I am sorry but this does not make any sense to me. What excactly is a sandbox themepark game? That is like saying up-down and dry-wet. Sandbox games cant by definition be themepark as they have mutually exclusive elements. Sandbox are free and non-linear when it comes to progression. Themepark games are linear and are basically on tracks so how is it possible to combine those two? Sandbox with content is not the same as a themepark. Sandbox worlds are basically virtually worlds, where as themepark "worlds" are like amusement park with events. As for the choice it is easily sandbox for me. Themeparks completely destroy all immersion for me in MMORPGs.
It's this kind of thinking though that results in so many games that are one extreme or the other. You can take elements from both and blend them together to create something really great. There are good elements in both types of games. Why can't a sandbox have a themepark tutorial with optional storylines and epic quests while still having the itemization, crafting, player generated content, player driven economy, skill based system of a sandbox.
One good example of a hybrid/mix is having the skill based system of a typical sandbox, but allow users to declare that they are X class. There could be 100 classes, and to be that class you have to have the required skills, and by selecting the class you get a bonus to one thing while a negative to another.
An example would be Paladin:
Required 1 Hand Sword Skill: 50+
Required Shield Skill: 50+
Required Healing Magic: 30+
Required Heavy Armor: 30+
Bonuses:
10% bonus to healing, 15% bonus to defense, 5% bonus to blocking with shield
Negative Effects:
10% Reduction in Melee Damage, 5% Reduction in Offensive Spell Damage
Bonus Ability:
Lay On Hands~
You get my drift by now. I actually think Mortal Online at one point was planning a system something like this.
Well I guess sandbox and themepark mean different things to you. For me 'themepark MMORPG' is where the progression is linear and does not give much option to decide the way you interact with the world but you rather engage in the "events" that the dev has created for you. Sandbox on the other hand allows you to interact with the world as you please, without following a pre-defined path, and still advance.
I dont think class or skill based has anything to do with this, nor quests. Asherons Call was a typical sandbox MMORPG but you specialised in skills, which in a way decided your class. However the progression of your character was completely free and you had a shot to take out any critter, regardless of your level, as long as you had the skills/equipment for it. Also it had quests as well.
EQ1 type themepark where you were boxed in a bit at the newbie levels but after that there was a lot of different places you could travel to and level off mobs including group and solo-able bits, big open dungeons and outdoor camps etc - lots of variety.
The downside of EQ1 (one of them anyway) is/was when you were a bit bored of mob grinding and fancied a change there were a ton of solo quests you could do but lots of them were broken completely and I'd say for most of the rest the time / risk/ reward was completely unbalanced. This led to mostly not bothering with the quests and *just* mob grinding which eventually gets dull.
So on top of mob-grinding, there'd be some questing and some crafting and I'd also like a Tome type system where aimless exploring and lore finding got you some exp as well - not a lot just some.
So in a level it might be 50% mob exp, 25% solo questing exp, 25% Tome exp and in terms of time spent it would be something like 25% mob grinding, 25% solo questing, 25% gathering and crafting, 25% exploring, traveling and faction grinding that helped in various ways. All in a world where there was 2-3 big open dungeons for your "tier", some instanced sub-dungeons at the bottom of the open ones plus lots of different camps and wandering mobs in various different zones you could travel to . Some of those zones might be set to be mostly your level, others might be lower level but with higher bits, others might be higher level with lower level bits - again variety.
So basically I'd like a horizontally varied style themepark rather than a linear vertical conveyor belt style themepark.
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It's this kind of thinking though that results in so many games that are one extreme or the other. You can take elements from both and blend them together to create something really great. There are good elements in both types of games. Why can't a sandbox have a themepark tutorial with optional storylines and epic quests while still having the itemization, crafting, player generated content, player driven economy, skill based system of a sandbox.
One good example of a hybrid/mix is having the skill based system of a typical sandbox, but allow users to declare that they are X class. There could be 100 classes, and to be that class you have to have the required skills, and by selecting the class you get a bonus to one thing while a negative to another.
An example would be Paladin:
Required 1 Hand Sword Skill: 50+
Required Shield Skill: 50+
Required Healing Magic: 30+
Required Heavy Armor: 30+
Bonuses:
10% bonus to healing, 15% bonus to defense, 5% bonus to blocking with shield
Negative Effects:
10% Reduction in Melee Damage, 5% Reduction in Offensive Spell Damage
Bonus Ability:
Lay On Hands~
You get my drift by now. I actually think Mortal Online at one point was planning a system something like this.
Well I guess sandbox and themepark mean different things to you. For me 'themepark MMORPG' is where the progression is linear and does not give much option to decide the way you interact with the world but you rather engage in the "events" that the dev has created for you. Sandbox on the other hand allows you to interact with the world as you please, without following a pre-defined path, and still advance.
I dont think class or skill based has anything to do with this, nor quests. Asherons Call was a typical sandbox MMORPG but you specialised in skills, which in a way decided your class. However the progression of your character was completely free and you had a shot to take out any critter, regardless of your level, as long as you had the skills/equipment for it. Also it had quests as well.
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Ryzom is probably the most sand-boxy kind of MMO i've ever played.
No classes
Customized actions
Extremely complex crafting system
All good items are player crafted
All items irreversably degrade with use
No instances (except for player made scenarios)
Mob migration patterns
list goes on and on
_z
EQ1 type themepark where you were boxed in a bit at the newbie levels but after that there was a lot of different places you could travel to and level off mobs including group and solo-able bits, big open dungeons and outdoor camps etc - lots of variety.
The downside of EQ1 (one of them anyway) is/was when you were a bit bored of mob grinding and fancied a change there were a ton of solo quests you could do but lots of them were broken completely and I'd say for most of the rest the time / risk/ reward was completely unbalanced. This led to mostly not bothering with the quests and *just* mob grinding which eventually gets dull.
So on top of mob-grinding, there'd be some questing and some crafting and I'd also like a Tome type system where aimless exploring and lore finding got you some exp as well - not a lot just some.
So in a level it might be 50% mob exp, 25% solo questing exp, 25% Tome exp and in terms of time spent it would be something like 25% mob grinding, 25% solo questing, 25% gathering and crafting, 25% exploring, traveling and faction grinding that helped in various ways. All in a world where there was 2-3 big open dungeons for your "tier", some instanced sub-dungeons at the bottom of the open ones plus lots of different camps and wandering mobs in various different zones you could travel to . Some of those zones might be set to be mostly your level, others might be lower level but with higher bits, others might be higher level with lower level bits - again variety.
So basically I'd like a horizontally varied style themepark rather than a linear vertical conveyor belt style themepark.