What do you look for the most when it comes to RPGs/MMORPGs? I consider one of the main reasons why MMO's (And sometimes Single/multiplayer RPGs) are so different from other games is that they are meant to be played over long periods of time, thus you have to find a good one for you. (Or at least settle with something close.)

My tastes are pretty hard to fill. There aren't many games out there that have satisfied me completely. Not even the MMORPG's I hold dearly.

Here's what I look for:
Open world - I find instancing a major turn off. I like a world that you can explore, and explore it in many different ways. It isn't as big of a deal with Single player RPG's, but it makes an MMO a whole lot more interesting.

Solid combat - This is a hard thing to find in most MMO's, because a lot of systems are just a copy of a copy. There are some exceptions, though. Wow's combat system was nothing new, yet it was refined and streamlined enough to where it felt fast paced and fun.

Look - To be honest, I dislike most anime styled MMO's. My love is in Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction/Fantasy. One of the main reasons why I like Anarchy Online and Eve so much is because they aren't a run of the mill fantasy game.

Challenge - This seems to be kind of lost since the release of WoW. MMO's with harsh death penalties and crazy pvp systems has become a thing of the past (Excluding Eve, in which you can Permanently kill a player.). It's one of the things that had to be sacrificed in order for MMO's to become Mainstream, but it is still something I miss. If I can ever get on an MMO with some challenge, I'm happy. Harsh penalties make better players in my opinion.

I'll post more when I think about it.

Well i like almost the same thing as you do except i also like cool looking skills.I like open world to explore too.Graphics are important to me too.You can say DBO is my dream come true.My favourite cartoon transformed into MMO is more i can wish for.It looks good it feels good and i cant wait to play it.It was smart thing to make story quests thats what i like the most about it.

Customization and social aspect. We all know that MMO gameplay can never be too different from the others, so I don't count too much on it. What I like is to be able to log on and find a team of players to quest or chat with. I also do not like to look to similar to other players, so customizable features are a must for me.

I agree with this, actually.

The most important thing to me is that I can play alone. I know they're massively multiplayer games, but having to rely on getting a group together to do everything is a major pain. Even if you have a pretty stable group, it only takes 1 person to ruin it for everyone else (and in my case that one person has almost always ended up being a healer or a tank -.-).

The perfect example of a "you need a group for everything" MMO gone wrong is FFXI. The developers must have assumed that since it was a Final Fantasy game it would just be overwhelmingly popular for all time. I'm sure it wasn't as much a problem when the game was brand new, but when I played it 1-2 years ago I'd have to wait maybe 30minutes-1hour to get a group just for leveling up (only to have 1 person leave the group 5 minutes into the leveling and have to go searching again). The game was then technically unplayable during certain hours when the Japanese were on as they never seemed to want to play with foreigners.

That whole nightmare must have scared new players away, because it was just as impossible to find a guild for people my level. I even had a few RL friends playing with me, but some people played too much (or got lucky finding groups) and out leveled others, so we got all split up.

Ever since FFXI I always play a healer or a tank and rarely ever DPS. I like to be a class that everybody needs so I never have to go through anything like FFXI ever again.

i enjoy simplicity in the level up system. i dont like having to think too much and spend more time doing stat managment than i do playing the game and i like it when if i make a bad decision i could easily undo it without having to waste hours trying to make up for it. i really like the way pokemon does things where its not a matter of gaining stats by sitting there and managing skill points but rather different enemies yield different results. and i normaly dont like turn based fighting either but they really have made that game so deep strategically as of late.

I like an easy to understand system as well, but I do like a little bit a complexity with leveling and building characters.

Adding a bit of complexity allows for more customization, and helps players figure out better characters suited for their playstyle.

Although I wish some games were more forgiving in the matter.

Anarchy Online is not forgiving at all. I think 9 out of 10 people who make their first character on AO end up deleting them simply because after they get around level 60 or so and learn how to play the game better, they realize they just completely screwed up their character, and you have to start back from the beginning.

You can retcon your skill points, but only for a limited amount of times. (Could have changed recently though.)

Having 72 skills to put your points in doesn't make it any easier. (Although they are colored coded to help out)

Overall, if you mess up on Anarchy, expect to start back over. That's what I did.

For me most important thing in MMO is good climate of game I'm playing and of course presence. I had the same thing as Citrinate that when playing Ragnarok Online on my native server I was always mad that people didn't wanted another DPS because of many different reasons. That's why even that I like to play in group I always liked to play class that can manage alone as well as in group. That's why I was playing mainly as Monk class in Ragnarok because it had basic buffs and heal from Acolyte subclass and was pretty good DPS. That's why game which promotes playing in party but at the same time does not takes anything from playing alone is something that I wanted from a long time ;) And that's why I've decided to play as Large Majin and be a tank i DBOCOM guild ;3

I'm thinking about making a tank based warrior.
But I really want to play with claws...

This is very true. Forced gameplay is never a good idea. Yes, I commend Square for staying true to the series, but drawn-out grind fest versus one monster was boring and sapped the enjoyment out of me when I was only in the free trial. I love FF, and I love teaming, but FF11 was too much.