Wisdomandlore

+1 for using Dragon Warrior for the graphics and sound.

I desperately wanted to play FFXI after seeing a preview of the PC version. My brother was a manager at a Gamestop at the time, and got a beta version several months before the game came out and gave it to me.

Tips on finding a train: zoom the map all the way out and look for a long mass of yellow dots moving at high-speed around the map. This is a train. RotMG allows you to instantly teleport to any player on the map. Just click on one of the dots towards the front of that train and start shooting.

The large group of players towards the middle of the map are the higher-level players in the god lands. Stay away if you don't want to get one-shotted by something random.

Masato Kato, the scenario writer for Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross.

I think part of the problem players have with grouping is how non-intuitive it is. The way your character plays in a group is often fundamentally different than how it plays solo. For example, your character may be able to cure poison. So you need to watch for a minuscule poison debuff icon to appear over 1 of 6 players' health bars, then hit quickslot CTRL + 9 to remove it.

Let's take a look at how another game handles grouping: Team Fortress 2. TF2 is obviously not a MMO, but it does take a genre that is usually about mindless deathmatches and convert it into a team-based affair requiring cooperation. Each role clearly defined strengths, weaknesses, and roles. Each class has a small number of currently available weapons, yet each one has depth. At all times, your eyes are on the action, instead of monitoring healthbars or skill cooldowns. It's immediately easy to jump in, pick a class, and play as a team.

What can we take away from this? First, designers need to narrow class focus. Classes in most MMOs now have become bloated and generalized. Narrow down class roles, adding clear benefits and weaknesses. Flavor needs to be a big part of the equation. Second, reduce the number of skills players have available, then add tremendous depth to each skill. This is the opposite of the current model where you have tons of rarely used skills. Finally, move away from healthbars and skillbars. Put visual indicators in the game instead, so we can focus on the action instead of starting at a small section of the screen.

Luckily, Guild Wars 2 seems to be doing all or most of these things and more. Here's to hoping it comes out soon.

@Loopy

I spent about two months playing after launch and had a good time. Once I got to the cap and the game turned into just another dungeon grind-a-thon I cancelled.

It wasn't a free trial, but the first beta test weekend for Rift impressed me so much I immediately preordered the game.

@Cyroselle

Fable is only available on 360 and PC.

I traded this into Gamestop for $12 when I beat it shortly after release. -_-

@Zetsuei

While he's at, he should make SE create a new Chrono Trigger.