Originally posted by dave6660 We are the Themepark crowd. Give up your hopes of a sandbox game. You will assimilate and play our games. Resistance is futile.
Or they can just quit MMO. No one says one has to play MMOs.
Things from the past is not always bad and in particular that is true for MMORPGs. The reason is that, once in a time, MMORPG genre was nische and people who worked and played in that nische did it because they loved games and wanted to evolve gaming into the Internet with virtual world gaming.
However since that time, MMORPGs went "commercial" and in came the beancounters and suits who sees the genre only in the eyes of how much money they can make. So they streamlined it and tried to cater to as many as possible and designed them in a way so that either you pay for a box price and then subs for a few months and then move on to the next big thing or a "F2P" game where the game is designed for people to buy stuff in their cash shop.
So in that process the basic idea of virtual world gaming went out the window so, in that context, "living in the past" is not a bad thing. The problem is that it is very difficult to get a major publisher to sign up for the original idea because they dont see that making them as much money as the next ThemePark MMO twist like SW:TOR, GW2, TERA or whatever.
So I would argue that the basic ideas of sandbox MMORPGs are still valid. All which is needed is for a talented, well funded, dev team to create one and we haven't seen that in years. If we get that, "new" features will follow...
No, I do not think sandbox fans are living in the past.
Rather sandbox fans are living in the future that just happens to have not come around yet.
As computing power gets cheaper, it will be more feasible to create more adaptive worlds.
The future is the sandbox -- it just has not arrived just yet -- give it 5 or 10 years and it will be themeparks that are looked at as the way things used to be.
No, I do not think sandbox fans are living in the past.
Rather sandbox fans are living in the future that just happens to have not come around yet.
As computing power gets cheaper, it will be more feasible to create more adaptive worlds.
The future is the sandbox -- it just has not arrived just yet -- give it 5 or 10 years and it will be themeparks that are looked at as the way things used to be.
If the world economy recovers from its current state then yes, I believe this will be true. Otherwise, no.
Right now everyone's broke, nobody besides a couple indies wants to take any chances investing huge amounts of man hours developping a game that isn't formatted like WoW.
No, I do not think sandbox fans are living in the past.
Rather sandbox fans are living in the future that just happens to have not come around yet.
As computing power gets cheaper, it will be more feasible to create more adaptive worlds.
The future is the sandbox -- it just has not arrived just yet -- give it 5 or 10 years and it will be themeparks that are looked at as the way things used to be.
"more feasible" != a good idea.
Look at all the iOS and android games. Simple is coming back a big way. Angry Bird is a very simple game. No world is needed.
The real question is whether a more adaptive world is FUN. Now fun is pretty much subjective .. but there are large consumer segment that find certain core gamplay fun (like shooting stuff). The question is whether there is such a high demand for an adaptive world.
The future of Sandboxes is not a Sandbox MMO but an hybrid.
Sandbox + Themepark = Archeage
And when I said Archeage, I mean the design, the concept, not the game itself which might be good or bad depending how XL Games implement those feature.
Regardeless of Archeage success, its concept is what developers have to look at when developing future MMOs
Sandboxes brings Longevity and Challenge
Themeparks brings Accessibility and Fun
Mixed them together and you have the perfect MMO
Unfortunately, asian made games (specifically mmorpgs) tend to not do so well in the western market (NA & EU).
I know, that's why I specified that even if Archeage will be a success or not, developers should take inspiration from its design notes.
I guess we'll see when The Repopulation and Embers of Cearus are released. Those are both indie developers who appear to be creating true sandbox games.
If they are a flop I think you can scratch anyone else really messing with them, if they are successfull it may spark large developers to attempt it.
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Or they can just quit MMO. No one says one has to play MMOs.
Things from the past is not always bad and in particular that is true for MMORPGs. The reason is that, once in a time, MMORPG genre was nische and people who worked and played in that nische did it because they loved games and wanted to evolve gaming into the Internet with virtual world gaming.
However since that time, MMORPGs went "commercial" and in came the beancounters and suits who sees the genre only in the eyes of how much money they can make. So they streamlined it and tried to cater to as many as possible and designed them in a way so that either you pay for a box price and then subs for a few months and then move on to the next big thing or a "F2P" game where the game is designed for people to buy stuff in their cash shop.
So in that process the basic idea of virtual world gaming went out the window so, in that context, "living in the past" is not a bad thing. The problem is that it is very difficult to get a major publisher to sign up for the original idea because they dont see that making them as much money as the next ThemePark MMO twist like SW:TOR, GW2, TERA or whatever.
So I would argue that the basic ideas of sandbox MMORPGs are still valid. All which is needed is for a talented, well funded, dev team to create one and we haven't seen that in years. If we get that, "new" features will follow...
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No, I do not think sandbox fans are living in the past.
Rather sandbox fans are living in the future that just happens to have not come around yet.
As computing power gets cheaper, it will be more feasible to create more adaptive worlds.
The future is the sandbox -- it just has not arrived just yet -- give it 5 or 10 years and it will be themeparks that are looked at as the way things used to be.
If the world economy recovers from its current state then yes, I believe this will be true. Otherwise, no.
Right now everyone's broke, nobody besides a couple indies wants to take any chances investing huge amounts of man hours developping a game that isn't formatted like WoW.
"more feasible" != a good idea.
Look at all the iOS and android games. Simple is coming back a big way. Angry Bird is a very simple game. No world is needed.
The real question is whether a more adaptive world is FUN. Now fun is pretty much subjective .. but there are large consumer segment that find certain core gamplay fun (like shooting stuff). The question is whether there is such a high demand for an adaptive world.
I know, that's why I specified that even if Archeage will be a success or not, developers should take inspiration from its design notes.
I guess we'll see when The Repopulation and Embers of Cearus are released. Those are both indie developers who appear to be creating true sandbox games.
If they are a flop I think you can scratch anyone else really messing with them, if they are successfull it may spark large developers to attempt it.
Just have to wait a couple years to find out.