[Opinions?] MMO Design

Would you prefer a realistic combat system where the player swings his sword at the monster, or a magical combat system where magic shoots out of your sword to harm the monster, or a mixture of both?

 

It really depends what the game is. I'm assuming it's a sword & fantasy in which case I personally don't have a preference so long as it relates to the character. If I'm given a choice of characters in the same game I will always choose a ranged attack as I have no finesse in Melee so just mash buttons, ranged lets me feel like I have skill lining a shot up etc. If there's only one character in the game I will play what they have, I won't choose the game purely on what the character does.

 

I think it's a bad question, because the setting should be inherent to your vision of the game.

The choices 'realistic' and 'fantasy' leave out all sorts of other possibilities - science fiction, prehistoric, Classical era, post-apocalyptic, Jidai Geki...the list goes on.

A better question - what theme meshes with the mechanics you're trying to emphasize?

 

From my experience (brief as it is) in game design, to build a game from the bottom up centered around the combat is an awkward thing to do. Building a game that starts around combat will bring you to a final product that looks like a prototype for a game using no final assets. This can be useful in it's own right as a prototype is a great way of expressing how the game will be played. The problem though is that the final product will have a world that seems sloppily pieced together in an attempt to make the combat feel right. There are always exceptions to every rule and by no means am I an expert, however if you do want to build something like an MMO the combat should come naturally from the world you have built.

 

I think I might actually disagree with you 100%.

Focus should fan out in terms of polish from what players do the most, to what players do the least. This means, if the game has a lot of traveling and fighting, those two mechanics better be freakin' perfect. Let's look at No Man's Sky for example. Is the inventory UI bad? No, I think it's great. But are we using it all.the.time? Yes... all.the.time. Is the inventory UI perfect? Nope. So what's the result? Everyone hates it. Let's also look at their combat mechanics. Do we do it a lot? Yes, we do. Is it perfect? Not at all. Result? Most people hate it. Considering that this is half the game, based on how they've developed it, most people are really turned off by it. But if combat had more time spent on it, perfecting it, and the UI catered to being used all.the.time more, it would be great and people would be more apt to just roll with it and enjoy the game.

Anyway, point being: Focus a lot of time in development where players are going to be spending a lot of time playing.

 

Oh and to answer the OP, just make what you think is fun. Don't focus on pleasing your players. Please... uh... yourself. Be passionate about your project and people will be passionate with you. I mean, definitely put stuff in people will like, but at the end of the day just make what YOU want to make.