[MUD-Dev2] [Media] Informal poll on MMOWatch

[Mike Rozak]

John Buehler wrote:
> I've just duplicated that completely-informal poll in the mmorpg.com 
> general
> discussion forum:

With 46 votes, it's looking like character development (47%) and exploration 
(28%) win out. Questing and combat are both around 10%. And NPCs and Puzzles 
at 2%...

Which is closer to what MMORPGs actually offer today than MMOWatch's poll... 
but not quite there. IMHO, I'd put a typical MMO design at:

NPC interaction                        2%
Character development             24% (higher for UO)
Combat                                    40%
Exploration                               10%
Puzzles                                     0%
Questing                                   24%

My opinion of exploration is so low because MMOs are about visiting pretty 
places (thanks to good artists and DX9 graphics cards) and killing monsters 
in them. I found LOTRO particularly disappointing in this aspect because I 
thought that every area would have some sort of backstory lovingly tied to 
the LOTR/Silmarillion, fed to interested players as they wandered through 
the area (perhaps old ruins with dusty tomes). I didn't find this in the 
first 10-15 levels of play (so I got bored, and gave up). There was some 
backstory attached to NPC quests, but not much.