Making a killer MMORPG 1

Innovate. Oh my god, I might just go and innovate shit. This is a rarity! But let's face it, it's 10 times harder now. I have to come up with EVERYTHING, from the world, the art style, the weapons... yeah. However, fear not. I'm innovating, but I'm still planning to steal. How so?

I can't just throw some player into a world that he's totally unfamiliar with. The problem is, if I do so, it will be so unfamiliar, it'll be somewhat scary to them. Take, for example, some of the Starship-fighter-like games that are coming out these days. Some of them take AEONS to understand, from thrust thingies to generally how to move your damned ship. Doesnt seem fun to me. EVE Online is this, and it's got it's own niche, but even so, it's damned hard.

So, I've decided to stick to what people know. This leads me to the following conclusions:

- You have to play a HUMAN person. Playing an alien, starship, faceless commander, or other things don't bring you as close to yourself as a human does.
- This human person, in battle, needs to behave similar to some video game style. Be it a strategy-game style or a brawler, it needs to be something familiar to a gamer.
- It needs to be so easy to control that my kid sister could play it with her eyes closed while sleeping.
- The best way to do fighting is to not use guns. Guns make the game fast paced (As evidenced by games like Counter-strike), and are not the best tools for good MMORPGs.
- The best way to get as many people as possible, graphically, is to do 2d.

Okay, I just hit you guys with two major slams to the gut. A 2d no-guns MMORPG???? The no-guns part seems about right, but... no 3D?

I could very well do 3D. I could probably do it well, if I put my mind and thre billion hours into it. However, no matter how well I do 3D, I will only do well at 3d. I cannot compete with the oustanding designers that work for SquareEnix, or for Blizzard. It just isn't going to happen. Ever. So, where does that leave me? I can either:

A. Try 3D, do pretty well at it, and have a 1990s quality MMORPG that's about the equivelant of an ugly Everquest,
B. Try 3D, spend all of my development time on it, end up with very nice models with a crappy engine, or
C. Do 2D and save myself an assload of time, money, and energy.

Well, I think the question has been answered before it has been asked. I can do 2D. There is a huge market of people who still like 2D. It's easier to have graphics designers do 2D. More computers can do 2d. Even Baby Jesus in his cradle likes 2d. Let's do this thing.

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