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Why do Sandboxes create small worlds?
Vermillion_Raventhal
Member EpicPosts: 4,198
It seems counter to what a sandbox should be about.
If you're going to have player driven content shouldn't exploration, discovery and surveying be part of it?
If you're going to have player housing shouldn't you have plenty of space for it? Nobody wants a small world that's filled ass to elbows with houses.
If you're going to FFA PvP shouldn't you have a large world to prevent guilds from dominating the whole things? Even a large guild would have a hard time controlling a world that takes hours to tranverse.
Urban sprawl is ugly. Even uglier without urban planning like all current Sandboxes lack. A world dominated and patrolled by a mega guild. It's not fun to explore a sandbox filled with with sprawl and pk's everywhere. It just seems to lend well to have larger worlds.
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If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I honestly don't know what your talking about.
The sandboxes I've played all have pretty big worlds that do take a long long time to traverse.
I am not really talkin about a space sim.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Good question. I suspect like all mmo's players want to see other players (not necessarily interact with them), so size becomes an issue.
Maybe if more people are into sandboxes, the game will be made bigger?
Werewolf Online(R) - Lead Developer
Eve space is thousands of system filled with stations, asteriod belts, moons, planets that be harvested for specific resources, and any number of anomalies, worm holes, etc. It is not empty by any stretch of the imagination.
Same. OP, could you list the sandbox games you're referring to?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
- Albert Einstein
Ever actually seen a sandbox? Most of them aren't very big.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sandbox
Example: Skyrim = Huge World
Skyrim = sandbox
Skyrim isn't a sandbox. The overwhelming majority of content is static and unchanging. It's developer-created themepark rides for you to ride on. Writing addons is sandbox content. Stacking cheese wheels is sandbox. A handful of quests which make very minor changes to the game world are....well, they're sandbox enough. But the majority of the game is themepark content.
Remember that while most sandboxes are open world, not all open world games are sandboxes. Sandbox means player authorship (you know, sand that you can change.)
But back on topic, what sandbox or MMORPG even has a smaller world than Skyrim? Skyrim's world isn't all that big, and I can't think of a single MMORPG (sandbox or not) which has a smaller world.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Probably the short list of low budget sandbox games that exist.
My guess would be something to do with the fact that they are very low budget and not made very well to begin with.
Some games like EVE as pointed out and SWG did have very large worlds though.
Some people would say a game like Mortal Online has a lage world but not really when compared with SWG.
About 2 dozen sandboxes here. Most seem to have pretty big worlds.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/349518
I used to think like that until i remember what open world mean. And If you count creator kits (PC) as part of gameplay then skyrim is 50% sandbox
About sandbox (building , housing ) when in open world , they have to be destroyable. And they are resource to fight for.
Archeage do it wrong . I use AA as example because it's newest game with sandbox feature.
Unless the game about pure building sand castle , the world need to be big enough but don't need to be too big. It don't need to grow bigger for each player joining the game.
Unless the game is pure sandbox ...
All the Elder Scroll games are sandbox, except of Elder Scrolls Online which is 100% themepark.
I started playing MMOs when Ultima Online was out, which is also 100% sandbox and one of the pioneers in MMOs and sandbox games. I am molded into playing sandbox games, and I know exactly what a sandbox game is. Skyrim IS sandbox. After you do the escape from dungeon part in the beginning of Skyrim, you are free to do whatever you want ingame. You do not have any particular direction to follow. And almost any action you do in Skyrim progresses your character. Alot of people define the main features of sandbox is open world and being able to modify the world, which I think is wrong. The two main features that define sandbox in my opinion is: 1) No particular direction to follow. 2) Skill based (more like any action you do can progress you character).
Being able to modify the world doesn't mean sandbox.
You should play Ultima Online if you want to get a true sandbox experience. There was really nothing in UO that let you modify the world except for placing houses or items. Yet Ultima Online is a true sandbox 100%.
Not really... Axe was pretty much spot on. There's little in TES games that resemble true sandbox games, SWG being an example of such.
Sandbox implies some form of manipulation in the hands of the player, Sandbox does not mean doing what you want, that would be non-linear/open-world design..
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Ugh... Is this thread going to derail into yet another debate over what is or isn't a sandbox?
Please say it isn't...
I think we're already there. There's one in every crowd.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
And Eve has lots of that mostly blank stuff.SPace worlds are the simplest to design,takes so little effort and time.Filling that space in with worlds that you can have interaction on is when a game shines.Also we need to see ship modules come a part,see the actual fitting taking place,you know some visuals to give the game some character.
Small worlds and why?I guess to save time trying to make it all viable without crippling hi end machines.I have watched some really good videos by Epeic games proving you can have large areas with lots of players and animation you just need to put in the effort and utilize some modern software.Basically taking high poly physics models and dumbing down the total vertices without losing the looks.
I felt FFXIV graphics were gorgeous and my low end machine that shouldn't even run the game ran rather well ,so they did a good job optimizing from the original launch days.Most games have no business crippling machines ,i have not seen many games with such graphics that should cause any problems at all,yet machines still struggle badly.so there is a lot of sloppy efforts going on inside these development studios.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Why do you think they're called sandboxes? They're about the sand. Sand doesn't imply non-linearity or skill-based. Sand implies player control.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Well sandbox is both not clearly defined and very overused term nowadays.
Good example are i.e. Assasin Creed games which are often casually called sandboxes and there is basically nothing sandboxy about them.
The term sandbox is clearly defined, it's just that people on this site have a tendency to use it to mean whatever they want it to mean, rather than what it actually does.
Well it's not just this forum. It's quite widespread and not only amongst players but also amongst gaming media and video game developers and publishers.