It most certainly is what we want,however i beleive devs know it as well,but they are not about to put in the effort.

Recent game designs i have seen look really pathetic,it is like the devs/board get together and try to figure out the cheapest way to make a game stick and turn the largest profit possible.

To begin with a WORLD involves what i have been asking for awhile,versatile NPC's NOT these 3 possible choice questions with some minimal change/motive depending on your choice,that is too cheap/fabricated and eventually predictable.

I also have been asking for an ECO system for a very long time.

problems arise however,vast amounts of complex AI equals way too many memory resources.

I beleive there is a possible answer,IF we believe what marketing has been telling us.They CLAIM that the Physx engines/code can help speed up graphics and lower the load.if true then it opens up more room to give us better Ai.

this would allow more NPC's to roam and an ECO system.What i am afraid of is it stil lwould mean LESS of.Examplke less objects,less effects/animations,less people per zone/server and more use of those VIRTUAL/instance servers we have seen,that i do not like.

PhysX is also suppose to allow for destructive surfaces and realistic surfaces to happen without that huge resource draw.That means realistic leather/metal/effects.

It all comes down to TIME spent on game development and SYSTEMS and IF they are willing to spend on licenses to attain use  of code liek the PhysX engine.

Trends have shown us the devs are NOT willing to go that extra effort,they instead want to keep on churning out CHEAP linear questing with a hint of some SMALL really meaningless end game raiding or PVP.NEITHER are really important to a realsitic RPG atmosphere,so in reality developers are NOTG making very good Role Playing games.They are simply giving us what they have seen sells the best,so profit over quality.

---

Originally posted by Lobotomist
I think that its high time for game companies that want to make MMOs to understand one simple thing about MMO player :

We dont want games - we want worlds.

 

We have millions of games - Halo , Super Mario , Starcraft , Monkey Island , Baldurs Gate ... to note few genre stars.

Now they want to take these games and add multiplayer aspect - and slap brand this MMORPG.

This my friends is the themepark world. And the direction its moving ( we are seeing mmofps , mmo platformer , mmo sport , even mmo adventure - beside more traditional mmorpg approach )

 

But this is not what we are here for ... not what we wanted...

When I played games before the era of internet , this was not what I dreamed of - Super Mario with oter people playing.

No.

What I dreamed was Ultima Online

This dream was shared in developer community that was young and not GREED oriented as today.

And than it stopped. Because its easier to just make a game and add multiplayer element.

And we have what we have today. Shallow abominations. Most laughable of which would be MMOs that came 2012. Basically Single player games with other people running around.

This. That much is obvious - will not fly anymore.

 

We want worlds.

You can call it sandbox. I call it Virtual world simulation games.

Worlds that have its rules , its economy , its inhabitants , its dangers , its politics - and than we are put inside - and become part of them.

 

Sadly only good and sucessful modern example of this is EVE online.

The game that caters bit to much to agressive player.... but there is so much potential around.

 

Will we ever see it ?
 

 

---

This is not at all what I want. This may be what you want, but since you said "we", I felt the need to reply.

Complex living "worlds" require lifelike time investments. This is something I cannot provide. If Ultima Online were released tomorrow, I would not play it.

I think the number of players who can afford to play 40 hours a week are just a fraction of the playerbase, and for good reason. No thanks.

Originally posted by Size-Twelve

 

Complex living "worlds" require lifelike time investments. This is something I cannot provide. If Ultima Online were released tomorrow, I would not play it.

I think the number of players who can afford to play 40 hours a week are just a fraction of the playerbase, and for good reason. No thanks.

My feeling exactly - as much as I loved UO I just don't have that much time. This is why themeparks shine, they can be played in small time periods with very defined goals, so a player feels they've accomplished something even if they play 30min a week. Guess what that same player would feel in a huge sandbox game.

we are living in increasingly accelerated world, time is becoming more precious than ever, and that is the biggest obstacle to sandbox games - they cater to the players of last decade, we have moved on.

Originally posted by Size-Twelve

 

This is not at all what I want. This may be what you want, but since you said "we", I felt the need to reply.

Complex living "worlds" require lifelike time investments. This is something I cannot provide. If Ultima Online were released tomorrow, I would not play it.

I think the number of players who can afford to play 40 hours a week are just a fraction of the playerbase, and for good reason. No thanks.

"Lifelike time investments"? What a load!

I've been playing world style MMOs for many years and I've never put in that kind of time with any of them. I've always been competitive (sure it may take me a little longer to pull off) and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. The fact that you think you need to play these games like a full time job is laughable. Give me a break.

---

Originally posted by Cecropia

---

Originally posted by Size-Twelve   This is not at all what I want. This may be what you want, but since you said "we", I felt the need to reply. Complex living "worlds" require lifelike time investments. This is something I cannot provide. If Ultima Online were released tomorrow, I would not play it. I think the number of players who can afford to play 40 hours a week are just a fraction of the playerbase, and for good reason. No thanks.

---

"Lifelike time investments"? What a load!

I've been playing world style MMOs for many years and I've never put in that kind of time with any of them. I've always been competitive (sure it may take me a little longer to pull off) and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. The fact that you think you need to play these games like a full time job is laughable. Give me a break.

---

I don't believe you. While the number of hours (40+) may vary, it's no secret that hardcore "word-style" games require huge time investments. To disagree with that, is just ignoring the mechanics behind the genre. I'm thinking of games like original EQ and EvE.

The OP cited EvE as a good example of what he was after. When I played, Eve was punishing in the time investment required to accomplish anything. Again, no thanks.

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

---

Originally posted by Banaghran
Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.

 

And you still see only the numbers you want.

But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer.

Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC.

The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates.

We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce.

Flame on!

:)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing.

When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games.

When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme.

When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work.

Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.

 

How very nice of you to supply an example.

Flame on!

:)

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.

Flame on!

:)

---

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.

 

Flame on!

:)

---

If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game. Especially given that players of sandboxes or world centric games tend to play longer the the two or three months that you get out of theme park games.

Even removing WoW from the picture, there's no particular reason to think a sandbox style game would be anymore successful than a theme park game, and a theme park game will pull in more players initially, generating more revenue.

Until the cost drops, developers will not be able to justify the expense of writing a sandbox style game. Not in the U.S. anyway. You can write them in Hungary, and apparently in Asia, no problem. Just not for the U.S.

 

I wonder what would compell you to elaborate TWICE on the feasibility of some new sandbox direction to mmorpg design as a reply to a post essentially saying "you are obsessing too much with sandboxes just to have something to argue about, lets talk about TBC and themepark features"...

Hmm?

Flame on!

:)

Edit: side note, back in 2009, when many people were upset with the heading of wow, someone calculated that around 8 million people play mmos which feature the things what were being changed or removed at that time as major features. While i imagine much has changed in 3 years, your statement that "Even removing wow from the picture...." is quite bold.

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.

 

Flame on!

:)

---

If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game.
 

I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

Originally posted by erikk3189

Basically, the OP is talking about a game like SWG (pre NGE).

SWG was way ahead of it's time. They had things that you don't see anymore which is why they had such a hardcore following and people went mad when they changed the game.

The amount of social options that game had was very large which made it so much fun. Sad to say, they took it off and no other game has come close to duplicating some of the things from back then.

Yes that is exactly what the OP is talking about. And mind you SWG was not the first with such a gameplay. UO was the first and very much like SWG (both had same designers).

I played WoW for some time, I do nto get when people say you can play 30 min a week...You canot progress with 30 min a week...even in a themepark.

The argument that themeparks require less time per game session is flawed and simply not true. Unless any of you can show us how you could do Molten Core in vanilla in 30 minutes.

Or not even Moletn Core, any of the vanilla Instances, heck lets not even talk about 60 Instances.. sunken temple...in 30 minytes? LOL...

Not even Dead Mines you could not finish in 30 minutes...this is preposterous.

When some of us say we want a gamethat we can play for a long time, it does not mean we want a game where we will have to play 8 hours a day to even get an inch of a sence of progression. This was how EQ was...a themepark nevertheless.

In fact, you could play SWG for 30 minutes if that is all what you had, go around restock your vendors, or gather ressources from your hervesters. Anything else yes required more time like any other MMO, Themepark or sandbox.

Yet, the larger point is, if you only can play 30 minutes a week...then why play an MMO? Play a single player game or one of the not reall MMO's out there, such as WoT...stick to that Sub-type of MMO.

Your not obligated to play the Sandbox MMO, but that does not mean that they should not be made...for those that can and want to play them and those that have more than 30 minutes time per week to play them.

Why should we all be obliged to play MMOS made for the people who only have 30 minutes a week to play a game in the first place, when there are many alternatives for you guys?

This argument of time per session versus the justification of making a sandbox is irrelevant.

What the OP and those that agree with the OP really want is an MMO that has meaning and can have long term fun,  even if I can play 2-4 hours a week, I can play that game for more than a year with my friends. And themeparks do not provide this without becoming like EQ which is even worse.

Sandboxes are not focussed on progression, they are focussed on adventure which means many aspects/elements together. So the player gets to have much more flexibility and diversity of options, which provides fun for a much longer term than repeating the same thing over and over for 2 months to get to cap level and according tothe player's availability.

---

Originally posted by DavisFlight

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.   Flame on! :)

---

If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game.  

---

I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

---

Originally posted by lizardbones

 Rift sold more accounts than UO, SWG and Eve combined. 

Really? How come?

Last thing that was announced was 1mil sold copies for rift, 600k peak subs after launch (for a month or two).

Then we have swg 550 peak subs, UO 250k peak subs, Eve 600k subs.

Everyone doctors the numbers a bit when he tries to make a point, but come on.

What stock "information" will we hear next?

That no "sandbox" ever broke 1m players?

That the only mmorpg to ever have millions of subs is wow?

Flame on!

:)

Originally posted by Banaghran

Originally posted by lizardbones

 Rift sold more accounts than UO, SWG and Eve combined. 

Really? How come?

Last thing that was announced was 1mil sold copies for rift, 600k peak subs after launch (for a month or two).

Then we have swg 550 peak subs, UO 250k peak subs, Eve 600k subs.

Everyone doctors the numbers a bit when he tries to make a point, but come on.

What stock "information" will we hear next?

That no sandbox ever broke 1m players?

That the only mmorpg to ever have millions of subs is wow?

Flame on!

:)

Wat?

UO peaked at 250k, correct, but SWG actually peaked at 300k and Eve is holding at 350k. Forget doctoring. Are you trying to feed false information to win an argument? You're despicable...

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

SWTOR probably still has more subs than Eve. And Runescape. And Aion. And GW2 is probably near the top still. What about Secret World? Where do they stand?

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

---

Originally posted by DavisFlight

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.   Flame on! :)

---

If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game.  

---

I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

---

Theme Park games sell more accounts than sandbox games. Rift sold more accounts than UO, SWG and Eve combined. SWToR sold more accounts that UO, SWG and Eve combined. Ditto for GW2, though GW2 has no subscription. Theme parks sell more games than sandboxes. This doesn't even take WoW into consideration.

Unless some individual fronts the money it costs to develop a sandbox MMORPG, so that the publishers don't care about the revenue, the potential revenue of the game must be considered as relevant. Nobody wants to run a game at cost for twelve years on the chance that it might make money. This is what Eve did. It make zip for years until they finally broke even.

Or, the development costs for the games need to drop to the point that an indie game developer can produce games without having to worry too much about what game publishers want.

Money, as development costs or revenue generated is the stumbling block to sandbox games.

 

This is a false assumption now days.

UO launched 15 years ago....we connected to it with Dial Up modems, High Speed connections did not even exist back then. The Internet itself had a fraction of the population it has today. MMO's were really for the Creme de la Creme of gamers...

From a Report in: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Internet-broadband-and-cell-phone-statistics/Report.aspx

1995 15% of US population has access to the Internet

1997 (when UO came out) 25% of US population has access to the Internet.

2004 (when WoW released) 63% of US population has access to the Internet

2010 73% of the US population has access to the internet

And this is only in the US...

Some world Wide Statistics: http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm

In 1997 there were 70 Million Internet Users

In 2004 there were 817 Million Users

in 2012 there are 2.4 Billion Internet Users.

So assuming that Sandboxes get less people by basing yourself in a number from 15 years ago and comparing it to today's numbers where the interenet is a whole different reality is a flawed conclusion.

Comparativelly with some stat from http://mmodata.blogspot.ca/

UO had 100k Subs in the first 6 months. This represents 0.14% of the Internet Population at the time.

WoW had 500k Subs in the first 6 months. This represents 0.06% of the internet Population at the time.

Ultima Online was much more popular and successfull than WoW when it launched.

So just looking atthe totals and say oh they have more..without taking under consideration that there were much less gamers online at the time of Ultima and much more gamers online atthe time of WoW, and the deriving at the conclusion that Sandboxes are less popular than Themeparks is erroneous.

UO not only puts to shame in this comparison WoW but all the games that came out since WoW.

Originally posted by Suraknar

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by DavisFlight

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Originally posted by lizardbones  

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Originally posted by Banaghran

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Originally posted by lizardbones  

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Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

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No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

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How very nice of you to supply an example.   Flame on! :)

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If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game.  

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I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

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Theme Park games sell more accounts than sandbox games. Rift sold more accounts than UO, SWG and Eve combined. SWToR sold more accounts that UO, SWG and Eve combined. Ditto for GW2, though GW2 has no subscription. Theme parks sell more games than sandboxes. This doesn't even take WoW into consideration.

Unless some individual fronts the money it costs to develop a sandbox MMORPG, so that the publishers don't care about the revenue, the potential revenue of the game must be considered as relevant. Nobody wants to run a game at cost for twelve years on the chance that it might make money. This is what Eve did. It make zip for years until they finally broke even.

Or, the development costs for the games need to drop to the point that an indie game developer can produce games without having to worry too much about what game publishers want.

Money, as development costs or revenue generated is the stumbling block to sandbox games.

 

This is a false assumption now days.

UO launched 15 years ago....we connected to it with Dial Up modems, High Speed connections did not even exist back then. The Internet itself had a fraction of the population it has today. MMO's were really for the Creme de la Creme of gamers...

 

From a Report in: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Internet-broadband-and-cell-phone-statistics/Report.aspx

1995 15% of US population has access to the Internet

1997 (when UO came out) 25% of US population has access to the Internet.

2004 (when WoW released) 63% of US population has access to the Internet

2010 73% of the US population has access to the internet

And this is only in the US...

Some world Wide Statistics: http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm

In 1997 there were 70 Million Internet Users

In 2004 there were 817 Million Users

in 2012 there are 2.4 Billion Internet Users.

So assuming that Sandboxes get less people by basing yourself in a number from 15 years ago and comparing it to today's numbers where the interenet is a whole different reality is a flawed conclusion.

 

Do you know how many times i have tried to explain this to people.

200-500k subs back then with inflation blows most all the newer mmo's out of the water ;)

You can not compare a 2013 car to a 1930 car, just not realistic.

Originally posted by Onomas

Originally posted by Suraknar

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by DavisFlight

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran

---

Originally posted by lizardbones  

---

Originally posted by Banaghran Yes, because the only choice is wotlk and eve, nothing else, we have no other game, no other systems, no other choices.   And you still see only the numbers you want. But the problem is not money in these arguments, the problem is that you and other arguers constrantly try to move this into the area of purist sandboxes just to try to push your point across and smash everyone with quaint gameplay they offer. Where in reality most of "us" would be happy (or atleast satisfied with, if not happy) with TBC. The difference is small, the devil lies in the detail, more specifically we are arguing McDonalds vs a cheap diner, the difference between having a steak or not, between having your food wrapped in boxes or served on plates. We are not suggesting a fancy italian restaurant with meals you cannot pronounce. Flame on! :)

---

No, because that's how it is. The minimum buy in for writing an MMORPG is ten million dollars and five years of labor. It doesn't matter what kind of MMORPG you plan on writing, that's the minimum buy in. Kurt Schilling blew forty five million dollars of his own money and got an iffy single player RPG and some art assets for an MMORPG. Dominus, formerly Dominus: Battle for Prime went through ten million dollars and got nothing. I would have to research it, but the Earthrise dev went through millions of dollars and developed a non-functional game...essentially nothing. When ten million dollars just gets you in the door, money is the single biggest road block to getting a game written. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have people desperately using KickStarter to get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to write Tech Demos so they could get a company to actually write their games. When the biggest road block to getting a game written is money, you have to have something that says the game will make money. It's not relevant if that something is a fancy Italian Restaurant, or if it's a license to a chain of restaurants, or if it's a ponzi scheme. When the development costs drop to the point that an indie developer can write an MMORPG or even better, when newbie developers can experiment with MMORPG development in a time frame that isn't forever, we'll see some fast changes and more variety. Until then, developers are going to go with what works. They'll make little changes to differentiate themselves from other games, but mostly they're doing to stick to formulas that work. Of course, things could go in the opposite direction. Development costs remain the same, but the money being put into the games just keeps getting bigger. I've heard that TSO's development costs are in the neighborhood of three hundred million dollars. In that direction you're still going to get known formulas, you're just hopefully going to get more of them in the same game.  

---

How very nice of you to supply an example.   Flame on! :)

---

If developers thought a sandbox game, with a well developed world would have enough of an audience to justify a ten to fifty million dollar expense, they'd write that game.  

---

I don't think you understand how the market works, then. The devs don't make the decisions, the publishers do. Three of the most popular MMORPGs of all time (UO, SWG, Eve) were sandboxes, but because they were not THE most popular MMO of all time, publishers don't care. Publishers don't understand or care about MMOs. They are bred and trained to look at the most popular game (WoW) and copy it. If they looked at the second most popular game, Eve, they'd probably go "that seems hard, just copy WoW"

---

Theme Park games sell more accounts than sandbox games. Rift sold more accounts than UO, SWG and Eve combined. SWToR sold more accounts that UO, SWG and Eve combined. Ditto for GW2, though GW2 has no subscription. Theme parks sell more games than sandboxes. This doesn't even take WoW into consideration.

Unless some individual fronts the money it costs to develop a sandbox MMORPG, so that the publishers don't care about the revenue, the potential revenue of the game must be considered as relevant. Nobody wants to run a game at cost for twelve years on the chance that it might make money. This is what Eve did. It make zip for years until they finally broke even.

Or, the development costs for the games need to drop to the point that an indie game developer can produce games without having to worry too much about what game publishers want.

Money, as development costs or revenue generated is the stumbling block to sandbox games.

 

This is a false assumption now days.

UO launched 15 years ago....we connected to it with Dial Up modems, High Speed connections did not even exist back then. The Internet itself had a fraction of the population it has today. MMO's were really for the Creme de la Creme of gamers...

 

From a Report in: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Internet-broadband-and-cell-phone-statistics/Report.aspx

1995 15% of US population has access to the Internet

1997 (when UO came out) 25% of US population has access to the Internet.

2004 (when WoW released) 63% of US population has access to the Internet

2010 73% of the US population has access to the internet

And this is only in the US...

Some world Wide Statistics: http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm

In 1997 there were 70 Million Internet Users

In 2004 there were 817 Million Users

in 2012 there are 2.4 Billion Internet Users.

So assuming that Sandboxes get less people by basing yourself in a number from 15 years ago and comparing it to today's numbers where the interenet is a whole different reality is a flawed conclusion.

 

Do you know how many times i have tried to explain this to people.

200-500k subs back then with inflation blows most all the newer mmo's out of the water ;)

You can not compare a 2013 car to a 1930 car, just not realistic.

 

Very true. Indeed it does!

     Who cares who has more subs.. really...  This is just an unfounded argument that more = better.. That just isn't the case..  McDonald's sells more then any Restaurant, but hat doesn't make them the best burgers on the planet..  Facebook games technically have more accounts then even WoW by far, but that doesn't mean they are better games to play.. As my grandfather used to say so many years ago, "Sinple things that entertain the simple mind"..  There is alot of truth in that if you think about it..   This might explain why more people play checkers instead of chess.. Or why more people play "go fish" instead of bridge..

Anyways..