General Discussion

Innovation is the key to the long-term success of any genre. Innovation keeps things interesting and fun, giving us new and interesting features. How a game builds upon and changes the ideas put forward in the games that came before it can mean the difference between a long-term hit and "just another copy".

• Council of Stellar Management (EVE)
• Combo Combat (Age of Conan)
• Public Quests (Warhammer Online)
• Ship Combat (Pirates of the Burning Sea)

Check out the Most Innovative Feature nominees and vote!

pq's for sure

I don't think any of these game concepts are really that innovative.  I guess if I had to pick one, it would probably be the public quests in Warhammer.

I think the entire industry reeks of a lack of innovation.  All I see is one copycat game after another.

Age of Conan combat combo is most certainly not innovative, it has been done before in other games.  As to ship combat, how is that different than ship combat in Eve?  I think the jury is still out on the Council of Stellar Management in Eve, it seems more a marketing ploy than anything helpful to date.

I think we have to look to the indy developers for a company to take a chance on something truely innovative, the major ones seem to avoid that lately.

I agrre with the poster above, but if i had to pick one it would be pq's for sure.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

I don't think any of these game concepts are really that innovative.  I guess if I had to pick one, it would probably be the public quests in Warhammer.

I think the entire industry reeks of a lack of innovation.  All I see is one copycat game after another.

Age of Conan combat combo is most certainly not innovative, it has been done before in other games.  As to ship combat, how is that different than ship combat in Eve?  I think the jury is still out on the Council of Stellar Management in Eve, it seems more a marketing ploy than anything helpful to date.

I think we have to look to the indy developers for a company to take a chance on something truely innovative, the major ones seem to avoid that lately.

I have to respectfully completely disagree:

I honestly can't remember ever seeing Age of Conan-style combat in another MMO.  I'm not saying I'm king of all knowledge or anything, but to the best of my recollection, or that of anyone else that I have spoken to, we've not seen it in another MMO.

Have you played Pirates of the Burning Sea? I can't recall the last time that wind direction and strength played a role in EVE Online... given there's no wind in space. I'm not knocking EVE's combat, I'm just saying.. it's different.

The Council of Stellar Management has already made a number of differences in the direction of EVE. I wouldn't say it's any more of a marketing thing than any other feature of an MMO. when there's news about it, they send out a release. Take a look at this interview.

Honestly, and please don't take this personally, but I think you might be confused as to the meaning of the word innovation.

Invention is the creation of something completely and wholly new, while innovation is taking something that already exists and somehow changing it (generally to improve upon it).

Communities have always contributed to development decisions, The CSM takes a new spin on that and formalizes it via elections

Quests have always existed in MMOs, PQs present them in a different way, encouraging people to work together without requiring grouping

ship to ship combat has always existed, but PotBS used what they knew of nautical age of sail combat and integrated functions to replicate it.

MMOs have almost always used single key attacks, Age of Conan added a new layer to that by requiring combos to activate certain abilities.

These are all innovative features. I'm not saying they're all great, and we're not asking you what the best feature is. You don't have to like something for it to be innovative. Inf act, innovation often results in the opposite.

I totally agree with Stradden on this one

PQ's are new'ish (been done to a lesser degree in WoW and others), but they are a 100% failure so no way thats getting my vote.

Combos are new to MMO's

The other 2 I dont care about.

So my vote goes to AoC combo system

I would rather put my vote to LOTRO weapon leveling system in MoM (although I dont know if thats new or not). 

This one was easy ;)

Warhammer deserves it for Public Quests.  This is a feature that's bound to be emulated in most MMO's of the future.

Personally I think that AoC's combat system is pretty revolutionary, and wor