Diablo 2 LOD to me, was a near perfect multiplayer action rpg game. Of course it wasn't always such a great game, but after version 9.0 on, it was spectacular. I realize
Diablo 2 isn't an MMO, but since I have little to no experience with MMO's like
WOW, this will need to suffice as a standard for my references.
What made the game great:1. Joining the ladder: Upon joining a new ladder all players start at level one with a brand new economy. After a specified period of time (months) the ladder resets and a new one starts. At the end of a ladder your character is placed into open
battle.net where you could continue adventuring with your character if you so desired.
What I like about the ladder: You always have a relatively fresh economy and the game just feels new every time it resets.
What I dislike about the ladder: It's painful to let your favorite character go to open
battle.net knowing that it is full of hackers, and has a broken economy. Basically when the ladder resets, there is no reason to continue playing your character.
2. TradingTrading was a major part of
Diablo 2 that I think the developers of
Diablo 3 failed to understand. When I played
Diablo 2 back in the day, over 50% of my time was spent monitoring the trade chat looking for good deals on gear.
What I like about trading:You spend all of this time in the game killing monsters for loot. That's the basis of a good ARPG. Every kill was like putting a coin in a slot machine: you never knew what you might find; most likely nothing, but there was always that chance you'd find something godly. The drops were rare enough that trading was a necessity. It was fun and entertaining to set up deals and trades with other players.
I liked the fact that other players could scam an unwary player. That is some excellent roleplaying on their part. They were crafty enough to trick another player into making a bad deals, using bait and switch techniques.
What I dislike about trading: I guess anytime real money is involved it ruins the economy too quickly. Also, the prevalence of bots advertising sites to purchase equipment ruins the gaming experience.
3. Looting:I always thought it was a blast to join up with a bunch of players and run a boss hoping to find a good piece of gear.
What I like about looting: I liked the fact that it was a free-for-all, in that whatever dropped was given to the first person to grab it. Some people would try to dictate the rules of the run, stating that whatever dropped from should go to the host, but you could never really trust the people that were adventuring with you. This further deepened the roleplaying aspect of the game in which few other games have been capable of achieving, because you were emotionally invested in the game. When you were the high level character performing boss runs, and somebody stole one of the good drops (a unique ring for example) there is nothing more infuriating. But that to me is what makes it great. People could actually roleplay thieves in this game. I don't think this was an intentional design choice, this or the scammers in the trading, but it greatly deepened the gaming experience. It made the world feel, unsafe and sketchy.
What I dislike about looting:I guess this doesn't apply to just this game, but all games with looting in general. Every type of item needs to have a use or a way to make it useful. Either by selling, crafting, converting, etc... I don't like to see items that have absolutely no way to derive a use out of them.
4. Character Building:It's fun to understand the rules of the game you're playing and creating a character that can thrive under those harsh conditions.
What I like about character building: This gives you a chance to think about all the different ways you can create a truly badass character. That is why we enjoy playing the heroes and heroines isn't it.
What I dislike about character building: I'm not a fan of
respecing. I think perhaps there is a way it can be included into a game in a limited way without negatively affecting game-play too severely. I would maybe make it a one time reward for a difficult quest.
It's getting late, I'll try to post something more on track tomorrow.