These models don't exist because everyone disagrees about the definitions of these models. Everyone has his/her opinion about it, but thats just it.
In most discussions about this, it roughly comes down to lineair vs freedom. But even the most sandy sandboxes have certain lineair gamemechanics or clear restrictions that limit freedom. At the same time certain themepark MMO's have added parallel progression paths for characters and non combat features that will give those games at least the impression of freedom.
I find it far more interesting how a lot of players who love to write about MMO's became set into a certain way of thinking. For example, how FFA PVP is now supposed to be a requirement for a sandbox MMO. Or on a different topic, how raiding automatically is associated with a gear treadmill. Or how holy trinity is the only way to have challenging PVE content.
The people who can actually think outside the box are getting flooded by posts of these badly programmed sheep who keep going through the same motions of 'mmo x is NOT a sandbox!' , 'yes it is!','no because it doesnt have FFA PVP!' etc
This is an interesting discussion and one that I would have always answered “sandbox..!” without question.
However, now that I’m older and have a family, I’m finding it easier to hop on Themepark MMO’s to get that quick fix – feeling like I’ve accomplished something – and then being able to log off again with only a few minutes of game time here and there. Then the occasional raid/instance with a group of friends once or twice a week. As sad as that sounds, it’s all the time I can commit to these types of games any more. I enjoy too many other things in life, not to mention other games as well.
But that being said, none of the new games in the last 8 years have replaced the experiences I had while playing the original MMORPG’s which I believe were closer to the Sandbox experience people talk about – creating game content with individual actions, no linear controls, etc. and something that was required back then - needing help from friends just to accomplish or even to figure things out.
Sometimes a buddy would find something out and we’d all be like, “yeah, let’s go find it..!” Now it’s right on your map.
These games were based on friends sitting around a table with dice and pencils and paper in hand, creating, imagining and playing together. Now games are single person storylines with kill tasks, and the ability to do just about any role alone - heal, DPS, tank.
It’s a far cry from where they started and I’m not sure that Sandbox or Themepark is even as much of the problem as a loss of discovery, troubleshooting, investigation, exploration, consequence, risk and reward and the need for teamwork.
No you are wrong. A sandbox game cannot have classes. Classes immediately take away choice which a sandbox game needs to be called a sandbox.
Obviously you don't understand what a sandbox is, it is freedom of choice to chose how your avatar develops. Classes immediately restrict such choice.
I personally have never seen a game with classes that is essentially a sandbox. Istaria is NOT a sandbox game although it does have elements of such with it's crafting. It fails the test because it has classes which restrict your avatar.
I think you can have classes to begin with, so long as the skills you can acquire are not limited, eg start as a fighter and then learn scouting skills or start as a scout and learn fighting skills etc
Refminor is righ tand Ozmodan is wrong. You can have classes however you still need freedom of choice which is exactly what Istaria does. It has classes however you can drop learn any class and the skills/abilities of them (many things anyway) stay with you.
So again having classes does not necessarily limit your choice, and therefore do not limit your freedom and so aare not the definiing feature of sandbox and themepark. The definiting features are freedom and impact. If the way the class system is set up limits your freedom it is not or is less of a sandbox, if it does not than it can still be a sandbox.
Istaria is most definately a sandbox. You can learn every skill in the game, every fighting, magic, and craft. It has a more indepth crafting system than probably every game on the market and it is one of the few games out there that actually lets the things you craft have an actual lasting impact on the world. No doubt it is a sandbox. The classes do not restrict your avatar as you can learn everything and so design your character any way you want. Want to be a paladin with mage abilties, and monk dexterity - no problem.
What you are talking about in Istaria is not really classes. I would have to say, it is a suggested skill design that the developers assigned a name to for starting players. I was wrong about Istaria, it is a sandbox. My apologies.
I will refine my rule, you cannot have classes that restrict character development. You are probably correct, any sandbox game would be foolish to not have at least initial class design because so many of today's players would be lost without it, as long as it did not restrict you from learning other skillsets.
Istaria is rather a bad example, it was a game with great potential that due to a bad development staff, never went anywhere.
Absolutely agree with you. For a sandbox you cannot have classes that restrict character development, so it may be easier to just not have classes at all, but if they are there needs to be a way to mix/match them.
And Istaria unforunately did have a very bad start and is only played by a few hundred/ few thousand? people today. Sigh.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
No you are wrong. A sandbox game cannot have classes. Classes immediately take away choice which a sandbox game needs to be called a sandbox.
Obviously you don't understand what a sandbox is, it is freedom of choice to chose how your avatar develops. Classes immediately restrict such choice.
I personally have never seen a game with classes that is essentially a sandbox. Istaria is NOT a sandbox game although it does have elements of such with it's crafting. It fails the test because it has classes which restrict your avatar.
I think you can have classes to begin with, so long as the skills you can acquire are not limited, eg start as a fighter and then learn scouting skills or start as a scout and learn fighting skills etc
Refminor is righ tand Ozmodan is wrong. You can have classes however you still need freedom of choice which is exactly what Istaria does. It has classes however you can drop learn any class and the skills/abilities of them (many things anyway) stay with you.
So again having classes does not necessarily limit your choice, and therefore do not limit your freedom and so aare not the definiing feature of sandbox and themepark. The definiting features are freedom and impact. If the way the class system is set up limits your freedom it is not or is less of a sandbox, if it does not than it can still be a sandbox.
Istaria is most definately a sandbox. You can learn every skill in the game, every fighting, magic, and craft. It has a more indepth crafting system than probably every game on the market and it is one of the few games out there that actually lets the things you craft have an actual lasting impact on the world. No doubt it is a sandbox. The classes do not restrict your avatar as you can learn everything and so design your character any way you want. Want to be a paladin with mage abilties, and monk dexterity - no problem.
What you are talking about in Istaria is not really classes. I would have to say, it is a suggested skill design that the developers assigned a name to for starting players. I was wrong about Istaria, it is a sandbox. My apologies.
I will refine my rule, you cannot have classes that restrict character development. You are probably correct, any sandbox game would be foolish to not have at least initial class design because so many of today's players would be lost without it, as long as it did not restrict you from learning other skillsets.
Istaria is rather a bad example, it was a game with great potential that due to a bad development staff, never went anywhere.
Absolutely agree with you. For a sandbox you cannot have classes that restrict character development, so it may be easier to just not have classes at all, but if they are there needs to be a way to mix/match them.
And Istaria unforunately did have a very bad start and is only played by a few hundred/ few thousand? people today. Sigh.
Ah... you added a few too many zeroes there, they are lucky to have a few thousand at best and the game is still full of buggy code.
you can not compare "themepark" and "sandbox" mmos
its total different ballpark
not to mention its even total different ballgame...
in themepark mmos there is generally 3 archetypes of class choice which are DPS/HEAL/Tank in certain cases there can be hybrids..
sandbox gives you freedom from level and class like Ultima Online or pre-cu SWG, where you can mix skills instead of choosing a class...
total different ballgame...
players who are casual and who don't have much time for gaming always goes for "themepark" mmos where they can sit in their major cities and use tools like battleground/warzone/warfront or they can LFG for dungeons etc..
players who are hardcore gamers generally sick of themepark and waiting for the next UO where who plays more gets more cookies..
Are you totally sure that a sandbox cannot have classes and lvls? old SWG had classes. Are you sure you can't have a sandbox with the trinity? Or vice-versa is it possible to have a themepark without lvls and classes?
I'm not sure the definition of sandbox has been set this firmly yet.
What I've also noticed in sandboxes, is that although people don't HAVE to choose a class, they often build a badass tank, healer or dps, and judging from your logo, you might as well.
Old swg had "Skills" not classes
you had 250 skill points and you basically were able to grind skills.. there was around 34 skills... For example, marksmanship, teras kasi artist, scout, merchant, entertainer, dancer, bounty hunter, commando etc..
You can't have themepark without levels and classes bro.. because if you don't have level and classes than you give players the freedom of mixing skills.. there can be sandbox mmo with themepark mmo features like Tera Online.. But you can't have themepark with sandbox features.. i am 95% sure..
whole point of themepark is there is no freedom in game.. whole point of sandbox is there are no boundries.. i think
Point taken about the SWG classes, but I still felt like I was building a 'bounty hunter' class or an 'entertainer' class....but I guess it is different enough from other games to call them something other than 'classes'.
But I beg to differ on the themepark without levels and classes, you can have a free form skill building toon which has a very linear set of quests and content to build those skills. It would be possible.
In fact, my guess is the first 'BIG' sandbox will actually be more of a hybrid themepark/sandbox - although how they mix the two, I'm not sure. I think VG attempted this hybrid, although at the end of the day it falls clearly in the themepark catagory. Although instead of having one big long ride, it has hundreds of little ones. Anyway...I digress.
No you are wrong. A sandbox game cannot have classes. Classes immediately take away choice which a sandbox game needs to be called a sandbox.
Obviously you don't understand what a sandbox is, it is freedom of choice to chose how your avatar develops. Classes immediately restrict such choice.
I personally have never seen a game with classes that is essentially a sandbox. Istaria is NOT a sandbox game although it does have elements of such with it's crafting. It fails the test because it has classes which restrict your avatar.
I think you can have classes to begin with, so long as the skills you can acquire are not limited, eg start as a fighter and then learn scouting skills or start as a scout and learn fighting skills etc
Refminor is righ tand Ozmodan is wrong. You can have classes however you still need freedom of choice which is exactly what Istaria does. It has classes however you can drop learn any class and the skills/abilities of them (many things anyway) stay with you.
So again having classes does not necessarily limit your choice, and therefore do not limit your freedom and so aare not the definiing feature of sandbox and themepark. The definiting features are freedom and impact. If the way the class system is set up limits your freedom it is not or is less of a sandbox, if it does not than it can still be a sandbox.
Istaria is most definately a sandbox. You can learn every skill in the game, every fighting, magic, and craft. It has a more indepth crafting system than probably every game on the market and it is one of the few games out there that actually lets the things you craft have an actual lasting impact on the world. No doubt it is a sandbox. The classes do not restrict your avatar as you can learn everything and so design your character any way you want. Want to be a paladin with mage abilties, and monk dexterity - no problem.
What you are talking about in Istaria is not really classes. I would have to say, it is a suggested skill design that the developers assigned a name to for starting players. I was wrong about Istaria, it is a sandbox. My apologies.
I will refine my rule, you cannot have classes that restrict character development. You are probably correct, any sandbox game would be foolish to not have at least initial class design because so many of today's players would be lost without it, as long as it did not restrict you from learning other skillsets.
Istaria is rather a bad example, it was a game with great potential that due to a bad development staff, never went anywhere.
Absolutely agree with you. For a sandbox you cannot have classes that restrict character development, so it may be easier to just not have classes at all, but if they are there needs to be a way to mix/match them.
And Istaria unforunately did have a very bad start and is only played by a few hundred/ few thousand? people today. Sigh.
Ah... you added a few too many zeroes there, they are lucky to have a few thousand at best and the game is still full of buggy code.
Haha I didn't mean a few hundred thousand, I put the / in there to indicate a few hundred or a few thousand. I would be suprised if there were 5000 people playing.... actually I'd be surprised if there were 500.
But the code is not so bad anymore. Still gets laggy at times but not nearly like it was.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
A derogatory term used by Eve players for all other online role playing games.
A Sandbox is:
A term used when referring to Ultima Online. Usually, by players who in the same breath claim that they really like being ganked in that game, but for some reason (maybe they forgot their password) are playing SWTOR instead.
its simple. A Sandbox is a free open world ready for punishment. And then the players are given tools in this open world/sandbox to create their OWN content. TOOLS are very important for a sandbox game. Tools can be incentives for people to do things... or just random crap put into the world by the devs. Tools could be things like giving the players the ability to build houses anywhere, fight anywhere, farm food, rob people. These are tools. You give them these "tools" and then drop them into an open world/sandbox and players will start making their own content. This is a good Sandbox game.
Of course you could just drop players into an open world with no tools at all and it would still be a sandbox. People will eventually find some dumb crap to do. How long they'll end up doing it is another thing.
I've been doing some thinking about this subject as well as reading a few opinions on how AAA devs don't want to make a Sandbox mmorpg because it wouldn't make any money for them. I can't help but look at a game like TOR and what it cost, around 200 million i believe to make and how shallow and empty the mmo side of it is and how it appears that most of the investment went on VO actors and cutscene work. Then i look at a mmo like Rift and if i'm somewhat correct, it cost like 60 million to make and has all the features of a well made themepark even if it didn't stray too far from the norm.
Now with the newest game engines becoming more dev friendly, wouldn't it be a safe investment to make a sandbox mmorpg in the vein of say, SWG pre-cu with the dynamic event system that GW2 will have. It surely would probably cost around the same as Rift and wouldn't need as many subs to break even and make a profit. Let's use TOR again as an example. If it cost 200 million to make, and they got 2 million pre-orders at 60 bucks a pop, that come's in around 120 million up front for the game with an 80 million needed to just break even. 1.7 million subs at $15.00 bucks is around 25 million a month, so it is easy to say they have already broke even.
Now take a new mmo like i mentioned that only cost 60 million to make and sells 750k pre orders at 60 bucks a pop. That comes to around 45 million up front. Say they keep around 600k subs at $15.00 bucks and that comes to around 7.5 million a month, so in about 2 months they already broke even as well.
I guess i'm trying to figure out why does these big dev companies keep pushing out the same old tired themepark games that are nothing more than a dungeon crawling / instanced warzone gear grind, than creating an up to date virtual world that is actually what the term MMORPG really means. You would think these dev companies would GET IT by now. Continueing to make these clones of WOW and keep going after their sub numbers with games that have the exact same systems in a different skin is so pointless and down right extravagent. They seem like they don't want to take a chance and spend the money on a sandbox mmorpg, yet their willing to spend upwards to 100 million on a copycat game that has far more to lose under the public scrutiny of being labeled a WOW clone. Doesn't make common nor money sense at all.
I've been doing some thinking about this subject as well as reading a few opinions on how AAA devs don't want to make a Sandbox mmorpg because it wouldn't make any money for them. I can't help but look at a game like TOR and what it cost, around 200 million i believe to make and how shallow and empty the mmo side of it is and how it appears that most of the investment went on VO actors and cutscene work. Then i look at a mmo like Rift and if i'm somewhat correct, it cost like 60 million to make and has all the features of a well made themepark even if it didn't stray too far from the norm.
Now with the newest game engines becoming more dev friendly, wouldn't it be a safe investment to make a sandbox mmorpg in the vein of say, SWG pre-cu with the dynamic event system that GW2 will have. It surely would probably cost around the same as Rift and wouldn't need as many subs to break even and make a profit. Let's use TOR again as an example. If it cost 200 million to make, and they got 2 million pre-orders at 60 bucks a pop, that come's in around 120 million up front for the game with an 80 million needed to just break even. 1.7 million subs at $15.00 bucks is around 25 million a month, so it is easy to say they have already broke even.
Now take a new mmo like i mentioned that only cost 60 million to make and sells 750k pre orders at 60 bucks a pop. That comes to around 45 million up front. Say they keep around 600k subs at $15.00 bucks and that comes to around 7.5 million a month, so in about 2 months they already broke even as well.
I guess i'm trying to figure out why does these big dev companies keep pushing out the same old tired themepark games that are nothing more than a dungeon crawling / instanced warzone gear grind, than creating an up to date virtual world that is actually what the term MMORPG really means. You would think these dev companies would GET IT by now. Continueing to make these clones of WOW and keep going after their sub numbers with games that have the exact same systems in a different skin is so pointless and down right extravagent. They seem like they don't want to take a chance and spend the money on a sandbox mmorpg, yet their willing to spend upwards to 100 million on a copycat game that has for more to lose under the public scrutiny of being labeled a WOW clone. Doesn't make common nor money sense at all.
There are so many very different ideas for what a sandbox is and how it could operate, that it always seems to end up in lala-land as just an idea rather than ever coming to earth in a practical way that we could support.
Game companies spend millions of dollars to produce an item that they hope will appeal to their target audience. How are they going to recoup that investment in order to be able to keep the servers running and add more space/resources for player-created content? I have to ask: what will the game company make money on once they build you a sandbox to play in?
Should they charge a flat sub for access? Should they make a cash shop for sandbox-developing tools? Should they charge you for the in-game raw materials to make and build things? Where are the boundaries between what the game company should provide in the way of content and what the player wants to be able to create?
There are so many very different ideas for what a sandbox is and how it could operate, that it always seems to end up in lala-land as just an idea rather than ever coming to earth in a practical way that we could support.
Game companies spend millions of dollars to produce an item that they hope will appeal to their target audience. How are they going to recoup that investment in order to be able to keep the servers running and add more space/resources for player-created content? I have to ask: what will the game company make money on once they build you a sandbox to play in?
Should they charge a flat sub for access? Should they make a cash shop for sandbox-developing tools? Should they charge you for the in-game raw materials to make and build things? Where are the boundaries between what the game company should provide in the way of content and what the player wants to be able to create?
A sub fee would be the most practical way, and i really don't think in this day and age people would mind, if the game was very well made. Content could come in the way of dynamic events, like GW2 will have. You have to remember that in a sandbox mmorpg the main content comes from the tools that create interdependency among the players, a player run economy, a deep crafting system that has crafters that make all the items in the game and other stuff.
In my opinion, it's really time for devs to realize that it's ok to break free of the end game gear grind systems that was thought to be so cool in WOW 7 yrs. ago. There may not be 10 million subs out there but i would guess somewhere close to a million mmorpg gamers out there that would love a AAA sandbox mmorpg. Let's really think about it for a sec. The last AAA mmorpg that was made and released was SWG in 2003, that's 9 freaking yrs. ago. Every new AAA mmorpg that has come out since that time has tried to copy WOW and it's themepark model and has ended up with very moderate success and did not capture the subs of WOW, which was probably the motivation to create those mmo's.
So, if these dev companies are making these WOW clone mmo's and are only getting a few hundred thousand subs, then why not grow a set and really be innovative and make a full blown up to date sandbox that will surely do as well or even better than those other games that are copies of copies of WOW. I guess being realistic, maybe they have been waiting for a mmorpg like Archeage to come around from a Eastern AAA company and want to see how it will do in the west. I can only hope that it will get a western publisher and do very well. Then maybe these companies will start to become more open and creative.
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys FH1942 best tanker for 4years Playing WWII OL for some years untill now many other for some months
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
Then get out there n support em champ.
AFAIAC "sandbox" is slang for "a game that will be lacking in unique subs". Also known as "a waste of investment dollars".
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
Then get out there n support em champ.
AFAIAC "sandbox" is slang for "a game that will be lacking in unique subs". Also known as "a waste of investment dollars".
I'm genuinely curious. What are the best features of theme park games as you see them? If you could just put it in positive terms as an advocate of Theme Park (vs an opponent of Sandbox) I would like to have a better idea of your perspective. Thanks. And I am not trying to set up a rebuttal, I just want to know.
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
Then get out there n support em champ.
AFAIAC "sandbox" is slang for "a game that will be lacking in unique subs". Also known as "a waste of investment dollars".
I'm genuinely curious. What are the best features of theme park games as you see them? If you could just put it in positive terms as an advocate of Theme Park (vs an opponent of Sandbox) I would like to have a better idea of your perspective. Thanks. And I am not trying to set up a rebuttal, I just want to know.
How about 'gives people what they want?'.
Games ultimately are an entertainment form and for the vast majority of people, they'd rather let a game tell them a story than make one of their own.
Both are equally valid, it is just a case of personal preference.
I do not like Jazz, but that doesn't mean I consider Jazz a lower music genre.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
Then get out there n support em champ.
AFAIAC "sandbox" is slang for "a game that will be lacking in unique subs". Also known as "a waste of investment dollars".
I'm genuinely curious. What are the best features of theme park games as you see them? If you could just put it in positive terms as an advocate of Theme Park (vs an opponent of Sandbox) I would like to have a better idea of your perspective. Thanks. And I am not trying to set up a rebuttal, I just want to know.
Ill answer this one:
Ppl just want new and diferent features,in my case i play games for 28 years now,mmos for over 12 years and im just sick of "CLIQ" games,i want more to deal with than my char and my itens.
Finaly,we have way more than we need of sandold.
-Game producer: Hey,look,another WoW with better grafics and guns!
-me: No thx
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys FH1942 best tanker for 4years Playing WWII OL for some years untill now many other for some months
Attracting new players is a major obstacle for sandboxes. "I made a character, but I didn't know what to do. I went out to find something to do, but somebody killed me and took all my stuff." So a shiny themepark needs to be smuggled in with the sandbox to get people playing/going. It can't be separate from the sandbox. Their workings need to intertwine. At first, it'll be easy for the new people to stay in themepark land. As they progress higher, worlds need to collide. Maybe that means they're forced into more open PVP areas (I don't know, it's not MY sandbox!). Maybe it means they HAVE to start crafting to get better gear to be able to keep going (if you believe crafting is core to sandbox, like I said, whatever). Point is... you wean them into it. Then by the time they're almost done with the themepark, BAM, they in the sandbox. Ideally, they wouldn't even really feel the transition. They might feel like now they're more into "endgame content" or something. Ideally, after this game came out, people would be all up on the forums "'DERPADERP it's a themepark!' 'DERKADURP, no! It's a sandbox!'" Meanwhile the people who just started playing MMOs like two months ago are like "Hey this game's way cooler than that last game I played, I don't know why, but there's like so much more going on in it!" At this point, everyone is just playing the game, hopefully getting all sandy, not canceling their account. Then the themepark doesn't even need to end. While everyone is off in Emergentgameplayville, an expansion could be in the works. New raids, PvE challenges, whatever extra junk to fatten it up. If it's true what everyone says that sandboxes keep players longer... that expansion should sell better than Cloney Island Themepark MMO of the Week's expansion. Same with the next expansion. And the next expansion. And so on. Seriously... a blockbuster MMO w/the fanaticism of a sandbox crowd? $$$ for like a decade.
I've been doing some thinking about this subject as well as reading a few opinions on how AAA devs don't want to make a Sandbox mmorpg because it wouldn't make any money for them. I can't help but look at a game like TOR and what it cost, around 200 million i believe to make and how shallow and empty the mmo side of it is and how it appears that most of the investment went on VO actors and cutscene work. Then i look at a mmo like Rift and if i'm somewhat correct, it cost like 60 million to make and has all the features of a well made themepark even if it didn't stray too far from the norm.
Now with the newest game engines becoming more dev friendly, wouldn't it be a safe investment to make a sandbox mmorpg in the vein of say, SWG pre-cu with the dynamic event system that GW2 will have. It surely would probably cost around the same as Rift and wouldn't need as many subs to break even and make a profit. Let's use TOR again as an example. If it cost 200 million to make, and they got 2 million pre-orders at 60 bucks a pop, that come's in around 120 million up front for the game with an 80 million needed to just break even. 1.7 million subs at $15.00 bucks is around 25 million a month, so it is easy to say they have already broke even.
Now take a new mmo like i mentioned that only cost 60 million to make and sells 750k pre orders at 60 bucks a pop. That comes to around 45 million up front. Say they keep around 600k subs at $15.00 bucks and that comes to around 7.5 million a month, so in about 2 months they already broke even as well.
I guess i'm trying to figure out why does these big dev companies keep pushing out the same old tired themepark games that are nothing more than a dungeon crawling / instanced warzone gear grind, than creating an up to date virtual world that is actually what the term MMORPG really means. You would think these dev companies would GET IT by now. Continueing to make these clones of WOW and keep going after their sub numbers with games that have the exact same systems in a different skin is so pointless and down right extravagent. They seem like they don't want to take a chance and spend the money on a sandbox mmorpg, yet their willing to spend upwards to 100 million on a copycat game that has far more to lose under the public scrutiny of being labeled a WOW clone. Doesn't make common nor money sense at all.
Replying to text highligthed in green.
The problem is, that the usual game engines wont work for a real sandbox game. It requires different features(from the engine), or even completely other ones.
As example. Network code. Seamless vs. Zoned. With a zoned game(more or less all themeparks) you can more accuratly predict the network traffic and the amount of rendering(so both for network code and graphic engine), and you know how to handle it. By switching the zone you can switch easily the amount of network traffic and graphics/polygons to render during the loading screen.
In a seamless world you have to write a dynamic network and graphic render code. With some kind of Radius of Transmission(for what have to be transmitted) and a Radius of View(what have to be rendered), which have both to be dynamically adjusted at any given time. Now lets assume you run into a big city with a lot of people in there, a lot of polygons and a lot of network traffic, the Radius have to be reduced very fast and in real time, which almost always will end in sum amount of lag. In the zoned design the city is just a new zone and you got your loading screen for it.
But thats not all. Sandboxes are about to manipulate your surroundings.. this requires also a lot of features which are not in place in the usual themepark game engines, and are not that easy to implement in already existing engine. In most cases it is easier to write a new one from the ground up. BUT, you need a lot of experienced ppl capable of it, and a lot of time beforehand you even start to design such a game.
So look at it from that side. The Clonewarriors(companies developing a new themepark clone, or in every other genre) are foremost designers, graphic ppl and all that stuff, working with existing technology(different engines) to craft a new game, but withit they are limited with what features they can offer. They are not capable of making a new game with completely new features.
But with all those features a sandbox requires, it has to have also as much polish, grapical quality, filled with content, tutorials and stuff. So you need the 60 mil. like Rift for the quality, and another undeterminated amount of time and money to create your new engines, test your engines and required mechanics before you even start to "design" the game. And new technology is always risky, but there can be unexpected problems, well even unsolvable problems, where you have to start from beginnings.
E.g. look at Shadowbane, they got a engine with deformable terrain, but withit a lot of unsolved bugs in their engines, and just not the graphical quality of other titles at their time. They never perfected their engine, and they went out of time and money to make a quality mmo.
But thats not even the end of it. In a sandbox environment you have to many unknown variables how things turn out, or what can be expected, that it requires a whole lot more testing and research beforehand, and you need more or less a ready game for it(maybe not the top notch graphic texture or end objects, but all objects(placeholders) have to be in place. So you have to iterate your graphics(animation, textures, 3D objects) a whole lot more often as for a known environment, where it is more or less enough if you do it one time. This all makes it a lot more risky, a lot more unpredictable, and as a investor you dont like unknown variables, you dont like risk or unpredictablility. And therefor you dont see a lot of big money investments in sandbox titles.
As much as i see it, the best bet for a quality sandbox mmo is from CCP, with other words World of Darkness. They have some amount of money, they have the experienced ppl to be capable of doing it, they have experience in the required engines/code, they have experience with sandbox mechanics. So with all that, if we can expect a AAA sandbox it will be most probably from CCP.
Edit: Prototyping is the key for sandbox development. Start with a small world(as example a small island, but with everything filled what can happen in the big world) just with a lot of placeholders(textures, polygon objects, animation) and test your engines and sandbox mechanics to the limit. This will requires more or less at least the time of the development of a usual themepark. And if you got everything right, working engines, working technology, when you know, for what you are capable of doing. Then start to design the game, and during this improve your engines further. At the end, themeparks are a lot cheaper, a lot easier and a lot more predictable to develop, and even the success is easier to predict.
The problem, companies that make sandbox MMOs are B grade, and small. If a giant like EA would stop the cookie cutter MMO market they have going on? Well then MAYBE we could get a well polished sandbox MMO. I HIIGHLY enjoyed SHADOWBANE, but wolfpack back in the early 00's was a small company with low funding. Shadowbane was forced to be rushed way to early, and it failed because of lack of funds, and lack of time to to be finished by wolfpack studios.
Darkfall, Mortal Online, etc. etc. all of these games LIKE Shadowbane have small 1 game company owners, those games are their bread and butter. This is the problem with sandbox games, we have allowed World of Warcraft set the standards for MMO gaming. Its not completely our fault because WoW is a very polished, maintained, fun game. However, WoW being as cool as it was back in the day just didn't fullfill my MMO needs. Since the launch of WoW every company that has launched a high budget MMO has tried to copy the leading giant, but they have failed. They failed because no one wants to move FROM Wow to ANOTHER WoW!!!! Seriously? Its sad that Sony, EA, and the rest of the companys that have funding want to copy off someone elses success. It just don't work like that in the MMO world, fans are going to give up their piece of gold for a lesser copy cat clone.
All that said, I am personally sick of games like WoW! I have had my fill, all these games copying its playstyle need to stop! Someone needs to step up and take the thick unwondered path. I want something different, and as of right now the ONLY MMO I will buy in the future is Archeage. Until it launches I will probably just pass my time on DAOC doing RVR etc. a game that was one of the first solid MMOs.... but sad a company like EA now owns it and the rights to one of the Godfather MMOs will be lost, never to surface a new and improved sequel! And no I don't mean that PoS garb some call WAR, what a crap game... but I have said my piece, and its how I feel, after playing MMOs since EQ1, I have given up hope for the MMO world. I will be happy when the day comes that a mainstream MMO doesn't make my stomach turnover, and my temper raise because its a WoW cookie cutter MMO.
A good game should be both themepark and sandbox. It should be possible for players to create content and perhaps also to build things. But there should also be developer created content like quests and events. But you should need to explore to find it. No questhubs and no rails!
The virtual world must be open and big. No instances! There must be a harsh death penelty and delevelling should be possible. Corps runs should be long and naked. Travelling must be interesting and meaningful. There should be boats and other transports. Travelling from one part of the world to another should feel like a big project. It should be dangerous and take time.
The games main focus should be exploring the virtual world. Everything you do should be related to that.
Im sure a lot of players that only play modern themeparks would call this game a sandbox. But its not. Its a real MMORPG that can be both sandbox and themepark depending on what you want to do.
Comments
These models don't exist because everyone disagrees about the definitions of these models. Everyone has his/her opinion about it, but thats just it.
In most discussions about this, it roughly comes down to lineair vs freedom. But even the most sandy sandboxes have certain lineair gamemechanics or clear restrictions that limit freedom. At the same time certain themepark MMO's have added parallel progression paths for characters and non combat features that will give those games at least the impression of freedom.
I find it far more interesting how a lot of players who love to write about MMO's became set into a certain way of thinking. For example, how FFA PVP is now supposed to be a requirement for a sandbox MMO. Or on a different topic, how raiding automatically is associated with a gear treadmill. Or how holy trinity is the only way to have challenging PVE content.
The people who can actually think outside the box are getting flooded by posts of these badly programmed sheep who keep going through the same motions of 'mmo x is NOT a sandbox!' , 'yes it is!','no because it doesnt have FFA PVP!' etc
This is an interesting discussion and one that I would have always answered “sandbox..!” without question.
However, now that I’m older and have a family, I’m finding it easier to hop on Themepark MMO’s to get that quick fix – feeling like I’ve accomplished something – and then being able to log off again with only a few minutes of game time here and there. Then the occasional raid/instance with a group of friends once or twice a week. As sad as that sounds, it’s all the time I can commit to these types of games any more. I enjoy too many other things in life, not to mention other games as well.
But that being said, none of the new games in the last 8 years have replaced the experiences I had while playing the original MMORPG’s which I believe were closer to the Sandbox experience people talk about – creating game content with individual actions, no linear controls, etc. and something that was required back then - needing help from friends just to accomplish or even to figure things out.
Sometimes a buddy would find something out and we’d all be like, “yeah, let’s go find it..!” Now it’s right on your map.
These games were based on friends sitting around a table with dice and pencils and paper in hand, creating, imagining and playing together. Now games are single person storylines with kill tasks, and the ability to do just about any role alone - heal, DPS, tank.
It’s a far cry from where they started and I’m not sure that Sandbox or Themepark is even as much of the problem as a loss of discovery, troubleshooting, investigation, exploration, consequence, risk and reward and the need for teamwork.
Absolutely agree with you. For a sandbox you cannot have classes that restrict character development, so it may be easier to just not have classes at all, but if they are there needs to be a way to mix/match them.
And Istaria unforunately did have a very bad start and is only played by a few hundred/ few thousand? people today. Sigh.
Ah... you added a few too many zeroes there, they are lucky to have a few thousand at best and the game is still full of buggy code.
Point taken about the SWG classes, but I still felt like I was building a 'bounty hunter' class or an 'entertainer' class....but I guess it is different enough from other games to call them something other than 'classes'.
But I beg to differ on the themepark without levels and classes, you can have a free form skill building toon which has a very linear set of quests and content to build those skills. It would be possible.
In fact, my guess is the first 'BIG' sandbox will actually be more of a hybrid themepark/sandbox - although how they mix the two, I'm not sure. I think VG attempted this hybrid, although at the end of the day it falls clearly in the themepark catagory. Although instead of having one big long ride, it has hundreds of little ones. Anyway...I digress.
Haha I didn't mean a few hundred thousand, I put the / in there to indicate a few hundred or a few thousand. I would be suprised if there were 5000 people playing.... actually I'd be surprised if there were 500.
But the code is not so bad anymore. Still gets laggy at times but not nearly like it was.
A Themepark is:
A derogatory term used by Eve players for all other online role playing games.
A Sandbox is:
A term used when referring to Ultima Online. Usually, by players who in the same breath claim that they really like being ganked in that game, but for some reason (maybe they forgot their password) are playing SWTOR instead.
Isn't a sandbox a game where you can leave some evidence that players were there? If the world is static it's not a sandbox imo.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
its simple. A Sandbox is a free open world ready for punishment. And then the players are given tools in this open world/sandbox to create their OWN content. TOOLS are very important for a sandbox game. Tools can be incentives for people to do things... or just random crap put into the world by the devs. Tools could be things like giving the players the ability to build houses anywhere, fight anywhere, farm food, rob people. These are tools. You give them these "tools" and then drop them into an open world/sandbox and players will start making their own content. This is a good Sandbox game.
Of course you could just drop players into an open world with no tools at all and it would still be a sandbox. People will eventually find some dumb crap to do. How long they'll end up doing it is another thing.
I think having a hybrid version would be the closet either side would get to what they call a good game
I am upset as my heir will ruin my kingdom.
I second the motion1,.,
I've been doing some thinking about this subject as well as reading a few opinions on how AAA devs don't want to make a Sandbox mmorpg because it wouldn't make any money for them. I can't help but look at a game like TOR and what it cost, around 200 million i believe to make and how shallow and empty the mmo side of it is and how it appears that most of the investment went on VO actors and cutscene work. Then i look at a mmo like Rift and if i'm somewhat correct, it cost like 60 million to make and has all the features of a well made themepark even if it didn't stray too far from the norm.
Now with the newest game engines becoming more dev friendly, wouldn't it be a safe investment to make a sandbox mmorpg in the vein of say, SWG pre-cu with the dynamic event system that GW2 will have. It surely would probably cost around the same as Rift and wouldn't need as many subs to break even and make a profit. Let's use TOR again as an example. If it cost 200 million to make, and they got 2 million pre-orders at 60 bucks a pop, that come's in around 120 million up front for the game with an 80 million needed to just break even. 1.7 million subs at $15.00 bucks is around 25 million a month, so it is easy to say they have already broke even.
Now take a new mmo like i mentioned that only cost 60 million to make and sells 750k pre orders at 60 bucks a pop. That comes to around 45 million up front. Say they keep around 600k subs at $15.00 bucks and that comes to around 7.5 million a month, so in about 2 months they already broke even as well.
I guess i'm trying to figure out why does these big dev companies keep pushing out the same old tired themepark games that are nothing more than a dungeon crawling / instanced warzone gear grind, than creating an up to date virtual world that is actually what the term MMORPG really means. You would think these dev companies would GET IT by now. Continueing to make these clones of WOW and keep going after their sub numbers with games that have the exact same systems in a different skin is so pointless and down right extravagent. They seem like they don't want to take a chance and spend the money on a sandbox mmorpg, yet their willing to spend upwards to 100 million on a copycat game that has far more to lose under the public scrutiny of being labeled a WOW clone. Doesn't make common nor money sense at all.
Because -- It's all about the fast buck.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
There are so many very different ideas for what a sandbox is and how it could operate, that it always seems to end up in lala-land as just an idea rather than ever coming to earth in a practical way that we could support.
Game companies spend millions of dollars to produce an item that they hope will appeal to their target audience. How are they going to recoup that investment in order to be able to keep the servers running and add more space/resources for player-created content? I have to ask: what will the game company make money on once they build you a sandbox to play in?
Should they charge a flat sub for access? Should they make a cash shop for sandbox-developing tools? Should they charge you for the in-game raw materials to make and build things? Where are the boundaries between what the game company should provide in the way of content and what the player wants to be able to create?
A sub fee would be the most practical way, and i really don't think in this day and age people would mind, if the game was very well made. Content could come in the way of dynamic events, like GW2 will have. You have to remember that in a sandbox mmorpg the main content comes from the tools that create interdependency among the players, a player run economy, a deep crafting system that has crafters that make all the items in the game and other stuff.
In my opinion, it's really time for devs to realize that it's ok to break free of the end game gear grind systems that was thought to be so cool in WOW 7 yrs. ago. There may not be 10 million subs out there but i would guess somewhere close to a million mmorpg gamers out there that would love a AAA sandbox mmorpg. Let's really think about it for a sec. The last AAA mmorpg that was made and released was SWG in 2003, that's 9 freaking yrs. ago. Every new AAA mmorpg that has come out since that time has tried to copy WOW and it's themepark model and has ended up with very moderate success and did not capture the subs of WOW, which was probably the motivation to create those mmo's.
So, if these dev companies are making these WOW clone mmo's and are only getting a few hundred thousand subs, then why not grow a set and really be innovative and make a full blown up to date sandbox that will surely do as well or even better than those other games that are copies of copies of WOW. I guess being realistic, maybe they have been waiting for a mmorpg like Archeage to come around from a Eastern AAA company and want to see how it will do in the west. I can only hope that it will get a western publisher and do very well. Then maybe these companies will start to become more open and creative.
Entropia universe
- Unique land owning wich allow players to rule a large piece of land on this huge map mmorpg
- players can own and customise theyr own apartament and house
Archeage
- now even more versatily ways to afect the enviroment
Personaly,im truly sick of CLIQ games,"craft,leveling,iteraction and questining" WoW clones...i look and taste any new game that ofer new and more of contents like EU and archeage.
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys
FH1942 best tanker for 4years
Playing WWII OL for some years untill now
many other for some months
Then get out there n support em champ.
AFAIAC "sandbox" is slang for "a game that will be lacking in unique subs". Also known as "a waste of investment dollars".
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
I'm genuinely curious. What are the best features of theme park games as you see them? If you could just put it in positive terms as an advocate of Theme Park (vs an opponent of Sandbox) I would like to have a better idea of your perspective. Thanks. And I am not trying to set up a rebuttal, I just want to know.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
How about 'gives people what they want?'.
Games ultimately are an entertainment form and for the vast majority of people, they'd rather let a game tell them a story than make one of their own.
Both are equally valid, it is just a case of personal preference.
I do not like Jazz, but that doesn't mean I consider Jazz a lower music genre.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Ill answer this one:
Ppl just want new and diferent features,in my case i play games for 28 years now,mmos for over 12 years and im just sick of "CLIQ" games,i want more to deal with than my char and my itens.
Finaly,we have way more than we need of sandold.
-Game producer: Hey,look,another WoW with better grafics and guns!
-me: No thx
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys
FH1942 best tanker for 4years
Playing WWII OL for some years untill now
many other for some months
Attracting new players is a major obstacle for sandboxes. "I made a character, but I didn't know what to do. I went out to find something to do, but somebody killed me and took all my stuff." So a shiny themepark needs to be smuggled in with the sandbox to get people playing/going. It can't be separate from the sandbox. Their workings need to intertwine. At first, it'll be easy for the new people to stay in themepark land. As they progress higher, worlds need to collide. Maybe that means they're forced into more open PVP areas (I don't know, it's not MY sandbox!). Maybe it means they HAVE to start crafting to get better gear to be able to keep going (if you believe crafting is core to sandbox, like I said, whatever). Point is... you wean them into it. Then by the time they're almost done with the themepark, BAM, they in the sandbox. Ideally, they wouldn't even really feel the transition. They might feel like now they're more into "endgame content" or something. Ideally, after this game came out, people would be all up on the forums "'DERPADERP it's a themepark!' 'DERKADURP, no! It's a sandbox!'" Meanwhile the people who just started playing MMOs like two months ago are like "Hey this game's way cooler than that last game I played, I don't know why, but there's like so much more going on in it!" At this point, everyone is just playing the game, hopefully getting all sandy, not canceling their account. Then the themepark doesn't even need to end. While everyone is off in Emergentgameplayville, an expansion could be in the works. New raids, PvE challenges, whatever extra junk to fatten it up. If it's true what everyone says that sandboxes keep players longer... that expansion should sell better than Cloney Island Themepark MMO of the Week's expansion. Same with the next expansion. And the next expansion. And so on. Seriously... a blockbuster MMO w/the fanaticism of a sandbox crowd? $$$ for like a decade.
But that'll never happen. lol
Replying to text highligthed in green.
The problem is, that the usual game engines wont work for a real sandbox game. It requires different features(from the engine), or even completely other ones.
As example. Network code. Seamless vs. Zoned. With a zoned game(more or less all themeparks) you can more accuratly predict the network traffic and the amount of rendering(so both for network code and graphic engine), and you know how to handle it. By switching the zone you can switch easily the amount of network traffic and graphics/polygons to render during the loading screen.
In a seamless world you have to write a dynamic network and graphic render code. With some kind of Radius of Transmission(for what have to be transmitted) and a Radius of View(what have to be rendered), which have both to be dynamically adjusted at any given time. Now lets assume you run into a big city with a lot of people in there, a lot of polygons and a lot of network traffic, the Radius have to be reduced very fast and in real time, which almost always will end in sum amount of lag. In the zoned design the city is just a new zone and you got your loading screen for it.
But thats not all. Sandboxes are about to manipulate your surroundings.. this requires also a lot of features which are not in place in the usual themepark game engines, and are not that easy to implement in already existing engine. In most cases it is easier to write a new one from the ground up. BUT, you need a lot of experienced ppl capable of it, and a lot of time beforehand you even start to design such a game.
So look at it from that side. The Clonewarriors(companies developing a new themepark clone, or in every other genre) are foremost designers, graphic ppl and all that stuff, working with existing technology(different engines) to craft a new game, but withit they are limited with what features they can offer. They are not capable of making a new game with completely new features.
But with all those features a sandbox requires, it has to have also as much polish, grapical quality, filled with content, tutorials and stuff. So you need the 60 mil. like Rift for the quality, and another undeterminated amount of time and money to create your new engines, test your engines and required mechanics before you even start to "design" the game. And new technology is always risky, but there can be unexpected problems, well even unsolvable problems, where you have to start from beginnings.
E.g. look at Shadowbane, they got a engine with deformable terrain, but withit a lot of unsolved bugs in their engines, and just not the graphical quality of other titles at their time. They never perfected their engine, and they went out of time and money to make a quality mmo.
But thats not even the end of it. In a sandbox environment you have to many unknown variables how things turn out, or what can be expected, that it requires a whole lot more testing and research beforehand, and you need more or less a ready game for it(maybe not the top notch graphic texture or end objects, but all objects(placeholders) have to be in place. So you have to iterate your graphics(animation, textures, 3D objects) a whole lot more often as for a known environment, where it is more or less enough if you do it one time. This all makes it a lot more risky, a lot more unpredictable, and as a investor you dont like unknown variables, you dont like risk or unpredictablility. And therefor you dont see a lot of big money investments in sandbox titles.
As much as i see it, the best bet for a quality sandbox mmo is from CCP, with other words World of Darkness. They have some amount of money, they have the experienced ppl to be capable of doing it, they have experience in the required engines/code, they have experience with sandbox mechanics. So with all that, if we can expect a AAA sandbox it will be most probably from CCP.
Edit: Prototyping is the key for sandbox development. Start with a small world(as example a small island, but with everything filled what can happen in the big world) just with a lot of placeholders(textures, polygon objects, animation) and test your engines and sandbox mechanics to the limit. This will requires more or less at least the time of the development of a usual themepark. And if you got everything right, working engines, working technology, when you know, for what you are capable of doing. Then start to design the game, and during this improve your engines further. At the end, themeparks are a lot cheaper, a lot easier and a lot more predictable to develop, and even the success is easier to predict.
Give me sandbox, period.
The problem, companies that make sandbox MMOs are B grade, and small. If a giant like EA would stop the cookie cutter MMO market they have going on? Well then MAYBE we could get a well polished sandbox MMO. I HIIGHLY enjoyed SHADOWBANE, but wolfpack back in the early 00's was a small company with low funding. Shadowbane was forced to be rushed way to early, and it failed because of lack of funds, and lack of time to to be finished by wolfpack studios.
Darkfall, Mortal Online, etc. etc. all of these games LIKE Shadowbane have small 1 game company owners, those games are their bread and butter. This is the problem with sandbox games, we have allowed World of Warcraft set the standards for MMO gaming. Its not completely our fault because WoW is a very polished, maintained, fun game. However, WoW being as cool as it was back in the day just didn't fullfill my MMO needs. Since the launch of WoW every company that has launched a high budget MMO has tried to copy the leading giant, but they have failed. They failed because no one wants to move FROM Wow to ANOTHER WoW!!!! Seriously? Its sad that Sony, EA, and the rest of the companys that have funding want to copy off someone elses success. It just don't work like that in the MMO world, fans are going to give up their piece of gold for a lesser copy cat clone.
All that said, I am personally sick of games like WoW! I have had my fill, all these games copying its playstyle need to stop! Someone needs to step up and take the thick unwondered path. I want something different, and as of right now the ONLY MMO I will buy in the future is Archeage. Until it launches I will probably just pass my time on DAOC doing RVR etc. a game that was one of the first solid MMOs.... but sad a company like EA now owns it and the rights to one of the Godfather MMOs will be lost, never to surface a new and improved sequel! And no I don't mean that PoS garb some call WAR, what a crap game... but I have said my piece, and its how I feel, after playing MMOs since EQ1, I have given up hope for the MMO world. I will be happy when the day comes that a mainstream MMO doesn't make my stomach turnover, and my temper raise because its a WoW cookie cutter MMO.
A good game should be both themepark and sandbox. It should be possible for players to create content and perhaps also to build things. But there should also be developer created content like quests and events. But you should need to explore to find it. No questhubs and no rails!
The virtual world must be open and big. No instances! There must be a harsh death penelty and delevelling should be possible. Corps runs should be long and naked. Travelling must be interesting and meaningful. There should be boats and other transports. Travelling from one part of the world to another should feel like a big project. It should be dangerous and take time.
The games main focus should be exploring the virtual world. Everything you do should be related to that.
Im sure a lot of players that only play modern themeparks would call this game a sandbox. But its not. Its a real MMORPG that can be both sandbox and themepark depending on what you want to do.