Classes - Star Wars Galaxies
Wait, what now?
I'd also debate the Battlegrounds attribution... Planetside, for all it's claims of being an "MMO", isn't really the same animal.
I'd also point out that most of that list has been done in MUDs even sooner. But thats splitting hairs. The real "innovation", if you will, with WoW, wasn't any one thing - it was pulling a lot of good ideas together in one place.
And actually WoW was, if not groundbreakingliny innovative, was at least fairly novel in some of its systems, and highly polished in others.
The previously mentioned quest icons over questgivers, for example. Yeah, EQ1 had quests... And it had legions of people wandering around, targeting every NPC in the gain, and typing "Hail" to see if maybe THAT npc had a quest. And then doing it again next level, because maybe they had one before, but they wouldn't talk to you earlier. I remember those days. I don't think WoW was strictly speaking the first one to do this - my memory is hazy, but I think another one did it first - but it definitely set the standard on that issue.
Or take fast travel systems. Yeah, EQ2 (Contemporary with WoW) had a fast travel system, and before it Dark Age of Camelot did, but WoW certainly took the concept and polished it nice and shiny.
Another point I think deserves mention is the addon/interface customization ability, unmatched still in any game.
I'm not saying WoW is flawless, heavens no. I'm not even saying it's a paragon of innovation anymore, it is starting to get pretty stagnant. But praise where praise is due, WoW did a lot of things right, and did them before they were common industry practice.
This comment was edited on Sep 15, 2009, 13:49.