Many would say such a feat is impossible. With engaging storylines such as Assassin's Creed, Ratchet and Clank, and Metal Gear Solid; it's hard to imagine anything like that being possible on an online game. Incorporating hundreds of thousands of people into a game that has to follow a storyline? Highly improbable, that something like that could ever exist, isn't it?

Not exactly! Do you know the feeling when you log into an online game for the first time, your initial thoughts and feelings pave your first impression of the game and from that it usually determines how long you'll want to play? If the game starts out and you're in the middle of a crowded plaza full of other people running around screaming a bunch of terms that you have yet to understand and there's an annoying little character in the corner that gives you a quick tutorial about how to move around and attack, without explaining any further depth of the game; and there's a very loosely placed story line that says that one day you'll have to fight a big boss and you're the savior of a whole continent; most likely you might play for a day or two but get bored of it and move on. Now what happened there? They supplied everything you'd think you want. There was a story, a tutorial, plently of players, a fighting system, and some character customization. What they didn't supply, was the most required thing to make an online game worthwhile, innovative ideas.

Many times you remember your first few MMOGs like they were yesterday, you logged on, went to the low level fighting areas and hooked up with a few people of similar levels and you guys level up together and hang out for a while. The idea is fresh in your mind that this is a great game. Once all your friends log off, and you can't wait to show them that you got to the next class upgrade. So, you start to grind and try to do some quests perhaps. After a while you start to notice the repitition of it all, you kill a monster, gain some percentile of EXP, bring a bunch of it's drops to a NPC, the NPC gives you money, some exp, and an item every once in a while. What after that? You repeat the process. And then after that's done you finally hope there will be some story progression so you run to the next NPC, and what is there? The same kinds of things "Kill 5 Wolf-Things, and 20 Bug-Things" Wow, how original.

After a while it gets old and you just quit. Having spent the past 3 days of your precious time getting to the job advancement stage and deciding it's all not worth it. They never provided with a very good, engaging story, and all the advancement depended on was walking from NPC to NPC, Killing Monsters, or Collecting the items they drop. Could they have done things that force you to actually feel like you're in the game? Sure!

1. One thing to do is to incorporate other players into the quests. For example:

You go up to an NPC who seems a bit busy, they move around behind thier desk organizing things, when you try to talk to them they ACTUALLY walk over to the desk and don't stand still constantly stand there flipping thier hair or doing random stuff. After they walk over, which would only be displayed on your screen, they'd say something like "Freddo just slew the Demon King and we need some people to go to his lair to excavate the rare gems for the shopkeepers. Are you in? We have 5 positions left. Once all positions are filled, we'll send you all a message so you can be on your way." You accept and in a few minutes all of the positions are filled and a map maker is displayed telling you where to go. You all hike up the mountain, and finally reach the mouth of the cave. You pass by the dead body of the demon king on your way through and have to get rid of some cave pests (bugs, rats, etc.), after that you reach the gems and collect how many you need. As you all start passing back through, the demon king reawakens (cut-scene perhaps) and you all go through a quick minigame where the camera is high above and your character is constantly moving forward, having to dodge obstacles along the way as the demon king chases you, players could slow him down by using attacks. After that you exit the cave and make your way back to the town where you can sell the gems to the NPCs or keep them for yourselves. If you don't sell them to the shopkeepers, you'll hear from it from the Quest Giving NPC and maybe they won't want to do business with you again until you make it up to them.

2. Make the Story interesting!

3. Character Development & Customization

One of the most painful sights to see, is everybody in an in-game world dressing, looking, and seeming the same. Or even worse, a game where you are bound to a class/gender/appearance based on a "character" you pick. People need to have lots of customization and individuality to feel important. If you're an in-game famous character and you look just like the guy who's level 1 and jsut started, something needs to be done. Customization clothing, appearance, and every once in a while items; is usually key to a good MMOG!

Besides the development of appearance, there are also skills. Learning new skills is great and all, but how did your character kill 40 monsters and randomly say "Now I know how to use a fireball!"? It isn't exactly explained how your character develops, there should be ways to find out how to do things. For example:

Your character is a magician, they specialize in magic and want to know more. They ask the main magic guy for some help who refers them to a teacher, the teacher brings them into a chamber and then teaches you step-by-step how to do it. Focus your energy (one skill), now let your energy flow externally (Another skill; internal could be things like self-buffs or self-healing), feel the firey rage build up in your soul (Another skill), Now focus that energy into your hand and thrust it at your opponent (Another Skill).

This system allows many things to happen, you could use "Focus, Internal, Fire, Strengthen" "Focus, External, Ice, Freeze" "Focus, Internal, Ice, Calm" (to boost Magic) and ect.. This also would work for all classes, Bow users "Pull string = 1 button, load x amount of arrows, Add poison, then let go of the pull string button." (while using the mouse to aim) There you'd have it! Poison arrows! Magic and Bows not your thing? Then you could do something that's more immediate, but still just as effective (Swing sword up, swing sword to side, focus strength, stab). It allows more customization for attacks as well as a personalized playing style. Now, I'm just suggesting ideas, nobody say this would work well on a keyboard (perhaps a game controller! Hehe).

Not only should characters develop in their skills, but in their knowledge and social recognition. Most of the time we know players by the highest on a scoreboard, and we idolize them without knowing if they could just be a hacker who got to that position. If your favorite NPC is the Healing Specialist, and you do tons of quests for her, why not add "He/She is so nice to me, helps me all the time with all of the things that I can't do because I'm too busy taking care of people." to their dialouge? Or if you always fail their tasks "He/She can never get it right, I simply ask them to do things like to get me some herbs from out back and I don't ever get them." Maybe if the NPC likes you a lot, you could get the bonus of free healing every time you visit!

4. Make people feel more like part of the community!

Most events that are hosted are plain and boring like: "New objects spawn when you kill things!", it takes some real creativity to come up with something that people will be really hooked onto wanting to participate in. Make a whole new map that's like a colosseum for people to fight in, and offer them clothes that fit the area theme so they can feel like a gladiator, while the GM sits in a thrown and releases the lions upon them. Have players be able to forge their own weapons if they have the supplies and an area that they own so that they can become an in-game world-famous blacksmith who can make anything! Make factions that people are in as well. Players who focus more on wanting to be evil might want to going a "Criminal" faction in which they do things trying to undermine the system of order. They could have certain abilities, attire, and objects that would make them distinguishable by other players. But there could be NPCs in the factions as well, guards who will try to catch you if you walk around sporting a "I just killed a guy" robe. That doesn't mean the Neutral members should be able to acess the faction's areas, on the contrary in fact, there should be special designated areas where you can only get in by being a member.

5. Make Interesting Skills, and put detail into them

Being able to make a sword by having iron in your inventory and clicking on an anvil can be quite mundane, why not give them some minigame where they actually have to work for it? If your character has a full Chemist attribute, why not set up a potions and poisons shop? With the skills people will need items to make things unique, certain items could mix to make certain things and are only attainable by level. A "Numbroot" gives the effect numbness, while "Spark-leaves" give electricity. Mix them together into a potion and you could get a numbing/shocking poison that you could put on arrows. Certain metals could be really strong, but magnetic which may slow people down in magnet-filled areas. With variety, there also needs to be rarities. People should have to work a bit to be able to get that awesome item that will make their objects worth a lot of money. And there should be a limited amount of those items that spawn in a given timeframe, so if there's a new quest that demands people need gasmasks and to make a gasmask you need a cure poison potion, an effect vial *to put in the mask*, leather for straps, and metal for the actual mask. The prices for gaskmasks, as well as ingredients for one would skyrocket. And those who specialize in buffing magic would also benefit greatly if they have the "cure poison" spell mastered. After the event is over, things should go back to normal.

6. Make people be able to control their characters well.

Although it is probably very unlikely this step needs to be included, it would be a great addition to many games and make them feel so much more like the developers took time to make it. If you get hit off a cliff, why not add a ragdoll effect for when you're knocked unconcious and need to be healed? Why not be able to grab ledges? Why not be able to jump off a wall while a giant boss swings a sword towards you and you make an epic dodge? All of these things would add a lot of quality to a game.

7. Make the Environments more detailed, and the interactions with them more realistic.

3D, and actual 3D physics is something that isn't easily tackled by online games. The fact of the matter is there are usually 2 planes, vertical, and horizontal. What would be amazing is to see an online game with an environment where you can do things similar to Assassin's Creed, jumping from rooftop to rooftop avoiding the city's enemy guards from below? Heck yeah! A bird flies into your character's face while you're running full speed? Why not lose balance? If you're underwater, be able to drown! I don't know why, but it really bugs me when I'm fully underwater in an MMO and my character is acting like they're on land, or an MMO where you can only swim on top of the water. (An idea for an item! Scuba gear!)

8. Make death something you should avoid.

If you die, don't make the person lose 1% EXP and respawn back at the main city. What did that teach them? "Ok, if I kill a monster I get 2% EXP, and if I die, I lose 1% EXP, so if I surround myself by 5 really hard monsters and kill 2 of them, I should be set!" That isn't how things should be, make them loathe dying, but not want to quit the game. Something like having to do chores for the Healer NPC before they're allowed to leave, or having to wait X amount of time before leaving the area again.

9. Make neat little things that people will enjoy.

Small things that don't really have too much of a meaning behind them always adds to the fun of a game. A carnival for characters to just hang out that's only open on holidays, A royal ball every Thursday at the King's Palace, Parades of NPCs where players can join in,A house for each player to build onto and customize, Little pets that you can train to do meaningless things like fetching your a few materials or chasing a ball, A skydiving minigame, Just fun stuff like that. People will want something to do after they beat all the quests. Or while they do they quests they could just hang out.

10. Make something that will make people want to keep on playing.

If there's too much repetition, people will tire of it and move one quickly. If there's a town bulletin board for people to give other people tasks that they'll be paid for, things will always be interesting! If roleplaying kicks off these tasks could be even more intriguing. "Need a babysitter for 3 children, will pay 100 Gold coins for every hour that I'm gone." Also, imagine what would happen if the leader of a group needed protection while crossing from one land to another! The possibilities would be endless.

           In summary, not every one of these steps is needed to make a great game, and a great game is only defined by the person who is judging it. Each person has their own definition of a great game, I just tried to elaborate many areas that people may like to see in MMOGs, mainly MMORPGs, although they could be applied in other circumstances. Thank you for your time!