JRR's page

I'd like to add my two cents, for what they're worth.

I've been playing WoW since 2005, dabbled in many other games, and have been playing Rift since early beta. I'm also a Star Wars beta tester. IMO, for a Pathfinder MMO to be successful, it can't just be a WoW clone with a couple neat innovations. There's plenty of those out there already. The Pathfinder IP is just too obscure in the computer gaming world. It's not going to draw a lot of people just on the Pathfinder Logo. The last year or so, I've watched my friends all migrate away from WoW to other mmos or just stop playing them entirely due to Blizzard's homogenization and dumbing down of the game. So, I'd like to list a few things I'd like to see in a Pathfinder mmo.

Ditch the holy trinity of tank, dps, healer. In a Pathfinder or D&D p&p rpg, there's no reason a group of 4 mages can't play through a dungeon or module, or 4 clerics, or 4 fighters, etc. I don't see why this can't be done in an mmo.

No dungeon queue, please. WoW has become World of Queucraft. After max level, people just stand around in capital cities and queue for dungeons. Hell, after level 10, you never have to leave Orgrimmar unless you're farming for professions or reputation.

Ditto with flying mounts. It kills the multiplayer aspect, and world pvp. You almost never see another player in the world in WoW anymore.

Let's have some distinction between the classes, please. WoW has homogenized the classes so much that it's hard to distinguish between a paladin and a rogue. The spells may have different names and a different graphical effect, but mechanically they have the same effect. It makes it easier on the programmers - just get one class balanced the way you want it, then reskin the others - but it's boring and makes the class system useless.

It's a multiplayer game. I shouldn't be able to finish every quest solo. Questing should be challenging.

Daily quests and justice/conquest/valor/etc points are just another grind meant to keep players in the Skinner box as long as possible. It makes the game more like a job and less like a game. Lose them. GEar should be attained by adventuring, not by grinding the same quest over and over and over for 7200 justice points just to buy a pair of isotoner gloves.

More stuff from p&p rpgs should exist. Traps, pits, puzzles, riddles.

Something more exciting from a boss mechanic than "don't stand in fire." Watching cooldowns and procs, monitoring other player's health, making sure I hit the right keys, etc is pretty hectic in itself, getting one shotted because I was in the wrong place for a millisecond is no fun. Hell, even picking the boss's fire effect out of a warlock's hellfire spell, a shaman's healing rain, a paladin's consecrate, while 3 warriors are spinning like tops using whirlwind attack is not easy.

Let's have a world. There should be more than one path from one zone to the next. Some mmos railroad you by blocking every path other than the road with immpassable mountains, you stay on the path, or you go nowhere.

I'm sure there are a ton of other things, but that's all I have for now.

If it sounds like I'm picking on WoW, it's because I am. I just don't want to see Pathfinder repeat Blizzard's mistakes. I want a living, breathing world, not a queuefest where it's rush to max level and queue for dungeons.