My favorite is the complete an utter lack of rails. I'm a big proponent of games that just throw the player into the game world without so much as a mini quest to open your inventory. I hate the idea of a game throwing quest after quest after quest, monster after monster, until the person reaches "end game". I'm tired of this recipe, I feel like it's extremely dated and want more freedom to do what I want (which is mostly to farm haha). I'm one of those people who really don't need combat to have a good time in a game and I love that COE basically says "Combat, who needs it?" to the people who like crafting/etc, says "Crafting, who needs it?" to the people who like combat, and to the people who don't want either "Do whatever the heck you want then, I guess.". It's delightful.
moderator hat: moving this topic to general discussion