The original Dungeon Master is probably one of my all time favorite games. As a side note, one of the EoB is the only non roguelike game that ever made me think: “Ahh!!! Run! Run!”…when I first saw a giant crawling toward me. For any of you crazy kids that don’t know Dungeon Master…check out: http://www.dungeon-master.com/
“There are separate Dungeon Master Java Forums for this game.” 
BTW, I was thinking for a while of making an oldschool RPG in the style of M&M3 with 90 degree rotation and movement only. I wonder if there would be enough demand for this…
Story line/Plot, Mini/side quests, Rare Items with cool powers. I’ve played some decent RPGs that didn’t have great sound or music.
I also think that if you can keep the player involved, for say 50 total hours, until the game is won, you’ve done a good job.
I won WoW in a few months. That is, if you define “won” as “got bored of”.
God. I played WoW so much. I miss it.
But then, my guild was getting good.
I also went out and FARMED so much. So very, very much. I’ve never had a character reach max level before they maxed out their crafting. >.>
hate farming and grinding
love story and dialogues
hate wow
love Mass Effect (guess I’m busy now playing it =D)
The two main themes of rpg games you see today: open world like Skyrim/Fable/(all mmo) where story is not as important as the world and the ability to do anything. Then there is more linear like Mass Effect/Dragon Age NWN where the story is the most important part.
The key to a good rpg I think is the balance between them both. Linearity with the plot continuing always, but still letting the player get to choose what to do.
If you look at Mass Effect, in all the lvls you only have really one path to go onto but they make up for this by letting you go to random planets and having a lot of side quests.
Then you look at Skyrim where the plot is blah but you can do almost anything. Go kill a city. Go exploring and find random dungeons. You have the freedom to do anything.
My all time favorite rpg is Arcanum. Why? Because I have still yet to have found all the ways you can beat that game. It has the absolute most freedom in a game I have ever seen. You can seriously do anything you want. And the lore and world is fantastic. If only they made a second one…
Sounds interesting. Downloading now. I love steampunk, too!
You will not be disappointed. It is (IMHO) the best steampunk game made so far. Why? because it has magic.
I got one addition what is one of the best features for me in games. I don’t really know how to call it, it can be for example a house or a castle. A base that is yours, where you can go to after and between your adventures. I just love it to expand this base, or even build it from scratch. I got a few examples where you could do this in games and where i really loved it:
Morrowind: You could build and expand a manor, depending on your clan.
Bloodmoon Expansion: Even better, you were commanded to build a whole new city, with some freedom how it should look like.
Overlord: Your evil tower/castle was being rebuilt during your adventures and you could choose interiors.
Besides that, i love when a game is consequent. With that i mean, your decisions should have impact. I really know not a single game, where i feel like this is the case (for very little parts in the witcher). Take skyrim for example: Whether you help the rebels or the imperials, it doesn’t change the world, you see no consequences. Important characters can’t die, if something doesn’t work out perfectly you can just load a savegame 2 minutes ago. Thats just too soft for me.
I think the best decisions are those, where you see the consequences very late (like 10 hours later) and you won’t just go back and load everything. There are some games that do this nicely, as i said the witcher at one point, or the old fallout games, where had multiple outcomes for every town depending on what you did there.
Also, no grind pls 
Yeah, having a place in the world gives you some real sense of belonging in the world. Permanence is really key to that too: Morrowind was terrific because it never reset cells, so there’s a story out there of a guy who stole every spoon he could find in the world and used them to spell out “I AM THE KING OF SPOONS” on the roof of the Under-Skar … just because he could. You can’t do that in Oblivion or Skyrim, your work gets erased after a few days (you can increase the cell reset interval but that causes severe bugs).
A Good RPG gives the player the methods and rewards for playing a role.
For this, Quests and Obstacles MUST be solvable in various ways. Else Its just an adventure with a fixed character with a fixed solution to solve a problem.
Example: Obstacle->Opening a door.
-A Player who wants to impersinate a Tough Strong Warrior might simple want to slam in the door with his strenght or Hammer.
-A Player who wants to play a charismatic guy might trick the “door owner” for his key.
-A Player who wants to be a classical Thief naturally wants to lockpick it (wich should be hard for others to do…) or pickpocket the key.
-A Player playing the a “smart” character might want to build a special device / use a spell to knock open the door.
-A Player beeing a Ningja/Assasin type of guy, sneaking though the door behind the guards
Its not required to have a special fixed class. But the player should have to invest time to master a specific playstyle. Beeing able to do this
action then is the reward for him sticking to this (selfdefined) role.
A good RPG is one that essentially keeps you playing. I Don’t mean a never-ending storyline but one that maybe keeps giving you more and more optional goals after the game is finished.