exact same camp when I get back 15 minutes later.

It WOULD make sense if the camp came back later in a different spot in an hour or so, assuming that the camp had a purpose (scout camp or supply camp, something like that). This would mean that there was a goblin cave or something bigger than the camp nearby. There could be a larger quest, maybe for 2 or 3 groups, to go and wipe out the goblin cave. When that happens, I think they should remove the goblins from that area and maybe in a day or so put in something new, like an orc fort in someplace different.

I feel that this way the player feels that they accomplished something. Maybe you could have their name written down in a history book in the city or something. As long as it isn't too easy to wipe out entire populations, I think it will give players something to aspire to rather than level 50.

I'm not sure if I answered your question because I'm referring to the "medieval fantasy RPG" mold (that's what I'm most familiar with) but I think it could be applied to any game.

I was talking about Neopets and Gaia Online in the other MMORPG thread. They are marginally MMORPGs.


In Gaia Online there is no combat, no character stats, leveling, monsters, etc. The closest thing is the ability to buy better fishing rods which allow you to catch rarer fish. The major gameplay takes place in a messageboard much like this one. Players get paid small amounts of gold every time they make a post or vote in a poll. Gold can mainly be spent on clothing and hair styling for one's avatar and furnishings for one's house, as well as a few basic tools - bug-catching net, garden shovel, and fishing rod. Gold can also be converted into casino tokens for playing slots, and they're adding a card gambling game soon. While posting on the forums you may also get a random event of finding a gift box containing a rare item.

So, there are a few mini-games to play: fishing, bug catching, flower digging, trash collecting, slots, and soon cards. On holidays you can also go around caroling/trick-or-treating/whatever to earn presents of limited-edition items. But the main activity is simply forum discussion and diceless roleplay. Also, players use the forums as shops and auction houses to sell each other game items, services such as banner making, or goods such as drawings.

There is also an automated item sale/auction search engine, which players can use to earn money by speculating on items - buying low, selling high, trying to creeate shortages to drive the price up, etc.


Neopets is a similar type of game but the emphasis is much more on playing mini-games and much less on posting. The main gameplay is playing flash and html mini-games - the player can play each game a maximum of 3 times a day and get paid according to how well they score. There are a lot of games - maybe 30? I never counted, sorry. Neopets has a lot of items to buy, but unfortunately most of the items can't be used in any way - the pet avatars (of which you can have up to 4) can't be clothed. You can buy clothing for them, but can't actually put it on them, isn't that lame? You can feed them various foods, or give them books to read, but these have no interesting effects.

But, what the players do with the items instead is make galleries. Neopets has an automatic shop feature where a player can list their goods for sale, and have them be searchable by the shopping search engine. A player creates a gallery by filling their shop with a collection of items, with prices either set so high no one will buy them or set to unbuyable once that option was added. While I was playing Neopets I had a pretty impressive plushie gallery, belonged to a plushie guild, and gave cheap plushies to guild n00bs for holidays.

Neopets does have a rudimentary turn-based combat system with equippable armor and weapons, potions to teach a pet a spell, and healing items. All combat is comfined to the arena and is completely optional, a player can never be forced into fighting if they don't want to. I think this is the ideal combat system, except that a more advanced arcade or strategic type of combat where all players start each game even instead of having advantages from equipment bought outside the arena would be better.


There are some problems shared by both Gaia Online and Neopets - Guild proliferation (one Fox Lovers' or Plushie Lovers' of Yaoi Roleplayers' guild with a lot of members would be way better than 10 with only a few members each), and pg-13 restrictions crippling roleplay are the main two.


Edit: Oh, I didn't mention the storyline. Both Neopets and Gaia Online unfortunately have the kind of set-up where the world has a current time and either no or 1 current events going on at a time. Events that have already happened become a part of the world's history, and there is no way to ever participate in them if you join the MMORPG after they are over. Both of these games also have a relatively small cast of NPCs who act out the story, which is told in still or animated manga/comics. New story is released in batches every week, two weeks, or month. The NPCs usually have roles in the main MMORPG as shopkeepers who speak a few characteristic quotes, which is the only way the players can interact with them. The story generally ties in with the current event or holiday - for example in Gaia Online there was a bug with the Halloween event, so the next story release had Santa making fun of Jack the Pumpkin King. Then Santa got defeated and came back as Mecha Santa, and... well, you get the idea. Both games have had a storyline where a mad scientist makes an army of mutant monsters which invade, and a storyline with an NPC mysteriously getting kidnapped, or a mysterious stranger arriving in town, and other standard but fun plots.