General Discussion

Originally posted by Blodpls 

People are saying that's it's not a Eq/WoW clone, either they have extremely limited gaming experience or zero imagination, whatever they need to open their eyes and actually look at the game. 

Apparently you also have limited gaming experience.

Have you ever heard of Mythic's major MMO prior to the development of WAR? Dark Age of Camelot is neither a WoW or an EQ clone, a game entirely unique (for the most part, there are some things all games will contain no matter what), in this genre.

I don't disagree entirely that WAR is some flavor of clone of a current MMO, but if you're going to knock it for that, at least designate it correctly and call it a clone of DAoC.

Do "sandbox" games run the risk of being labeled as games that lack content and the only thing players can do is make up their own activities? :(

They wont stray from their regular formula. They have 10 million subscribers who like grinding for that next power-up item and raid dungeons over and over and over again to get that one item. Them making a sandbox game would be like McDonalds taking chicken(neck) McNuggets off the menu. WoW is the Linkin Park of MMORPGs.

Originally posted by curiindi

Do "sandbox" games run the risk of being labeled as games that lack content and the only thing players can do is make up their own activities? :(

ya, i guess they do

many people want to be led like sheep or told what to do

Originally posted by King-Kong

Originally posted by curiindi

Do "sandbox" games run the risk of being labeled as games that lack content and the only thing players can do is make up their own activities? :(

 

ya, i guess they do

many people want to be led like sheep or told what to do

No, I think it's that some people don't want to have to work in their games.

After a long day of work, many people just want some simple, relaxing entertainment to unwind, not spend huge amounts of effort, energy and creative juices just to play a game. Heck, one could argue that people with that to spare would be better off applying those things to real life, not a game.

Not everyone who plays games plays or has played World of Warcraft.  WoW players are actually in the minority when compared to all gamers worldwide, and it probably isn't even as popular as some other Wii, PS3, or XBox game.  Obviously, because of that fact, Blizzard should stop working on it immediately and appeal to the greater audience... .

First of all, WoW is a sandbox game for many people.  My brother's exclamation after playing WoW for a couple of months was "you can do anything you want in the game."  He just hasn't figured out (yet) that there are even bigger possibilities for an online game.

Second, just because something is in smaller demand than something else does not necessarily make the project with the smaller base a worse choice.  The smaller base may be longer lasting and more loyal when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising.  A project with steady & slowly increasing income can easily overtake one which has a lot of initial income but quickly declines. 

Third, for all the people saying sandbox is the minority style, why is EVE doing as well or better than many of the newer semi-sandbox MMOs that have come out, and unlike most of them is increasing subscriber numbers at a fairly steady rate?

Lastly, a genre name is supposed to mean something.  You don't just take the MMORPG genre, convert all your games to whatever is most popular, and call them "MMORPGs" because you want to appeal to a new crowd as well as an old loyal one.  As someone who played MMOs and MUDs extensively in the late 80s in college, then took a pretty long break before coming back, I can say that is exactly what has happened with MMORPGs.  Somehow, fantasy adventure and fantasy-baseball-like genres have been brought in and labelled "MMOG" (dropping the RP), as if redefining an entire genre was good strategy or even possible.  Because MMORPGs have historically been associated with sandbox-style gaming, it's causing a lot of confusion in the industry.

Ultimately the point is that the anti-sandbox crowd probably needs to get off their high horse, cause they are actually riding chihuahuas.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Originally posted by King-Kong

Originally posted by curiindi

Do "sandbox" games run the risk of being labeled as games that lack content and the only thing players can do is make up their own activities? :(

ya, i guess they do

many people want to be led like sheep or told what to do

No, I think it's that some people don't want to have to work in their games.

After a long day of work, many people just want some simple, relaxing entertainment to unwind, not spend huge amounts of effort, energy and creative juices just to play a game. Heck, one could argue that people with that to spare would be better off applying those things to real life, not a game.

well thats the beauty of a true sandbox, you do whatever you like

if you want to just sit there and run the sand through your fingers and toes thats fine too

Wow is the last sand box game...Aoc and War are IDK but not mmos...

nobody knows what sand box means anymore when wow is a sandbox compared to "modern mmos"