Maybe not for you, but it sure is for me. This is coming from a guy that grew up absorbing fantasy settings where 99% of them involved a humanoid making something of nothing. Key word there...humanoid. You have too little available in EVE to do for me to consider it a sandbox game. Shall we list the ways?
Crafting
PvPing
Mining
Selling
That's it. That's your basic choices in EVE. Then you have players adding the flare to those things to make them appear to be more than that. But in a real sandbox mmo you can have:
Crafting (WITH buildings and non combat releated items)
PvPing
Mining
Selling (WITH shops)
Fishing*
Farming*
Taming*
Hunting*
It's more choices for more immersion. Hell, EVE doesn't have ANY OTHER LIFEFORMS besides humanoids! Lifeless and void of charm or dangers outside of player created ones (which traditional fantasy have always had). This is why I do not consider EVE a sandbox mmo. There is no sand per se, only a box...a big empty box.
That's the strangest definition of a sandbox mmo i've ever seen. A sandbox game is one in which there is no linear set path within the game world, the player has the ability to go about his business as he/she likes and still have an impact upon the game world.
Essentially what you are saying then is that a game could offer near limitless freedom, but if it is set in the future or some other genre in which fishing and farming are not included then it cannot be a real sandbox?
A sandbox needs fishing, really? Fishing is the ultimate representation of freedom and non linearity I guess regardless of the setting of the mmo.....
EVE does have player owned structures btw.
Simply put the "*" highlights what I went on to say in the underlying paragraph. EvE is void of life outside humanoids. My list is not a all emcompassing list by a long shot. So you can stop trying to "laser" focus (pun intended) on one thing to try to blow off my opinion as hogwash. There are many other who would add far more things that I touched upon with that incomplete list.
I just think EVE needs a category of it's own (space simulation) if you will to identify it. It clearly isn't a traditional sandbox mmo worthy of being called the spiritual successor of UO....that's for darn sure.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Who cares if a game is a spiritual successor or whatever of freaking UO? I hope someone comes along and roasts your stupid sacred cow and your tinted goggles too.
/endrant
Honestly though, who cares. You old guys need to let it go.
EVE is the space above the sandbox.....nothing tangible to hold in your little pixelated hands or stand on with your pixelated little feet. Nothing but a cold void to float around in....a giant fishbowl.
I'm pretty sure when people say sandbox, they mean it metaphorically, i.e. its doesn't actually have to have sand you can walk on.
Then by that definition metaphorically speaking....every mmorpg is a sandbox. If you mean literally speaking then no mmorpg ever created was a sandbox....you'd only find those in playgrounds. But for me similarly, EVE is no sandbox.
Bumped for lolz. You need to accept that fact that when people ask about sandbox MMOs now, EVE is one of the top accepted as such.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Simply put the "*" highlights what I went on to say in the underlying paragraph. EvE is void of life outside humanoids. My list is not a all emcompassing list by a long shot. So you can stop trying to "laser" focus (pun intended) on one thing to try to blow off my opinion as hogwash. There are many other who would add far more things that I touched upon with that incomplete list.
I just think EVE needs a category of it's own (space simulation) if you will to identify it. It clearly isn't a traditional sandbox mmo worthy of being called the spiritual successor of UO....that's for darn sure.
Whilst I am not setting EVE up in any way shape or form to be the successor to UO it is a sandbox game. Without 'lasering' in on single points, you seem to be implying that only fantasy/earthbound games can be mmos, that simply isn't the case. Furthermore not having a smorgasbord of races to play also does not make a game any less sandbox.
There is plenty to do in EVE on your 'downtime' exploring and politcal machinations, hell setting up all kinds of player initiatives like somer.blink. That you can't do downtime tasks similar to those in a fantasy setting is due to the reason it isn't a fantasy setting game.
That you personally don't feel it is a sandbox is not really something I can argue with, that is your own opinon of the matter, but the fact you list fantasy elements as the qualifiers for what makes a sandbox I certainly don't agree with.
I wonder if your view on the subject will change with Incarna, will having human avatars all of a sudden make the game more of a sandbox to you?
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
EVE is the space above the sandbox.....nothing tangible to hold in your little pixelated hands or stand on with your pixelated little feet. Nothing but a cold void to float around in....a giant fishbowl.
I'm pretty sure when people say sandbox, they mean it metaphorically, i.e. its doesn't actually have to have sand you can walk on.
Then by that definition metaphorically speaking....every mmorpg is a sandbox. If you mean literally speaking then no mmorpg ever created was a sandbox....you'd only find those in playgrounds. But for me similarly, EVE is no sandbox.
Bumped for lolz. You need to accept that fact that when people ask about sandbox MMOs now, EVE is one of the top accepted as such.
I have accepted that. And I have moved on...unless someone makes a post trying to say that EVE is the spritual successor of UO. That's where I simply point out that no....no it is not...and why it is not in my eyes. Nothing more.
And to the guy that thinks I'm getting all nostalgic about the past. wrong again. I've since moved on from UO (my first mmo) to playing Perpetuum (my current) so I have no issue other than people trying to slap labels on things that do not warrant them.
So is EVE a sandbox mmo? Sure. damn near 90% of the people on this site believe that. Only thing I would add is that it's not in the traditional sense.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Comments
Simply put the "*" highlights what I went on to say in the underlying paragraph. EvE is void of life outside humanoids. My list is not a all emcompassing list by a long shot. So you can stop trying to "laser" focus (pun intended) on one thing to try to blow off my opinion as hogwash. There are many other who would add far more things that I touched upon with that incomplete list.
I just think EVE needs a category of it's own (space simulation) if you will to identify it. It clearly isn't a traditional sandbox mmo worthy of being called the spiritual successor of UO....that's for darn sure.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
/endrant
Honestly though, who cares. You old guys need to let it go.
Awaiting GW2
Bumped for lolz. You need to accept that fact that when people ask about sandbox MMOs now, EVE is one of the top accepted as such.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Whilst I am not setting EVE up in any way shape or form to be the successor to UO it is a sandbox game. Without 'lasering' in on single points, you seem to be implying that only fantasy/earthbound games can be mmos, that simply isn't the case. Furthermore not having a smorgasbord of races to play also does not make a game any less sandbox.
There is plenty to do in EVE on your 'downtime' exploring and politcal machinations, hell setting up all kinds of player initiatives like somer.blink. That you can't do downtime tasks similar to those in a fantasy setting is due to the reason it isn't a fantasy setting game.
That you personally don't feel it is a sandbox is not really something I can argue with, that is your own opinon of the matter, but the fact you list fantasy elements as the qualifiers for what makes a sandbox I certainly don't agree with.
I wonder if your view on the subject will change with Incarna, will having human avatars all of a sudden make the game more of a sandbox to you?
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I have accepted that. And I have moved on...unless someone makes a post trying to say that EVE is the spritual successor of UO. That's where I simply point out that no....no it is not...and why it is not in my eyes. Nothing more.
And to the guy that thinks I'm getting all nostalgic about the past. wrong again. I've since moved on from UO (my first mmo) to playing Perpetuum (my current) so I have no issue other than people trying to slap labels on things that do not warrant them.
So is EVE a sandbox mmo? Sure. damn near 90% of the people on this site believe that. Only thing I would add is that it's not in the traditional sense.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."