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Smedley: "EverQuest Next will be the world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made"
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Then you probably don't consider Eve online to be a full sandbox either, because i can't think of any particular category where SWG didnt class as a sandbox game.
SoE may be still reeling a bit from the last round (EQ2 and WoW opening a week apart). But I doubt it.
If Blizzard turns around and suddenly shows what Titan is...I wouldn't be terribly surprised.
But that ^ kind of cynical, I'm really not.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
:laughing:
We're full of cynical expectations here this morning, yes indeed.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
i see it now
SOE: we have the world largest sandbox !
Blizzard: we have the worlds most polished sandbox !
EQ2 fan sites
"New way to deliver content players have never seen before." (paraphrased)
Speculations?
1. All the quests are episodic and you have to buy them for 99c each like iTunes store?
2. Quests are all delivered through facebook/twitter integration?
3. EQNext will feature EQ2 Dungeon Maker type content creation system for quests and dungeons, developer content delivered in same way as player content. See #1 for business model.
My question, does Smedley know that sandboxes are NOT about content consumption but rather content creation via systems and feature sets leading to emergant/dynamic gameplay?
Well hardly fair to post your speculations and then pose questions 'if Smedly knows what sandboxes are all about'.
Complete sandbox or not it was ways, ways more sandbox than the ThemeParks we have seen in the last five years or so. So anything resembling a ThemePark would be a welcome change...
My gaming blog
when did blizzard ever do anything original..titan will be a themepark, probably world of starcraft.
God, I hope you are wrong!... but I wouldn't put it past them.
dont forget player studio - players designing marketplace items
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/25454/SOE-Announces-Player-Studio
I am an EQ fan, but im wary of Smed
EQ2 fan sites
Well, that would be a pretty interesting idea to completely and fully combine a Dungeon/Quest creation studio with the player studio for objects/armor/set pieces/characters etc.
Would definitely be a sandbox in terms of "player created content" but you wouldn't really be able to do it open-world without very, very, very strict controls and quality checks if you don't want it to become Second Life: Everquest Edition.
Ok.. and from a today standpoint is correct.
But lets look from another standpoint. Take UO and EQ as two games from the first generation. And lets put in WoW as third game.
So, if you compare those three games. What do you think was WoW influenced most?
And just to name a few similarities:
- Level progression. You start with level 1 and go further to level 2, as will go the mobs to higher levels.
True for EQ. Not true for UO.
- Gear progression. With better levels, better gear will be available. Level tiered gear progression and beyond.
True for EQ. Not true for UO.
And i could go on with this list. Point is, the development team from WoW took a lot from EQ in the very basics of game design, how a mmorpg have to be. Of course, they expanded on it, casualized on it and so on. But they were going the EQ route of world and game design. Not the UO route of things. And in the very basics, this is the difference between Themepark and Sandbox game design.
Ok, from a standpoint from now. Almost every game(or lets just say every game) is build up like EQ in the basics. You got different levels, you got different gears for different levels, you got different zones for different levels. All that basic stuff.
You can even take that down to the old DikuMUD System, form which EQ was based of. And here a link for your to read more about it, if you are interested.
http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/09/what-is-a-diku/
And no offense intended. And of course if you look at it from now.. EQ and WoW is extremely different, with the added Quests and Quest Hubs and instances and all that shit. But the basics remain the same.
Edit/PS: And yes.. i played EQ. Or better, i tested it. Because tried it twice(EQ Vanilla, Release and a few month later), and both time never played very long, i couldnt stand it, and returned to UO. DAoC was the first themepark, which catched me a little bit longer. And even in DAoC i stopped playing with lvl18, and started 6month later again to hold out for 2 years, because the good RvR system. Lvl1-lvl50 from DAoC were seriously EQish at least in my mind.
That will happen if they take a game based on ThemePark, throw in some sandbox concepts, and then call it a sandbox. An MMORPG has to be fundamentally be designed as a sandbox to be a sandbox. You can turn a sandbox into a themepark, just add some quest hubs and remove all of any sandbox elements such as being able to create houses etc. But to turn a themepark into sandbox is not possible short of redesigning the world.
My gaming blog
I guess that would depend on how many ex-SWG developers Blizzard 'won' in the hiring pool lottery, wouldn't it?
:shrug: Smed didn't let them all go, surely. Else we'd not be announcing a sudden sandy shift.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Too much marketing spiel. *waves rolex*
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
We're about to see if a AAA developer can 'do a sandbox right'. AAA Sandbox, the fabled land of myth.
The results may (or may not) be: Careful what you wish for.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Remember Old School Ultima Online
They will put all their might behind EQNext, i for one am seriously excited, perhaps this time i really will be returning home unlike EQ2.
Smeds post must be taken with a grain of salt (make that a salt quarry), but I too am very hopfull that someone in the industry F I N A L L Y gets it. As for EQ1 being a themepark, this may be partly true today; but at launch it was not; lots of quests did exist but they were hard to find, understand, complete, and the rewards were paltry.
keeping fingers crossed that $oe finally gets it.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
GW2 is all things to everyone because the fanboys say so.
I thought everyone knew that.
Smedley knows better than anyone what SWG was and what happened to it, and what the market is saturated with. This is a smart move, and it is going to pay off. Others will be heading the same way.
Honestly I am ecstatic that the Sandbox age is finally upon us. My only complaint is that they did not see this pattern sooner and devote to this design since day 1. At least they are getting it right. I can't wait.