I really dislike linear dungeons. WoW's Long Hallways dungeons just make me grind my teeth.
Now I don't mean that every dungeon should be a labyrinth of twists turns and death traps but it would be nice to have a few dungeons that need to be explored to go alongside the simpler Long Hallway dungeons.
Hmm, something that bothered me greatly about the last MMO I played, Final Fantasy XI Online, was something PFO is no doubt going to have trouble getting around; classes and class features "used as intended" versus "used optimally." Basically, players completely ignoring legitimate play styles and forcing classes into roles they weren't intended just because it may work mathematically.
For example, my favorite Final Fantasy job/class is Red Mage. In PF terms, they're basically a Magus/gish; the job combines swordplay in light armor, with spellcasting (white and black; healing and damage-dealing).
However, in FFXI, the Red Mage got access to a couple good buff spells, and suddenly you were no longer allowed to be any kind of melee; you got shoved into the backline as a buffer/backup healer. Even though wielding a sword is a significant part of the job's history, if you DARED wield a sword you got ridiculed and punished.
Basically, 30% of the job's gear and features were thrown out the window by the community. I spent countless hours online trying to stem the tide, and prove that the Red Mage was a more than capable melee support, but it didn't matter. Their spells were more effective, so in group situations you just get shoved into the backline and pretend to be a White Mage(healer/buffer). Or they just kick you from the party and grab an actual White Mage.
Hmm, something that bothered me greatly about the last MMO I played, Final Fantasy XI Online, was something PFO is no doubt going to have trouble getting around; classes and class features "used as intended" versus "used optimally." Basically, players completely ignoring legitimate play styles and forcing classes into roles they weren't intended just because it may work mathematically.
For example, my favorite Final Fantasy job/class is Red Mage. In PF terms, they're basically a Magus/gish; the job combines swordplay in light armor, with spellcasting (white and black; healing and damage-dealing).
However, in FFXI, the Red Mage got access to a couple good buff spells, and suddenly you were no longer allowed to be any kind of melee; you got shoved into the backline as a buffer/backup healer. Even though wielding a sword is a significant part of the job's history, if you DARED wield a sword you got ridiculed and punished.
Basically, 30% of the job's gear and features were thrown out the window by the community. I spent countless hours online trying to stem the tide, and prove that the Red Mage was a more than capable melee support, but it didn't matter. Their spells were more effective, so in group situations you just get shoved into the backline and pretend to be a White Mage(healer/buffer). Or they just kick you from the party and grab an actual White Mage.
Well I could see how PFO might be able to avoid it at least in some senses, if there were more tactical style combat and less of the generic predictable 5 man dungeons, tank n spank bosses etc.. that kind of forces the trinity system in. PVP and less predictable PVE content, can encorage and reward versatility. The issue in most games is "predictable enemy, means the team fighting it should also follow a role that is predictable to beat it".
Know what bothers me? One-hit-wonders.
Basically, it's the idea that, in every RPG I can think of (Except maybe Fallout, but that's a game that leans heavily towards Survival-Horror), your characters always act perfectly fine as long as they have at least one hitpoint left. In a fight, the enemies' actions go something like: Full damage, full damage, full damage, full damage, full damage, no damage (dead). No matter how many times you've smacked them in the face with your sword, they'll still hit you with full-damage attacks until that last hit suddenly causes them to die. Most memorably for me is D&D 4th edition, which really takes advantage of this system: It has monsters that only have one hitpoint, but decent defenses/attacks. They're called minions, and they really only exist in the game to make AoE attacks useful. They can hit players for serious damage, especially when grouped up, but if so much as one damaging attack lands on them, they're automatically dead.
On a related note, another thing that kinda bugs me is how blasé most adventurers are about healing/damage. As in, your hero's health bar is a representation of his healthiness, right? So when it's near full, he's just fine, but when it gets low, he's supposed to be seriously injured, right? But suddenly he's healed for most of his health, and he's okay again. It's just scary how fast this cycle repeats in most RPG fights; you'd think your characters would die from shock, just from losing most of their blood and suddenly regaining it in the space of a few seconds. WoW is especially egregious with this: In dungeons, I seriously expect to see the tank die from shock from constantly breaking bones and having them instantly mended. (Me and my friends always jokingly called it the "hitpoint roller-coaster": it goes up, and down, and up, and down...)
I must stop here to give a thumbs-up to LOTRO, which labeled their health bar as a Morale bar, and when it drops to 0, your character isn't dead; he's just demoralized and has to retreat. So that green bar isn't your character's physical condition, so much as their will to fight; it depletes as he takes blows, can be restored with inspiring words, salves, and songs, and if it drops to 0, he loses his will to fight and has to retreat. That makes a lot more sense, and it's much less disquieting to think about during fights.