There's really no joy in it.
You might as well be paying for the privilege of having a second job.
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Ex-WoW players: Is there anything that could bring you back?
- Thread starter Azzurri
- Start date
There's really no joy in it.
You might as well be paying for the privilege of having a second job.
Its hard to say. I thought I was done with Diablo 3. But then I started playing this season and holy shit did they really do a number on that game since ROS launched. Its amazingly better.
So, I mean anything is possible. I adored MoP but Draenor killed the community aspect of my server with the lack of flying and garrisons. There used to be 200+ people all acting wild in zone chat on Stormrage at the spawn spots of world bosses on Tue/Wed/Thu. It was great fun but now? No one does anything. Draenor killed it.
So, I mean anything is possible. I adored MoP but Draenor killed the community aspect of my server with the lack of flying and garrisons. There used to be 200+ people all acting wild in zone chat on Stormrage at the spawn spots of world bosses on Tue/Wed/Thu. It was great fun but now? No one does anything. Draenor killed it.
GenericBadGuy
Member
Time machine answer is right. You're talking about a game that influenced a generation. How many games can undeniably claim such a thing?
I actually had a wild hair the other day and thought to resubscribe just to try and remember what my character had, but I don't want to pay money and redowload it all just to do that.
I actually had a wild hair the other day and thought to resubscribe just to try and remember what my character had, but I don't want to pay money and redowload it all just to do that.
Nothing.
Deep inside, most people that've been playing since Vanilla (or even TBC) know that what they want will never return. You want the unobtainable, a recreation of those nostalgic memories. But if you think back about what made WoW so good, it wasn't just the fact the game was good. It was a combination of many, many things.
The internet was really moving forward back in those days. It was starting to become much bigger and stuff like youtube was taking off. But despite that, I felt like there was still a sense of mystery surrounding the internet. Like, it's so easy to find info about videogames now. Downloading mods/addons is basic stuff, too. I felt like people back then were still discovering stuff. And that's probably why WoW itself felt a lot more mysterious as well. You couldn't just open google and find everything about the game. Barely any addons. Hitting level 60 felt like an achievement itself. Most of us were younger too. Which also meant that most of us weren't as tech savvy as we are now. It had a certain charm to it. I still remember how Azeroth was an unknown place to me. I'd never know where I'd end up next. The way you had to do dungeons was much more personal and would often end up with new friendships once you finished one. I guess that's one of the biggest disappointments of todays technology. Everyone wants faster access (understandable) so a lot of group efforts in multiplayer-focused games have become less personal, as can be seen with LFG. I just feel like you can't recreate a lot of those personal experiences from way back in 2006.
But I'm drifting away from my main point. Which is that I feel like the game was really a product of its time. It was the right game at the right moment. A lot of those good memories I have simply wouldn't work today. If I really think about it, a lot of my most cherished moments are some of the most awful gameplay-related moments. Like the trouble you'd go through of managing a 40 man raid. How one small mistake would ruin an entire boss fight. But the feeling we all had when we finally defeated that one boss... it was the best.
But I think what I really miss is how social this game used to be. How much it used to rely on that aspect. How everything used to be limited to one server. It was an entirely different experience. I used to have real enemies in PvP. Not just randoms from another server I probably won't remember. I used to play dungeons with people I knew. People I'd keep talking to, even after the dungeon. Not just randoms from another server who don't say anything except for "tank gogogogogo." And yet I can't blame Blizzard for introducing battlegroups and LFG. Even I can't deny how the one server limit was ruining both PvE and PvP on less active servers. From a gameplay standpoint, I understand them. But that doesn't change the fact most of my favourite moments are from before Cataclysm. Wrath of The Lich King was probably the last expansion I really enjoyed. And a great one too.
But even if Blizzard made a 1:1 copy of Vanilla today, it wouldn't work. It's not just the game that has changed. It's everything. This game is more than 10 years old. Technology has changed. The world has changed. But perhaps the most important thing is that most of us have changed a lot, too.
Deep inside, most people that've been playing since Vanilla (or even TBC) know that what they want will never return. You want the unobtainable, a recreation of those nostalgic memories. But if you think back about what made WoW so good, it wasn't just the fact the game was good. It was a combination of many, many things.
The internet was really moving forward back in those days. It was starting to become much bigger and stuff like youtube was taking off. But despite that, I felt like there was still a sense of mystery surrounding the internet. Like, it's so easy to find info about videogames now. Downloading mods/addons is basic stuff, too. I felt like people back then were still discovering stuff. And that's probably why WoW itself felt a lot more mysterious as well. You couldn't just open google and find everything about the game. Barely any addons. Hitting level 60 felt like an achievement itself. Most of us were younger too. Which also meant that most of us weren't as tech savvy as we are now. It had a certain charm to it. I still remember how Azeroth was an unknown place to me. I'd never know where I'd end up next. The way you had to do dungeons was much more personal and would often end up with new friendships once you finished one. I guess that's one of the biggest disappointments of todays technology. Everyone wants faster access (understandable) so a lot of group efforts in multiplayer-focused games have become less personal, as can be seen with LFG. I just feel like you can't recreate a lot of those personal experiences from way back in 2006.
But I'm drifting away from my main point. Which is that I feel like the game was really a product of its time. It was the right game at the right moment. A lot of those good memories I have simply wouldn't work today. If I really think about it, a lot of my most cherished moments are some of the most awful gameplay-related moments. Like the trouble you'd go through of managing a 40 man raid. How one small mistake would ruin an entire boss fight. But the feeling we all had when we finally defeated that one boss... it was the best.
But I think what I really miss is how social this game used to be. How much it used to rely on that aspect. How everything used to be limited to one server. It was an entirely different experience. I used to have real enemies in PvP. Not just randoms from another server I probably won't remember. I used to play dungeons with people I knew. People I'd keep talking to, even after the dungeon. Not just randoms from another server who don't say anything except for "tank gogogogogo." And yet I can't blame Blizzard for introducing battlegroups and LFG. Even I can't deny how the one server limit was ruining both PvE and PvP on less active servers. From a gameplay standpoint, I understand them. But that doesn't change the fact most of my favourite moments are from before Cataclysm. Wrath of The Lich King was probably the last expansion I really enjoyed. And a great one too.
But even if Blizzard made a 1:1 copy of Vanilla today, it wouldn't work. It's not just the game that has changed. It's everything. This game is more than 10 years old. Technology has changed. The world has changed. But perhaps the most important thing is that most of us have changed a lot, too.
CrackedNutz
Neo Member
The MMO if it is WOW or whoever that will bring me back is the one that uses VR and has very little grind to it.... The older I get the less time I have to invest into grinding reputation and other crazy time sinks.
This is a big one.
Game design is, after all, making up imaginary challenges for your players to go through.
When you find yourself making those challenges as convenient as possible, you may have lost perspective.
Ghostbound
Member
I quit shortly after wotlk came out and don't plan to ever go back. The only thing I was still enjoying by that point was doing arena, and that wasn't enough to keep me around.
Great points but especially the bolded hit me hard.
I buy every expansion and level to the new cap enjoying my time as I stare at the empty guild list that got server first Naxx40 clears and led the opening of the AQ gates.
It's a fun romp that lasts a couple weeks but the real joy of my time in WoW came from being a teenager with all the free time in the world. Forging friendships and devoting hours a week to socialize and grow my character.
As you can tell by my user name, it's a game that had a hold on me. My favorite game of all time and it is best to remember its glory days rather than anticipate new content that won't hold my interest.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Legion will be the first expansion I pre-order in years, it looks really promising and I'm enjoying the game again, although I fully plan to take a few months off before it hits.
neurosisxeno
Member
I don't deny it was an impressive failure, but even ignoring the bugs and unfinished content, people just were not really enjoying that game at launch. I remember playing it the first weekend it was out and being severely disappointed by everything. The game's core mechanics even required you to be giving 100% for everything. Want to kill a random mob walking around? POP COOLDOWNS FOR EVERYTHING!
Sure, there is a demand for it, but it will always be a vocal minority at best. Not many people would pay $15 a month to play Vanilla WoW, and eventually they would just get bored of it--there really is not enough content to keep that going for a long time.
Yes but there has been a fundamental shift in the way kids are brought up with gaming. Kids in the last 5-10 years are more accustomed to Consoles and Mobile devices. Cell Phones and Tablets have been the introductory device for most children since the iPhone launched, and MMO's have been in a steady decline since about 2010--when PC's started to really decline and Smart Devices took over. The man point is that the people who played Warcraft 1/2/3, growing up and were drawn into WoW, are now older and have other responsibilities.
Yea you have to really search for people these days. Blizzard has not helped with the implementation of Garrisons. You can literally play the entire game without leaving your Garrison. I hate Garrisons for that reason--as well as the fact that they turn the entire game into a chore.
texhnolyze
Banned
Graphics revamp, perhaps?
Or just pure Buy to Play with an optional subscription (like ESO). But still, probably.
Or just pure Buy to Play with an optional subscription (like ESO). But still, probably.
Eh, I agree and disagree. I think lots of 'hardcore' people have just moved onto other PC communities that cater to them: Dota, CSGO, Path of Exile, LoL, etc.
Lots of people actually weren't kids in 2005, believe it or not.
Not having all of the story blocked off to those that can't do raids or even group might be thing that gets me to play. I enjoy the lore, world and story in WoW more then anything else about the game. We certainly aren't getting anymore RTS games so WoW is what we have. So I like that a lot of it can be done solo at my pace. However there is always an end point. Usually right where the story is getting really interesting the single player content on that front ends and you have to do the raids to see what happens next. Take Warlords of Dranor for example. It ends at a certain point but to see the true ending of several storylines you have to raid or do big group dungeons and I simply don't have time for that. Nor the patience for pick up grounds that rather fly through content and get pissy if you do want to follow the story and kinda look at the locations. That same BS happens in FFXIV as well. So why keep playing? That annoyed me about the past expansions and I fell for it again with WoD and it pissed me off. I've decided to just ignore everything about Legion as to not fall for it again.
I understand it's a MMORPG and I've played them for years. It's just that it's gotten to a point that the things I want to experience out of an MMORPG, especially a Warcraft one, is in conflict with general MMORPG design.
I understand it's a MMORPG and I've played them for years. It's just that it's gotten to a point that the things I want to experience out of an MMORPG, especially a Warcraft one, is in conflict with general MMORPG design.
neurosisxeno
Member
While that's true, a lot of those games tend to be more--pick up and go than WoW is. You can play 1 game of DotA and it's finite, the game is finished and you may have learned some stuff but it's over. With WoW you're expected to constantly work towards things--new gear, new mounts, achievements, clearing dungeons, clearing raids, even more achievements--and it can be overwhelming compared to playing a game of DotA or LoL where it's 1 self contained throwdown. It works better for older people that don't dedicate large swaths of time to gaming, but rather play here and there between doing other things.
I'm not saying everyone who played WoW in 2005 were kids, I'm saying that kids who started getting into gaming around 2005, were late to the party on Warcraft. A 5-10 year old in 2005 was more likely to want\play a Wii than they were WC3:TFT or WoW. PC sales have been swiftly on the decline since the mid/late-2000's, and that has an affect on things like the potential audience for WoW. WoW hit its peak in 2008/9 during WotLK, and has steadily declined since then because as people walk away, there aren't a lot of new players coming in to replace them. The point I make about people who played WC1/2/3 is that anyone between the age of say 10 and 30 who was a PC Gamer when WoW came out probably knew of Warcraft. These days though, it's not as big among younger audiences because it's been over a decade since a WC RTS came out, and WoW has just been the MMO since t came out. I think a lot of people who were attracted to EQ and UO also jumped into WoW because it was a big budget MMO with a very committed and talented team behind it--Sony was focusing on EQ2 which ended up being somewhat of a flop as well.
This is a major problem with a lot of long running games. Take CS1.6 for example. It stayed very popular even after CZ and Source had come out, and it wasn't until CS:GO that it really started to get replaced. It was always somewhat on the decline, but CS:GO is a massive success in a way that Source wasn't even close to. 1.6 was still the main version of CS played at major eSports Events, and it was only CS:GO that really toppled it. Now, with CS16, there became a point where there just weren't any new players making their way into the highest level of the game, or at least a real lack of them. This is because kids getting into that style of FPS were starting out with Source because it was newer and looked better. 1.6 had a few exceptions, people like Swag and n0thing, but those players were younger brothers of pro-1.6 players from the early days, so they mostly started playing because of their siblings.
The simple fact is kids don't really want to play "old" games. When LoL\HoN were out before DotA 2 launched, not a lot of younger kids were jumping at the chance to play DotA 1 for WC3, they just went for the newer equivalent.
neurosisxeno
Member
I think part of the draw to MMO's in the earlier days was that they were massive worlds that connected tons of people--now we have Social Media everywhere so a bit of that "meet new people" mystique has just been whittled away.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
I quit WoW a few months after Mists of Pandaria came out, it was intended to just be a break because I was burned out, it's now been three years (can't believe it's been that long, holy shit) and I still don't have a desire to play again. The subscription is what drove me to spend so much time playing because I had to justify myself for spending the money, it's probably at least in part responsible for how big of a backlog I built up in that time. After four years and an absolutely absurd amount of time spend either playing, researching/theory crafting and discussing, yeah I was done.
Orochinagis
Member
Social aspect is gone for me, I can still get invites to clans,sometimes the GM appears and gives money to the new players but the clan chat is desert and they already have cores for experimented raids but no room for newbies they invite like, whats the point. No way I cant afford to pay for a MMO if I cant play the raids or play raid and late game content alone.
Milly Osworth
Member
It still has the flat lifeless wow look.
Milly Osworth
Member
I think something like vanilla wow will never happen again, it was really unique like you described.
A really good VR mmo might do something similar, but Im not sure.
VanquishUK
Member
An expac that isn't bad probably.
AmaterasuOni
Banned
Nope. Not a single thing. I've tried to come back three times. Everytime I list my interest in a month or after the main boss of the current raid got dead.
WoW's not a good game anymore. And I missed so manygreat games because of WoW, so I guess I'm done with MMORPGs. FFXIV is awesome though, but I won't be playing that either.
WoW's not a good game anymore. And I missed so manygreat games because of WoW, so I guess I'm done with MMORPGs. FFXIV is awesome though, but I won't be playing that either.
TBiddy
Member
There are a few things that could probably win me back:
1. A bigger focus on the social aspect
2. Cheaper/free subscription
3. A time machine
Seriously, though, I really miss the days of gathering your guild mates, hooking up on TS and then raiding for 3-4 hours. If a great item dropped for a guild mate you felt happy, and when you finally got that coveted item you were after for weeks, the happiness you felt was wonderful.
Now, not so much. Last time I tried getting back, I joined one the largest and most well known guilds on my server, expecting a lot of chat, dungeons and the like. It was dead, in that regards, since people just used the LFG/LFR tool, because it was quicker.
Blizzard (un)knowingly removed most of the social aspects by introducing that tool, alongside cross-server play, and that is what primarily killed the game for me. They will never remove those tools, so they will never see me as a customer again.
1. A bigger focus on the social aspect
2. Cheaper/free subscription
3. A time machine
Seriously, though, I really miss the days of gathering your guild mates, hooking up on TS and then raiding for 3-4 hours. If a great item dropped for a guild mate you felt happy, and when you finally got that coveted item you were after for weeks, the happiness you felt was wonderful.
Now, not so much. Last time I tried getting back, I joined one the largest and most well known guilds on my server, expecting a lot of chat, dungeons and the like. It was dead, in that regards, since people just used the LFG/LFR tool, because it was quicker.
Blizzard (un)knowingly removed most of the social aspects by introducing that tool, alongside cross-server play, and that is what primarily killed the game for me. They will never remove those tools, so they will never see me as a customer again.
A group of friends to play with, really.
Also, the game has become so overwhelming in content that a completionist like me just wouldn't know what to do / where to start.
I farmed freaking Timbermaw Furbolg rep for 3 days straight in Vanilla, just to check that reputation off my list...
I couldn't just half-ass WoW, i can't full-ass it, realistically, so i might as well just not-at-all-ass it.
Also, the game has become so overwhelming in content that a completionist like me just wouldn't know what to do / where to start.
I farmed freaking Timbermaw Furbolg rep for 3 days straight in Vanilla, just to check that reputation off my list...
I couldn't just half-ass WoW, i can't full-ass it, realistically, so i might as well just not-at-all-ass it.
Flintty
Member
Well, Legion's pulling me back in for sure. I have 10 100s, and I plan to make a few more on another server when it comes out.
Then again, I treat MMOs as the cheapest single-player chill out games.It's not only cheap, but it's free for me since I make gold hand over fist with so many 100s
Then again, I treat MMOs as the cheapest single-player chill out games.It's not only cheap, but it's free for me since I make gold hand over fist with so many 100s
Eight
It's like my mind was trying to protect me from remembering.
When I started playing WoW, The Burning Crusade had just launched. I had no idea what I was doing, so I tried to visit the Blood Elf starting area on my low level dwarf hunter. I couldn't possibly survive the Plaguelands, so I decided to swim there from Tirisfal Glades. That doesn't actually work, apparently, because the Belflands are phased and don't actually exist up there in the north.
After that minor setback, I decided that I would swim all the way around the Eastern Kingdoms, just out of spite. I think it was a good decision. There was a lot of stuff out there in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth that you could only reach by swimming for an unreasonably long time. Like that daycare center on the eastern coast of Arathi Highlands.
The incredibly aptly named Swamp of Sorrows was the worst part of my journey, as I was murdered by crocolisks, so, so many times. And the nearest graveyard was an immensely long way away. I think that swamp was the primary reason why that swim took 14 hours.
The highlight of my swim was when I got to the southern end of Stranglethorn Vale and some people were fighting pirates there, and they were like "Why is a low level naked person here, did you get hacked?" and I was like "I'm naked because I'm swimming, and I'm here because I'm swimming around the Eastern Kingdom" and they were like "YOU'RE HIRED" and that's how I joined a guild.
They were great people, and we were together for several expansions, even through guild mergers and stuff, and I swam around all the places, except Outland, but that was only a temporary setback. My interest waned when we went our separate ways during Cataclysm. There was still exciting new exploration, but it wasn't the same without someone to tell about the awesome cave I found where nobody goes.
So I guess my answer would be "exploration" and "friends". I genuinely never cared even a little about 5-mans, or pvp, or raids, but sometimes people would ask me anyway and I'd go and it would be fun because they were fun people. I'll miss you, <Arm and Steel> and <KEK> of Ghostlands-EU.
After that minor setback, I decided that I would swim all the way around the Eastern Kingdoms, just out of spite. I think it was a good decision. There was a lot of stuff out there in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth that you could only reach by swimming for an unreasonably long time. Like that daycare center on the eastern coast of Arathi Highlands.
The incredibly aptly named Swamp of Sorrows was the worst part of my journey, as I was murdered by crocolisks, so, so many times. And the nearest graveyard was an immensely long way away. I think that swamp was the primary reason why that swim took 14 hours.
The highlight of my swim was when I got to the southern end of Stranglethorn Vale and some people were fighting pirates there, and they were like "Why is a low level naked person here, did you get hacked?" and I was like "I'm naked because I'm swimming, and I'm here because I'm swimming around the Eastern Kingdom" and they were like "YOU'RE HIRED" and that's how I joined a guild.
They were great people, and we were together for several expansions, even through guild mergers and stuff, and I swam around all the places, except Outland, but that was only a temporary setback. My interest waned when we went our separate ways during Cataclysm. There was still exciting new exploration, but it wasn't the same without someone to tell about the awesome cave I found where nobody goes.
So I guess my answer would be "exploration" and "friends". I genuinely never cared even a little about 5-mans, or pvp, or raids, but sometimes people would ask me anyway and I'd go and it would be fun because they were fun people. I'll miss you, <Arm and Steel> and <KEK> of Ghostlands-EU.
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Simple, bring it too PS4 with keyboard and mouse.
Sad but i would day 1 this if they did it.
Sad but i would day 1 this if they did it.
Yeah, I'd be happy to be a tourist for a bit if they bring it to VR.
But I doubt it'd be particularly compelling without fully revamping the game for VR interaction (which is probably why we'll never see WoW in VR - too much work to retool the game, and would create a difficult to reconcile split in user interface).
The real problem of WoW... and perhaps all MMOs is that... ultimately, once you move beyond the game, it becomes meaningless all too quickly - except for some fond memories.
Which is not to say that this always has to be the case... but if you can solve for this problem, you'll essentially have built the Metaverse.
But I doubt it'd be particularly compelling without fully revamping the game for VR interaction (which is probably why we'll never see WoW in VR - too much work to retool the game, and would create a difficult to reconcile split in user interface).
The real problem of WoW... and perhaps all MMOs is that... ultimately, once you move beyond the game, it becomes meaningless all too quickly - except for some fond memories.
Which is not to say that this always has to be the case... but if you can solve for this problem, you'll essentially have built the Metaverse.
kraspkibble
Permabanned.
I stopped playing a while ago but sometimes find that I want to play it again for a bit then I remember I need to buy gametime. So I just play some Elder Scrolls Online.
If it was free to play then I'd go back to it. I know you can play the starter edition but that's not really the same thing.
If it was free to play then I'd go back to it. I know you can play the starter edition but that's not really the same thing.
Probably nothing. It would need to turn into a game I could play maybe two hours a week and still be satisfied. All I would wan't to do is to explore that world together with my friends and find interesting things. I don't want the combat, I don't want the quests, I don't want the pressure of playing raids and dungeons, I don't want the progression. I just wan't the cool world, the sense of adventure and my friends back, like running around in the woods with sticks as children.
Bananajama
Banned
I'm only toying with going back for a few months just to see all the new content and side quests. Maybe demolish a few raids that haunted me back when I was level 60.
Then I'll quit again.
To me it just has a F2P grind to it but with the privilege of paying.
I don't want to do that anymore
Then I'll quit again.
To me it just has a F2P grind to it but with the privilege of paying.
I don't want to do that anymore
Possumowner
Member
Yeah,I'd jump back if and when it goes free.But that's all that can persuade me currently
Azzurri
Member
Besides a time machine which isn't gonna happen, it seems a lot of us, just want that social interaction again that a lot of MMO's have seem to forget about.
A good MMO shouldn't be about just endgame raiding, but the multiple endgame activities, and seems like that's what Blizz wants. You shouldn't need a guild to play, but you should need people to complete challenging content that isn't a Raid or even dungeons.
A good MMO shouldn't be about just endgame raiding, but the multiple endgame activities, and seems like that's what Blizz wants. You shouldn't need a guild to play, but you should need people to complete challenging content that isn't a Raid or even dungeons.
Probably will be an idiot and buy the ce just for my collection, but doubtful I will resub due to time and lack of interest. Barely touched both panda and draenor sadly, and given the post-launch criticisms of the last expansion, it seems I haven't missed much. If and when I do sit down with an mmo these days, it's FFXIV now.
^^^
I played through the end-game of WotLK and the beginning of the next expansion (conquest?) but it just kept getting worse. Karazhan was the best content they produced and it was all downhill from there. End-game grinding for money and materials was like a second job and once you have near the highest iLvL gear you can get it quickly becomes super pointless.
I honestly can't think of anything that would bring me back.
Ivory Samoan
Gold Member
Honestly, If Blizzard dropped the news that WoW 2 was in full development, I would throw a party in its honor.
WoW's making too much money for Bliz to consider that though... unless they offered free migration in some way for long term subscribers (which I'm not one of).
I played in the Vanilla days, but my time in WoW has been and gone.
To WoW long-term? Probably not.
I think to bring me back to MMOs, you'd really need to re-think the whole thing. We've played out the whole EQ/WoW-style hotbar aggro-gen holy trinity instanced dungeons raid bosses kind of MMO. It's done. Stick a fork in it.
But could you get me playing an MMO again? Yeah, what you'd need to do would be to start with an immersive world first, then you'd need to make good reasons to cooperate and help everyone (you can introduce competition once your cooperation game is super-solid), and the game would need to respect my time, but, and this is tricky, also not trivialize travelling through the world to the point where I didn't feel like I was in a world.
Atmosphere before everything else.
Things I'd recommend limiting:
1) Teleporting to places - there could be some, but it should be in-game explained, be cool, and not be everywhere.
2) Flying/flying mounts/flight routes. No. Get rid of them. They make the world seem smaller and less interesting. DAoC-style horse routes are fine (including to places you've never been).
3) Equipment churn/stats gain - this just isn't super-interesting - getting different gear and rare stuff is cool, but just BIGGER NUMBERS is a mug's game.
4) Hotbar abilities. Don't do it. That's not to say you don't have abilities, spells, and so on, but don't give me a goddamn rotation. Make me actually play the game, like a game, with a few (less than five) abilities as a backup. The Division seems to get this.
I'm totally biased of course. Whilst my first big MMO was EQ, my true love as an MMO was Dark Age of Camelot, which had a ton of stuff going on that modern MMOs have glossed over, and had more atmosphere than any half a dozen modern MMOs put together.
I'd also suggest special servers for people who consistently behaved like wankers. Don't ban them or whatever. Just make them go play with Their People.
TLDR: Atmosphere/world and cooperation (needing and wanting to cooperate) were keys to older MMOs.
I think to bring me back to MMOs, you'd really need to re-think the whole thing. We've played out the whole EQ/WoW-style hotbar aggro-gen holy trinity instanced dungeons raid bosses kind of MMO. It's done. Stick a fork in it.
But could you get me playing an MMO again? Yeah, what you'd need to do would be to start with an immersive world first, then you'd need to make good reasons to cooperate and help everyone (you can introduce competition once your cooperation game is super-solid), and the game would need to respect my time, but, and this is tricky, also not trivialize travelling through the world to the point where I didn't feel like I was in a world.
Atmosphere before everything else.
Things I'd recommend limiting:
1) Teleporting to places - there could be some, but it should be in-game explained, be cool, and not be everywhere.
2) Flying/flying mounts/flight routes. No. Get rid of them. They make the world seem smaller and less interesting. DAoC-style horse routes are fine (including to places you've never been).
3) Equipment churn/stats gain - this just isn't super-interesting - getting different gear and rare stuff is cool, but just BIGGER NUMBERS is a mug's game.
4) Hotbar abilities. Don't do it. That's not to say you don't have abilities, spells, and so on, but don't give me a goddamn rotation. Make me actually play the game, like a game, with a few (less than five) abilities as a backup. The Division seems to get this.
I'm totally biased of course. Whilst my first big MMO was EQ, my true love as an MMO was Dark Age of Camelot, which had a ton of stuff going on that modern MMOs have glossed over, and had more atmosphere than any half a dozen modern MMOs put together.
I'd also suggest special servers for people who consistently behaved like wankers. Don't ban them or whatever. Just make them go play with Their People.
TLDR: Atmosphere/world and cooperation (needing and wanting to cooperate) were keys to older MMOs.
I played for a solid six months straight in vanilla, basically from launch. I installed it on 4 CDs, still have them and the original box in great condition! I quit even before TBC came out.
The sense of exploration was incredible. The music, the lands, the quests, the atmosphere. Unbelievable. Grouping up with another player in town who escorted me to Ironforge because I couldn't survive myself. Finding out I had to take an underground train to Stormwind. Running across the sunset fields of Westfall.
I never cared about dungeons or raids, at all. Eventually when I hit level 60, I started a new character to explore other early areas. It was just full of dudes min-maxing their alts, doing whatever shit they had to do for their guild and endlessly discussing raid strats. I cared about none of that. They were fine to play, but the discovery is what made it.
With the way the game is played now, no way could I ever go back.
The sense of exploration was incredible. The music, the lands, the quests, the atmosphere. Unbelievable. Grouping up with another player in town who escorted me to Ironforge because I couldn't survive myself. Finding out I had to take an underground train to Stormwind. Running across the sunset fields of Westfall.
I never cared about dungeons or raids, at all. Eventually when I hit level 60, I started a new character to explore other early areas. It was just full of dudes min-maxing their alts, doing whatever shit they had to do for their guild and endlessly discussing raid strats. I cared about none of that. They were fine to play, but the discovery is what made it.
With the way the game is played now, no way could I ever go back.