I don't really see *ANY* game as particularly worthy of true sandbox status. You are inherently limited in *ANY* game you play to what the developers have programmed for you to do. Playing an open game like, say, Batman: Arkham Asylum, sure you can run around anywhere you want, but you're still following the pre-programmed storyline whether you like it or not. You can't decide, half-way through the game, to ignore Joker and go do something else. Likewise in a sandbox MMO, you're still playing the game the devs want you to play. You can't go off and declare your independence from the game and still expect to get anywhere, it just doesn't work that way.
Sure, in both games you can just put the game on pause and refuse to go any farther, but you're still not getting anything done that you weren't intended to do from the start.
The whole idea of freedom in a pre-programmed game is absurd. It's just a matter of how blatantly apparent your lack of freedom really is.
mm i dont know some went too complicated other well it begs the question!
check aika cannot get more simple then that 5 carbon copied map come on!yet when your in the action you could not care less.
so in the end if the trigger is good and you have chalenge its fun
in aika everything seems simple that is till you meet the first coutrby quest then every idea you had about the game goes down the drain
yet the freaking game is still as simple childishly simple but the dev added one up to the mix the other nation and they arent very friendly so when you go to their nation this game change from regular (bordering on boring)to omg all those are my fans(enemy)
so in the end some of the simple idea are often the best !
Its just an evolution of what people want. If certain features in MMO have been abandoned, its because the players don't want them. Most of those early features never really worked and weren't any fun for most people in the first place. If they WERE fun and people enjoyed them, we'd still see them. But they're been refined & streamlined or eliminated. The market goes where the players go because players control things, NOT the developers. If people don't buy certain games, then obviously something "right" is happening in the games people are buying. Something must be "wrong" with the games most people ignore. And by the way, its NOT marketing or hype. Its the game.
And for every sandboxy single player game there are still loads of linear ones. I'm playing Red Faction Guerrilla right now and having a blast, no pun intended and its pretty sandboxy. Then I'll be playing Batman which is very linear. Choice is good.
There are sandbox MMOs out there and they're proportional to the audience. Why should it be any other way?
Its just an evolution of what people want. If certain features in MMO have been abandoned, its because the players don't want them. Most of those early features never really worked and weren't any fun for most people in the first place. If they WERE fun and people enjoyed them, we'd still see them. But they're been refined & streamlined or eliminated. The market goes where the players go because players control things, NOT the developers. If people don't buy certain games, then obviously something "right" is happening in the games people are buying. Something must be "wrong" with the games most people ignore. And by the way, its NOT marketing or hype. Its the game.
And for every sandboxy single player game there are still loads of linear ones. I'm playing Red Faction Guerrilla right now and having a blast, no pun intended and its pretty sandboxy. Then I'll be playing Batman which is very linear. Choice is good.
There are sandbox MMOs out there and they're proportional to the audience. Why should it be any other way?
Are we really sure that it's what people wants in MMOs? I mean, clearly Console games have a lot more "sandboxy"-titles than MMOs so it is indeed a popular "genre".
As someone said in a previous thread, new players started with WoW and enjoyed what WoW had to offer, but they have not played anything else yet, only WoW Clone. So how can we tell if it's truly what they wanted? Sure they can be happy with WoW, but they have not tried other features yet that they might actually enjoy even more.
Comments
I don't really see *ANY* game as particularly worthy of true sandbox status. You are inherently limited in *ANY* game you play to what the developers have programmed for you to do. Playing an open game like, say, Batman: Arkham Asylum, sure you can run around anywhere you want, but you're still following the pre-programmed storyline whether you like it or not. You can't decide, half-way through the game, to ignore Joker and go do something else. Likewise in a sandbox MMO, you're still playing the game the devs want you to play. You can't go off and declare your independence from the game and still expect to get anywhere, it just doesn't work that way.
Sure, in both games you can just put the game on pause and refuse to go any farther, but you're still not getting anything done that you weren't intended to do from the start.
The whole idea of freedom in a pre-programmed game is absurd. It's just a matter of how blatantly apparent your lack of freedom really is.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
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mm i dont know some went too complicated other well it begs the question!
check aika cannot get more simple then that 5 carbon copied map come on!yet when your in the action you could not care less.
so in the end if the trigger is good and you have chalenge its fun
in aika everything seems simple that is till you meet the first coutrby quest then every idea you had about the game goes down the drain
yet the freaking game is still as simple childishly simple but the dev added one up to the mix the other nation and they arent very friendly so when you go to their nation this game change from regular (bordering on boring)to omg all those are my fans(enemy)
so in the end some of the simple idea are often the best !
Its just an evolution of what people want. If certain features in MMO have been abandoned, its because the players don't want them. Most of those early features never really worked and weren't any fun for most people in the first place. If they WERE fun and people enjoyed them, we'd still see them. But they're been refined & streamlined or eliminated. The market goes where the players go because players control things, NOT the developers. If people don't buy certain games, then obviously something "right" is happening in the games people are buying. Something must be "wrong" with the games most people ignore. And by the way, its NOT marketing or hype. Its the game.
And for every sandboxy single player game there are still loads of linear ones. I'm playing Red Faction Guerrilla right now and having a blast, no pun intended and its pretty sandboxy. Then I'll be playing Batman which is very linear. Choice is good.
There are sandbox MMOs out there and they're proportional to the audience. Why should it be any other way?
Are we really sure that it's what people wants in MMOs? I mean, clearly Console games have a lot more "sandboxy"-titles than MMOs so it is indeed a popular "genre".
As someone said in a previous thread, new players started with WoW and enjoyed what WoW had to offer, but they have not played anything else yet, only WoW Clone. So how can we tell if it's truly what they wanted? Sure they can be happy with WoW, but they have not tried other features yet that they might actually enjoy even more.