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My article was basically going to be about how  MMORPGs have actually been stagnating for the past 10 years or so stuck in an old-style format.  Primarily this is due to World of Warcraft. 

Dont get me wrong, this isnt about bashing WoW.  I think WoW is a great game, but it is also the 800-pound gorilla in the room and has basically smothered all creativity in the genre since it is a cash-cow. Most MMORPG developers are now forced to try to make a game like WoW but better to make money, instead of actually exploring new ideas for the genre itself.

There are a few major problems with current  MMORPGs.  One is that they are stuck in the old EQ format.  Originally MMORPGs were created to emulate pen and paper RPGs, so they are based on stats and spreadsheets, which you addressed in your article.

This may be fine for an 'RPG purist', since they can study the stats and minimize/maximize their characters, but it also creates the problem where the system isnt based around actual role-playing but rather loot acquisition and crunching numbers to game the system.

Most players dont care about actually interacting with the world or the story behind it, all they care about is getting better loot.  This problem is compounded  further because the world itself is on rails, so nothing you do actually makes any changes to the game world itself.   You basically play to get better gear than the next guy, when you've got all the best gear you wait for the next expansion to get better gear.

Granted there are a few new MMOs on the horizon that are bringing much needed 'new blood' to the genre.  Namely Star Wars:The Old Republic with is voice acting and customized class storylines (I would have more comments about this game but it is still under NDA), Guild Wars 2 which actually is trying to break the old mold and get away from the Tank/DPS/Healer dynamic, Tera which has twitch-based combat, and NeverWinter which actually promised more dynamic content.

Next problem:  most current MMOs dont actually have any actual RPG elements.  That is because like a said the game worlds are on rails and you cant really change anything in the world. By role-playing game elements I mean the world itself should be something that you can interact with like in single-player RPGs. 

When you interact with NPCs, if you do something wrong, they should remember it and act accordingly later in the story.  Your actions in the world should have consequences that dramatically effect your character.  Not only should you be able to effect the world and the NPCs in it, but they should also be able to effect your character, both willingly and unwillingly. 

Meaning instead of a static world, the world should have dynamic content. Instead of killing hundreds of orcs that wonder around a particular area of zone because you are trying to farm some high-stat item, you should be fighting the orcs because they invaded your town, burned it down and killed your family. This is a town that was built-in game by your guild or the players of your race, faction whatever.  Put meaning behind the players' actions.

MMO developers spend the bulk of their time developing beautiful game worlds, that unfortunately due to the world actually being static, most players dont even go out in them. 

One of my earliest MMORPG experiences that I remember was in EQ actually travelling from one city to the next.  There were no maps to follow, you actually had to have another player show you the way and guide you.  The world was big and this trip took time.  It was actually like playing old pen & paper D&D.

One of my ideas to remedy this is the Neverwinter method you mentioned: Instead of spending time developing elaborate scenery, use the Minecraft method.  Create a huge world template and let the players themselves actually design the content.  That way it can be dynamic and the developers can then spend their time designing grand-scale world events, basically dynamic content that actually directs the story of the game.

Using this method, you could actually create a huge world to interact with.  Instead of having multiple servers that duplicate the same world, why not make each server a different continent?  Each starting race/faction gets their own continent and have to work to actually travel and encounter the other factions/races.  Let the players themselves decide the politics. Instead of NPC vendors, let the players be the vendors.  It should be possible just to play a crafting character where you actually make quests for other characters to go and get dragonscales or whatever to craft an epic sword or breastplate.

 Half the the story besides the main plot device (implemented by the developers dynamically) would then created by the players themselves and give them that much more stake in it.

Instead of having bosses that you farm and 'leet' guilds trying to get world-firsts, make actual RPG content where every major boss or the invasion or destruction of a town is a world first.  When the dragon is finally slain, his treasure is divided and fought over by the survivors and the town has to be rebuilt by the players in game.  With this method, that epic loot means that much more since it would be unique.

Finally, I would get rid of the the statistics.  Not all together as they would still exist in the background, but gaming has come a long way since the current EQ format was developed.  Instead of having open stats on gear, I would implement a system that emulates what most of the current sandbox style games are using.  You would still gain XP and still have skill trees to level up (Like in Infamous2, Arkham City, AC:Rev or Saints Row the Third)  but  you would actually have to use gear to know what it actually does.  instead of the slow, stat-driven turned based, tank-n-spank combat that currently exists, I would direct it towards a more sandbox action oriented format.  Whats more fun?  Pulling a group of mobs, CCing one and off tanking the others, or actually having a huge action melee where you have to think and do things on the fly?

This would dramatically increase the actual role-playing elements in the game as well.  Instead of having greens, blues and purple items,  you actually use gear and figure out what it does thru use and appearance. 

A normal sword breaks but that magic sword chops a stone in half and weighs nothing. That sword you thought was normal might glow blue when orcs are near.  It might actually start talking to you after interacting with some quest in game. 

That ring you found that you thought was just a ring of invisibility might actually turn into a major dynamic plot device when evil creatures actually start invading your town looking for it.

This is the type of MMO I would like to play. Some may disagree because they like the old format.  But I would actually like to see the RPG actually put back into MMOs."

Honestly all of the above games are better and have more replayability than most of the big name titles that have come so far this year."

" None of her behaviors are specific to an ethnicity or sub-race and I admit a bit of confusion as to why anyone would make such an association unless it was their self-image on public display that caused discomfort. Perhaps I've been accused of being racist because of my own skin color?"

I'm black and the first thing I noticed in the game was how Letitia the homeless street informant is in a supposed futuristic Detroit, but somehow speaks with an 18th century southern sharecroppers' dialect.

You can sugarcoat it anyway you want to, but this was a blatant racist stereotype. For the simple fact that NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT.  I grew up in the South and people in the South dont even talk like that now!

It doesnt matter if she was homeless or an alcohol, those points have nothing to do with the dialect she used.

Its pretty much paramount to the crows in the movie 'Dumbo' or Speedy Gonzalez speaking Spanish gibberish.  You obviously arent black so you dont understand that this type of speech was used as form of racism, especially in the post-Reconstruction South.

Also, it doesnt matter if the Asian characters in the game used white ethnic slurs, that doesnt make it right or justify the other stereotypes. Equal opportunity racism is still racism.

"I would lighten the mood by stating "I'm not racist, I'm Black from the waist down" if it weren't also true."

A failed attempt at a joke which also highlights your naivety.  You used a racial stereotype to make a joke.  Which further emphasizes why you dont understand the point in the first place since you are using stereotypes to justify your arguments.

The reason that you dont seem to understand why Letitia is a racist stereotype is for the same reason you already stated:

Racist stereotypes DO put my self-image on display, but in an inherently false and negative light.  It has nothing to do with what I believe, it has to do with what other people perceive.

This may not mean much to a white person that for the most part doesnt have to deal with experiencing discrimination based on appearance, but it means a lot to black people when often times negative racial stereotypes often precede you.

Knowing is half the battle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_African_Americans

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/hr_racialstereotypes.shtml

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~socpsy/Popp_et_al_Sex_Roles_2003.pdf

http://youtu.be/64AQ3BzhWKI"

What I would like to see is MMOs actually advance to the level where dying is death like in old PnP D&D."