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Are Sandboxes intentionally sabotaged?
Fadedbomb
Member Posts: 2,081
Thinking back in a reply I was ABOUT to make about the "Trinity" mechanic being in the popular "Lowest Common Denom" MMOs, and I sat there thinking at how many sandboxes actually did FINE without the trinity, but were destroyed to a host of development faliures that shouldn't have happened. I'd like to site a couple of these below for your thought invoking consideration!
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-Shadowbane, a wonderful "Risk" based sandbox MMO that was touted as being almost as good as DAOC in terms of PvP/RvR combat. However, the game suffered MASSIVELY from bugs right from launch. More than 80% (EIGHTY!) of the game's mechanics were inflicted with some MAJOR game breaking bugs.
Yet, the development cycle remained completely oblivious to them. Eventually, the game was shut down because popularity dropped off for Shadowbane after NUMEROUS duping scandels simply destroyed the game's population.
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-SWG, one of the genre's well known BEST attempts at a sandbox that is most widely known as being destroyed by it's own creator (irony much?). From day one, bugs flew rampant throughout the game despite the developer's assurances that they'd be fixed @ launch. Unfortunately, launch flew right by with bugs latched onto it's underside like a bad case of SpaceAIDs.
Despite ALL of this, the game was simply amazing. HOWEVER, the IP owner "LucasArts" & the IP "renter" SOE looked upon Blizzard's fluke success with WoW & wanted more out of their flagship product. So they went upon the task, MONTHS before the "Combat Upgrade" was pushed out (later learned that the CU was a small "chunk" of changes of the NGE sent out to "appease" people that they were doing SOMETHING) the "New Game Experience" had started production.
The NGE, unknown to almost everyone but the developers, was essentially an ENTIRELY new game. Everything was modified, and i DO mean everything, within SWG. Unfortunately, the changes were too hars, and the playerbase that was being aimed at never arrived simply because StarWars wasn't for them. (again, irony?)
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-Dark & Light, yea you knew it was coming 
! One of the genre's LARGEST open sandboxes. It was the largest MMO to date, even larger than WoW! That would be an open sandbox where the players controlled EVERYTHING! Depressingly enough, again the developers were either A) UnderPaid, 
UnderSkilled, or C) Just didn't give half a damn about their product.
As they ignored bug report after bug report, and pushed out more game breaking patches on a monthly basis that made the game simply not worth it. The WORST crime of all was that the engine was NOT optimized AT ALL. Even a relatively BEAST of a computer today would MAYBE get 30 frames in that game.
Then, finally, the developers pushed the game to a far MORE hardcore setting that the players could stand (going from new character to maxed would take around 2years of hardcore grinding), and the playerbase simply evaporated.
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-Mortal Online, a game destined for this list as it's recent financial report puts the game at failure status within the next year & 1/2. A game that should have NEVER made it off the ground, let alone running as fast as it did. The development staff for MO were simply unskilled at making MMO's from day one. MOST of their developers are "modders" from Counter Strike, Half-Life, hired on to make a premium AAA Sandbox MMO.
What the players were given, however, was nothing short of a -C rated experience. Even today, each patch breaks more & more mechanics within the world. The playerbase itself continues to fluxuate simply because there isn't anything else like it out in the market at the moment. Sure, it's highly unique, which is the ONLY reason it's still functioning.
However, the product iself needs around ~500 players to BREAK EVEN on their monthly costs. Investors are now being driven from this product by their advisors, and the game seems to be digging it's own proverbial grave.
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I hope I got all the "major" ones, but i'm sure i've missed a couple as it simply just becomes a giant blur eventually xD! If you can remember another GREAT sandbox that is just riddled with bugs & poor management. Post it below!
Honorable Mentions (games I left out, because they're not sandboxes, but died to the same stuff):
-Tabula Rasa
-AutoAssault
-APB
-Gods&Heroes (1st one)
-StarTrek:Online (Perpetuum's take on it with mutli-crewed starships & ZERO instancing)
/discuss?
-Faded
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Comments
Inde-Sandbox developers forget that a game needs a functional core which will act as a foundation for all other game features. If the core is broken or buggy it will be a weak foundation and the game structure will collapse eventually.
Normally I don't participate in threads that end with /discuss. For some reason it irks me. I feel this has to be stated one more time.
Sandbox games fails because their main focus is on PvP and not the sandbox elements
Im a pvp player but i agree with this. a good sandbox game should have servers for pvp and pve. probably just one for pvp thats all that is really needed.
i think alot of the sandbox games made today are from companys that are just to small and dont have the funds to do a great AAA title that has everything they promise. they allways come out to early and are full of bugs and half the content they said they would have. that leads to population dropping quickly.
all the big companys dont want to take the chance on a sandbox because all they have to do is pump out thempark after thempark and everybody keeps buying them. even if they only play it for a couple months they still buy them " hopeing " its the next big thing, but it never is......
its allways the same game as the last 3 or 4 they tried and they just dont last. wich is why we see massive population drop 6 months after a new game comes out.
Problem with this argument is that you leave out sandbox, non trinity MMOs that are successful, such as Eve Online.
title
is
ludicrous
A great plan poorly executed will not produce great results.
As a programmer I'm amazed and confused by hearing stories of bugs that made it to release that were either 1) never reported or 2) reported and never resolved. I cannot fathom working on a multi-million dollar project and this being allowed to happen.
I'm not sure where the sandbox part fits in. Is the implication that sandboxes tend to be buggy but themeparks run properly?