Tim Buckley, author of Ctrl+Alt+Del, is working on a list of features his ideal MMOG would have, being a man who’s played more MMOs than most of us would care to admit his opinions are quite interesting. Most I’ve seen implemented in a game already but never all. Two of my favorite bits:

Character Creation: Character creation is the first thing a gamer sees when he fires up an MMO, and the process defines their character for the entirety of the game. And not just what racial benefits and class they choose, but their appearance in-game. And I, for one, am sick and tired of developers acting like character customization is an afterthought. Something that takes a back seat. Three or four hairstyles and a couple of face options to choose from may be fine for a single player RPG, but when you’re going to be sharing a world with thousands of other people, you need more than that to differentiate yourself.

And,

Around level 20-ish, certain player classes would begin to learn teleports, similar to Wizards and Druids in the original Everquest. Available to port nearby members of their party to specific locations around the world, with more locations becoming available as they leveled up. In EQ, a lot of Wizards and Druids would run “taxi” services in their free time, and some would teleport travelers for free. Either way, it encouraged social interaction between players, something that automated travel in current games does not.

This last bit reminds me of Ragnarok Online where Acolytes and Priests were the primary source of transport, it made for great fun. What would your ideal MMO contain? Let us know in the comments!

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]