Briefly, the perfect MMORPG (their only hope)

pkpkpk

Food and water: minutes to find them, or character dies. Death: permanent. Starting town: one. Story: paramount, all-encompassing. Murderers constantly besieging town;  roaming country side. First quest: kill murderers. NPCs same strength as PCs; 50/50 chance; practice improves odds. EQ2 "locked combats" used as needed. Gameplay over realism. Second quest: invade murderer fort. Instancing used as needed. 1 in 100 will survive first two quests on first attempt. Permanent death throughout game. Player-killing: open.  Staff of game masters enforces karma against overwhelming abuse (PK guilds and groups, high level PKing low levels) ((NPC posses, "fortuitous" encounters, etc.)); trusted staff ensures checks and balances of game masters. Linear--like single player RPG (say, Phantasy Star II). No non-linearity. No slumps in action. On character creation, dead players reenter action immediately as new character (at level 1 in starting area). Game continues in similar vein with new besieged towns, strong story, linear quests. First area design will appear similar to tutorial area in Rift. No expected "progress" in the game. Fun on its own merits. Constant scenes of carnage and chaos.

I post this because of threads like this (http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/hate-for-mmorpgs-fundamental-or-fixable.21061/). There is a way to make an MMORPG that is not flawed. An MMORPG that is a game, that has a strong story, that does not cause addiction, that has a beginning and an end, that does not have "expansions" and "raids" and such band-aids. This is my last thread on MMORPGs.

The other theory for an MMORPG is a role-playing enforced game with a constant staff of GMs acting in a slightly similar function as dungeon masters for players. This is the complete opposite of the above. Similar to Armageddon MUD, but with more activity and quantity of staff.

Ozmodan

Sorry about the only thing your post was good for was a good laugh.  No one would bother making such a game because you could count the people on your fingers that would play it.

You want a hard game, they are making Pantheon pretty hard, about the best you can do in the near future.

As to the chances that such a game would ever be made, possible with major generational changes with game tools.  It would have to be made for fun, because you would never ever make money on it.

ZionBane

That post was made in 2007, since then, games like GW2 have addressed their issues.