This content is pretty much make it or break it.
Alot of mmorpgs, pretty much all, fail to have any real fun things to do do when your not PvEing, Raiding or PvPing, and the game turns boring really fast at endgame.
Things i have enjoyed doing when not doing normal stuff are:
The Artifact collecting in Rift was actually quite fun.
Crafting, but it has to be way more entertaining than just clicking a button and autocraft like in most mmorpgs.
Achievements by finding hidden locations, or doing a specific thing (not grinding 1000 mobs)
Collecting trophies to put in your house as decorations.
Its quite hard to think of anything more, but other people have some good ideas.
Any "downtime" content are good content.
Ive thought about "hidden" achievements. Achievements that are so hard to even figure out there is an achievement connected to it that noone might ever find it.
Like seeing something scribbled on a piedestal, or written in a book, and then seeing it somewhere else and so on.
What i dont like are:
Ofc, daily quests..
Grinding same mobs over and over.
IM one of those players that dont really like alts, or mmorpgs where you can switch classes.
I rather focus on one class and become as good as possible on that one.
uskharMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
The best times I've had in any mmo was in The Secret World just hanging out in Agartha (big social hub) and interacting with the people there. Sometimes we would just chat or dance and sometimes we would end up going to grouped content together. I loved having an actual place where people would actually go to socialize.
Having the community come together was also a big part of how their seasonal events worked which plays into the same category for me.
Well 90% of the time I play mmo's the only thing that goes through my head is progression, progression, progression.
But when that wasn't the case I mostly flew through the world thinking about old memories or standing in a location that rhymes on "old wire" flexing my gear, dueling or just shittalking together. pretty much like chosen said.
The best times I've had in any mmo was in The Secret World just hanging out in Agartha (big social hub) and interacting with the people there. Sometimes we would just chat or dance and sometimes we would end up going to grouped content together.
I got quite a large amount of enjoyment decorating my house in both Wildstar and FFXIV. In both games there are ways to clip objects into places that they are not intended to be which allows for the creative creation of "New furnishings" by combining existing objects. Outside of MMOs I tend to play a lot of games like Ark so this type of building is right in my wheel house. I don't expect any game to have this because it is a unintentional feature, but when it is in a game I like to do it. Something about showing off a room that looks like complete wizardry is very satisfying.
One thing i used to do in Archeage,it was kind of a progression related,but in a fun way,was to hunt for non protected farms,free to play players used to plant their farms and hide their packs in very far montains that are really hard to reach and sometimes they put their trade packs in the ocean,because in archeage if you drop your pack and leave it there for long enough,it will dive down deep into the sea,and that's one way to do it if you don't own a land to protect them,and you needed time and patience to do it,it was kinda funny to gather all the mats and also sad at the same time,but the overall experience was fun especially if your entire guild dispatch its members to find these locations,and we as a pirate faction used to be good at that
I don't rise from the ashes,i make them,i'm the whole fire
As many have said allready Minigames are allways a hit.
War is mostly boredoom. Usualy you gather 1 hour before raid start and just sit there until the raid leader starts.
Having the ability to start some mini game like Rock paper scisor, chess and card games would be super cool.
Some of these could be linked into the artisan system where someone would have to produce the chess set first for you to carry with.
Aside from that i really like game events. So here are some i sugguest:
Something like the monster coin event but Monster vs Monsters.
Everyone participating would become a Monster. No need for a rare coin to join as everyone can just que up and be part of the fun.
You start as a weak monster and the more you kill from the opposition the more special currency you get to unlock better monsters to spawn as.
Goal would be to kill the boss from the oposition.
You could make it themed like "Wolfs VS lizzards who is the big boy now?"
or "Dragons vs Griffins only one can rule the sky"
Another i would theme "The night of the Dead" event.
Every ingame year during the darkest night the Veil between worlds thins out and spirits from beyond come to Verra to inhabit the corpses of the dead and devour the living.
-The Undead will attack notes.
If successful the notes become infected notes that are hostile to players and will further spawn Undead.
The longer the infected note stays alive the stronger the Undead that spawn.
No need to siege the note as a player, The gates would be open just like during the monster coin event but Swarms of enemy's would keep attacking the players trying to purify the note.
The end of the Event would be where the Gods finally decide to intervene and close the veil forcefully, destroying all infected in the process.
Optional:
A Note that was infected and later purified would looses 1 tier. ( tier 4 turns into tier 3)
A note that was infected until the end is completely destroyed ( set to tier 0) As the gods don't play around.
This would change the map every time the event happen so the maps don't become to static.
Some non progression things I enjoyed in past games have been
1) Music - LOTRO had a great music system with the instruments. You would end up in a Bree town square or something and a player band was putting on a concert.
2) Finding interesting things in the world - Jumping from roof to roof in a city and finding behind some wall way up high is just a random statue. Or deep in the forest is an amazing waterfall or something that makes you wonder why it is there like a lone home in the middle of know where. No quest line attached or anything.
3) Photography - Taking screenshots or pictures of a unique landscape or scene.
4) Outfits - I think everyone loves making their toon look the way they want. To the extent of even being able to dye armor.
After non-progression, nothing. Wait for next patch.
Unless there are other mini progression things to do.
I lose interest when I'm max level with current BiS. Hopefully pvp will be entertaining enough.
Exploration, hearing great stories, finding shortcuts, jump puzzles, finding great gear that allows you to fullfill another role for a small lvl period, transformation items, 1v1 tournaments, fishing competitions, races, helping other players of lower lvl, and much more.
Some of the best end game content I've found is similar to the monster coin system, but at max lvl you could take over mobs in the world and try to hunt down players. Another, had 4 dungeons that were customizable by players to increase the difficulty of the dungeon. So, every month 4 dungeons in the world would be by non-guild playing members.
1
Options
NelsonRebelMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
edited August 2020
1.Lore reading and a way to quick reference it all ingame
2.Housing is something that always has a nice thematic rp element to it that you can style around.
3. Emotes ranging from physical motions to nice gimmick lute/flute playing and cool aesthetic mementos.
4.Exploration of interesting and stunning points of the map with beautiful landmarks or statues. Hope to see these ingame.
5. Armor transmog to my design. I like my aesthetics
Those are my top things but I've seen other really good ones in the rest of the thread too
I like hanging out in the dueling zone, sitting around a bonfire observing.
Asking questions, testing skills and damage, theorycrafting. Chatting and dueling at intervals while making friends.
When I'm with friends I want to look for troubles in open pvp, or battlegrounds.
Really not that easy to answer. I always like to socialize with guildmates and other people in general. Doing that while playint a fun minigame is even better.
Besides that, finding hidden spots in the world, nearly noone has seen before (and those places the Devs didnt want to be found ).
How broadly are we considering "progression-related"? In Guild Wars 2, things like jump puzzles & exploration feed into certain aspects of progression. I'm going to approach this from the most tame definition of progression.
In no particular order: PvP, Duels, farming mounts, jump puzzles, unlocking cosmetic appearances, peaceful mindless gathering, fishing competitions, racing, Guild Events, exploring, helping other players with old content, playing the auction house, unlocking titles, and completing achievements regardless of the reward. A few of these probably fall under "completionist" activities so maybe those are considered progression.
Explore, PvP, find cosmetics of just about any kind, possibly teach noobs how to play (not sure if this counts), collect information on professions, calculate my build, and if the game has the potential to play music screw around with that a little.
Pvp comes to mind, but outside of that I really loved some of the racial quests you got in EQ2 as a fae - exploring the faydark and connecting to the forest and unlocking your fae spirit. I like quests that are about immersion and connection to your character (even if the kill x for y aspect could have been improved). Like attending a school of magic for a wizard and stuff like that.
In Rift there was this angelic flight ability (which allowed you to make long straight jumps) that you could use to get to places normally out of reach. Me and some friends would spend time using it to try to figure out how to climb different mountains and get on top of certain objects which was pretty fun too.
Other than that.... just talking to guildies I suppose. And finding appearance items, or exploring.
Roleplay gatherings are by far the most pointless thing that I love. Hanging around the center of the largest city hub and interacting with roleplayers. In the four years I played WoW that never got old
Comments
If I have the energy, going out to explore, be it alone or with friends, sounds great.
Maybe go to a popular tavern somewhere and have fun with some minigames with people or just chat. A bit of gambling perhaps?
Work on my boat and take it out for a fishing trip sounds great.
Doing a fashion event with some friends with other games is also great.
Try to custumize my armor and weapon with small beautiful details like engravings and trims would be amazing.
Go hunting red dead redemption style is a dream but that maybe is impossible in an MMO.
Alot of mmorpgs, pretty much all, fail to have any real fun things to do do when your not PvEing, Raiding or PvPing, and the game turns boring really fast at endgame.
Things i have enjoyed doing when not doing normal stuff are:
The Artifact collecting in Rift was actually quite fun.
Crafting, but it has to be way more entertaining than just clicking a button and autocraft like in most mmorpgs.
Achievements by finding hidden locations, or doing a specific thing (not grinding 1000 mobs)
Collecting trophies to put in your house as decorations.
Its quite hard to think of anything more, but other people have some good ideas.
Any "downtime" content are good content.
Ive thought about "hidden" achievements. Achievements that are so hard to even figure out there is an achievement connected to it that noone might ever find it.
Like seeing something scribbled on a piedestal, or written in a book, and then seeing it somewhere else and so on.
What i dont like are:
Ofc, daily quests..
Grinding same mobs over and over.
IM one of those players that dont really like alts, or mmorpgs where you can switch classes.
I rather focus on one class and become as good as possible on that one.
0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
Having the community come together was also a big part of how their seasonal events worked which plays into the same category for me.
But when that wasn't the case I mostly flew through the world thinking about old memories or standing in a location that rhymes on "old wire" flexing my gear, dueling or just shittalking together. pretty much like chosen said.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
War is mostly boredoom. Usualy you gather 1 hour before raid start and just sit there until the raid leader starts.
Having the ability to start some mini game like Rock paper scisor, chess and card games would be super cool.
Some of these could be linked into the artisan system where someone would have to produce the chess set first for you to carry with.
Aside from that i really like game events. So here are some i sugguest:
Something like the monster coin event but Monster vs Monsters.
Everyone participating would become a Monster. No need for a rare coin to join as everyone can just que up and be part of the fun.
You start as a weak monster and the more you kill from the opposition the more special currency you get to unlock better monsters to spawn as.
Goal would be to kill the boss from the oposition.
You could make it themed like "Wolfs VS lizzards who is the big boy now?"
or "Dragons vs Griffins only one can rule the sky"
Another i would theme "The night of the Dead" event.
Every ingame year during the darkest night the Veil between worlds thins out and spirits from beyond come to Verra to inhabit the corpses of the dead and devour the living.
-The Undead will attack notes.
If successful the notes become infected notes that are hostile to players and will further spawn Undead.
The longer the infected note stays alive the stronger the Undead that spawn.
No need to siege the note as a player, The gates would be open just like during the monster coin event but Swarms of enemy's would keep attacking the players trying to purify the note.
The end of the Event would be where the Gods finally decide to intervene and close the veil forcefully, destroying all infected in the process.
Optional:
A Note that was infected and later purified would looses 1 tier. ( tier 4 turns into tier 3)
A note that was infected until the end is completely destroyed ( set to tier 0) As the gods don't play around.
This would change the map every time the event happen so the maps don't become to static.
1)Explore and find new places, beautiful scenery, and just about anything that is new, that is off the beaten path in the game.
2)Collect or make items in game that may just be for aesthetics to help flesh out a player home
Reminds me of good o' days when playing RO and have to click on every stall in the market.
and probably another reason why I like to trade stocks....
1) Music - LOTRO had a great music system with the instruments. You would end up in a Bree town square or something and a player band was putting on a concert.
2) Finding interesting things in the world - Jumping from roof to roof in a city and finding behind some wall way up high is just a random statue. Or deep in the forest is an amazing waterfall or something that makes you wonder why it is there like a lone home in the middle of know where. No quest line attached or anything.
3) Photography - Taking screenshots or pictures of a unique landscape or scene.
4) Outfits - I think everyone loves making their toon look the way they want. To the extent of even being able to dye armor.
Heroes Fade but Legends last forever
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
Unless there are other mini progression things to do.
I lose interest when I'm max level with current BiS. Hopefully pvp will be entertaining enough.
Some of the best end game content I've found is similar to the monster coin system, but at max lvl you could take over mobs in the world and try to hunt down players. Another, had 4 dungeons that were customizable by players to increase the difficulty of the dungeon. So, every month 4 dungeons in the world would be by non-guild playing members.
2.Housing is something that always has a nice thematic rp element to it that you can style around.
3. Emotes ranging from physical motions to nice gimmick lute/flute playing and cool aesthetic mementos.
4.Exploration of interesting and stunning points of the map with beautiful landmarks or statues. Hope to see these ingame.
5. Armor transmog to my design. I like my aesthetics
Those are my top things but I've seen other really good ones in the rest of the thread too
1. PvP
2. PvP while exploring or open world
3. PvP in BGs
4. PvP in Arena
5. PvP in Large Scale
Card game with collectible cards all over the world.
Tournaments of these games.
Asking questions, testing skills and damage, theorycrafting. Chatting and dueling at intervals while making friends.
When I'm with friends I want to look for troubles in open pvp, or battlegrounds.
Besides that, finding hidden spots in the world, nearly noone has seen before (and those places the Devs didnt want to be found
In no particular order: PvP, Duels, farming mounts, jump puzzles, unlocking cosmetic appearances, peaceful mindless gathering, fishing competitions, racing, Guild Events, exploring, helping other players with old content, playing the auction house, unlocking titles, and completing achievements regardless of the reward. A few of these probably fall under "completionist" activities so maybe those are considered progression.
U.S. East
I respect your clarity of purpose
In Rift there was this angelic flight ability (which allowed you to make long straight jumps) that you could use to get to places normally out of reach. Me and some friends would spend time using it to try to figure out how to climb different mountains and get on top of certain objects which was pretty fun too.
Other than that.... just talking to guildies I suppose. And finding appearance items, or exploring.