The problem with that statement is that it's rather misleading and not because they're trying to lie to people.  I was there at SOE live when they made this announcement.  However, they then went on to explain what "sandbox" means to them by the virtue of giving examples of the sorts of gameplay they want to encourage.  If i remember correctly, there were 3 or 4 examples:

1.  PvP like Planetside 2.

2.  Decorating and getting players to create decorative items like in EQ2.

3.  Dungeon Maker from EQ2.

So yeah.. if they deliver 100% on these being the key features, I won't touch the game.  Mostly because...

1.  I don't PvP, so i don't really care.  Other than EVE, no MMO has ever done PvP in a way that was actually immersive and complementary to the experience, so I couldn't care less.  Generally the fact that the game has a PvP focus is already a huge negative.

2.  Decorating a house is nice.  But it doesn't make or break the game.  It's a bonus feature.

3.  Dungeon maker in EQ2, while cool in theory is probably the biggest waste of developer resources and players' time that SOE has ever created.

If you look at things that made the best Sanbox games (SWG, EVE), they have to do with world interaction, politics, non-combat professions and dynamically changing worlds.  None of these things were mentioned by SOE.  

So yes, they may very well make what THEY THINK is "the world's biggest sandbox game", but before you start cheering, I would check on whether their definition is anywhere near everyone else's.

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

Originally posted by rungard

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

 

Originally posted by rungard

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

 

Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

Originally posted by rungard

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

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Originally posted by arieste

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Originally posted by rungard 8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it it has to be reborn.  

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Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

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Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by rungard

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

 

Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

Originally posted by Rimmersman

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by rungard

8 years oo late:  EQ2 killed it

it has to be reborn.

 

Considering that 8 years after its launch, EQ2 remains one of the best MMOs on the market and is about to get its 9th expansion while EQ1 is about to get its (?) 19th... i somehow doubt that this franshise is dead.  Name any other active MMO franchise with 2 games more than 8 years old each and with more than 5 expacs each. 

 

I dont think that he thinks it's dead but more so that EQ2 was far away from EQ. EQ2 is a great MMO but many EQ players don't think it really lives up to the real feeling of EQ. The most obvious being the world lay out and the classes.As i said Vanguard shares many things that are closer to EQ than EQ2 especially the classes.

Yep, absolutely it was.  And thank god.  You shouldn't remake the same game 10 years later just because you remember it fondly.  Most of the "EQ1 throwbacks" in Vanguard are what dragged it down - retarded ideas by a lead designer that had too much ego to acknowledge 10 years of progress in the genre. 

I love EQ2, but i certainly hope that EQ3 doesn't just remake EQ2 with a new engine.  I already have EQ2 (and WoW and LoTRO and WAR and Rift and TOR, etc, etc) for that.  I hope EQ3 is as different from EQ2 as EQ2 was from EQ1.   New MMOs need to be new and to progress the genre.  We've already seen how bad things are when everyone makes the exact same game for 10 years (Thanks WoW!)

Originally posted by Adamai
i seriously doubt it will be bigger than eve - online world.  that game is truely emmence in scale.  over 6500 systems/shards each system being a around 20-40 au in diameter. thats 6500 areas. no game has that. and should a sandbox rpg ever get that kind of scale, the players will feel lost inside it.

Wish Eve players would be more realistic with the claims about their beloved e-commerce game.

Eve is huge... but it is a vast empty

It takes a lot time to traverse distance... but it's all automated

If you tracked Eve's playerbase activity in each area and mapped those areas as the game world i think you would find the size is probably smaller than most fantasy MMOs.

Originally posted by arieste

Yep, absolutely it was.  And thank god.  You shouldn't remake the same game 10 years later just because you remember it fondly.  Most of the "EQ1 throwbacks" in Vanguard are what dragged it down - retarded ideas by a lead designer that had too much ego to acknowledge 10 years of progress in the genre.

Yet, it's a mistake bad developers just keep right on makin'.

And gamers too, it it ain't Just Like WoW, it will not be allowed to succeed.  If it is Just Like WoW, we'll dismiss it as a Clone.

Originally posted by ImixZinz

Originally posted by Adamai
i seriously doubt it will be bigger than eve - online world.  that game is truely emmence in scale.  over 6500 systems/shards each system being a around 20-40 au in diameter. thats 6500 areas. no game has that. and should a sandbox rpg ever get that kind of scale, the players will feel lost inside it.

 

Wish Eve players would be more realistic with the claims about their beloved e-commerce game.

 

Eve is huge... but it is a vast empty

It takes a lot time to traverse distance... but it's all automated

If you tracked Eve's playerbase activity in each area and mapped those areas as the game world i think you would find the size is probably smaller than most fantasy MMOs.

 

I agree with this, when all is said and done EVE is not really that big, especially compared to MMOs like Vanguard.

When I heard EQN was redesigned as a sandbox, I chuckled. I love sandbox games, to the bottom of my core. SOE maimed a game that I truly cherished. SWG. I didn't believe SOE would make EQN into a sandbox.

Then I saw that Smed openly apologized for SWG, and that EQN would make vet's feel right at home. In that moment; my heart stopped. SOE created SWG, they could do it again, but would they?

I would like them to rewind to the pre-Luclin EQ days and then have them look forward into the what if the direction of design went in a different direction. The original EQ was basically bare bones and there is so much it was lacking and many things that I would never want to replay, but it did a number of things right that have not been repeated in any modern MMO.