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ArcheAge, Concerns, Doubts, and Game Breaker posts answered
For all the "not so sure", "im putting this game down to see if I can change the devs mind posts", and hardcore sandboxers alike who may have just stumbled on this game. ArcheAge is best defined as sandbox at its core with theme park features. This game has a ton on its plate. Its essentially releasing all its features at launch instead of promising it in later expansions that most companies charge for (and I mean everything.. even most theme park features as well). Its minimizing frustrating parts of mmos and giving players so much more to do than just pvp and pve. With that said..everything its showcasing now in beta is all mediocre at worst but the content is there and after release, it just needs to be polished which the potential of the CryEngine 3 is limitless in that sense. This is no small indie company either, this is a 60 million dollar project that has a strong backbone and knows it needs to meet todays standards.
Player Game Breakers and Doubt feelings:
I'm a hardcore sandbox player that came from AC Darktide, DAOC, and Darkfall. I understand concern for hardcore features but at the same time I get what Jake Songs doing and I trust in his wisdom to make the game enjoyable while taking the best features of all sandbox mmos while making a compromise between frustration, reward, and risk. The man created lineage and is a pioneer when it comes to mmos. When I see something that disappoints me (and trust me, I began doubting this game at the start) I put it in a bigger perspective and then I get it (especially based on interviews with Jake). I feel more and more confident in him as I see modern sandbox mmos fail including darkfall which I followed for 3 years, made beta and played 5 months in (so don't question my loyalty). Also please don't bring up EvE, yes I love that it supports the sandbox genre and hardcore features but its a space mmo people.. its not fantasy medieval.. Frankly space is boring and that's why I had quit after a month. If you lack faith in Jake Song and can't look past the wire, wait for the next big thing which is not gw2 if you like freedom and sandbox play.
Edit, phone died last night.
Just wanted to state that I'm not talking bad on gw2, it looks great but its a completely different game compared to this one and its more focused on combat and casual play. As stated below, time will tell as it always has. So far for ArcheAge, theyve proven they got the content to keep you busy after release, they just need to polish it all up and I know Jake Song will do everything in his power to make those hardcore features meaningful without pushing players away with frustrating ones while giving us our fix on risk/reward PvP. CBT 4 will be interesting to see.
Comments
the time will say it
not flaming, but you didnt add in any gamebreakers or any real concearns
Title is better defined now. Its basically a post for people like me who had the same feelings coming into this game and me just posting my extensive research/analysis on the game coupled with my experiences as a hardcore sandbox player. One of my first MMOs was actually lineage but I remember I just got into Asherons Call and 3D was just so much more inspiring and visually attractive so Lineage 1 was short lived.
I'm all for the success of sandbox MMOs. I'd love to play a great one. But after playing game series like GTA and TES, I think GW2 may be the closest thing to a sandbox MMO we will see in the near future. We have the potential to affect the game world. That's just something that's never been done in MMO before but is critical to sandbox games.
I don't know. Maytbe ArcheAge will be better at capturing that same feeling, I hope it is. Even if it isn't I hope it is wildly successful (I don't buy into that my game is better than yours attitude). But I guess my ultimate concern with ArcheAgeis that creating a great sandbox MMO that can compete with the themeparks isn't yet possible. Maybe some day though. I'll hold out hope for it.
oh lol really?
nothing you do to the gameworld in GW2 is permanent. can you even drop anything on the ground from your inventory in that game? or is it all just icons in a bag?
Keep it civil / constructive V_V
I admit I am baffled by your reasoning as well in how GW2 is the closest thing to a new sandbox mmo. You refer to single player sandbox games which are in a completely different league compared to mmorpg sandboxes. Have you ever played EVE or Darkfall to name a few?
GW2 removes quest pop-ups and calls its quests dynamic events. i.e. You have to go out in the world and "find" stuff to do (helped a lot by announcers at every town). That's all fine and dandy but it hardly makes it a sandbox mmo.
Those are about giving the players the tools to shape their own content and influence the world in politics, alliances, building stuff and making lasting impressions rather than temporary, fully scripted impressions (as in: dynamic event cycles).
And they are about freedom too, whilst GW2 looks to be kind of restrictive in what you can do in which part of the world (no dueling, no building, no mounts / player controlled vehicles, pvp only in instanced / WvWvW areas).
GW2 is pretty much a blatant themepark game (which isn't a problem at all, those can be fun too).
My brand new bloggity blog.
You think that GW2 is the closest thing we will see to a sandbox game in the near future. I disagree. GW2 is a combat themepark. You choose combat professions, you craft combat related items, the developers make content for you to do combat in. What exactly are you creating in this game? An illusion of permanence. Just because you turn on a lightswitch doesnt mean you are creating light. It means you flipped a switch. And its permanence only last until someone else comes by and turns off the light. You didnt set the lamp there in the corner. You didnt even put together the wiring for the lightswitch to work.
In GW2, the devs have made dynamic events where they invite you to push a bunch of buttons and see what happens. That is not sandbox at all. Youre not creating the content, youre just unwrapping a toy.