My first MMO was a sandbox and ever since the Themepark style games took over the genre, I've been hoping that  we'd see the return of AAA sandbox titles.  

Now that we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,  I honestly don't think I'd be able to carve out enough time these days to really enjoy a sandbox style game.

Most of my buddies seem to be in the same boat which begs the question, are there enough people with the time (and patience) to make the possible resurgence of sandbox style games successful?

If a game is good you will make time for it regardless of game-style. It's as simple as that.

Stop beating the dead horse already with more pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads. This forum is plagued with thousands of them already. At this point Im surprised the mods have not created a sub-forum for these pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads

Originally posted by Nevulus

If a game is good you will make time for it regardless of game-style. It's as simple as that.

 

Stop beating the dead horse already with more pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads. This forum is plagued with thousands of them already. At this point Im surprised the mods have not created a sub-forum for these pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads

You seem very upset with the substance of my post yet you took the time to both read and reply to it.    

Sandbox doesn't have to be a horrible grind heavy time sink laden mess of a poorly designed game.

That's the first problem and why most quote "sandbox" titles fail so terribly.

No one really wants to go back to that.

People just want worlds, they want emergant, dynamic gameplay, and they want their actions to matter and have consequence.

None of those requirements mean it can't be an approachable, fun, intuitive, "easy to learn hard to master" casual type game as well as something a "hardcore" player could pour every waking hour into.

Originally posted by fat_taddler

Originally posted by Nevulus

If a game is good you will make time for it regardless of game-style. It's as simple as that.

 

Stop beating the dead horse already with more pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads. This forum is plagued with thousands of them already. At this point Im surprised the mods have not created a sub-forum for these pointless Sandbox vs Themepark threads

You seem very upset with the substance of my post yet you took the time to both read and reply to it.   

Atleast he was polite enough to read before posting..or atleast it seemed like he read . 

If its a well-made sandbox you won't have to spend immense amounts of time.

A well made sandbox, in contrast to FFA PvP sandboxes, allow all players to contribute and follow their own playstyle.

My ideal sandbox has fully conquerable and defendable contested areas for conquerors, explorers and crafters, non-pvp areas for roleplaying, and PvE areas for raiding dungeons and world bosses and rare monsters...

Kinda like Vanguard with contested areas. TBH, Vanguard is a pretty spot on iteration of my favorite MMO, just needs contested clusters ... oh yea, and 5000 times the population...

M

He took the time to read but missed the part to "undetstand" what he rad.

And to answer you topic question, as a parent now i really wouldn't have the time to

play a true sandbox,probably the reason why i'm forced to play themepark style.

I'm feeling lucky cause there is no any "true" sandbox (at least not MMO) so i can have time to play crap

I play for a few hours....  when the wife and kids are sleeping.

I want to play a sandbox. I'm just sick of the Theme Park model. Bouncing quest hub to quest hub feels more like reading a bad book.

Sometimes I just want to shift the engine in neutral and do my own thing. I can't do that in most of these games. It's either raid or some type of pvp battleground. No thanks.

Originally posted by fat_taddler

My first MMO was a sandbox and ever since the Themepark style games took over the genre, I've been hoping that  we'd see the return of AAA sandbox titles.  

Now that we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,  I honestly don't think I'd be able to carve out enough time these days to really enjoy a sandbox style game.

Most of my buddies seem to be in the same boat which begs the question, are there enough people with the time (and patience) to make the possible resurgence of sandbox style games successful?

 

I think about this too.

I'm an oldtime gamer as well. Looking around and reading the writing on the walls, I should have moved on long ago. I guess I'm waiting for a sandbox as well. But things are different now in my life since EQ/SWG.

With that said, I think that I play sandboxes differently than themeparks. In sandboxes, I never felt the need to rush. Maybe because there was no end in sight. I dunno. But with themeparks, I do feel rushed. I think it's because, they are easy like single player games. Also, I can see the finishline before I create my character. With sandboxes, there is no finishline.

So, sandboxes are more time consuming and that makes me play more laidback. Which might actually work out for me IRL.

Hope that makes sense. It's hard for me to descibe my thoughts about this because some of it is conflicting.

We won't know until a good sandbox comes out. I just hope it's a great one, not some half-assed game they drop and say "there ya go, you want a sandbox, well, here's your chance".

TLDR: Don't make a mistake thinking you're going to be able to rush through all the content of a good sandbox like you would a themepark, sandboxes don't work that way.

Originally posted by fat_taddler

My first MMO was a sandbox and ever since the Themepark style games took over the genre, I've been hoping that  we'd see the return of AAA sandbox titles.  

Now that we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,  I honestly don't think I'd be able to carve out enough time these days to really enjoy a sandbox style game.

Most of my buddies seem to be in the same boat which begs the question, are there enough people with the time (and patience) to make the possible resurgence of sandbox style games successful?

 

It isn't about having enough time. It's the rush mentality that people have gotten. Perhaps even unknowing.

People shouldn't put on this time presure on themselfs, a MMORPG (most of the time) isn't going anywhere soon. There is plenty of "time", what?.... you didn't reach a level today, great....tomorrow another chance.

If it's a sandbox game there should be plenty of things to do even for small short play bursts.

So yeah I do have time for a true sandbox MMORPG, I just wouldn't be able to play allot during week day's and off and on on the weekends for some more playtime. But that has alway's been the beauty of a sandbox type of MMoRPG for me to spend my time when ever I would have the time.

Obviously it all depends on what you expect out of your "sandbox" game experiance and your playstyle.

Originally posted by Meridion

If its a well-made sandbox you won't have to spend immense amounts of time.

A well made sandbox, in contrast to FFA PvP sandboxes, allow all players to contribute and follow their own playstyle.

My ideal sandbox has fully conquerable and defendable contested areas for conquerors, explorers and crafters, non-pvp areas for roleplaying, and PvE areas for raiding dungeons and world bosses and rare monsters...

Kinda like Vanguard with contested areas. TBH, Vanguard is a pretty spot on iteration of my favorite MMO, just needs contested clusters ... oh yea, and 5000 times the population...

M

I would like to play VG but I don't because of the population and I like to open-world PVP at times and the danger of others.

But yes, everything else is nice.

I agree with what some others have said here, sandbox does not necessarily mean time sink.  That said, I did play Precu SWG more than any other mmo.  I think it had more to do with my love of the game than the time sinks though.

Would I have enough time to play Precu SWG today?  Yeah, but I'd have to cut back on my forum time here :)

Farm when I have time, usually late nights or off hours when I'm not working and can't sleep.  Craft when I have enough mats to do so.  Explore when I don't feel like farming.  Hopefully find a friendly guild for a bit of community interaction outside of selling my crafted stuff.

I would have no reason to play anything else.

Time? if you get addicted you're screwed. If you know how to control yourself, you have no problems.

Sandbox are made so you can play the game when you want. No staying up for 3 hours at night raiding etc...unless you're raiding, which is boring.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.