I'm not going to comment on most of the OP because most of it is personal opinion and quite frankly it reads like an advertisement--just as exaggerated and lacking any real meaning.

However, how can you honestly say that there is no handholding when 90% of the time the game places a marker on the map and on the UI, showing you exactly where to go?

Also, there is no such thing as a "sandpark." It's either a themepark or a sandbox and TSW is a themepark game through and through. EVE, UO and old SWG are sandbox games. TSW does not share any features with them.

Originally posted by heartless

However, how can you honestly say that there is no handholding when 90% of the time the game places a marker on the map and on the UI, showing you exactly where to go?

Also, there is no such thing as a "sandpark." It's either a themepark or a sandbox and TSW is a themepark game through and through. EVE, UO and old SWG are sandbox games. TSW does not share any features with them.

I agree with your first point about the OP.  It's quite overenthusiastic (among other things that are wrong with it).

On the other hand, i disagree with pretty much everything else you said.  

Handholding can be defined in different ways.  EVE also places a marker on map and UI for just about everything, but it's probably the MMO with the LEAST "handholding" out of any i've played.  Map markers don't really mean much on their own.

I also completely disagree with your point about "sandpark".  I believe it's quite vice versa - that there is no such thing as "sandbox" (second life comes close i guess) and "themepark" (DDO comes pretty close) - but rather that all games are somewhere in the middle of that continuum, with some obviously being closer to one side than another.

Finally,  I also disagree with you last point about TSW not sharing any features with EVE and SWG.   It shares some very key things with EVE - the main being the character development system that is completely unrestricted, based around horizontal (as well as vertical) progression and allows for one character to fill any role based on deck and gear loadout.  EVE is one of the only games out there that works the same way.   Another key feature it shares with EVE is that your exploration direction is also horizontal - you can go anywhere to do anything.  (Yes, there are QL restrictions in TSW and similar gear Tier restrictions and mission levels in EVE, so really it's pretty similar.)    SWG's character development  model was much more "themepark" than TSW's, but it still felt similar since even though you were limited in your classes, you could combine different things in a variety of ways.      

For the record: i'm no way arguing that TSW is a sandbox game - it's not.  But to say that it doesn't share any key features with EVE and/or SWG is just plain ignorance as one of the key features of the game (character progression) is more akin to those games than anything else on the market. 

P.S.  Does anyone know when the term "themepark" originated in regards to MMOs?  The first time i ever heard it used was in relation to the "Jabba's Palace Themepark" area of SWG.

For me it feels like a cross between X-files and a Stephen King novel. Very engaging.

And I agree that it may take some time to grow on you. I didn't enjoy it at all during the first beta weekend, but it got better further in.

I like most of the movies on the "favorite movie" list in the original post, and I LOVED The Longest Journey, and yet TSW did nothing for me at all. I didn't enjoy my 40 hours of beta, and I still bought it (against my better judgement but because I found it on the cheap and my friends bought it for some reason...) and I have not liked my 25+ hours of live. I simply can not carry on beyond Blue Mountain with the way I feel about the game.

Not knocking those who like it, but the criteria set by the first few posts of this thread are not always the case...

Edit - I also have loved HP Lovecraft for most of my life since I started reading, as well as Poe and King. So that really didn't have much effect on my enjoyment of the game either.

Originally posted by arieste

*snip*

Sandboxes are games that promote emergent gameplay aka player created content. Themeparks are not. The skill systems themselves have very little to do with whether the game is a sandbox or a themepark.

UO and EVE thrive on player created content. TSW does very little to support it.

Edit: cut out the quote.

Originally posted by heartless

Originally posted by arieste

*snip*

Sandboxes are games that promote emergent gameplay aka player created content. Themeparks are not. The skill systems themselves have very little to do with whether the game is a sandbox or a themepark.

UO and EVE thrive on player created content. TSW does very little to support it.

Edit: cut out the quote.

According to your definition of sandbox, you are correct.  No further argument from me.

Originally posted by arieste

If you're ever watching a movie like "The Da Vinci Code", "Indiana Jones" or even "National Treasure" and at some point you're thinking (at the characters):  "you fucking idiot, the clues are right there!  can't you see what's going on?!"  

 

Then you will probably enjoy TSW :)

But the clues don't highlight themselves with a yellow outline in those movies like they do in TSW ...

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by arieste

If you're ever watching a movie like "The Da Vinci Code", "Indiana Jones" or even "National Treasure" and at some point you're thinking (at the characters):  "you fucking idiot, the clues are right there!  can't you see what's going on?!"  

 

Then you will probably enjoy TSW :)

But the clues don't highlight themselves with a yellow outline in those movies like they do in TSW ...

Nicholas Cage has a genetic mutation where he sees all of lifes clues with a yellow outline.

Its why hes able to solve certuries old mysteries by saying a few words that will lead him to the not so obvious answer.

Heres nicolas cage using his powers to solve the alphabet, the yellow outlines no doubt aided him in this discovery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68BjP5f0ccE