Anthem Next -- What would get me to give it another go?

I think I was one of the relatively few people I know who wasn't especially disappointed with Anthem.  I went in to it with the expectation that it would be something new to play for a couple of weeks while I got a break from other things, and that's *exactly* what it was.

The trouble is that from Bioware and EA's perspective, they weren't trying to MAKE a game that'd be an enjoyable distraction for a couple of weeks.  The amount of money and time they invested were not appropriate to that type of game.  So, now they're talking about a ground-up reboot called "Anthem Next" to try and turn Anthem into the game they wanted it to be.

So, what would it take to get me, the most benevolent and un-disappointed of players, back to play Anthem again?  Here's MY take:

1.  Free-Exploring the map was probably the ONLY part of the experience that was unadulterated fun, however from an exploration perspective the map is TINY.  So, step one of this would be to vastly increase the size of the map, making it as much bigger as conceivably possible.  Making it much more dynamic would be a big thing, as well.  If my beloved Dungeons and Dragons Online on their tiny budget can figure out how to make the PUBLIC AREAS in their MMO have dynamic elements, you can do it.  And, this dynamic freeplay environment actually made playing with other people ENJOYABLE, as opposed to the missions, which were a mess every time even if people were making an effort to cooperate (which most simply did not).  Also, fill the map with constantly-changing terrain dangers.

2.  The "story" stuff was unbelievably expensive garbage.  Considering how immensely expensive all those cut scenes had to be to create, they added nothing to the gameplay experience whatsoever, and actively detracted from it if you wanted to play with other people, because you'd be constantly revisiting missions that had story bits in them, but completely out of any order or context.  If you want a game where people actually play together, enable the players to ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.  The idea of a LINEAR story is COMPLETELY OPPOSED to online multiplayer gaming with strangers and *cannot* be integrated with it.  It also has the tremendous fault that you "run out" of content to do because it's all locked behind story that you're not allowed to repeat unless someone in your group is doing it for the first time.  It was especially bad because all of the story was written as if your character was a SINGULAR hero, instead of a member of a TEAM.  So, step two is to throw out the pretensions to story, de-linearize everything.  Ideally, this would integrate with the massive free-roaming map.  There are already quasi-dynamic map events and "dungeons" all over the place.  Expand these, HUGELY, and add such a high degree of randomness that you can play for a very long time and not see all the possible permutations.

3.  Does this mean dumping all story from the game?  No.  You just need to make it non-linear and individualized.  How do you do that?  By turning the story into a COLLECTION, namely, a collection of PEOPLE.  They don't SET you on tasks by giving you defined quests.  You QUEST, and you do things like rescue people who HAPPEN to be there, and add them to your "stable" of people you know.  Then you can bring them things to advance your relationship with them, like weapons, crafting materials, explored map sections, etc.  The idea is that the stuff you do anyway to play the game triggers the story on YOUR terms, instead of the STORY advancement LETTING YOU DO GAME STUFF.  This format also makes it super-easy to add new people (and thus new storylines).  Another big part of this is that every person (and story line) that you can collect HAS to tell you something ABOUT THE WORLD.  I don't care about German Accent Guy's love of fashion.  I do care about German Accent Guy's love of fashion if fashion has some significance IN THE WORLD.  There was so bloody much invested in cosmetics in this game, but they have zero significance other than looking cool.  Well, this is a world where thoughts can influence reality!  And you're telling me that how you feel about your own appearance doesn't matter?!  C'mon!  Also, treating characters as a dynamic collection means that you can have opportunities to absolutely blow up your relationships with people, to the point where they become your *enemy*.  Some character questlines can be exclusive with other character questlines.  You can integrate a choice system with the dynamic world missions where you can complete them in different ways.  You can have a system where you can do a bunch of grinding to recover a blown up relationship.  But the essential dynamic should be the inverse of what it was in the original game:  Instead of people give you mission --> you do stuff, it should be you do stuff --> people react to it. And the reaction doesn't have to be some Shakespearean drama, it can be little stuff like, hey, when you come back they're wearing clean clothes, or they've stopped coughing, or they're eating better, or they've cleared the junk away from their shop location, or they have a neon sign instead of a paper placard, etc. etc. etc.

3.  The tiny number of enemy types was boring in the extreme and the game spams you with absolutely ridiculous numbers of them.  Fewer, more diverse enemies make game gooder.  Every type of foe should have a huge backstory and unique place in the world that you can gradually uncover.

4.  Fuck loot, leveling, and the game difficulty system.  No, I'm serious about this, insane as it sounds.  Fuck loot upgrades as a concept and make the game skill-based and option-based, not numbers-based.  Bioware is absolutely garbage on the game mechanics side of game design.  They will NEVER, EVER, EVER get this system working, particularly with the concept of scaling so that a level 2 person can play with a level 40 person.  Just drop the entire idiotic idea.  Uniqueness/customization, not power, should be your touchstone in re-designing the "advancement" in this game.  Adopt a "one million builds" model where you can put your suit options together in an enormous number of ways that have very complicated dependencies.  It isn't about finding some piece of junk with 1% better numbers on it, it's about manipulating your loadout to where it complements your style PERFECTLY and you can do incredible stuff.  It's not a race for The Biggest Numbers.  It's about playing a beautiful game.  Which ties in to:

5.  Competition.  No, not PVP where you just shoot at each other and the winner is whoever lives the longest.  Actual competition to complete timed objectives.  Races.  "Capture the flag"-style events.  Turret defense.  Navigating randomized mazes.  Solving puzzles (just not that godawful hot/cold puzzle every damn time).  Be creative.  Also, have awards for "feats", like defeating enemies without taking damage, etc.  Reward SKILL not mere GRINDING.

6.  Money sinks.  (I don't mean cash money, I mean in-game "money" or resources that you earn via gameplay.)  This is supposed to be a game about hardscrabble struggle with a hostile, unforgiving, and constantly changing world.  Make that a part of the gameplay.  Charge people to change their suit loadout.  Charge them for repairs.  Charge for ammo and health drops instead of having enemies poop them randomly.  Charge for short-term consumables.  Have suit fuel/power that needs to be recharged.  Have the game eat their resources like a teenage athlete eats a pizza.  Normally, I wouldn't suggest this as a game mechanic, but Anthem is actually well-suited to this kind of thing, because this IS what the gameplay IS--resource gathering/exploration--and it ties into the meta-story of hanging on the edge of disaster.  Not only would this system create a good, solid, rewarding basic gameplay loop, it would actually be INTEGRATED with the story/world.  And it would make the competition aspect more important, because that's how you'd "get ahead" resources-wise . . . you'd have to actually go after dangerous sources that other people wanted, and struggle for them, instead of just picking the flowers.

Do I expect to get ANY of that?  Not really.  I'm over Anthem except as an intellectual exercise.  From their track record, I'm pretty much expecting that they'll make some modifications that don't address anything truly fundamental, as if you can tune up the engine from a Volkswagon Golf and turn it into a drag racer.