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AoW: A Great Example of Why Sandbox Titles Don't Work in the West
fat_taddler
Member Posts: 286
I just started playing AoW and absolutely love the game so far. For the first time since the launch of SWG back in 2003, I have "that feeling" of immersion and wonder that I've been missing for all of these years.
What I also realized during my initial few hours in the game and from reading many forum posts, is that most of the current crop of MMO players have not and probably will not make it through the tutorial aspects of this game.
This is a real shame because there is a ton of potential in this game but it seems that most will never get to see it because the tutorial is "boring."
We see so many people on these forums clamoring for sandbox titles yet there is barely any support for this title. Why not? If you are so desperately seeking a sandbox experience, here's a great title to try. The best part is that it's free, you just need to invest some time and patience to learn the game.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of players enjoy the idea of a sandbox style game but so far it seems that most can't or won't even play one.
Comments
This game would be successful if the translations were good and the interface was Western.
End of story. Has nothing to do with sandboxes not working in the West.
Former xFire user... I only wanted a game tracker and messenger, not a screenshot taker, video recording, broadcasting piece of bloatware.
Keep telling yourself that. There's nothing game-breaking about the translations or the UI. The UI is very simple and even resembles most themeparks.
Call me silly, but I hardly find AoW a sandbox. They can keep calling it that, but I don't buy it.
That said, the term "sandbox" is quite....relative?
Well, you said it right there, the tutorial is boring.
This has nothing to do with sandboxes failing in the west. It does have to do with game companies not having a clue about making their games engaging at the start.
Why should any person assume that the rest of the game is good if the start, the part where the developers "have their audience" sucks?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
People find that not unifying colors or being able to hide a piece of gear game breaking. Translations make it difficult at times, I can see how it would be game breaking
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Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
This game is simplistic, boring, and nowhere near engaging. The characters feel like animated cardboard, the world feels dead, and it relies too much on the "flying" as a gimmick.
This failed in the west because we have higher standards. Creating a game without ANY focus or reason for being doesn't make it a sandbox, it just means it has no direction.
And really....your name speaks volumes of how much can be expected of you.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
Well in my case, it seems to be an action oriented combat style game where person (twitch) skills really help to determine who prevails in combat. (esp in small or one on one situations).
At my age I lack those sorts of skills, and have so little play time I can never really get better. Since that would clearly put my at the very bottom of the competition scale, (as opposed to my normal 50% tier in the right game) I'm just not interested in the title, no matter how sand box like it is.
I've read some of the posts bc has put out and sounds really great, but still not for me.
As for the suggestion that to try it is "just a littl bit of time", one learns at my age that all bits of free time are very precious and rare, and I really can't take the time just to give it a whirl and learn it when I'm not expecting it to be for me.
Hey, took me almost 3 years after first hearing about EVE before I gave it a shot, maybe one day I'll change my view on this title.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You prove my point, thank you. You want instant gratification from your games which unfortunately doesn't usually happen with sandbox style games.
While I wholeheartedly agree that this game isn't worth even a little bit of time, if you're "so old" shouldn't you be retired and have plenty of time?
You have nearly 17k posts on here, seems like you have plenty of time you aren't taking of advantage of in-game.
Like I said, though, I completely agree that this game isn't worth ANY amount of time, I was mad I wasted the bandwidth to download it and I have no limits on that.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
AoW is a great example of why sucky games dont work in the west.
It has nothing to do with sandbox.
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Games Played: Too Many
I have been playing the game for about a week. From what I have seen so far this is no sandbox.
Some of the issues I have noticed as of today are:
I wanted to become VIP, but I only use paypal, and paypal is not an option.
I like the learning curve , takes some effort to learn the game.
Company expects you to rent in game items for real money, that's a huge turn off for me.
Too many gold sellers.
I plan to continue to explore and learn the game casually, but I am guessing that I will be fodder for the VIPs.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
This is what kills the game, people that spout of nonsense without bothering to test the game to see if what they are saying is actually nonsense.
Area chat is free - it's called "scene". What you are talking about is world chat, which costs 10L (cheap). This is hardly the first MMO to have a price associated to server wide chat. It's a good idea, because it discourages worldwide spam.
So far the leading complaints about the game:
1) Boring tutorial.
2) Renting fashion clothing from the item mall.
3) UI is "unclean".
All three are pretty ridiculous. The UI and translations are NOT gamebreaking. They ARE a weebit confusing. The UI has a ton of windows because it's difficult to streamline all of the different functions in neat cascading windows. Could it be better? Yeah. Does it ruin game experience? No way.
People that complain about renting fashion from a cash shop can jump off a cliff for all I care. 'Nough said.
The tutorial is boring, I'll give you that. However, it throws just a MASSIVE amount of info at you in about 30 minutes. It's better to learn the game organically - ie. testing yourself and talking to others. I don't think the tutorial will ever be good in this game, even with 100% proper translations. It's just too complicated to learn via text, you have to experience the world.
This seemed pretty neat (other than the highly questionably cash-rental shop), but the main reason I didn't make it more than about 10 minutes in this game is no mouse invert. Such a trivial thing, but makes it unplayable. How can a modern game lack such?
That said the PCs-become-NPCs thing seemed like a neat idea, though. Shame more games don't do that .. would make them feel more populated. Kidnapping system optional.
Let you in on a secret......its up to the players to make the game engaging in a sandbox.
The moment i realised this game had an 'auto-walk' feature, i quit and uninstalled. I mean, when you click the name of an npc in your quest log and your toon starts to walk to him/her automatically. Every crappy and cheap asian f2p mmo has this feature and AoW is not an exception.
Age of Wushu, a sandbox? Yeah, right..
Oh, and the mouse inversion people don't know how to use computers. You can freaking do that with a 3rd party program, so WHY is it a complaint about the game. If it matters to you that much, you'll figure it out - I have faith in the MMO gamer's ability to figure these things out themselves.
EDIT:
Auto-walk is damn helpful in finding NPCs in this game (of which there are thousands). Perhaps this kills immersion a bit, but I'll take functionality over immersion any day of the week.
I don't see why an auto-walk meta immediately disqualifies AoW from sand box status.
No I don't prove your point.
There is a difference between sitting down and playing a game and being slowly drawn into its world and game systems and sitting down to a lackluster game that, at the start, doesn't draw you in at all.
Have you ever watched Wagner's Ring Cycle? Well I have. All four opras take about 15 hours.
and I sat through every one. Is that instant gratification? Could you do it? Not many can. Why could I do it? Becuse it was good. Because the music and story draw you in and that particular perfromance had amazing singers.
Have you ever heard someone leave a long movie and say "wow, that movie was three hours, it didn't feel like it." Why? Because the movie did a good job at pacing, at engaging the viewer.
You might have also heard some people say "omg that movie was 2 hours and it was too long. Because the movie didnt do a good job.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
A BIT on reaction time? You sir, have not experienced combat in AoW.
It's twitchy as heck, to a point where it makes lag all important in being a competitive PvP'er.
I usually see people complain about the auto-target. It depends on the set, plenty of sets require pretty careful aiming.
Age of Wushu is not a sandbox.
Just because some site tells you its a sandbox does not mean that it is. So what if you can learn skills from different classes? You have to essentially play *as that class* in order to use those skills, if even for a few moments. When you use a skill from a different class tree in combat you are locked out of all similar skills from different classes for a length of time so great that should you try any maneuver like that in PvP youd basically be dead before your next attack.
Age of Wushu is a theme park MMORPG with 30 day limits on most items procured through the cash shop in the game. Even the bag extensions have time limits.
You want to know why it doesnt work in the west?
Because westerners dont want to pay their hard earned money for limited time crap. They dont want to rent their outfit. Theyd rather pay more and own it.
As for your initial point, that Sandbox games dont work in the west.... uh....
Ultima Online was created in the west.
Darkfall was too.
EvE, yep, its a western title.
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I'll stop now.
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You are still missing the point. In a sandbox you are the one making that 15 hours of content, not watching it.