The only things I don't like for combat in an MMO that I can think of right off the top of my head right now are:

1. Teleporting/Recalling out of combat or shortly before or after being engaged in combat. (UO) LAME!

2. Running NAKED back to your corpse and dying repeatedly, and Losing MORE XP OVER AND OVER while trying to get there because there's no way to defend yourself. Hours of RL lost that will never be returned in the process. (EQ) LAME!

3. Losing XP upon death, in any way, shape or form. (Mostly EQ, plus other games). LAME!

4. Having to spend TOO MUCH money to repair gear that is already hard to come by. (DAOC, right at release time) LAME! Shadowbane had this PERFECTLY done. Sense of loss, but not as bad as rubbing your cack on a cheese grater.

5. Stealth being an instant invisible ability, rather than occuring from initiating camouflage with environment. (UO,EQ,SB,DAOC,etc etc). LAME! AOC was the first game to get this right.

6. People from any guild that display absolutely shitty FOLLOWERSHIP and think they should be able to LEAD without donating any resources or time. The same people that fail to take orders during battle. If you have a problem with the orders, challenge them in private afterwards. Also: people in charge that fail to; Identify the problem & obstacles, State the Mission to their followers, then ASK FOR IDEAS before charging ahead with their own ideas. Donk actually pulled off good leadership in a positive manner before controversy derailed the effort in AOC. Vipir did a good job with delegation, WHERE it was available. People had a hard time being good followers enough to where they could be trusted to have tasks delegated to them. (Good FOLLOWERSHIP ON EVERY LEVEL - EVERY MMO I have ever played with any guild to date has had this problem with poor followership) LAME!

Military: Believe it or not, many creative forms of tactical combat can be successful in an open-format and skill-based MMO IF IF IF IF IF the followers have good Followership skills as well as the leaders.

Straight from CIO.com:

Quote:


The Art of Followership
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There are probably no classes or seminars offered in followership. It might indeed be an art. Let me share a few of the characteristics of good followers that I have observed during the course of my career.
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Listening. Good listening may be the primary characteristic of good followers. Many people say, "I hear you," but did they really listen? Listen with your whole brain undistracted by internal dialogues. Listen in order to understand.
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Focus. Good followers tend to be highly focused on results. They set aside any personal agendas that could disrupt that concentration.
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Egolessness. Some people shine only when they are in the starring role. But good followers are comfortable playing a supporting role. They have honed the skills they need to lend support from the background. They are less concerned with credit than they are with successful completion of the task.
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Relevance. Good followers stay close to the working environment because it gives their contributions a sense of reality. This is particularly important for executives acting as followers?like CIOs. Many a great idea has fallen flat because it lacked relevance.
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Team orientation. The team’s effectiveness is a high priority for good followers. They do what will make the team succeed, sometimes at great personal risk. For them, there is no individual success if the team fails.

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What Leaders Can Learn from Following
Followership skills can enhance your ability as a leader. Being "The Boss" is not necessarily the best approach to all problems. Sometimes it is easy to get so enamored of leadership that you exclude other roles. But situations in which it’s best for you to be a follower are opportunities to be a role model for your organization. Here’s what you can learn by being a follower.
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Listen. Be open to the ideas of those around you. Some of the best ideas come from within the organization; don’t lose the opportunity to hear them. Be sensitive to the multiple constituencies you represent, and ensure their views are heard.
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Learn. What challenges and obstacles do you face as a follower? Are there ways to eliminate any of them? It is much easier to recognize these things when you are in the role of follower instead of leader. Take note and plan on fixing the problems later to make life better for those who play this role every day. You can also learn how difficult it is to gracefully follow a direction with which you disagree. This will make you more empathetic in the future when you are leading on a controversial issue.


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Also, something I've noticed that hasn't happened effectively in MMOS: DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY. Instead of one leader tackling many problems, the leader has to have a trustworthy group of secondary leaders with which to delegate tasks effectively. Too many times it has occurred where Heidi is the sole armorer/weaponsmith, or the High Chancellor is doing 3 jobs at once. In effect, the HC should not be doing any technical tasks. They ALL should be delegated somewhere down the chain. The HC must be free and clear to oversee the big picture of what is going on. This CANNOT happen if the HC is too busy wrapped around the minute details of one technical task that could have been passed down.