TheMittani: You’ve mentioned a desire for more sandbox MMOs in your Reddit AMA, and sandboxes are obviously a major draw for EVE players. Do you have plans for adding sandbox elements to PS2, and if so, would you like to discuss them? If there really is an untapped market for sandbox MMOs, why haven’t we seen more of them, besides Eve and SWG?

Source: http://themittani.com/features/mittani-interviews-soe-ceo-john-smedley

Many players will not be able look past the fact you're talking about SOE and The Mittani.  Two of our favorite super villians.

Originally posted by dave6660

Many players will not be able look past the fact you're talking about SOE and The Mittani.  Two of our favorite super villians.

I feared that initially, but then figured 'screw it' - this post is for the rest of us who find this stuff interesting. :)

Originally posted by Sephros
Player generated objectives are huge in the longevity of a game. Glad someone is starting to read whats been infront of them for a decade or more.

It's Smedley dude.  If you were talking to him about peanuts he'd praise the offering peanuts to players in mmorpgs and suggest that SOE is developing in that direction.

Originally posted by dave6660

Many players will not be able look past the fact you're talking about SOE and The Mittani.  Two of our favorite super villians.

As well as it being planetside 3.  I do not play FPS and I dont have the reflexes of young people so I prefer the slower paced style of MMO tab target combat.

Originally posted by Hazelle

Originally posted by Sephros
Player generated objectives are huge in the longevity of a game. Glad someone is starting to read whats been infront of them for a decade or more.

It's Smedley dude.  If you were talking to him about peanuts he'd praise the offering peanuts to players in mmorpgs and suggest that SOE is developing in that direction.

I've never seen Smed described so aptly.

Also Mittens isn't a troll, he's a professional bullshitter. There's a difference.

The bullshitter makes money.

I am sandboxer at heart but I just hope not all devs start to jump on sandbox bandwagon since it might burn bright and get dark quick again.

On the other hand let's  not forget that Smeadley  is CEO of company that first created great (but awfully bugged, not thought well enough and with few things that took way too long to fix = lke abandoned houses & cities) sandbox and then turned it into some weird and bad hybrid that drove off 80% of remaining players.

So kinda - I take his words with a huge bag of salt and time will see what will happen with P2 and it's sandbox elements- after few years.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by dave6660

Many players will not be able look past the fact you're talking about SOE and The Mittani.  Two of our favorite super villians.

I feared that initially, but then figured 'screw it' - this post is for the rest of us who find this stuff interesting. :)

It's not that the idea isn't interesting but that there is more to how SoE will implement it than Smedly is letting on.  With them it is rarely so simple as: here is a sandbox.

Just like their "F2P" model being a funnel into a subscription.  I want to hear more from him than the idea that giving players some freedom in their game play is the way forward.  Take, for example, the assertion that "THIS is content".  It's not content.  It's a canvas.  That, to me, is a fundamental difference between a themepark and a sandbox game.  The idea that he's still thinking about delivering content, albeit "player driven", should make one wonder if he really gets it.  Players don't necessarily need content to consume if they're given a little freedom.  I guess it depends on how you define "content" but overall I'm still very dubious.

It's a no brainer that a major part of the issue with longevity these days in mmos is due to the fact it is all scripted content and next to no actual longer term style community/player driven content.

When you churn out mmos akin to single player games, it's no wonder people lose interest in the rapidly.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

 

Think about this statement - If WoW had come out yesterday.. at what point would people be "done" with the content. We need to focus on game systems that are perpetual and give players a lot more control over what they can do rather than JUST putting yet another dragon in front of them with scripted content. We need to be doing both in order to be successful. And that's our plan.

Source: http://themittani.com/features/mittani-interviews-soe-ceo-john-smedley

good quote

Smed / SOE has a mixed history thats well deserved for its negatives but they do try new things

"You can call it sandbox but it's so much more than that. A good example is Player owned bases in Planetside 2. That's coming. We're going to make huge continents that are empty and have vast resources on them and players can fight it out and put down their own bases there and other players can come and obliterate them. Sound familiar EVE Players? Actually we had something like this in Star Wars Galaxies too. THAT is content"

and it takes him this long to realise they already had it years ago <shakes head and moves along>

I'm shocked.

He actually countered himself years ago...

He's grown!

SMED HAS GROWN ALL!

Rejoyce! They realize how much we "sandboxers" will play the crappiest games so long as it gives us freedom to choose.

Wait....err that's good isn't it?

EDIT: What makes me want to scream "Serenity now!" is the sheer fact he totally forgot he's the one who put the kill switch on "go" with SWG's sandbox elements in favor of a "Wow" gameplay.

So wrong Smed YOU didn't have jack. The early devs HAD jack. You know the guys who don't just direct work flow all day (shut up, that's all I do and I am in a lesser state of finiances than Smed..so yeah he just directs and talks).

He's a glorified media director. Just saying.

Growing up though!

Well, Smed's not a favorite of mine, (though never did me any harm, never really played SOE titles to any great length) but I will agree with his ideas that he put forth.

I don't think Planetside 2 is for me, (I'm just not a FPS sort of guy, too slow) but if these features continue to roll out more people will enjoy them and come to expect them in future titles.