MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Brandon Stiles writes this look at the way that the game's developers mix the design philosophies of a linear theme park with ideas taken from a more sandboxy approach.

The other day, I was reading through some of the forums and I noticed an interesting thread about Aion being too linear in its game play. I thought this was an interesting topic as some people were saying that it should be more of an open / sandbox style game. While on the other side, people were expressing that they were fine with having some structure and guidance in the game. This got me thinking about what I feel an MMO world should be like.

Read Balancing the Linear and the Sandbox

This could have been any MMORPG out there. Yes, I'm playing Aion for sure.

The problem that I have with Aion, though it is the only game I am looking forward to playing and can easily imagine playing it for quite some time, is that the world seems so deliberate.

there isn't any sense of exploration.

in a game like Lineage 2 or Vanguard the worlds are large and there is a sense of "oh wow, what is that". Of course Vanguard takes it to a far greater extent than L2. But in aion, at leas up to the point that I got, lvl 22, the areas are carefully crafted so that there is no, hey, I think I'll go that direction for a while and perhaps I'll see something new.

I suppose what I"m trying to say is that the areas are very theme park. Very well constructed but with the idea that "this area supports these quests and here is a path to another area".

My preference is a far more open world. I'm essentially looking for the morrowind or obivion type of game world.

A good article. I like when you guys address the debates on the boards. :D 

I played till 30, Aion is so linear it makes WoW look like sandbox.

WARNING: Having to play same zones over and over for your 1-20 gameplay with all your alts WILL cause projectile vomiting.

Aion being a sandbox...right.

Personaly, I would be more carefull about credibility loss due fantasizing staff.

Just my 2 cents.

Nothing he called a sandbox element, was a sandbox element...

dude i like u articles, but i think NOW u done too hard on those mushrooms _

Maybe I misunderstood what sandbox meant but to me AION isnt it

Sandbox to me is not a large area to walk off into..but

- diverse range of activities to do not just fighting mobs

- ability to contruct and or alter the landscape in some way ie a city etc as if you were playing in a sand pit making sand castles

- a lot of customisation choices

if it doesnt meet those its not a sandbox to me..some games do or did..pre NGE SWG, UO being the most obvious..tale in the desert and probably even Second Life for extreme sand box

This article is nothing but advertising for Aion. I hope the author has been paid well. You need every single quest to not grind your way up. When doing every single quest and repeat 1005 with every single alt, this is as far away from a sandbox as you can be.

A sandbox would be a bunch of choices, which you simply don't have in Aion so far. You can choose to do all the quest or to grind grind grind. You don't have the choice to level here or there, doing this with you sorceror and come back later to do something else with you gladiator. You will do exactly the very same thing with you second, your third, your fourth and you fifth charakter.

There is no such thing as a sandbox in Aion. It might be somewhere in the future though. We will see. Why I talk about a fifth char? Because there is a hidden quest, you can only do, when you level five different chars up to lvl 30. When you have done that, come back and tell us about the sandbox.

Aion is a nice game though, much better than the article we discuss here.

Sad to see such comments that indicate they only read the title :( ( for the simple minded: never was mentioned that aion is pure sandbox ). Many even seem the misunderstand the concept of sandbox :s

It was a great read and more of an insight in the possibilitys of the sandbox type integration in mmorpgs.

Keep up the great work :)

It doesnt matter what MMOs u play m8 u will always to the same thing with 2nd char then 3rd char and so forth.

DAoc for example I had 8 lvl 50 in one realm and still and more in other realms

Its not the point that u have to do it all over again, the point is what u do when u get max lvl. even u Wow fellas have done the same thing loads of time maybe not the first 10 lvls but then u remembered u did get good xp in that zone over there, and u start doing same zones.

Daoc started when u hit 50.

Looking forward for loads of lvl 50 pvp/siege and slaughter and some pve raids from time to time. Point of this game is to beat the opposing faction into the ground.

Seriously hope for faction pride and hate, as the good old days of daoc

Ppl just nag to much imo

What an odd article.  I've taken time to read up a bit on Aion and absolutely nothing whatsoever in that games strikes me as sandbox style.  I will freely admit that it does appear to be a bit more feature rich than wow, but not by much.  Crappy crafting, no player housing, no player cities, linear quest progression (althoug the middle cataclysm zone or whatever the heck it's called sounds quite interesting), and the wow type resource system.  Nothing about that says sandbox to me.  So you can skip some quests?  Or find some side quests?  You could in wow too.

I realize that not everyone's idea of a sandbox is the same, so I'm not going to be a complete jerk here.  However, I will say this is probably the worst mmorpg.com article I've read and frankly I don't believe the author has much of a clue of what a sandbox is.  Let's just leave it at that.

Originally posted by Lureei

It doesnt matter what MMOs u play m8 u will always to the same thing with 2nd char then 3rd char and so forth.

Never played a sandbox, eh?  Or even a game outside of linear progression?  There *are* mmos that do not force you to level, you could even become a crafter and never leave your home city and never fight one mob.  Or become a politician and never fight one mob and never leave your player city.  Or you could be a fighter who never does one single quest but simply kills what it wants to.  In old pre-cu swg you couldn't even have a second character unless you bought and paid for a second account.  In eve, you can do missions, or join a corp and never do a mission, or become a miner and mine your way to riches without ever doing one mission.

There *are* other options.  It's a shame you're not familar with them.

i have played sandbox mmos, latest it was Darkfall but that game aint exactly sandbox imo

Also played EVE for around 2 years so yeah i know what a sandbox game is

ive played alot of MMO's and  IMO  .... i see things this way yes it could of been a bit more not  so  much flying time in the abyss are areas to get places im happy with a sweet teleport class or a scroll or a totem them port me all over as long as i am a certain lvl or something of that nature  

" it's too Ethereal flying rings! "

sand box

is WoW

!

enough said

we all understand your comment !

Originally posted by Sovrath

The problem that I have with Aion, though it is the only game I am looking forward to playing and can easily imagine playing it for quite some time, is that the world seems so deliberate.

there isn't any sense of exploration.

in a game like Lineage 2 or Vanguard the worlds are large and there is a sense of "oh wow, what is that". Of course Vanguard takes it to a far greater extent than L2. But in aion, at leas up to the point that I got, lvl 22, the areas are carefully crafted so that there is no, hey, I think I'll go that direction for a while and perhaps I'll see something new.

I suppose what I"m trying to say is that the areas are very theme park. Very well constructed but with the idea that "this area supports these quests and here is a path to another area".

My preference is a far more open world. I'm essentially looking for the morrowind or obivion type of game world.

Have you quested in WAR? I felt the same about that game, and would like to know if it's similar, because I didn't like it in WAR.

Aion isn't a sandbox game...in MY opinion, a sandbox game (of which there really AREN'T any right now - with EVE probably the closest) is a game that allows you to go anywhere, and do anything, and (this is important) CREATE anything.

Galaxies had many sandbox aspects, and some games that have come before and since as well (there was one in particular that is on the tip of my lips but I forget what its called)...even FE has promised a more sandbox experience through a complex crafting system...but all of the games are still limited by WHAT you can do and WHERE you can do it.

A true sandbox game would give the player a world in which they can create and destroy cities, build an empire, recruit an army, build any item that could be found in the game (or object, ect.), and actually still function...which would require very dynamic gameplay in order to keep the young-ones happy and entertained.

In short, we should stop hoping for a real sandbox mmo experience and just take what we can get... =/

aion is not a sandbox

Where do you get these wing ding correspondents?  I mean come on, Aion is about as far from a sandbox as fire is to water.

Dear Mr Stiles, sandbox games do not have classes and levels.  Aion does.  Next time look up the definition of a sandbox before you make yourself look silly discussing nonsense.

Aion is a well done theme park.  Let's leave it at that. 

in that one episode of shaman king that bad guy turned his fire element into a water element to defeat the x-laws.

so clearly that episode of shaman king proves aion is a sandbox >_>  or something.

im glad freebasing is allowed before coming up with an article idea. MMORPG.com is an equal opportunity employer.

Sandbox.  You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Dear Mr Stiles, sandbox games do not have classes and levels.  Aion does.  Next time look up the definition of a sandbox before you make yourself look silly discussing nonsense.

Hmmm the classes and levels have nothing to do with whether it's a sandbox or not, it's the structure of the game.

Please post this game definition that says omiting classes and levels makes a game sandbox.

No, I don't think AION is a sandbox either, not even close on a bad day.

Originally posted by laephis

Sandbox.  You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

Classic!  tyvm!