Hail All,

I've considered the feedback I've gotten from users, and have now made some decisions about what game design goals I have for the Miniature Multiplayer Online Role-playing game.

I agree with those people who've said the focus of the project should be on the process and technology behind developing an MMO, while focusing less on the actual design of the game. However, it's ultimately the design of the game which makes the MMO. Without it, it's a glorified 3D chatroom (not that this is bad).

So listed below is a bit of a summary of the features I'm attempting for the project. These have been kept simple enough that people have plenty of room to customize them to fit their needs, while being interesting enough to cover, what I believe to be, the majority of features currently available in an MMORPG.

* There will be a chat system, which includes 'say', 'yell', and 'whisper', plus additional channels.
* There will be 1 zone, which will contain 1 randomly generated instance
* There will be 1 race: Humanoid.
* There will be 4 classes: Tank, Nuker, Healer, and Handyman - each with unique abilities
* There will be 25 levels, each offering access to new skills and higher character stats.
* There will be no PvP
* There will be both simple melee and ranged combat
* There will be the use of special abilities and spell-casting via a hotbar
* There will be a crafting system which allows for the creation of light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as weapons designed for the various classes.
* There will be quests of various types; including kill quests, collection quests, delivery quests, and escort quests.
* There will be half a dozen killable/skinnable mob types in the zone
* There will be half a dozen evil/loot able mobs in the randomly generated dungeon
* There will be resource nodes for crafting
* There will be lootable/equipable objects of different types; including Armor, Weapons, Crafting Materials, and Potions
* There will be various NPC's which can be communicated with. These include quest givers, vendors, and trainers.
* There will be a party system allowing groups of up to 4 people.

As you may have noticed, this looks largely like a scaled down version of World of Warcraft. And, although I don't necessarily agree with or like Blizzard's implementation of an MMO, most people who come through the doors of "For Beginners" say something like "I want to create an MMO like WoW, how do I do that?" So, here ya go. Now you too can make a game like WoW...for only 3 easy payments of $49.99.

As I work through the design goals more thoroughly, and as I work through the technical details of the MMO I will post updates. As with all good things, progress will be cyclical.

As well, feel free to post your suggestions.

Cheers!