General Discussion

 Seamless world.Dungeon/cave instancing ok though.Sandbox style.Skill based.Either developed or in the works?Played Asherons call for 4 and a half years.Loved it and would be great to find another game like this again.

We wish....we all wish.

Mortal Online might be what you're looking for, it's in development right now but it seems a lot like Oblivion. Can be played in first person, it's sandbox styled, and its skill/class system reminds me a lot of Oblivion.

www.mortalonline.com/

Well there is ultima, its incredibly similiar but dated with diablo style graphics....learning curve is pretty tough to.

Ultima online is a great game. it's old but still one of the best. it's sand box and skill based. I play vanguard and I love it. skill based, the more you swing you better you get.

Good luck in your search.

Try Everquest 2, i've been playing the trial and i love it! you can get it here

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/freeTrial.vm

it takes awhile to update but its well worth the wait

I think WoW would be a good choice really, It has the Dungeon instances you want and a seamless world with no loading screens unless you leave one continent to go to another.

Originally posted by tollmart

Ultima online is a great game. it's old but still one of the best. it's sand box and skill based. I play vanguard and I love it. skill based, the more you swing you better you get.

Good luck in your search.

Most, if not all, MMORPGs are sandbox type games. If MMORPGs were linear the game would get very boring very quickly lol.

Originally posted by Scubiedude

 Seamless world.Dungeon/cave instancing ok though.Sandbox style.Skill based.Either developed or in the works?Played Asherons call for 4 and a half years.Loved it and would be great to find another game like this again.

An mmo designed like Oblivion? In your dreams! You will only find "theme-park" mmos at the moment I'm afraid and all of them are pretty lacking in depth and detail.

WoW and EQ2 do indeed have seamless worlds with instanced dungeons. They are not sandbox-style games though and they are not skill based either....well at least not to the level of Oblivion or Morrowind anyway. You just dont get a lot of choice in those games. I think cookie-cutter is perhaps the right phrase to use. You just complete the same shopping-list of quests along with all the other clones. They can be fun and very addictive though so if you havent tried either of them then I would say give them a shot. You can get free trials for both of them so you've got nothing to lose.

Ultima Online might be up your street as it is a sandbox game. I havent tried it myself through. Its very old now so I'm afraid it will look like crap.

EVE is probably the most intelligent and complex sandbox game around at the moment but it is very hard to get into. You will be also be extremely bored if you try and play it like any of the other mmos as the PvE content is very weak and repetitive. However as your avatar is basicly whatever spaceship you are flying then it might not appeal to you. I get the impression that you are after a fantasy mmo.

......basicly there just isnt much on offer at the moment. Try again in 5 years

Originally posted by benbizz

Originally posted by tollmart

Ultima online is a great game. it's old but still one of the best. it's sand box and skill based. I play vanguard and I love it. skill based, the more you swing you better you get.

Good luck in your search.

 

Most, if not all, MMORPGs are sandbox type games. If MMORPGs were linear the game would get very boring very quickly lol.

.....and thats exactly what DOES happen with most mmos. They get boring very quickly. Most of them are NOT sandbox games and yes they ARE linear. They are linear single-player style games that players can play co-operatively in a persistent world that never changes. In most mmos if you decide to create a new character and start in the same area you will be doing the same quests you did before. Sure you can pick and choose the quests you do (some games give you more choice than others) but the quests and how they are done will not change. The way we play mmos is pretty much the same way that we play single player games.

The only difference between true single player games and mmos is that in single player games you complete them when you have finished the quests and in mmos you complete them when you have reached the maximum level. Of course you can still wander around in an mmo at max level and participate in stuff but then that feature can be added to a single player game too.