So I've been playing EQ again - and something occurred to me - or perhaps RE-occurred to me is a better statement, because I remember having this notion in my head way back in the early days of EQII...
For as much as I have argued in favor of EXP loss in past threads, EXP debt has always felt more penalizing to me. Why? Because with loss, it happens - you look at your EXP bar, and you DON'T see what you had before. With Debt, you typically end up looking at a little red "you suck" bar on your EXP bar until you pay off the debt.
That challenges one of my MMO preconceived notions.
SO - without this becoming a death penalty conversation (because that is NOT what my intent is) - what preconceived notions about old school MMO mechanics have you had challenged in your own mind by other MMO's doing things in different ways?
When I play an MMO I try to appreciate it for what it is and not what it is not. Most of the ones that I have played I can always think of one feature about it and say "I liked that part of game X." Even the games I curse that I spent my time and money on usually have some unique redeeming quality about it. No game will ever have all the innovative features that I like wrapped up into one game because they would not be compatable with each other. For example I loved being able to level all my skills on one character, but then I also love having individual classes from a roleplay/gameplay perspective. I dont need tremendous amounts of innovation; I really just want a challenging, non-cash shop game that is made to capture us for a long time for my old friends and new ones yet to come (/cough Pantheon).