Were older MMOs better by virtue of experimentation?

"Everyday we take the Massive daily posts and bring them to Dragoon discussions. We would like to thank Massively for their original content."

If you haven't sensed it by now, the Massively staff is made up of a very wide range of preferences, experiences, and gaming types. Sometimes quite heated discussions -- OK, rabid rubber chicken-throwing screamfests -- erupt due to disagreements over what makes MMOs great, what the industry should be doing, and what it did right in the past.

Recently we got into a two-fatality "discussion" over whether or not MMOs prior to World of Warcraft were better simply because they weren't trying to copy WoW and were more willing to experiment. It certainly seemed like there was more variety from each new title back then, although some of those experiments certainly did not prove to be palatable to the gaming masses.

Then again, this might be a case of rose-colored glasses looking upon the past with faulty nostalgia instead of accurate realism, and it discredits the actual innovation and evolution of the industry since then. There certainly are more people playing today than back then, and MMOs have become more widespread and accepted by even mainstream media.

So what do you think? Were older MMOs better because they experimented more than ones today or do titles today deserve more credit for what they have become than glasses-wearing old-timers give?

TH

old school mmos were simple, and didn't have some kind of random dice boxes to give you pvp gear or factions to prevent true pvp.

Not to sound I'm coming here to vote in favour of my preferred game, but I DO prefer City of Heroes to WoW (and CoH came first), exactly because there WASN'T a "random loot" thing, where only one could get the loot. In COH everyone gets the same chance of getting a drop. With a bit of luck EVERYONE gets a drop.

I do think that new MMOs (Star Wars included) end up trying to copy WoW too much, and don't realize that other MMOs did some things better. And that, in itself is a pity, because WOW just isn't perfect. The need to "be WoW but better", does limit amazingly new games, and probably been the death of quite a few *coughAgeofConancoughWarhammerOnlinecough*

There is a few things I'd like to see implemented from COH in other MMOs:

- Global names and communication.
- Costumization (okay, this one is a bit of a dream, and I know doesn't suit all games)
- Mentoring\Sidekicking
- Random drops for EVERYONE at the map at the time, so no "loot stealing" or waiting until someone goes to rezz to roll for the loot so that person doesn't get the loot.

*steps down from soapbox*