What is important to you?

[Paindancer]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

[DrakeGrimm]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

Assuming you mean an online game...if not these first four answers may change...

Community, Story, Setting, Character Options

With a studio: Interactions with the community, willingness to listen to player feedback, the ability to "kill their darlings," and writers who aren't afraid to blaze new trails.

With a distributor: The ability to BACK OFF AND LET A DEV TEAM DEV(<---THIS IS THE BIG ONE. STOP MICROMANAGING, PEOPLE!), fair treatment of players, the ability to distribute equally and efficiently, and a willingness to support both players and developers.

* DrakeGrimm wonders what kinda card trick Paindancer is up to!

[EventHorizonMan]

Free roaming environment
Robust character and power customization
An easy to understand invention system
Community (yeah, I know you can't design that but it's important to me)

Developers, there is one and only one. Listen to the players and design the game for them, not for the developers.

And for a distributor, I'm going to parrton what DrakeGrimm said since it matches my own feelings perfectly: "With a distributor: The ability to BACK OFF AND LET A DEV TEAM DEV(<---THIS IS THE BIG ONE. STOP MICROMANAGING, PEOPLE!), fair treatment of players, the ability to distribute equally and efficiently, and a willingness to support both players and developers."

[The-Hunter-JLJ]

1) Ability of the players to have a meaningful impact on the virtual world, rather than being spearcarriers in a static world and a preset story being told by the developers. Take the bloody MMOs off rails, blast it. The focus should be on the PLAYER'S stories interacting within the overarching story being set by their world. The world should *visibly* change for the better (or worse) as a result of player's actions.

2) Ability to individualize characters through character / costume design, power customization, and a unique "story" within the game world. It would not be hard at all to weave the "character origin" designed by the player into their "tutorial" experience, and have the choices and selections made during character design and ongoing play have an impact on the experience within the world. Simple things like having NPCs make comments about your achievements or significant elements of your appearance could add a LOT to immersion while still requiring very little in the way of system resources. It always saddened me in CoH that you'd spend several missions getting to know a contact and working with them, and then never see them again save occasionally to pick up an inspiration if you happened to be in the neighborhood. Damnit, NPCs are people, too.

3) Player driven economy with a robust and detailed crafting system (which is really part of point 1, now that I think of it). It all ties together. Crafters and a vibrant economy add another social dimension that draws people in.

4) Chat, emote, environment, player housing, grouping/sidekicking, strong developer/player interactions, and other systems which promote and encourage both roleplaying and buildiing of a strong community.

[QuantumHero]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

In a game..

1.An in game camera that helps rather then hampers play partnered with controls that function
2.An immersive experience with rich environments to explore and interesting NPCs to meet.
3. A strong level of character creation and customization
4. Structure and free form aspects integrated in a nearly seemless whole...and that encourages a sense of community.

A studio.

1. Level of respect and interaction with players...that they are players themselves.
2. Creativity and the ability to take a great concept and re-imagine it all over again.
3. Good communication with players and within the studio itself.  Also good support.
4. Robust new content development that does not stagnate or feel rushed.

A distributer...

1. Respect for their community as more then just dollar signs and cattle.
2. Standing behind their product for as long as they have it and ending their association in conjunction with a community...properly.
3. Marketing the product in a respectful and effective manner.
4. Handling billing, game stores, forums etc in a way that is functional, secure, does not gouge or abuse players.  Solving problems in a professional and compassionate manor when they arrise

[Paindancer]

How would your answers change if you were thinking gameing in general, not necissarily on line games, but broader?

[The-Hunter-JLJ]

How would your answers change if you were thinking gameing in general, not necissarily on line games, but broader?

They wouldn't. Thinking of online gaming as distinct from other forms is a trap to be avoided. Computers and networks are simply a tool, an extension of sight and sound and information exchange to allow interaction at distances beyond the reach of your arm and the movement of imagination from an internal construct to a shared, external construt. When you start thinking of them as anything beyond that you handicap what they are capable of doing.

[Patribot]

Like DrakeGrim, I will assume we are talking MMO here. My top for to get me to try a game:

1) Setting - Some genres will not get me to play, not matter how good the rest of the game is.
2) Community/Player Interaction - This is why DCUO doesn't appeal to me at all, there is little to no interaction between players unless someone wants to fight you. This has been my experience, yours may vary.
3) Character Creation/Progression - I want my character to be MINE, not "Tank#237". This is where LotRO (My alternate MMO of choice) falls a little short, in the lower levels many characters look the same because your appearance is almost completely dependent on your gear. I also want my level progression to allow me to DO new things, not just do things better.
4) Art Style - I know this is going to sound shallow, but much like setting I WILL NOT play a game that I don't like the look of. I have never even tried the free trial of WoW because I don't like the look and know that I would not be able to sit in front of a screen for hundreds of hours looking at it, I don't care how fun the rest of it might be.

Studio:
1) Ability to make a Coherent game - From genre to character creation to mechanics and art, everything should fit together as a whole concept.
2) Listens to the player base - These are not only the people who are paying the bills, but they are also the people that are emotionally invested in their characters, their on-line friends and the game world. If they are telling you that something needs to be fixed, they just might be right.
3) Ability to innovate on the fly - This is very important to keep a game fresh as time goes on. Just adding new missions of the same type that you've been playing for the last 3 years is NOT enough.
4) Good Writing - I have far more respect for a studio that understands that a strong story/lore base is as, if not more, important than flashy particle effects or hyper accurate physics engines.

Distributor:
1) Gives their Studios freedom - Allow them to make games that fill niches that are not served rather than trying to hop on overloaded bandwagons. (How many half-baked fantasy MMOs do we really need?) Instead of re-inventing the wheel, let your DEVs invent the flying car.
2) Respect the players - Similar to what I said about the studio, but more from the financial aspect. Give the players options on how they want to support the game. Subscription, Free to Pay, Game Purchase OR any combination there-of that the player is comfortable with.
3) Encourage Player Community - This means that you don't just slap up a generic forum and that's the end. Interact with them. Keep them posted on new developments. And yes, even communicate with them when things are NOT going well, because it will generally get out somehow.
4) Reliable Servers - This has never been an issue on CoH that I know of but I know it has killed other games. You won't support a game you can't play on a consistent basis.

Just my two cents worth.

[chaparralshrub]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?


If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

In a game...

1. Complete customizeability, including the ability to make your own worlds and stories a la Mission Architect
2. Story, setting, and characters
3. Something I can play with my best friend, together, just the two of us, or in larger groups, as needed
4. Enough variety to keep us interested in any mission we choose, whether a fantasy plot, a sci-fi plot, crime drama plot, etc.


The studio...

1. Be interested in what the players are interested, from the stand point of making and having a fun game
2. Ability to add flexibility to a game's story and setting. Have multiple story arcs, which do change the setting (e.g. kill off major characters), but then be able to go back and play "what if" and have different major characters killed off instead.
3. Good support, willingness to listen to the players and what they want and ask for.
4. New content that is well thought-out. I'd rather wait for an epic storyline than get bombarded by crappy ones.


The company...

1. Respect for the players and for the developers
2. Willingness to leave the developers alone. Exceptions include if an owner has a cool idea for a character/story arc and wants to implement it (i.e. effectively behaving *as* a dev).
3. Compassion - not willing to kill a project until it is financially absolutely necessary, and, if doing so, being as humane about it as possible.
4. Imagination - recognize devs who have imagination, and hire them!

[DrakeGrimm]

How would your answers change if you were thinking gameing in general, not necissarily on line games, but broader?

I'd replace "community" with "gameplay," otherwise my answers would be unchanged.

[Patribot]

How would your answers change if you were thinking gameing in general, not necissarily on line games, but broader?

Remove #3 from Game, #3 from Studio and #4 from Distributor and my answers would cover just about everything else,  from stand alone computer games down to board and collectable card ganes.

[emu265]

If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?

1) Opportunity for customization, lots of it.  Whether it be appearance, abilities, weapons, anything and everything.

2) An immersive experience.

3) Lots to do, replayability, general longevity (I get obsessed).

4) The feeling of working towards something (think IOs, accolades, etc)

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?

1) Communication with a playerbase.

2) Implementation (or attempted implementation) of player ideas.

3) Timely releases, effective communication of hiccups, etc.

4) Consistency.

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

1) Communication, that's it. 

[Zolgar]

4 things for a game:
1) Balance, while some builds will always be stronger than others, I do not want to be pigeonholed in to one specific build in order to get anywhere. -in the MMO world this also extends to not being focused on the 'holy trinity' of DPS/Tank/Healz
2) Versatility- this one is mostly in regards to MMOs, but the game needs the possibility to grow.
3) Things to do. There needs to be a 'storyline' to follow (or multiple in the case of an MMO), but you also need to be able to wander off and do other things. Related to this, the storyline needs to not be level dependent: you shouldn't feel penalized for exploring and leveling, or /not/ exploring and leveling.
4) wandering off and hunting needs to be viable as well. Sometimes (especially with MMOs) you have half an hour or so to play and you don't want to try and get in to a dungeon or quest.

4 things for a developer:
1) A developer needs to acknowledge the desires of their customers. 9 out of 10 players say "This element sucks." you kinda need to look at changing it.
2) A developer needs to give me the impression that they love to play their own games, too.
3) A developer needs to be reliable at fixing things and (especially in MMOs) releasing new content.
4) A developer needs to not half-ass releases or release prematurely with the idea of "We'll fix it later" or "We'll finish it with DLC."

4 things for a publisher:
1) Leave the developers alone. Let them do their work. Don't hound them with deadlines- their work takes time, and every time something changes bugs pop up.
2) Adequate marketing. A stealth release does no one any good.
3) Don't expect every game to be an instant jackpot. Give the community time to spread the word, give the developers time and money to fix the bugs.
4) in the event of DLCs and/or Real Money Markets: make sure things are fairly priced, and balanced- especially in an MMO.

[ukaserex]

If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?

1.Graphics. The more....."realistic" it looks, the better.
2. Price.
3. UI. The look and feel of playing the game. Sadly, there's not always a way to try this unless via a free trial.
4. Duration of game play. The longer I can play the game, the better.

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?

1. Honestly, until NCSoft dropped the bomb on us, game publisher had no direct bearing on whether or not I'd buy/play a game. Most games are about 20 bucks. I don't see myself spending hours to research game publishers for any criteria.

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?
The only factor involved is marketing. The game has to have shelf space in order for me to see it.

[Paindancer]

1. Honestly, until NCSoft dropped the bomb on us, game publisher had no direct bearing on whether or not I'd buy/play a game. Most games are about 20 bucks. I don't see myself spending hours to research game publishers for any criteria.

Exactly.  There is a big accountability gap.

[Kheprera]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?

1) For an MMO, Custom Character Creation.  I don't care for cookie-cutter creations.  If I can't make my character unique I won't even look twice at the game, and the more I can adjust and meld my character (body sliders/face sliders/power customization/eye color change, etc) the better.  For a stand-alone game, the first thing is going to mental challenge.  I like games like Gabriel Knight or Myst.

2) MMO: PvE environment.  I can't stand PvP, but that's a personal preference.  I don't mind it being in the game so long as it isn't forced on me.  The moment it is forced on me, I'm out.  Stand-Alone: Setting.  The setting has to appeal to me not just visually but imaginatively.

3) Replayability. This goes for any game.  Can I make alts?  Is this a game I'll play more than once?  Are there alternate ways of leveling/succeeding? The stand-alone games I can often shelve for a year or so and then go back to.

4) Graphics. If the graphics and artwork turn me off, I can't get immersed in the world.  I have a hard time with Champions Online because of the cartooney look.  A few of my characters look downright awesome, but the rest are meh.

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?

1) First, foremost, and most importantly, connection of the studio team to the community.  Regular posting and interaction, playing the game, a love for the game they're working on, and engaging the community for input.  CoH spoiled me.

2) A willingness to try. Just because they say "it can't be done", I want them to look at a problem and figure out why and if it could be implemented at all.

3) Real answers.  Don't just say "That is something we are aware the players want".  After a while that just starts sounding lazy.  Instead, something like "Well, the previous writer of this code didn't leave any notes to refer to how or why something was coded as it was.  As a result, the code is a hot mess and untangling it for a small portion of the player base that equates to 10% of the overall population would take away the same devs who are working on This Super Cool Thing That 90% of the player base, including you, want. At a later time we may spend the time to untangle it, but for now we are concentrating our efforts on something that is better for the game overall instead of a niche population."  A nice, honest answer instead of just skirting the issue.

4) A willingness to place Players First.  We're the customers.  I understand on some level that things such as Signature Costume Parts or Signature Powers for the Iconic Heroes of the game are neat and all, but throw the players a bone and give them an alternative. Keep an open mind, accept player suggestions and ideas, and understand that when you come up with something Really Cool (psychic melee), the players WILL want it and if you can introduce the powerset at the same time or shortly after by expecting the players to think that way, then it shows you know your player base.

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

1) Promote your product.  If you want to make money from it, you have to do this.

2) Know your target audience.  If the product fails in one region, but is popular in another, try and figure out why.  If it's due to culture or other such differences, accept this and accept that not all markets around the world are the same.

3) Don't shell out cookie-cutter clones on an assembly line in the hopes of finding the Next Big Thing.  I promise you that the Next Big Thing is generally a complete accident.  Sure, developers HOPE they've got it, but often they fail.

4) Market oversaturation. Know it. Understand it. Own it. There are more than enough fantasy MMOs out there. What's missing? Call of Cthulhu/Horror? My Little Pony? Hello Kitty? Do some market research and surveys.  Pick a target audience and see what kinds of range you can hook with what. Go to gaming conventions. Peruse a brick and mortar game store. Look at the NYT bestseller list of the kinds of books that are popular. There are so many opportunities that, if the game is made right it will attract a strong following.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

[StarRanger4]

If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?
Community.  We has, Champions doesnt. 
a real story. 
the setting. 
the customisation levels.


If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?
the Community manager.  Zwill has raised the bar in what I expect out of a real, involved community manager
the actual Dev's involved.  People with passion for the game, like Positron and War Witch
quality vs quantity.  I'd be happier with as few as 1 new 'issue' a year if it kept to the existing quality than a lot of pointless ones just for the new shiny.

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?
their reputation as far as fairness to the playerbase.  That they arn't going to to be hyping something and then turn around and yank the rug out from under us with no warning. One that showed they listened to what the playerbase thought even if they decided not to implement X over Y.  Obvioulsy, in that regards NCSoft is pretty much dead to me; even if they had a non twitchy grinding fantasy based MMO I'd not be interested; I will always remember what happened to City and would not trust them.

[RogerWilco]

What really got my about City of Heroes, after having played several other games:
- You can really build your own character. Costumes, powers, base and mission architect allowed your character to be unique and a part of the game.
- It's casual friendly. Very few things that you need to repeat on a tight schedule to advance in the game, you can group with everyone and adjust the difficulty.
- A lot of good stories.

Studio:
- Interaction between players and developers.
- Good community managers.
- Quick response to bugs.

Publisher:
- Long term support for the game. Look at a lot of the Blizzard titles. Blizzard doesn't have a magic wand, they create loyal customers by producing quality and supporting it, sometimes for a decade or more.
- Understanding that if you create a good reputation, players will likely buy other titles from you as well. In my native tongue we say that trust comes walking but leaves on horseback. Especially publishers should be in it for the long haul.
- don't try to emulate the biggest success of today. Someone else has already done it. Be different.

[Knightslayer]

Hmm, that's a tough one...

Game:
1) Fun gameplay with a good mix of solo ability & grouping (don't force me to team the entire time, but add incentives for me to do it. TFs are a good example of the latter and so is increased xp depending on group size).
2) Setting & Story (I consider these two elements to be very closely linked to each other)
3) Character customization (look & powers) - a very close call between numbers 2 & 3 - it wound up as number three because no matter how cool my character may look, if the world it plays in is completely dull and the gameplay isn't interesting, I probably won't last long.
4) Graphics/Art style (like mentioned by someone above, this was pretty much my big turn off with CO and several other games)
For single player games this varies a little, I'm perfectly fine with playing a "signature" character in those. (Like FF's Cloud, DA2's Hawke, Geralt in the Witcher, etc...)

Developer:
1) Flexibility - a willingness to change things if an overwhelming portion of their playerbase asks for it, rather than blindly sticking to a certain "vision".
2) Clear communication - ranging from talking to their players on the forums now and then, to previews of upcoming content.
3) Creativity - part of what made CoH great was the innovation the Devs had: (Super) Sidekicking, Level Pacts, Mission Architect, hell even the various travel powers!
4) Enthusiasm!

Publisher:

1) Leave the developers alone. Let them do their work. Don't hound them with deadlines- their work takes time, and every time something changes bugs pop up.
2) Adequate marketing. A stealth release does no one any good.
3) Don't expect every game to be an instant jackpot. Give the community time to spread the word, give the developers time and money to fix the bugs.
4) in the event of DLCs and/or Real Money Markets: make sure things are fairly priced, and balanced- especially in an MMO.

Pretty much that!

[Blackgrue]

Game:
1: Excellent character customization, including powers.
2: Custom mission creation and (more importantly) the ability to build my own base.
3: Soloable.
4: Roleplay support (Pocket-d esque areas where regular players will have no reason to be there to roleplay in.)

Developer:
1: Consistant updates, delays=bad.
2: Good sense of humor.
3: Creativity
4: A willingnes to listen to the community.

Publisher:
1: Willing to aggressively market a game.
2: Not willing to let a game go to alter their stock portfolio.
3: Give a game a chance to grow before you panic and hit the FREE TA PALY button.
4: Fair price for real money market stuff. I'm in STO right now and they do "Lockboxes" which have some super-mega-awesome stuff... as rare drops. The boxes are everywhere. The key are cash only. I now have to pay upwards of what I paid for a lifetime subscription to open everything.

[Omega Mark V]

I have something up my sleeve.
 
If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?

1. Gameplay. If the game is broken, or if it's uninspiring/uninteresting to play, it isn't worth playing. Thus why some older games are still fun to play today.
2. Story/Lore. Games are like books. The player needs to feel connected with the character(s) they're playing, and not be confused or bored with the overall plot.
3. Re-playability. If the game is fun, or has enough things to keep the player engrossed in content to continue, it will be re-playable, thus extending the life and quality of the game.
4. Simplicity. If a game gets too complex, it's not going to have as much of an avid following as a simpler game. A simple interface, controls, and gameplay system makes a game good. (Ex. look at the Super Mario Brothers games. Run and jump, yet it's fun.)

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?

1. Interest in their fanbase/players. If a Dev team doesn't care for their fanbase or playerbase, they will undoubtedly fail. (*cough* SOE)
2. Interest in their game/Inspiration. If the team doesn't care for the game they're making, it won't turn out as well as an enthusiastically created game would. This, and creating an original title. (AKA: Not an obvious CoD/WoW clone.)
3. Continuation to serve the playerbase. I've witnessed some game teams that cease to cater to their community, or their feedback. It's bad.
4. Timely responses. If something 'breaking' happens in game, be it a bug or exploit, hackers, etc., they need to be on top of the situation. Control of a game you create is undoubtedly important.

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinon of a distributor (NCSoft, EA, etc), what would they be?

1. Not stepping into Dev team affairs. For instance, EA recently F'd up Bioware. If a Dev team is supposed to create something good, the publisher can't be breathing down their necks.
2. Even support of all their games and their communities. If one game series receives support in a certain way, be it Steam releases or game hubs, other games should receive the same treatment. This also goes for how the publisher would support their titles.
3. Showing the consumers' some love. Valve is an awesome Developer and Publisher. Period. This is because they cater to their community by giving them good support with both their games, and platforms, and support.
4. Not creating a 'service' or 'terms/condition(s)' that hurt consumers. Needless to say, Origin, UPlay, and other platforms that are required to play games. We should be buying licenses to play games as we are able to, not to buy a service we're forced to use.

That's what I look for in each game I play. Not just MMO's.

Omega Mark V, explanation complete.

[Stellar Agent]

Game Requirements:

1. Gameplay
2. Storyline
3. Repeatable Content: a certain amount of grinding is to be expected in any online game, as such it should be just as much fun to play the tenth time as it was the first.
4. UI / Interface

Studio Requirements:

1. Players First: You made it for us, didn't you?
2. Dev's should be players too!  If you aren't interested in playing your own game, WHY are you working on it?
3. Communication, communication, communication.  'nuff said
4. If it ain't broke, why are you "fixing" it?  Also, if it is broke, WHY aren't you fixing it?

Distributor Requirements:

1. Respect for the players and for the developers
2. Willingness to leave the developers alone. Exceptions include if an owner has a cool idea for a character/story arc and wants to implement it (i.e. effectively behaving *as* a dev).
3. Compassion - not willing to kill a project until it is financially absolutely necessary, and, if doing so, being as humane about it as possible.
4. Imagination - recognize devs who have imagination, and hire them!

What Chaparral said.

[eabrace]

OK, finally getting around to this...

If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?

* Casual-friendly - Can I log in, spend half an hour playing, and log back out whenever I feel like it (server maintenance window not withstanding)?  If I do so, am I penalized in any way?  For example, if I log in to DDO, start a quest that ends up being a very arduous and long task, I have to complete the quest in order to gain any significant amount of XP as all XP is based on quest completion and no XP is given simply for defeating a single kobold.  This means that I am often limited to the content I can participate in without setting aside hours at a time to play the game, and I only have the ability to do that between the hours of about 8 PM and 4 AM on Saturday night.  (Quests also reset after five minutes outside the dungeon, which further complicates matters if the quest door is a considerable distance from where you bind yourself to rez after being defeated.)  With CoH, by contrast, I can log in, start a mission or not, and even if I can't complete an entire mission in half an hour, I will have at least gained XP just for defeating the critters that got in my way.  That might not be much progress, but it's progress, just the same.  So, even if I only have half an hour to play after getting home, taking the dog for a walk, eating dinner, and paying bills, it's still worth logging in to CoH to play for a bit.  DDO, not so much.

* Broad Market Appeal - You can't please all of the people all of the time, but you can generally find a way to please a whole lot of people most of the time.  How many stories have we heard from people who had absolutely no interest in superheroes or comic books that ended up being drawn into CoH for any number of reasons - not limited to, but including: "I just couldn't stop making new characters because I loved the creation process!" or, as one of my SG members put it, "Dude, I can f*&^ing fly." Which brings me to my next point...

* Ease of Travel - When I'm playing other MMOs, I find myself constantly bitching about one thing in particular:  travel grind.  Yes, Tatooine is very pretty in some places, but it's mostly just sand, and I already saw all of it with my Trooper.  I don't feel the need to see all of it again with my Jedi Knight, again with my Bounty Hunter, again with my Smuggler... Yes, you can pay a buttload of in-game currency to learn how to pilot speeders and buy speeders to ride, but you can't ride the speeder everywhere, you can be shot off of it while zipping by a Tuskan, and it's not that much faster than running.  And the very few quick travel powers that let you actually jump from one place to another on the same world or back to the home fleet have terribly long recharge times (you can only really use the Fleet Emergency Pass once per day.)  Probably the best thing they eventually did for CoH was to start allowing us to skip from one zone to another.  It started by allowing us to select a zone at the train station rather than having to get off at every stop and get back on the train to go to the next zone.  It got even better when we gained the ability to build teleporters in bases.  It continued to improve with things like the Base Transporter power, the O-zone portal, the ability to travel from any zone to any other zone using the train (eliminating the yellow and green line restrictions), the Mission Transporter... and none of those hurt the game at all.  In fact, they made it so much more pleasant to play.  DDO has a pendant you can earn after you gain enough favor with one of the houses, but it's only useable in city zones, so if you have to slog across a wilderness area to reach a quest door, it's worthless to you.  And even though D&D has a flight spell, DDO only has one place I can think of in the middle of a raid where you can actually fly (very slowly) around the room - and you look like you're sitting in a chair when you do it.

* Story - Probably the biggest single aspect of CoH that's always held me here - and continues even now to fascinate me - is the rich lore that this game has.  And it did it all from scratch, not from inheriting it from existing comic books, rule books that already laid the world out for the developers, or a movie franchise.  (Yes, I'm aware that most of this game's background was already part of the world that Sean Fish created for his Champions gaming sessions before CoH was even proposed.  But, again, he did it from scratch.)  You know what interests me about every update DDO makes to the game?  It's getting to play through more plot.  I don't give a damn about the new gear they put out there for people to grid toward.  I like seeing new places and new NPCs and learning about their history and how they tie into the other parts of the game that I've already experienced.  You know what I don't like about DDO?  Anything I haven't played through because it's inaccessible unless you're in a raid party - and no raid party wants to go run that raid because it has low XP and crappy loot.

* Solo-friendly - OK, I know, this makes five points, but this one's just as important to me.  I don't mind teaming some nights, but let's be honest here, sometimes what everyone else wants to go run isn't what I want to go run, and I've only got half an hour to play, so there isn't time for "we'll go run yours first and then we'll go run mine".  That and I don't always like to team with people.  I fall into that odd category of players who are logging into an MMO, but aren't always particularly keen on that second 'M' because we occasionally need some "me" time.  And yeah, I'm familiar with the "then go play on your Xbox or Playstation" response that's usually thrown out there.  For starters, that response does nothing but remind me why I want to solo rather than team.  Further, it doesn't help build a community.  Imagine how many more players we might have here right now helping us to make noise about saving CoH if no one had ever chased off any solo players.  Besides, I might have an Xbox or Playstation, but there aren't any games that play like CoH on those consoles, so that response doesn't even make sense.

I'm cutting myself off here.  More things keep popping into my head as I type, but I'm already over four. 

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opionon of a development studio (Blizzard, Paragon, ect), what would they be?

* Creativity at all levels - Not just unique combat systems or puzzles.  Everyone from mission builders and zone builders to story writers and visual artists should be given as much creative freedom as possible.  If they want to add something that's not possible, rather than just saying, "no", the question of "what would we need to do in order to allow that" should be asked.

* Elegant programming - Not just code that runs on my platform without crashing my OS, but code that takes up the smallest amount of resources (memory, processor, disk space) possible.  Not only does that make my PC happier, but it generally means that when a developer leaves and another steps in to take their place that the code is easier to understand and maintain.

(... to be continued since I have groceries to pick up, bills to pay, a dog to let out of her kennel...)

[Teege]

If you had to pick 4 things important to you when picking a game what would they be?
* Ease of use (Gameplay, interface, tutorials, character creation, etc)
* Variety and Quantity of quality content (not to mention visually appealing)
* Storylines and character creation/development. Can I make a noticeable difference in the world?
* Not being forced to PvP or having to grind insanely (time wise and/or same old repeated content)

If you had to pick 4 things important to you in your opinion of a development studio what would they be?
* Presence in-game (playing, events, etc) and on forums
* Open communication (in all regards)
* Quality content delivered in a timely manner
* Listen to your players ideas, concerns, etc (honest non-scripted answers, prove you're listening to us)

If you had to pick 4 things that effected your opinion of a distributor what would they be?
* Aggressively handle griefers as opposed to doing nothing when they harm others' gameplay (I put this here since NCsoft handled in-game moderation)
* Give the developers what they need and let them get the job done
* Communicate (plans, problems, don't cut a game and fire 80 people out of nowhere on a Friday)
* Advertise the game and don't make it ALL about money (understand and respect the players/developer community)