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Why don't those looking for a sandbox play this?
fatenabu1
Member Posts: 381
in Second Life
Hello,
I see people on here all the time, me included until I found out what this was, complaining how there isn't any good 3D sandbox MMOs.. how you can't be as creative in MMOs now days as you could be in the days of UO.. You can't roleplay as you could in UO.. couldn't just sit around and talk or what ever.. no virtual worlds..
Is that not what this is? Why don't people play this?
Dustin
Comments
I want a sandbox GAME. This is not a game. It's a glorified chatroom.
P.S.: Yes, I've tried it.
To be perfectly honest this thing barely qualifies as a game (in my opinion). It is laggy as hell (yet i can play all modern games and MMO's without that level of lag) and the few 'gameplay' elements it has require far too much knowledge to use.
Just my 2c on why people like me avoid this game.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Because its for creepy sex addicts?
Because second life isn't a game, no MMO nor sandbox. It is a social network with 3D interface.
This
I've tried it a few times and wanted to like it for all the freedom it offers but after a few attempts realized there was no way to improve on the laggy performance and managing my inventory became a job to itself.
Like someone else said it's basically a glorified 3D chatroom. If you don't know anyone on it or don't want to chat with people in SL you will get bored fast. It doesn't help either that the people on it are the worst of ALL online communities. Copybots, scammers, perverts, intolerant, dramaqueens, griefers, etc. Not worth your time.
Take away the harshness of the other people commenting their thread and they are basically right.
I love SL, I understand what it is and I love what it is. But, that doesn't change the fact that there is no centralized gameplay and it's really not even a "game". As a matter of fact, when I refer to SL, sometimes I have to struggle what to call it because I don't want to use the word "game". It's a Metaverse, but most people don't understand what that is.
Death1942
SL isn't that laggy. You're just not used to downloading content when you see it and you probably have a slow internet connection on top of it. In SL, you're running your bandwidth at it's full limits, where as most other MMOs can be ran perfectly fine on a 1mbps connection. Their data transactions are very very small, basically just updates because you have everything downloaded to your computer already.
In SL, you're downloading things as you see them. You know that house over there? It doesn't exist on your computer until you see it. But, if you were playing WoW, that house is contained in one of the hundreds of .MPQ files stored in your WoW folder.
Is it a perfect solution? No, not at all.
Is it better than what Blue Mars does, where you download areas before you get to them? Kinda. That system doesn't promote exploration, since you have to download a 600mb file before you can go to it.
From my experience, SL isn't any more laggy than any other game once you have the content downloaded. Different SL viewers can help allieviate this as well as setting your bandwidth threshold much higher.
As far as the "yes I've tried it" a couple people basically said. SL doesn't work like that.
If MMOs were like school. Most games would be like History. You just have to memorize it and forget it, because you basically know it already. You already know what to expect, you already know the english language.
SL is more like Math. You're not going to pass a Math test, unless you understand it. What I mean is, you can't just simply "try" SL, you have to understand it. Most people think they do, but very very few actually do. I'm not saying that everyone who takes the time to understand it will like it, but it takes an understanding of what it is to form a valid opinion.
It's much much more than a glorified chat room. And if you think that way, it's evident you don't understand what it is.
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SL is a great game and has given me and my friends TONS of entertainment. Unfortunately it suffers a great deal from lag and lacks many typical MMO features. Basically it is the normal f2p game, lots of great ideas without the funding to polish or hardware to support a large playerbase.
Not necessarily. SL is just old (2003) and something completely different.
They have/had the funds to make it much better than what it is, but the problem wasn't there. The problem is that it's so much different than everything else out there, they didn't quite implement things in the most efficient manner and some of the problems are too core to the entire system to be fixed.
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This is exactly what i thought.
Look i didnt give it enough time to really get into it but while starting the game i was just put off by it, its neat for a chat room i thought.
I currently have something similar (i believe) called Entropia Universe. Ive yet to play it but from the looks of it it made me think of an upgraded version of second life.
User deleted? lol Well it was a good post, thanks.
Jeremiah 8:21 I weep for the hurt of my people; I stand amazed, silent, dumb with grief.
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If you want to know the real reason why those looking for a sandbox don't play this. Look towards where they are based out of, and what most of their Linden volunteers are. Europeans. Now, I'm not bad mouthing every Eurpean out there, but when it comes to Americans. They don't like them at all. Just ask Harry Linden. If you submit a female on male harrasement complaint, it won't get taken care of. Now, male on female they will respond without hesitation. They will even hold the American's account hostage as a way for them to defend themselves. What does good ol Harry ask for? Proof that your anything other than a European. If your ID says your an American citizen, he bans you. Even if you have all the proof you need to show your innocence, he still bans you because your an American. Even complaining directly to Linden Labs does no good. So all in all, Linden Labs has a policy that is strictly Anti American in nature. So there you have it, why there aren't to many people that look for a sand box game produced by Linden Labs.
The rest of your post is invalid. Linden Labs is from California, I believe. Even if that wasn't where they started here is a list of their offices:
Our Office Locations:
Linden Lab has offices in:
Boston, MA, USA
Davis, CA, USA
Reston, VA, USA
San Francisco, CA, USA
Seattle, WA, USA
Not a single one outside the US. Taken from: http://lindenlab.com/employment
I have also played Second Life in the past and have had to call their customer support. I spoke to an American and I'm pretty sure he had a Californian accent. Even if he wasn't, there was not even a slight hint of a foreign accent in his voice at all.
At least do your research before you post something like this. I found their offices in 3 clicks. I typed in "Linden Labs" in Google, went to their page, then looked at their employment section at the top. It probably took less than 10 seconds. I'm sure in another 3 clicks I could find out where they started from Wikipedia, but I really don't care that much.
Who are you to determine what parts of my post is valid or invalid? Frankly, I could care less what you think. Especially when you put into consideration that SL has a foreign address. IF you actually paid attention to the phone number. Those addresses mean nothing, as neither of those addresses are not even part of the main hub. Everytime I spoke with their "customer service rep" (yeah, I put it in quotes), it was a Brit. So if anyone's post here is invalid. It's yours.
The reason is simple.
I'm looking for a sandbox game, not a weird/fancy 3d chatroom.
Makes about as much sense as asking why hungry people can't be satisfied by restaurant commercials.
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I have to agree with what has been said. Second Life isn't a 'game' but more or less a visual chat room. What people are looking for when they say a 'sandbox' game is something akin to D&D, Pathfinder, Traveller or other pen and paper RPGs where the DM (who is also a player) has massive control over the story. However there are still rules and stats built into the game which govern what happens to the players. When I tried out second life I found that roleplaying in that game had very little do with playing and more to do with talking.
When I tried out Second Life, I stuck around for a good two years. But that was mainly because I wanted to be sure of what the opinion of it was that I was formulateing. What I have come to discover, is that SL is 90% sex and debauchery with a heavy amount of drama thrown in for good measure, 5% taking up a hobby, 3% locateing locations that didn't involve sex, and 2% just sitting there drooling on yourself. It's also a heavy meat market for slave trading and prostitution. Yet the big surprise was that they made gambleing in world illegal. Yet they allow the two biggest no no's to go unchecked. As far as roleplaying... not a good deal of that actually goes on at all. Not without the participants ending up disrobed and sitting on pink and blue poseballs.
yes there is alot of sexual roleplay in second life.
but there is also alot of non sexual roleplay.
The drama and soap opera aspect of SL is just the nature of people imho. there are plenty of people hunting drama in just about any group, be it MMO or RL
Second Life isn't a game in the first place. It has no goal, no aim, no rules, nothing that would qualify it as a game.
It is a social network with 3d interface.
It's a true sandbox then.
The MO's, Darkfalls, etcs, are just themepark sandboxes. You get your choice of a bucket (Crafting) to create things (in the form of preformed buckets that fit just that game.
People yearn for "total freedom", yet still wanted it contained inside a themepark, and then bash those that enjoy themeparks. Weird.
Agreed. Second Life is a cool toy, but not at all the rich themed environment that people are looking for.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I have had a very bad experience as well as some of my friends I started out with in SL back when it first started. I invested a lot of real life money directly thru Linden labs and yet they shut my account down in May of 2010. So after almost 8 years of being a loyal customer of Linden Labs I was told by some British accented guy and his manager who was also with a British accent that they felt my account was being played by more than one person. That is the only thing they said and I know FOR SURE I never allowed anyone to use my account as I made clothes and AO's, etc... and would not dream of ever letting anyone get on my account. This company originally started in Europe but now has offices in the US too.
So I guess what I am saying is don't invest your time or energy in this game because if they decide to shut down your account for ANY reason they can do so and there is not much that can be done about it. (I did reclaim 500.00 of lindens that I bought from them on my credit card after Linden Labs basically told me they would not reopen my account by calling my credit card company) It makes for bad business I would think for them to gladly take thousands of real life money from me then close my account for some LAME reason? Jeez, may they go bankrupt!
Second Life? You got to be freakin kidding. Don't even get me started on Second Life. It is not even a game.
Terrible interface... terrible tutorial. Most of it is a ghost town and the few people you meet are not friendly.
Avoid.
Others have already said it, but I may aswell add my agreeance. It's a sandbox, but it's not an mmo. I would say it's a game, but it's a social game. And most don't even consider "social" games to be games, but just virtual chat rooms(which it pretty much is).
I have to say I find this a little interesting. Aside from the blatant racist conspiracies that are being blared in this topic, the other cases don't really stand up.
I played and made money off of SL for close to five years, and during that time I had homes in cowboy sims, fantasy sims, ultra-modern and cyberpunk sims, and the list goes on. If I wanted to be a character, it just took about 200L$ worth of garb and I was there.
Reading these forums it always seems that the sandbox crowd wants to do away with quests, linear combat, static NPCs, rehashed environments, and other staples of the "themepark" style.
SL has no NPCs, no quests, virtually infinite landmass that promotes nothing but exploration, the best housing system any game could ever have to this day, combat can be turned on or off (so... flag for open-world PVP), NO INSTANCING, limitless customization, and a player-deformable land mass. It encourages social interaction and community building, has extremely in-depth crafting (ok so that's a bit of a misnomer for building... so sue me), and there are many MANY sims that you can go to that have damaging enemies that you can fight. It also has PVP in various forms (from financial to physical and everywhere in between).
I think sandbox players are just butthurt because:
A) they realize that when they actually get what they ask for, it turns out it's Second Life. And ultimately, Second Life is boring.
C) it doesn't have any lore or history behind it, and Sandbox players tend to be lore freaks. HOWEVER, there are entire freaking RP continents filled with lore and backstory. It's just not all unified.