I like these games for the simple reason that they allow me a reasonably immersive game experience at my own pace.

But there are a number of conventions that all seem they must adhere to that always rub me the wrong way.

Aggro - I understand what it's about and why it's there, but when i want to get from a to b to turn in a quest i don't want to have to travel a million miles around the houses to get there just to avoid aggroing everything. Why can't there be ways to provide aggressive monsters without either this situation, or having them unfailingly spawn back while im in combat with another a couple of metres away. This latter drives me bloody nuts.

Death - isn't it strange that you as a player are penalised twice for dying. Once by actually being beaten by the mob you are targetting, presumably as part of a quest. Then again by having your equipment and stats considerably diminished for an inconvenient period of time. Wow is the worst for this since not only do you have to endure wear and tear and resurrection sickness, but you have to physically guide your spirit back to recorporealise your inert corpse (or you can res at the gravesite and walk physically back to continue).

I will never understand how and why mmo's continue to propagate this bizarre mixture of progression, reward and immersion with inertia, repetitiveness and tedium. I can't think of any other gaming experience that workls this way. Imagine playing D&D where, if you are significantly wounded, you have to go sit outside the room for half an hour while you 'heal'.

Unfortunately while i generally enjoy these games, i suck at dealing with these concepts so get frustrated very easily by what seem unnecessary distractions.

I don't really mind aggro and death.

What turns me off on MMOs is the quest content and the inflexible storyline. "We are besieged by Gearpunk Kobolds! Go kill 12 Gearpunk Kobold Oilrags and 4 Gearpunk Kobold Wrenchmasters."

I don't want to kill a dozen Gearpunk Kobolds. I want to sneak into their camp and behead the Gearpunk Kobold Chief Engineer, and bring you his bloody head. Or maybe I want to parlay the Chief Engineer into an alliance against our mutual enemy, the Undead Elves of Leprosy Hills.

And, along with the social aspect of TT gaming, this is why MMOs will never replace TT for me. I want to be rewarded for my cleverness, and MMOs favor pixelbitching and adherence to a quest chain.

I don't mind death; i mind the way it's handled. Wow is unforgiving in this: if you fuck up you WILL die. You cannot turn tail and expect to run without an ability to let you escape. I just don't really get why pve needs that?