Innovation. Skill. Immersion.
Look, we've all played the hell out of UT and Quake, there is no point in making a clone of these games without some updates in both game play and visual appeal. That seems to be the pitfall I see looking at most arena FPS games. We already have these games, so do something that takes it to a new level in some way. Major studios aren't going to give you what you want because they are catering to today's generation of gamers who are quite frankly, lazy. They are catering to the "everyone gets a trophy" crowd. UT3 failed, and every single arena FPS since has had no traction whatsoever. Some have tried to be innovative, but all have "dumbed down" the experience. That's been nearly 10 years now...
Health regeneration, auto bunny hop, no strafe jumping, etc, is just plain stupid. I get the whole "but newbs get pwned" thing, but when you dumb down a game, people eventually get bored and the game dies. Skill is an important part of the addiction process. Newbs who are cut out for it wil stick around, and become loyal fans/players.
I detest the notion of full bright skins, textureless maps, minimalistic effects/approach. If I wanted that I'll play pong. I want my games to be beautiful, with great theme and atmosphere, and awesome weapon/player animations, and worlds that suck me in. I want effects that dazzle my eyes, and make me excited to fire a weapon just to see how it shoots. I want my weapons to be big, with lots of moving parts and cool animations/sounds, something that makes me feel like this thing is *significant*, and gritty. I want my levels to have varied themes - and varied pallettes. I don't mind seeing old ideas rehashed, especially levels. I actually love seeing classic levels and ideas redone in modern ways(I know that sounds contradictory to my first statement, but really it's not).
That all said...I'd love to see a medieval arena style FPS game
