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I had an epiphany tonight... BDO isn't a sandbox.
ShrikeArghast
Member UncommonPosts: 124
... it's a theme park without rides.
No, bear with me. You see, a sandbox isn't just about turning players loose in the endgame and saying "make your own content." It also has to empower those same people to affect the game world in a meaningful way - to paint the canvas of the game itself with their designs; their vision. When we look at great sandboxes like SWG, UO, and EVE, this irrevocable truth is present in all three: each features a game world that players colonized and conquered, exerting control, building bases, establishing towns, etc... and, in the process, literally reshaping the appearance of that universe.
Where is that happening in BDO? Where are the player-constructed towns? Where are the player-owned castles? Where are the fortifications and secret bases; the woodland rebel hideouts and random bandit camps? Where are the economic markets that players have built? The fields they themselves carved out of the landscape, tilled, planted and harvest? Where are the festivals, the wars, and the religious ceremonies? Where are the tangible effects of a player-driven sandbox?
They aren't there. And they aren't going to be there, because Black Desert isn't a sandbox. Rather, it's a static, stale theme park that has no rides. Because the hallmark of a sandbox is entrusting the playerbase to do what they will with the tools necessary to rule the world... not robbing that world of all content and equating an empty endgame to creativity.
No, bear with me. You see, a sandbox isn't just about turning players loose in the endgame and saying "make your own content." It also has to empower those same people to affect the game world in a meaningful way - to paint the canvas of the game itself with their designs; their vision. When we look at great sandboxes like SWG, UO, and EVE, this irrevocable truth is present in all three: each features a game world that players colonized and conquered, exerting control, building bases, establishing towns, etc... and, in the process, literally reshaping the appearance of that universe.
Where is that happening in BDO? Where are the player-constructed towns? Where are the player-owned castles? Where are the fortifications and secret bases; the woodland rebel hideouts and random bandit camps? Where are the economic markets that players have built? The fields they themselves carved out of the landscape, tilled, planted and harvest? Where are the festivals, the wars, and the religious ceremonies? Where are the tangible effects of a player-driven sandbox?
They aren't there. And they aren't going to be there, because Black Desert isn't a sandbox. Rather, it's a static, stale theme park that has no rides. Because the hallmark of a sandbox is entrusting the playerbase to do what they will with the tools necessary to rule the world... not robbing that world of all content and equating an empty endgame to creativity.
Comments
I'd say that Black Desert has sandbox elements and themepark elements.
Taking over a city and having the city node display your guilds banner and having access to tools to allow for more conquest type activity is sandboxy.
And that's when the game ended.
Did you bother to do anything else besides level? Tame horses? Breed horses? Build Amity? Discover knowledge? Craft? Fish? Trade routes? Gather? Farm for mats? Decorate your house?
I'm not complaining about what meager content is available, but rather that it isn't a part of a sandbox.
Most of us know this because we did research.
I mean what do you do after you get Diamond armor in Minecraft? Build more? Tame horses? Try to kill the world bosses?
hmmm
Heck, most themeparks have some sandbox elements (crafting and player housing is common for example), BDO do have more then most but that doesn't make it a full sandbox.
But that doesn't make it a bad, just not a full sandbox. Not everything is black and white and mixing elements from both genres do have advantages. I think we will see far more games incorporating ideas from both types of games in the future.
ok. even the Skyrim is not the sandbox.
only Minecraft fit it
Best you can hope for are sandparks. Even then, with BDO once you take into account the fixed NPC/Marketplace prices, no auction houses and no player to player trading, the crafting and associated life skills in BDO are really not sandbox in any way whatsoever. It doesn't leave much to call sandbox unless you really stretch the definition to include node fighting etc.
I'm still lovin' it, but I can feel the end coming. A fun filled few weeks with lots of sparkle, then the realization that the best levelling/power is by grinding, best equipment is by grinding, best money is by grinding. If it walks like duck and quacks like a duck..... it's just another grinder.
Daum are also proving to be quite untrustworthy which makes the decision much easier.
I agree completely. The important thing for companies will mostly likely be deciding which elements to use for their game. That balance will be what's important in my opinion.
I have accounts for all the other games people keep mentioning, and I see no reason to reinstall any of them. I've already played them for years, people move on, if these companies don't start doing things upgrade engine tech and make these game feel fresh people will keep leaving. One day I'll be tired of BDO also, probably after we get caught up to the KR version unless they keep announcing things as exciting as pirates and bounties.
I know this will be the first time I won't be jumping on the one month WoW xpac hype train. The Legion beta looks like more the same old WoW with less abilities, and more player segregation. I'll definitely try Camelot Unchained, and I hope it turns out great, and it's the only mmo I'm still excited for. The rest of the industry seems to be going backwards into multi-platform (read: console style) mmos where the objective is to kill the next boss that I'm not interested in anymore. Large scale battles using real time tactics to overcome objectives is what's fun for me. Having it set in a aesthetically pleasing game world is a huge bonus. Same with fluid combat mechanics.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Those NODES if done with quality could have visible npc workers,they should NOT be a pile of lines waltzing across the map,they should be invisible because no where in my life have i ever seen lines through the sky.Also nodes in general is a computer code looking idea,there SHOULD BE markets or evenb the goofy stalls KR games were famous for but nodes,,lol dumb idea.
That is the problem the game looks like a bunch of computer code rather than a living world,from afk travel.afk fishing to auto instant Boss spawns or spawning that demon to give you quests,it all looks way out of place and just FAKE like computer code rather than something believable in a world.
I know people will argue tooth n nail just because THEY are having fun or whatever reason but truth is the game is badly designed and NOT designed as a livable realistic world.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The servers are full and the game is establishing it's player base. There are great patches coming and the sky is the limit with the foundation in which BDO sits. With the variety of game play that BDO offers, and with more yet to come, those who love the game have found a home they will enjoy for a very long time. Those who don't will be forever left on the outside looking in, and still looking for that game that they will enjoy as much as those of us who are playing and enjoying BDO.
It will be long time coming before a game with as much variety and future game play potential as BDO is developed and released again. There are features in BDO that still have not been discovered and players have yet to unlock. Yes, it is that deep. How many MMORPGS can you say that about that have been out for over two years?
The nay-sayers will just have to accept that no amount of salt throwing is going to change the minds of those who love BDO in their attempt to bring us down to their misery. We get it, and love it, you dont. It really doesnt require much more of an explanation than that.
It's literally just that simple.
Those of us who are really interested in researching the game, instead of criticizing it because it doesn't meet our own little personal shallow expectations of game play, know about these things. There are many things that players who have delved into BDOs game play depth are just now discovering, and are continuing to discover as they progress through the game. The game evolves depending on your overall achievement of the game. There is no website that you can google that will tell you these things because no player has been able to complete 100% of the content that BDO offers. Even so, it would be very different with every player according to how they play the game. New quests, discoveries, and rewards as you progress through the game according to how much amity you have with NPCs and towns. You may not see them at level 20, but when you go back at level 50, and talk to them again, it they will be there. But just not any level 50, it depends on a calculation of that level 50s overall contribution and achievements in the game.
Here is an example as experienced by a poster in the BDO forums ...
I've already found some insert you can craft into a dye, not sure which color likely red from the icon of the insect... could be green or purple if ichor is a funny color... so clearly there are other sources of dyes. Some of the stuff in the NA/EU version looks like it is missing because players have not contributed enough to unlock the stuff. Like the towns get more buildings and gear based on the amount of energy, and quests you do... pretty sure there are bunch of underlaying systems they are not explaining to prevent people from exploiting them. Like a bought a house in hidel no one else was using it as a residence I but the marble down from the cash shop... it stays marble and building structure becomes nicer looking someone buys it as a house and since they don't have the marble they don't get it for free, they have to invest engery to advance the quality of their instance of it. you buy a house to use as storage the door ends up boarded up. It's actually fun to watch as the towns change based on what people are doing in game... npc's react to who you have talked to, and what you said to them, what clothes you are wearing... still not sure if the costums effect them or not... but having high or lower station in the game impacts if npc's will talk to you like a normal person and thus unlock quests... amity is how well you know a person... having high amity unlocks stuff you can not buy other wise and without amity of one or greater you can not even see those items. not sure where the lines fall but you literately have to chose to spend you energy harvesting, crafting, or socializing... it all seems to impact your ability to make money in game. some of the stuff in game seems to unlock based on players doing something and I don't think it is all questing based. you can build up all your contrib points in one town and have higher quality items but to get different items you have to have a trade network. towns with one of two buildings and no one investing energy in them stay that way. you do quests or simply click the invest energy they get more developed but only if a player has a trade route to them... I have most of mine sunk into as many places as I can but clearly that only goes so far the rest are built up in hidel because that is the first house I bought. And most npc's react as if I am from hidel working with the xian trade pact well except for those that remember that my character was in one of the beta's... that was so funny running into the npc's that have the accounts tracked from the beta. I have four character slots unlocked and I'm only at level 24 or so because I spent the time building the trade network not questing and most npc's react as if I am well connected not just some adventurer... it is interesting.
... and that is just one account. You can find many more as you read people's experiences. Most player's just talk about one or two new things that they have discovered because no player has been able to discover everything. It's only when you put all of the small nuggets of things that people have experienced that you realize how truly deep this game is.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo