Unique character building system, focused on mixing equipment and various skill lines as opposed to the usually very restrictive class systems in other games. You may be able to argue that something similar has been done in skill-based sandbox MMOs, but the only one I can think of that has been worth playing is UO.

I very much like the competing economy idea, essentially setting up guilds to work as overlapping independent economies. There have been games without auction houses, but they tend to still focus on some other method of selling wares to the entirety of the playerbase at once. The current system is very robust, protects crafting from becoming a worthless activity, and keeps gold farmers in check.

Involved quests with strong story-telling. I've yet to do a basic "go kill 10 wolves and return to me for a reward" quest. Sure, there are collection components, but they're always tied into a much larger story arc and set of objectives that creates a very different feel for questing.

Megaserver technology. It has its downsides, but this allows the world to scale to the needs of the playerbase. Zones can never be too flooded and can only be too empty in extreme circumstances. There will never be a need to merge servers or anything like that.

A large scale persistent factional PvP system. This isn't new, but it's arguably the first time it's been done well since DAoC. Sure, there are still kinks to work out, but the basic structure is intact and very well done.

*End game zones vs just dungeons
*Elder Scrolls combat manual blocking/swing weapon
*A true play anything you like...no borders here at all...any weapon/spec/armor type
*Mega server
*Option to join as many as 5 guilds
*True 1st person

My question is why does a game have to reinvent the wheel to be a good game?

Renuo wrote: »

dennissomb16_ESO wrote: »

No mention of Secret World. Pretty sure this was first where one toon could learn and use every single ability in the game, and then set up builds from there

UO did it first by a mile.

Even Horizons let you learn every skill from every class and make a build using any Mastered skill.

I don't feel as though any medium of story telling be it a game, movie, book or play has to bring anything new to the table in order to be entertaining and enjoyable. Classic things are classic because they are always good and never get old.

Sometimes it's nice to be able to play on different maps or in different dungeons with different characters, but with mechanics and methods you are accustomed to and comfortable with.

Being new for the sake of being new, and not because what's new is necessarily better is a failing point on a lot of the past attempts at getting triple A MMO's successfully launched these past few years. For example TERA was extraordinarily hyped because of it's (at the time mostly "new" for it's genre) action based combat system which on the whole contributed absolutely nothing toward making the game itself a complete package.

It's not really the fault of those making the games. They struggle with pleasing fan who make demands while not really genuinely knowing what will actually make them happy in the end.

Most of the time, shiny, new things are like a fancy vacation... in the end you always start to miss your mom's home cooking and your comfy old bed. At least that's how I feel but I'm a bit of a home body.

ESO - No CDs and Resource Based Combat = AMAZING and ORIGINAL

AKSb16_ESO2 wrote: »

I never played RIFT, but when I heard about that dolmens in ESO, I never thought they would be static...
Would be great if they appeared randomly everywhere. ^^

That would be awesome. Would be a great addition.

I did play Rift before it went ftp and a Rift opening up above you while you were out casually gathering crafting materials was pretty cool.

One moment it's bright and sunny then all a sudden everything is in chaos. Great random element for an mmo.

For ESO.. No real set class system. This I like very much about the game.

Mablung wrote: »

Unfulfilled Promises and Broken Dreams.

Those are hardly new MMO features.
I can't think of anything off hand but I still enjoy the game. Even at VR levels.

again

*End game zones vs just dungeons
*Elder Scrolls combat manual blocking/swing weapon
*A true play anything you like...no borders here at all...any weapon/spec/armor type
*Mega server
*Option to join as many as 5 guilds
*True 1st person

Vis wrote: »

Mablung wrote: »

Unfulfilled Promises and Broken Dreams.

That comes standard in most MMOs.

Not on this scale.

thinking..... thinking..... god damit i can't think of anything..... oh wait...... nope

LordEcks wrote: »

Playing graphical MMORPGs since there inception has shown me that almost all of them have some unique cool feature (which is often overlooked) they bring to the table.

Since MMOs are constantly updated some games will incorporate these features into their own games. Blizzard was pretty notorious for this.

So I'm curious what you guys think ESO brings thats new and innovative. I'll give some examples to start off:

Ultimate Online -- Non instanced housing.

Champion Spawns (like Dolmens), Zone Bosses. Item Insurance, Open Hardcore PVP, Red/Blue PK system. We owe a lot to UO, really. However non-instanced housing was awful. The map is a big empty garbage pit full of trailer parks. The houses were usually owned by Gold Sellers.

Tibia also had non-instanced houses which were pre-placed all over the map. Both pre-placed and place-anywhere housing are failed models. The best way is instanced housing.

EverQuest -- Birth of the massive player raid.

Massive raids like this actually came first in Tibia (Orshabaal, and other world bosses, certain high level content zones). They were also common in Ultima Online (Doom, The Harrower). EQ unlike UO, really did it right. But that game had a lot of its own issues too.

DAoC -- Three way PVP system.

PVP system restricted to 3-way alliances. Were they really first? UO had alliance PVP systems from Order/Chaos to Guild Wars and PVP Factions. 2 guilds could agree to a "War" and nobody got "PK Flag" (red) for it.

WoW -- Questing over grinding for xp (until then almost all games were a grind to max lvl).

Was this really good? Many people loved farming and enjoying themselves. Yet while farming can be boring at times, questing just feels like work, and constant mouse runs to get minimal reward.

Final Fantasy XI -- Unique class system (Job/SubJob) / First cross-platform (consoles&PC) MMORPG.

And bosses that take hundreds of hours to kill between thousands of players.

What do you feel ESO brings?

1. The limit of 1-5 on skill bar. Ultima Online also had weapon swap and almost every game since Diablo allow 1-9. This is the worst feature, period.

2. The use of a Swag Shop with more focus than the in-game cash shop.

3. Lack of auction house. Ultima Online let you place vendors at your house (and other peoples houses). Even the old Tibia learned how to do Auction House. ESO is pretty much alone in being a modern MMO that restricts commerce to Trade Guilds and chat spamming.

4. Vet Zones. A large area where all monsters are the same level is really nice. Likewise, evolving from Faction Nationalism into Saving The World is a nice change of storyline focus. A real main story that is immersive instead of cookie-cutting tropes at every angle.

5. Healers are rewarded for performance in battle. No other MMO really rewards the healer role like this one does.

6. Crafting system is available to anyone. Many MMO's hide their best crafting mats behind raid-walls, pvp-walls, pay-walls or other barriers that prevent "Crafter" from being a relevant playstyle. While many MMO's allow already great characters to craft anything "under the top bar" they don't really let non-pvper, non-raider, etc. Just normal crafter types can't prosper in most MMO's because of all the things you are forced to do for mats, and in ESO that was really done right.

To be honest, I don't think it invented anything new. It didn't add anything but it doesn't need to. It does need to do right in what it does do.

What do you feel ESO brings?

5. Healers are rewarded for performance in battle. No other MMO really rewards the healer role like this one does.

[/quote]

AKA Tanks are punished for their role, since performance is measured by heals and dps. A Tank is not going to top charts in either.

Makarion wrote: »

What do you feel ESO brings?

5. Healers are rewarded for performance in battle. No other MMO really rewards the healer role like this one does.

AKA Tanks are punished for their role, since performance is measured by heals and dps. A Tank is not going to top charts in either. [/quote]

But a good tank does stand out.