I'm 25. I've been around MMOs of all variants and colors since I started with Runescape back, oh what was it, over a decade ago? Damn, time sure does pass by fast. Well, not really, it just seems insane that so much has happened in the time that has passed.

At any rate, if I can comment on Runescape for one thing, it's that it genuinely felt like it let you become relevant in the world. You could go out, do your own thing, play how you wanted to, it wasn't a theme-park but it wasn't "really" a sandbox either. To those who haven't played this MMO, there were three primary things to do. Earn gold, quest and train your skills. There were no general levels like you'd find in traditional modern MMOs today. Instead, each individual activity or combat type had its own level. For instance, if you wanted to hit harder, you equipped a weapon with a strength style moveset and you fought with it. You fought a lot.

A lot.

This is the other side of the coin to Runescape. You could become relevant, yes through skill in PvP or dueling in the arena (betting on your match with currency or items) but also by dedication to your character. It was definitely a grindy kind of game. Surprisingly,I loved this. It was terrible, but I loved it. I loved it because every ounce of effort I put into my character mattered, because it was progressing where few others had been, because they simply weren't willing to put in the time and sweat. Seems crazy, doesn't it? Tedium in a game adding spice to it, over convenience. You don't see games like that (of any genre) anymore. They're all very fast and they throw prizes at you for nothing. Achievements, level ups, items, everything. Take it on your golden silver platinum platter delivered personally to you by twelve naked Egyptian goddesses. I want an mmorpg that requires me to earn what I have to my name.

I once heard this saying, little old thing:

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." - Theodore Roosevelt

I guess that applies to fantasy worlds too. Who knew? It's a human constant.

After (sort of) Runescape, I went to City of Heroes. That was a theme-park title, but it had spunk. I still remember the soundtrack to that game, the soundeffects for abilities, and the visuals. The atmosphere was wonderful. Running around at the speed of sound in a huge city, it felt like I was a real super hero (and villain later on). But, I was a kid, eh a teenager (same thing). I loved everything I played back then. I'm an old timer now (fml)... sure feels that way. I'm far more picky about what I play, and I find myself losing interest in single player titles.

Moving on, I migrated over to the Behemoth almost everyone has played at some point, World of Warcraft. I started in Vanilla. Even then, this game was nothing like Runescape. It did have character though, a lot like City of Heroes (in that it had character not that the subject matter was similar). It held your hand, but only loosely compared to its current state in 2015. I played it a lot, again being a teenager everything was fun to me and I got addicted to it. I managed to get to field marshal in their old pvp system. You gained points from others in a ladder system, if you didn't play you'd lose points. I had to play so much everyday for months to get that rank. I still remember those endless days quite vividly... anyhow. I quit shortly after, burning myself out. Was that maybe 7-8 years ago?

I tried playing WoW again a few months ago and I was revolted at how, for lack of a better word, simple it is. You used to have to travel through the world to do dungeons. You used to have to interact with other people to form a group. The dungeons, even on normal mode, were tough. Now they have heroic mode too, and even that is pathetically easy. The word 'pointless' comes to mind. It's a circle jerk. Everyone gets an achievement for showing up and breathing, everyone gets off and pats themselves on the back like they're badasses when they've done nothing remotely challenging or noteworthy. Depressing.

You can sit in a main city, queue up for a heroic (laughable) dungeon, be teleported to it instantly with a full group, breeze through it and get easy gear and experience. You can even do this with raids now. And all this without saying a word to anyone. They've ripped the soul right out of the body of this game. They've neutered it, turned it from a wolf into a spineless limping pup. Yet, people still play it. I recognize that for some reason or another, a lot of people out there want a game that hands everything to them with no effort, challenge or risk. These people aren't bad, they aren't "wrong" in their preference, but I will never understand them. It is so boring and meaningless.

My, I think I need to speed this up, my fingers keep typing and I realize I haven't even reached the point where I talk about what I want from my dream MMO. Okay okay, from WoW I went back to Runescape for a while, then over to various single player games and competitive shooters (my main one was this mod for enemy wolfenstein called True combat elite). Eventually EvE online caught my eye, played that for a while. It has that harsh, cold universe vibe going, it does what it tries to do well but the combat is very boring, it is all about the group and not the individual and it's rampant with alts and multiboxing (I hate the concept of both in an MMO).

Tried LOTRO after that, Star trek Online, never did get into SWG though, but I heard good things about it until Sony changed something and ruined it. In the same light as how EA ruined Ultima. Why do big companies keep ruining good games, can someone tell me? I'd love to know. Seems like it's rather poor business sense. Also it's just mean. Like kicking a puppy. Tell me EA, why are you kicking puppies?

My last real dedication to an MMO was Darkfall Online. Great title, for what it did, but after a little while it became clear, there wasn't much sand in the box, or much RPG. It was most or less a glorified arena game. It did the seamless world well. It did netcoding extraordinarily well to be honest, something I feel Aventurine doesn't get enough credit for. Hundreds vs hundreds in active skill based combat, and the net and fps held well enough. That's damn impressive.

All I play anymore are competitive online games, but that's not enough. Beyond the thrill of becoming better, nothing ties me to the game. I want to immerse myself into fiction, into another world that I care about, and that I care about my character within. No game gives me this right now.

So, let's get down to business. I'll list up what I would love to see in my next MMO:

Open world full of unknown harsh danger like a real world. No hand-holding or trophies for participation. The world would be massive in size and unexplored, also enforced as a real spherical world. As in, you can circle around it.

Transportation. You can walk and jog. These take no stamina. Sprinting would drain stamina at a moderate rate, as would swimming. There will only be very limited long-distance teleportation options. Stones imbued with magic (extremely rare spell). They would first have to be tethered to a specific location and would only serve to return to that location (but they could be traded). Don't worry, I will describe how magic functions later. These would be notoriously uncommon, never to be used without serious purpose.

Various mounts for travel. They'd roam the wild and would need to be tamed. No figurine storage. You would tie them to a post or tree to secure them. They could be stolen, naturally. (Although in most player cities this would likely be a criminal action). You would be able to ride a horse with a companion, but doing so would reduce top speed and acceleration. Mounts would have a large pool of stamina, but would still require rest eventually, as well as water.

Finally, it would be possible to build caravans, pulled by strong horses. Owning a caravan could earn you a lot of gold, with the right business sense.. and a few guards.

Given the size of the world (think the size of Alaska), long-distance transportation would be expensive, though entirely determined by the player market in-game. Yet, it's an option for people who have the currency to get around. This would be a huge industry. I don't know why this makes me so giddy but it does. Player run transportation industries in a hardcoe open seamless virtual sandbox world. I'm going to pass out from just imagining it!

Of course... you might need to hire a player guard or two to protect your passengers and yourself from bandits. Not good for business to have your fare slaughtered for their valuables.

Touching on the first aspect to exploration, every player would start with a map, but it would be blank and only fill in as you explore and move about the harsh landscape. You could discover the means to make a copy of your map and sell it. Imagine that... making your trade in an MMO by exploring the massive world and selling copies of your map to players. The caveat. For this to work, as I mentioned previously, the size of the world truly has to be a few orders of magnitude greater than any other MMORPG world to date. At least the size of a small US state. Indeed, you can call me nuts. It's okay. Overtime (a hell of a lot of time) even a map so large would eventually be explored and these maps would pop up online most likely. However, cartography could still be a useful trade as player cities would constantly be changing, and discovering a city would not automatically update any changes to it down the road. The most up to date maps would be vital for any army or individual to plan against or around dangerous territories.

Crafting. Alright, the standard extensive crafting system is important. Everything and everything, from clothes, tents, torches, fires to even the very roads that exist in the world and the boats that would be required to sail across rivers, lakes and the gargantuan oceans that would separate the continents of the world; all of it would be created by human players. Molding the world we're given to our own purposes and in this dynamic, unfathomably complex interaction, spawns limitless stories. Interactive, on-going, player-driven organically vibrant stories. Our stories. Like EvE Online, only in a low-fantasy medieval setting, on steroids.

Teraforming of the world. Digging under it. Flattening land. Taking the world, mounting it, and showing it who is boss. It's all about the players again. Giving them as many tools as you can to create stories and meaning to their own corner of the world and their character. (Yes, singular character). An example of this done is Wurm Online.

Home and city building. A given for this kind of game. No, not like darkfall. where you simply add things in pre-determined spots. I mean city building anywhere that is level in ground to build on in whatever way you want. The obvious stuff like proper city management tools. Hiring city guards, taxes on people who setup shop in your city. Penalties for crimes could be mandated. Jails would be possible too, though it would be important to restrict (won't hear me say that often here) the time you could imprison someone for. Maybe an hour as the limit? That's fair imo.

Active combat. No tab targeting. Manual swings, manual aim. (This seems more and more possible as new MMOs come out with mechanics close to genuine fps titles). Simple example would be Chivalry Medieval warfare. Combat like that would be incredible. Or maybe Mount and blade would be easier to implement? Again, I don't know what's possible, within budget, and so on. It's just a list of what I'd love to see. Of course Elder Scrolls has a variation of this, though it's not completely free-form combat.

Full loot. Upon death, anyone can muddle through your decaying corpse and plunder whatever booty you had in your booty. Any stats pertaining to your character that you had accrued, however, are perfectly safe. Only items are forfeit. Keep in mind that combat skills and the best items in this game would not turn you into an invincible god. They would make you stronger, yes; but this would merely be an edge. Whereas in typical MMOs, a level 50 (especially with gear involved) would be essentially equivalent to 10,000 level 1s, here it would be sensible. My ideal ratio would be, maxed stats and the best gear = 3 average players and 6 starter players. Only in terms of stats. Sufficient skill could make up those gaps, or grouping up.

Dynamic and impactful weather, as well as predictable and relevant day / night cycle and, perhaps, even regional weather patterns. As you go north, it gets colder, warming towards the equator, you know the drill. Rain slows you down, reduces visibility. Snow does the same, depending on intensity, footsteps would be visible until it snows again or melts. Easier to track animals and other players. Blizzards, hurricanes... perhaps even tornadoes and tidal waves could occur, although I realize this pushing it a bit.

Now the most peculiar system I have in mind, the magic system. I am envisioning a low magic environment. Referring back to the massive world, there would be scattered spell parchments that could only be used once; gleaming the ancient knowledge of the Gods from their text. Upon the reader's gaze, the parchment is destroyed never to be perused by another soul. The magic embeds itself into the user, impregnating him with its power. In other words, if you find a spell parchment, to read it destroys it but in this process you acquire its magical knowledge. That the world is so massive will limit the influx of spell acquisition by players. In short, it'll be hard as hell to find them and when found, they do not respawn. No internet guides to spoil the thrill and meaning of exploration.

It would be possible with a skill (inscription) to copy over spells you've learned to a new parchment, but doing so would come at a high cost and with severe limitations. The first of which, copying a spell would diminish its power slightly (both of the original which you possess to make the copy and the copy itself). That means even the first copy made would be slightly inferior to the original preserved, which only the first person to find that spell parchment could obtain. This ensures there is a potent incentive not to copy them, even though it is possible. Therefore, the price of these spells would be reserved for kings, queens and warlords for the foreseeable start of the game.

Secondly, it would take a lot of time to create a copy. Here is the breakdown. I would have spells organized into 3 categories.

Uncommon. These are naturally the most common of the three (but still very uncommon in general terms) these would take 5 days to make one copy of (counting offline time). However, while copying a spell, you cannot use it.

Remarkable. These spells would take 10 days to copy.

Unique. These can never be copied. There would be spells that, if found, are completely unique and no one will ever be able to obtain them, ever again. Think about how distinguished you can make yourself in a world like this, if magic is your style (there are plenty of other ways to distinguish yourself of course).

The design of this system is fueled primarily by an observed lack of magical potency in all the games I play. Magic should be extremely powerful but, just as importantly, it shouldn't be normal. No game that I am aware of handles this properly. Magic needs to be kept mysterious, secretive, and extraordinarily rare. The stupendous aspect to this design is that it allows for asymmetric power design without imbalancing the entire game, since so few would be able to have these spells. The goal here is to keep the game from being a blue orb and fireball spam field while still allowing for some fireworks; and what magic is there could be immensely powerful. Since copying spells would come at such a severe penalty and take so much time, anyone who does make a copy would only sell it for an arm, a leg, and probably a city or two. No matter what, magic will remain rare, meaningful and magical even years down the road.

Overtime, new unique spells would be added into the world, ensuring that players who were not there at the start (or some time after as unique spells would not be found overnight) still had a chance too.

Just an example off the top of my head, imagine if one legendary spell would be temporary invisibility. Finding this single spell could allow you to become a information specialist for hire.. yes, I mean a magical spy. You could infiltrate clan HQs to gather as much intel on them as you can. Given the nature of the game, the size, information would be incredibly valuable. Tactics wouldn't just be a cute word thrown out with little purpose. You need to know your enemy's intentions, attack plans, army strength, etc... oh and to note, with the eavesdrop skill you would be able to see player chat (even private messages) if you get close enough to them. Yeah. I like that bit a lot.

Moving on, there will be no classes. Skills will be divided between function, trained separately. My favorite skill system by far from any MMO I've played is that of Runescape. Each skill, serving an individual focus, and trained as such specifically for that function in mind. You want to be a blacksmith? Make weapons and armor. Want to be a strong warrior? Fight using weapons that require a lot of strength. Etc.. Combat skills would take a while to level, but with diminishing returns. Same way for non-combat skills, but those would take even longer. Trust me, this is important if the focus of this MMO would be the long-term. The harder it is, the more valuable and more meaning it has to achieve it. Nothing of value is easy remember?

No region-wide chat. Local chat, small radius, maybe 30 m around you. And a Yell, maybe 100 M around you. There could be a city-wide chat though, that'd be just fine. Also private messages between friends and clans make sense. Especially given the size of the world.

One character per account. This is critical in my opinion. I want this MMORPG to adhere to the core of an RPG. To be a character, unique, in a dynamic world. Your actions matter, not just in immediate impact but the reputation you will generate from those actions. Other people will remember. They'll take notice. Word spreads. If you're a thief, a backstabber, a murderer, you will be remembered because you cannot simply run away and hide on a different character.

The game would be sold as a flat purchase price, one month-free time, $15 sub model, no micro transactions of any kind, ever. Pay for the game, pay monthly, never think of payment while in the game. No custume perchases, horse skins, or anything of the sort. One hundred percent immersion preservation. As Gordon Ramsay would say, done.