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What happened to all the sandboxes
illorion
Member Posts: 467
Are there any in development that i am just not aware off/ didnt get the memo. Or is everything in the near future themeparkin it up
"Don't mistake a fun game for a good game... Checkers is fun to play but its not exactly the highest point of gaming design... and definatly not worth $60 plus $15 a month"
Comments
Earthrise?
I think Dawntide is a sandbox also. In Open Beta now
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
oh yeah..... i forgot all about earthrise. Most of the info that comes out is just screen shots so they kinda got lost in the sauce fo... awww gross i just sneezed all over my keyboard
"Don't mistake a fun game for a good game... Checkers is fun to play but its not exactly the highest point of gaming design... and definatly not worth $60 plus $15 a month"
uh dawntide looks a little..... ummm rough. Like it was made 10 years ago or something
"Don't mistake a fun game for a good game... Checkers is fun to play but its not exactly the highest point of gaming design... and definatly not worth $60 plus $15 a month"
All the neighborhood cats pissed in 'em... and much worse. When I said I wanted to go digging for treasure this is not what I had in mind.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
What happened to sandboxes? The better question is what happened to mmorpgs. At this point, us mmorpg fans can't be dividing ourselves up into oh... i want a sandbox, i want a pvp game... we are gonna be lucky to get another solid mmorpg that can contend.
Is anyone happy with the situation of any of the mmorpgs released since WoW? I'm not.
They don't make big money, therefore no major development house is going to touch them. Many smaller Indie houses keep trying, but as you mentioned, Earthrise, Dawntide, all the same, under-funded and very rough around the edges.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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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
As far as I can see, sandboxes are pretty much doomed by design.
Every one I've ever seen has been a disaster because average players don't / won't understand art or design and generally ham, glam, or perv up everything they get their hands on. (Not all players, but in this case a very few bad apples can ruin the barrel for everyone.)
I mean, think about what happend with second life. Have you ever been there? I bet you won't last 5 minutes without seeing something NSFW. And, why don't you walk 5 feet more and see the pedobears attack? LOL
On the other side, do you remember UO from the old days? I used to hunt Orcs in a suburb because there were houses EVERYWHERE. I'd run through the city streets and try to find mobs.
It was silly.
Go look at all the "great" content created in CoX. LOL.
So, no big company wants to commit the resources needed to create a sandbox game. In this case they're probably right.
Well CCP is still at it last time I checked and they only do sandbox. You can bet World of Darkness will be sandbox when it is announced.
How to identify and enforce social tabooss is a fascinating problem. The more freedom you give a player, the more tricky it becomes to provide quality control for everyone else.
Hmm, a horror sandbox mmo..interesting
If non-linear is sandbox, then yes. If construct and effect the world is sandbox, then no.
Also, CCP has PVE content, as you can run missions that are pre-defined. They have high-sec space and such.
I think of second life as sandbox. Old UO is sort of sandbox.
But that's a matter of definition. As non-linear games go, Fallen Earth is sort of like that too.
I'd like to see a good World of Darkness game; although I'm not sure it'll translate well. I'd be interested in playing a Wrath or Mage. Not interested in a Vampire or Werewolf nearly as much.
haven and hearth is sandbox, but it is 2d and extremely indie
What happened is; someone ruined SWG, and now there's 200,000 people out there trolling gaming forums. GIVE US OUR SWG-type GAME BACK OR WE'LL NEVER LEAVE HAHA! (We're the terrorists of the MMORPG community, hehe).
SWG was losing 10k subs a month BEFORE NGE. It was already ruined.
I tend to think there just aren't that many gamers who want a pure sandbox like Eve or how SWG was initially. It's a relatively small part of the MMO market.
nobody wants to play them? Its like asking "what happened to pogs?"
Problem is Sandboxes take time to get going. Take a while to get into. Take a while for customer base to grow.
Publishers/Investors want the big box sale and massive subs at launch so that they make their money back regardless of how the game does in the long term. And given that mindset its no surprise how these games do in the long term.
It has nothing to do with lack of player interest in sandboxes.
The sand done dried up and blew away.
Players ingore anything not made by the 5 main big budget houeses, thats what.
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It was losing subs due to severe bugs and balance issues that the Devs weren't addressing... they were too busy making the CU, and NGE. Not to mention the assinine Jedi systems that never should have been in the game.
The fact that SWG was a sandbox had little to do with it losing subs. If it were, the game never would have drawn the attention of 200k subs.
Even more. EQ1 looked better at release. Dawntide ingame looks like it was made with that free tribes 1 engine, with models gliding instead of walking.
Those who want a true 'sandbox' are few in numbers. Those that haven't gone bankrupt yet have few players currently. The majority of players do not have the patience to deal with this sort of environment. Those who want an open pvp game (but call it a sandbox) are also a niche community, though bigger than those craving a sandbox. Most open pvp games post UO end up dwindling and dieing off, as many can't deal with the frustration that comes with open pvp and human nature. It also doesn't help that those who crave these types of games are often over-analytical and negative. When a game is released, they manage to enhance every flaw with the game and use it as means not to play. It is a cycle that has been occuring on these and other forums continuously.
It drew lots of attention because of the Star Wars IP, simple as that. It kept bleeding subs because SWG didn't provide the Star Wars experience lots of MMO gamers had hoped and were looking for.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Short answer: Those that were actually released failed, failed, failed, failed, epic failed, failed, and then failed somemore, so less and less companies are willing to invest the budget required to risk trying to create a successful one.
<QQ moar plz. kkthxbai.>
Exactly. It got the 200 k subs off the star wars IP, than when people tried to play it and realized how BORING it was, it began to lose all those people and eventually to a game like WoW.
That is when the dev team and the marketters stepped in and said. "We are losing too many people, we have to stop the bleeding"
Then they went on to piss off the remaining players who liked the whole game set up. It was all just one big unfortunate catasrophe.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
To me FFXI, & now to be FFXIV, are story driven PvE sandboxes. No, sandboxe doesn't have to be FFA PvP full loot you freaks!
Ok, maybe its not perfect, but its pretty close... here:
- You can do everything with one char.
- The game doesn't tell you what do & how do to it.
- Zones aren't sub divided by level range, you always have to be careful in your travel.
- More player interdependancy than most game out there.
- Meaningful housing. ( No its doesn't have to be a non instance clusterf**k)
- You can build your classe however you want it. ( with some restriction )
- I'm sure i'm forgetting some more aspect here...
- The only thing it is missing, is the ability to affect the world... Which FFXIV might have in one way or another, who knows.
Anyways, say what you will, FFA PvP full loot game ( what you call sandboxe ) are dead, no money is to be made on that type of game. I see it staying that way until real tough consequences are put in place to control criminal behavior, period.