Just make sure nobody is making any permanent decisions or things that can’t be rectified with a little elbow grease.

I remember when I first started my warlock on wow and pumped spirit because the game manual said “increases rate of mana regeneration” without mentioning that locks actually don’t regenerate mana while casting… That could have easily been a wasted character if the game was set up slightly differently.

Would it be fun in reality? Only testing will tell.

Can you implement an unlimited character advancement system where a given fixed % increase in one area detracts a fixed % from another, so by becoming infinitely powerful, you become infinitely crap at the same time?

Most of the time a new character in your average mmo game starts at (roughly) zero stats and each ding adds stats. You customize your character by increasing the rate at which certain stats grow per ding.

Instead, start somewhere close to 50% of where you want stats to balance by end game, over the course of leveling players can grow ALL of their stats to 100%.

Using the cliche attack/defense trade-off, upping your physical stats by 10% would decrease opposing other stats by 10% and dropping below 0% for something might have some interesting side-effects. You could set up a nice colour wheel for emotions and even link stats like upping an “anger” stat also upps “determination” stats by a small amount.

Like for example, increasing your “strength” decreases your speed by a certain amount so that by the time you one-shot opponents they (on average) will always be faster than you, by the time you are one or two shotting the stronger opponents in the game, your speed is below 0% and you can no longer jump, on top of the fact that your opponent is firing off attacks much faster than you. At the very extreme end of things, it may take you a few seconds to get moving so that you are little more than a stationary turret if you want to attack and now you are relying on your friends just to stay alive.

yada yada it’s not a combat heavy game, but combat hypotheticals are great to simply demonstrate a mechanic because you’ve got that obvious cause-effect going on

Actually, PvP is only well balanced if everybody complains.

Now to answer the question: “What isn’t handled well or could be handled better in MMOs you play (or played) that we could learn from? What things have gone right that we could learn from?” I have only played a few online games, so I will hit each one and what in particular drew me to them.

FFXI – An amazingly in depth game, it has it all. A complete crafting system, professions worth the time you spend on them, a truly interlocking class system (healers can and will die if they try to solo anything), and a wonderful storyline to tie everything together. To be honest I have always been a big fan of strong game economies and worthwhile professions, so that and the importance of healing classes was a major selling point for me.

WoW – Well, it was fun before it became ‘cool’. WoW managed an excellent balance that most games miss between mid and high-end content. Being able to play in a massive group to accomplish lofty goals is always a high point in an online game, but every now and then a person likes to go out alone. WoW managed to provide content for both sides, and everyone in between. This is mainly an issue of content and variety, but a few games hit it well enough.

Guild Wars – Another favorite. Like FFXI this has a great back-story that ties in strongly to game play. Crafting was roughly non-existent, but was made up for by the best pvp system I have ever seen.

Lessons learned:

Some of the best qualities that go into an online game are the following-
High reward for team play.
Crafting and an economy that the players can be involved in.
High level of customization as far as equipment and character growth.
Every class has a use…no ‘who needs a rogue’ moments.
Availability of areas where one can solo (especially start areas).
PvP of some sort, but only if it can be balanced (note that people will complain no matter how well you balance it).

Anyway I just found this place so I apologize if I am repeating points.

Launching with a small audience is actually a virtue since it allows getting the early kinks fixed without making a bunch of people mad. But, since the game will launch on Kongregate, I have a feeling we might not have that opportunity.

All said and done, I’ll take the bigger audience over the comfort of a smaller launch. But that means our beta period has to be more rigorous (and probably long) so we can have a really solid opening day. This is another reason I’m not trying to implement the whole game design at first. It would just be too much to test and balance. I’d rather get something playable out there sooner and gradually build than wait four years to launch at all.

Dr Rabbito, my plan is to consider player feedback, but always defer to my own vision for the game. It will be important especially soon after launch because the game still won’t be truly complete, and I’ll probably hear lots of requests for things I’m already planning. Later, after I have most of the stuff that I want to see in the game, I will begin to consider a more community-driven process where I add features being requested that will benefit a large proportion of the players. Like you said, it’s a balancing act/tug of war.

O’ course, take your grain of salt! Everything changes and nothing is set in stone.

For Lesson #8, how about displaying a huge banner somewhere, warning players that this game undergo constant changes and improvement?

But…then, that would contradict lesson #1

I think all the upcoming (and inevitable!) complaints can get a little complicated; who to listen or to ignore.

Taking back to AlbeyAmakiir’s comment, the players might not really know what’s missing, or needed improvement, and only worried of the immediate effect.

So kind of a tug-of -war situation; be it adopting any helpful feedbacks and act accordingly OR standing up as much of your idealistic theory for a much better investment in the future.

I’m actually sort of curious about what the early days of the game will be like; heavily publicized commercial games like World of Warcraft are often intensely crowded during the first week or two, to the extent that it can be difficult to do many of the quests. (If eighty people are trying to each kill eight young wolves, it’s a real struggle.) On the other hand, many browser-based games take a while to get off the ground, launching without much publicity and without much content.

AlbeyAmakiir, I think of it this way: would I rather go stand around and kill 10 of the same creature or go into a level where there are objectives and things to accomplish other than hunting/camping the same creature 10 times in a row?

I don’t believe that people like the grind. I do believe that they tolerate it to get the “ding” when they grind enough. Gain a level (new stats!), lucky loot drop (gambling!), or access to new content (exploration!). I want to do away with as much of the boring stuff as possible and just get straight to the “ding.”

In idealistic theory, that’s what I’m trying to do, but it’s not within the typical framework of any MMO I’ve ever played.

There is definitely combat, plenty of it. (Although I have a personal peeve about being rewarded for killing everything in sight. Expect adjustment accordingly.) The initial release will be largely focused on combat, in fact. But I do not want the overall gameplay to center on a combat loop typical of most other multiplayer games. The key difference is when I mentioned “objectives,” above. I can say no more!!

Dr Rabbito, there will be some story. I want to have various NPCs that have personal story arcs that you can help them with. I just am not sure yet how that will work in practical reality since things are multiplayer. For instance, if some event causes an NPC to go to another location, but your friend hasn’t triggered that event and you have, does the NPC appear for only one of you when you’re there together?

I’ve played an MMO where that was the case and it was kinda weird, but it wasn’t too confusing. So it’s one possible way. The other (maybe better) way is to instance those story areas for each player. But that also brings some limitations. Oh the agony of choice!!

I will also note that I consider collecting stuff a type of grind, too. Although, I don’t mind it nearly as much as the combat grind because it’s not so constant and in your face. Plus, some things you collect might be functional. So, there is some grind, but I really want to make it as painless as possible.

This is all in idealistic theory, so I’m really breaking the rules for lesson #8!!! There’s a 150% chance the game will evolve radically–but that’s good. However! I’m going to reference this post (and point and make a stern facial expression) if anyone reading complains when the game isn’t exactly as I’ve described so far! But thanks to lesson #1, I know that nobody here is reading this and thus my warnings are in vain! Pfft!

We’re off on a tangent, so please let’s keep to the topic of lessons for making MMO experiences (not game design!) better for players.