Killing pigs

The way I've always heard FFXI described was as follows: wonderful game, IF you already knew who you'd be teaming with before you logged in. RL friends or family, or just people who were really personable and able to hook up with strangers easily, then befriend them. Applies to some other games of the time too, I'd imagine. Soloists and those who are really slow about meeting people need not apply. It took me about three months to realize I was playing the wrong game.

I actually picked up CoH to tide me over until WoW came out. By the time it did, I didn't care about it at all. Still don't.

The MMO community mostly consists of trend slaves and masochists. People thought Everquest was everything a MMO 'should' be and are afraid of anything different. Then WoW came along and made most people assume it's the only MMO worth knowing.

agreed, in a way i think its a retroactive justification for playing the games because people derive some enjoyment from mmos (usually due to the social elements, or the occasionally amazing art, or sometimes the fun competitive gaming), despite them having a number of fundamental and glaring flaws of the genre. the time you thank the developers for a kill 10 mission, is the time they need not fear you anymore

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I'm firmly in the 'fighting lots of enemies is good' camp. Back in the olden days when there were lots of rumblings that CoH was going to be thoroughly rebalanced until the whole 'every character is equivalent to about three minions and bosses are team challenges' thing, I repeatedly swore I'd leave the game if they ever made that true. It remains one of my big problem with pretty much every other MMO out there.

Well, okay, forced teaming is a big too.

And I hate raids with a passion.

And I like that our combat animations actually look like we're attacking the enemies and not just waving swords at them or making them glow slightly with magic pain.

And I hate long travel and downtimes after combat.

... um. Well. Okay, about the only thing I miss from every other MMO combined is that I liked being able to beat stuff up and then cook it in EverQuest.

I find it odd that in these sort of threads boars are so often placed in the same list of unworthy foes as rats and roaches. A wild boar is not some harmless piglet. We're talking about a large, aggressive animal with a nasty pair of tusks that will eat almost anything and can charge at high speeds. Their preferred method of attack is referred to by the verb "to gore". Historically, boar hunting was done with a hefty spear fitted with a strong cross-piece to prevent the boar from running down the shaft and taking you with it.

Boars are pretty much the scrappers of the animal kingdom.

You know, I'm going into game design, and the more I look at other MMO's the more things I see bafflingly wrong about them, and the more things I see CoH doing right. If I ever get around to designing an MMO (and I hope to do so, look for it around November 2035), here is my big list of designer commandments.

1. Make the player feel special, powerful and IMPORTANT.
2. Playing in groups should be encouraged, and players should WANT to play in groups, but grouping should never be REQUIRED.
3. Never put a brick wall between a player and his real life friends. If two characters want to play together, they should be able to, level and skill differences be damned.
4. At the level cap the player should feel more powerful than 80% of the foes in the game.
5. Customization should only be as deep as a player wants it to be. If they want to tweak every nuance of their character, let them. But if they just want to forget about customization and play, also let them.

I might think of more, but these five are a good start.