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Another reason the "traditional RPG" formula is bad in online games is that they're persistent worlds; growing so strong that most of the game can no longer challenge you means that most of the game world is of no interest to you. Mark said it simply in an old column article: "95% of MMO real...

I was one of the few who actually appreciated and made use of flares way back when. Darkness added both an element of danger and a reason to use light sources intelligently. Including intelligent play options goes is a reward in itself.

On the one hand, I understand why we use RNG systems and I know their place in games. Extra credits did a pair of good videos on smart application of RNG here: I think that, used responsibly, RNG can and does add suspense, uncertainty, excitement and a healthy dose of calculated risk-taking...

One crucial business mistake I see many games making nowadays is a very specific thing that isn't a bad thing at first glance but is ultimately cancerous to any game's life cycle: DO NOT ALLOW PLAYERS TO SKIP CONTENT FOR MONEY. Read that sentence again--aloud. I don't care who's listening...

The Ophanim were in FF, last I checked; they were even involved in a few missions and referenced by name, leaving us dazed and confused as to their human arcfolding tech. Their faction was simply never explored much and most players paid them no mind, since they died as easy as any other...

You know, I could've SWORN that the shock rail's alt-fire was the orb...I know they took away the power to detonate it with a shot, but I could swear it was still there when I quit FF...I don't recall being able to zoom with that weapon, though I do recall a universal 'look-zoom' kind of feature...

I have to agree on the "no football helmet-clown shoes-guy" rule. Kudos to whoever gets THAT reference.

Can't pitch anything in at the moment, but I will spread the word. I've got a group of friends who enjoyed Firefall back in the day, so maybe they'll want to throw in on this.

The problem with putting such behaviors on a random die is just that--they're random. This will just lead to behaviors that more often than not make no sense and leave us going "wtf are these idiot mobs doing?" While we mow them for being absolutely stupid. There is no point in putting stupid...

The real goal in a good modding system and customization engine is not to create things that just "increase stats" but to make things that DO something. Cause and effect, rather than arbitrary number increases. Horizontal progression is a ripe opportunity for--and in fact DEMANDS--more...

Achievements don't need to be in the game unless they are actually challenging and unorthodox to get. When I see asinine nonsense like "reached level 10" or "earned 1000 gold" I know game devs are starving for ideas. Those aren't achievements; they're just grocery lists. They cheapen the...

Ah, good way to catch the in-between. This is another of the lesser used methods of cooling things down; charges. Even I forget this one exists sometimes. Needing a certain amount of time to "recharge" a shot is still essentially and mechanically a 'cooldown,' though it at least allows for...

I've never been a fan of cooldowns as a balancing factor. When I see an ability that just has a timer before it can be used again, I know the designers basically thought: "okay, this is SO good that it will break the game unless we just don't let them use it whenever they want." The longer the...

I'd like to bring up one slightly contentious point with a very simple perspective: the perma item loss and it's effects. While it wasn't implemented in an ideal way, it was an important part of Firefall's identity back in beta. It's easy to say most people didn't want it, but I do add this...

League of Legends recently reduced it's "floating clutter" by having a single damage number pop up over a target representing only the viewing player's damage and displaying as a climbing total, rather than the "sprinkler" effect I'm sure we're all familiar with. I don't predict these numbers...

I would be fine with the booster pads we had in FF; the trick is that we wouldn't need the pads for gliding anymore. They'd just be a sharp boost upward to give us some initial height. There's probably some better, more fun and more sensible device in the works, but that would at least be...

Classified.

Thinking on specifics, there are at least a few weapon types I'd like to see that were fun and challenging in other games. Sticky grenade launcher: No lie, this was why I liked the engineer class in FF. Screw ALL your turrets; I enjoyed lobbing grenades over long distances to blow up waves of...

Seriously, Mark just needs to go binge on the Armored Core series for awhile and come back. That will probably solve like 75% of his design dilemmas for the Omniframe. Even just AC4 and AC4A. Just...that. Just not ACV. That one had some good ideas, but in the end it trashed everything.

I could see pets being a thing, if only because they've been a thing since the dawn of RPG's anyway. We already had the engineer class in FF; every turret or deployable could be considered a "pet" by some definition. If we're getting rid of turrets too, then I'm all for it, but if we get any...