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A polished AAA sandbox would get 50% of the market and dominate alongside WOW.
Interesting
Member UncommonPosts: 973
If its true that WOW dominates the themepark genre, we still dont have a representant for the sandbox genre.
Im calling them "subgenres", because most people refuse the notion that a true MMORPG is sandbox and sandbox only...
Anyway, the point is...
CURRENTLY THERE IS AN EMPTY SPOT FOR THE SANDBOX GENRE.
The company that releases an AAA polished sandbox, with high production value will come and dominate like WOW did its "themepark" genre.
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Comments
It's called Second Life.
Problem with your theory is that a lot of WoW players don't want any other MMO, ever, period. There are plenty who will play WoW and never touch another MMO. It's an anomolie and the only thing that will kill WoW is time or a very bad series of decisions from Blizz.
Of course that is assuming that 50% of the market want a sandbox game which I don't believe to be the case. But I do agree that a well-done polished sandbox game could be successfull in any way that could be measured.
Venge
Too many indie devs are developing buggy, half-finsihed sandbox games and if a AAA sandbox game was to be released that has casual appeal (not easy, but easy to understand) it would be a pretty big success. Now only if a studio actually went out and made it...
sandbox is a really small, but vocally loud, niche. no one cares for them. 50% lol ...
Man, i havent lol'd this hard in a long time. Thanks OP.
50%, divide that by 10 and you would be more accurate.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
I think too many MMO are trying it all. PVP+PVE+FULL PVP+ whatever. Damn it, focus on something you're good at, don't try to make and eat the cake at once.
Fallen Earth and EvE are here bro where is that 50%? EvE is solid as hell and damn Fallen Earth has gotten a lot better since i last played (using the alienware free box) none of these two ahve huge gam breaking bugs...
simply enough...Sandboxes are a gamers dream...a game in which the world matters...where it is not all about combat.
The majority of MMO players are those that havent been here for a while...I know I played DAoC and SWG while my other friends thought I was wasting my time, these are the same people who wait around for WoW raids now.
I just don't know. I don't think any of us know. There IS a polished sandbox, Second Life, but one that has casual appeal? I don't even know if that is technically possible, because you spend all your time trying to maintain your portion of the sandbox. The Sims Online was a mostly casual sandbox and it was polished AND it came from a big IP (The Sims), and that failed.
I just don't know.
EVE is a good example of a game that's basically a triple A sandbox, and it's quite successful. Problem is, and I'll freely admit this, that it's too darn hardcore for a lot of people (myself included).
I would love a game like UO or SWG. The closest I've seen a game come to that was Ryzom, but it simply lacked pretty much everything that I liked about those games outside of crafting and combat.
You should talk to Raph Koster about that. He's a genius. I own the book he made, "A Theory of Fun". It's quite interesting.
OP you're assuming that half of the MMO players would rather be thrown in a world instead of have some kind of guidance in it? In the age of the ingame quest GPS locators? Seriously?
I just that for a sandbox to be successful, one of the first steps to take is deviating from that niche fanbase, as I think free for all PvP, no maps tutorial or direction, and a forced first person perspective really do more to hurt these games than to help them.
Actually Star Wars Galaxies had a better ingame "quest" (mission) GPS locator better than World of Warcraft (although sometimes it was bugged, ESPECIALLY the bounty hunter missions), anyways, that's considered a "sandbox" by most standards.
I think if a sandbox had tutorials ... that could go a long way.
Problem is a polished AAA sandbox title must have 90 %eazemode themepark gamplay plus all the fluff or people these days just dont play it anymore.
Even EVE is a joke all tho many will deny this and darkfall is big example of being a hardcore sandbox but cant survive unless they going completely dumb down mode.
Its over and it even getting worse after 2005 gaming scene has chanced so much that hardcore and i mean people who want comeplex games with deep gameplay without the fluff and easy gameplay plus hold hand(even in sandbox people whine so much becouse no hold hand)are gone.
We get eveolution of wow clones and all the easy browser games that will dominate the gaming scene real hardcore gamers as i knew them are gone and all made so console players can play it becouse pc is also dying(all games still in dx9.0c in 2011 lol).
I doub that we have sandbox(like ac-uo or darkfall(first 6 six months after that it was dumb down alot) in 2014-15?
Negative view or maybe not gonne happen well furture will tell but if i made a bet im almost positive ill win hehe.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Sandbox PvE games are boring. Also, first person perspective isn't a requirement see ER and DFO
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
The only problem is it took what 5-7 years for them to build to that base. When it was released, it was qutie horrible, or so the notes say, and the game has changed a bit since then.
The question than is if Eve released today, looking as it does today, would it garner the same number of subs, lower or less than it has now. (Yes it will likely grow over time but on release what would it be?)
Venge
Second Life and The Sims has one thing in common; They both are real life games. If you love MMORPGs you proly don't want a real life simulation, which =//= sandbox RPG.
WoW players don't care anything else than WoW. They often don't even know of other games but WoW, so count them out.
Now, rest of the people being a part of this genre are ready to try almost anything. Nowdays we only have indy sandboxes and even though many of those are made poorly, they still get acceptable amount of players. I don't see how any AAA quality sandbox couldn't have 1M+ players.
Not PvE, just not free for all PvP.
To say sandbox PvE games are boring is an opinion, and there's a host of SWG fans who would disagree with you, and yes, I realize that the first person perspective is no longer required in Darkfall, but it was for a long time -- at least if you were a caster/archer or had your weapon put away.
I have a lot of hope for Earthrise as I see more potential for mainstream success in that game than I do DF or MO, but as of right now, it's in a pretty horrid state. It's also far from newbie friendly.
Many many many wow players not only know but try and even play other games. I'm one of them, and I don't think I'm alone or even in a small group in that.
Venge Sunsoar
Then its no longer a sandbox right?
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
I find that most WoW players hate their own game, but they can't find anything better.
Don't you realize the greatest sandbox MMORPG is real life? It would only be natural to create a game in that nature.
I think your second and third paragraph kind of contradict each other, because most of the MMORPG players are World of Warcraft gamers. Unless all the non-World of Warcraft MMO players play that game, and even then it would get what, maybe four million?
Wait ... never mind. You only said a million. Well the OP says it will get 50% of the share.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA