Here's a small nugget from June in a TTH interview with Georgeson about SoEMote:
"Wait until you see spellweaving in the next EverQuest," Georgeson teased. "I've said too much but you've never played a game like it. I can promise you that.
"We have two EverQuest games we can already use as testbeds for what we plan on with the next one. While we're doing that we're putting a huge focus on storytelling over the next year. We want characters to become memorable parts of the story arcs. We want to bring back the world to virtual worlds. This is a re-imagined Norrath. Think of the EverQuest games as three separate universes--a multiverse."
Um... Yeah... I've said for a while now that being able to cast via voice and swinging my own sword while standing would be an MMO "engame" for me. Looks like part of that is not far off. If what I'm reading into here is true and EQN will feature casting via speach (or mouth motion) it's not far fetched that quests could go back to "[quest trigger]" as something you speak rather than type.
Between spell casting and talking there would certainly be "downtime" lol, you're right about that. I highly doubt it would be an designed for use only with speech. Likely an option.
Planetside 2 has given me hope, it's a great engine and obviously able to do big seamless worlds that we haven't seen in years. Also SOE are actually doing a long beta and they're listening, so many things I've said have done, though I'm sure they were planned and other people have said them too.
I personally still don't like Planetside 2, it has a long way to go before it gets to playability levels, however it's on a solid foundation this time around. Frigging also Planetside 2 is so complex, I think it will have to be streamlined a bit, it's way too crazy with the mess of stuff they have on their UI.
...we're putting a huge focus on storytelling over the next year. We want characters to become memorable parts of the story arcs.
This is terrible news. In other words, they are making another single-player-focused game like WoW and the countless remakes that failed. MMO industry. Wake up call. We don't need to be the hero or the focus of the story. Don't coddle us; don't patronize us. Just create an interesting virtual world for us to explore.
EQ Next sounds like yet another example of the MMO industry not understanding its customers. "Incoming, an Epic Fail." Hope it doesn't cost as much as SWTOR.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon. In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Definitely agree. I would prefer if it was more like the original EverQuest II, you know back when it was a little harder and felt like an adventure. With seamless zones and improved graphics this would be a great game. But if they do it like we are seeing it will be another failure.
Planetside 2 has given me hope, it's a great engine and obviously able to do big seamless worlds that we haven't seen in years. Also SOE are actually doing a long beta and they're listening, so many things I've said have done, though I'm sure they were planned and other people have said them too.
I personally still don't like Planetside 2, it has a long way to go before it gets to playability levels, however it's on a solid foundation this time around. Frigging also Planetside 2 is so complex, I think it will have to be streamlined a bit, it's way too crazy with the mess of stuff they have on their UI.
They don't need to streamline Planetside 2 any more than it already has been, they've already cut huge amounts out of it compared to Planetside 1, that 'streamlining' it any more would leave next to nothing, the game is already a huge disappointment, sure doesnt need more of that.
EverQuest Next has been redone from scratch so that it's not EverQuest III. Smedley promises it's going to be the "world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made." It'll be playable at the next Fan Faire.
“I have to be honest with you. We have completely blown up the design of EverQuest Next. For the last year and a half we have been working on something we are not ready to show. Why did we blow up the design? The design was evolutionary. It was EverQuest III. It was something that was slightly better that what had come before it. IT was slightly better. What we are building is something that we will be very proud to call EverQuest. It will be the largest sandbox style MMO ever designed. The same exciting content delivered in a new way. Something you’ve never seen before. The MMO world has never seen before. We didn’t want more Kill 10 Rats quests. We didn’t want more of the same. If you look at the MMOs out there, they’r delivering the same content over and over again. So are we. We need to change that. When we released EverQuest, we changed the world. We want to do that again with a different type of game.
What I will commit to is, at the next Fan Faire, not only will you get to see it but you will get to touch it. Most of the EQNext devs are in this room. If you get them drunk enough they might tell you. They’re led by Dave Georgeson. Terry Michaels. Vets from EQ and EQ2. We are remaking Norrath unlike anything you’ve ever seen, but you’ll recognize it. I’m sorry we don’t have anything to show for it, but I wanted to be honest with you and tell you a little bit about it. Keep the faith.”
Enjoy the wait, EQ Next has been talked about for years and years, i don't see it happening. Hell they just recently a few months ago shutdown 3 studios and fired more then 250 people. The EQ series is going down the tube and EQ Next is just a wishful thinking ideal for EQ fanboys.
The rumor mill states that the original concept of EQ Next has been discarded and a newer facebook style of game has taken its place. Perhaps that's why there have been absolutely no updates from the developers over the last few months.
Massively: Let's start with EQ Next. When did you make the call to scrap everything? What was it that made you choose to do so?
John Smedley: A year and a half ago, we made that decision. I didn't get to cover this in the keynote, so I should mention it here. The engine and underlying technology has not changed. A lot of the guts and infrastructure are staying the same. What we're really changing is what the game is all about, all the design elements. We made one fundamental shift to emergent gameplay.
Once we made that shift, everything else had to follow. And what we saw was RIFT. We saw the writing on the wall with SWTOR. We saw The Secret World. We saw all these games that we knew were in development and very high-quality, but we saw what was going to happen -- this big spike and then it goes down. That's the truth of what's been happening with MMOs. The fans need to realize that if you don't change the nature of what these games are, you're not going to change that core behavior. We want to make games that last more than 15 years. That's why we made the decision to change it.
You mentioned last night that EQ Next will look like nothing we've ever seen. Will EQ Next still have the familiar feel to it that EQ fans are used to? How do you strike the balance between innovation and still staying true to the franchise?
I also said in there that it will still be very familiar to you, but what I meant by that statement is that we're changing what an MMO is. MMO means something now, and it means the same thing to everybody because it's the same game. EverQuest, WoW, SWTOR all use the same core loot gameplay, which is kill stuff, get reward, get loot, level up. Very few games have broken out of that mold. One or two have. EVE Online is a great example; it's not standard level-based gameplay, although I'm not saying we're going to a big skill-based system. You're still going to recognize the roleplaying game heritage in it. In EverQuest Next, the world itself is a part of the game. What is the world in these other games? It's a simple backdrop. It's nothing. We are changing that greatly. We're changing what AI is in these games to a degree that we're going to bring life to the world. That to us is the essence of the change that we're making.
At GDC last week, you also talked about how quickly traditional MMO content is consumed and how that plays into your decision to adopt a philosophy toward emergent gameplay. The question comes up about how that affects the future of raid content -- something that takes a lot of time to design and is usually played by only a portion of the community. What are your thoughts on that?
This is a very interesting question. I think it's at the core of why what we're doing is sustainable. I'll go right to the heart of the matter. You get to the point where we make an expansion, and when I say we, I mean the entire MMO community. You make your expansion, the real hardcore players consume it in a month, and they're doing the raids over and over and over until the next round of live content that we put in. Typically, three or four times a year, we as MMO companies put new endgame in there to keep the raiders happy.
We absolutely need to build that style of content into every game we make because players want that. We're not talking about the end of raids, the end of this incredibly high-level content. We're talking about changing the nature of the world around it so that there's a lot more to do "in between" expansions. A good example, but a very narrow example, is battlegrounds in WoW or EQII, where players get bored doing it over and over again. But imagine the entire world as part of the interaction. Imagine seasons changing. Imagine if you're a Druid and you need to literally seek out reagents for your spells or worship your deity in a glade somewhere off in the wilderness, but you don't know where. Or image forests growing back after they're burned to the ground by invading forces. What we want is a dynamic world that gives all those other possibilities and doesn't just say OK, go to raid X with group composition of X, Y, Z, and kill the dragon for the 52nd time to get the tier 800 gear. It's this rinse-and-repeat gameplay that's got to change, and so we're changing it.
I have to call bullshit on Smed. To me that sounds like a lot of intentionally misleading hype. At first it sounds like they are really going to make an effort to make a good sandbox game but then if you look a little closer you realize that---oh yeah---not so much sandbox after all.
The first clue was when he referred to is as "sandbox style". By adding that little modifier there, the word "style", he was covering his arse so he can't be called a lier later. Basically what this tells you is that it won't really be a sandbox game but rather it will be a typical sort of game with some elements which could concievably be labeled sandbox elements.
He also says, " I'm not saying we're going to a big skill-based system." Which is just another way of saying it's still going to be a level based game.
Ok, then when talking about raiding he says, "We absolutely need to build that style of content into every game we make..." So, yeah, more of the same.
Alright so what do we learn when we look closely at his comments? We learn that he's planning to make a level based game with end-game raiding. Well golly gee I never heard of something like that before!
Yes, he also talks about better AI and a dynamic world but, come on. The game will be shaped by the fact that it's level based and raid based. Those two basic facts will dictate what the game will be and they pretty much make a sandbox game impossible. Ok, say a raid guild kills dragon X. Dragon X stays dead. Instead of dragon X respawning there will be something else like < Mountian Giant Y> or whatever. Maybe this is generated somewhat randomly. Well ok, now they can say that their world is "dynamic". But really it's just the same ol' thing in a different graphical package.
And if you think I'm clueless that's fine, but really, does anyone have any faith left in SOE or Smedley?
Sadly im going to call this a lie until proven wrong. Calling a game the biggest sandbox ever is fail, and i know for a fact that they cannot keep that promise. Either a game is theme-park, or sandbox. I have yet to see a really good game that was both.
WoW was themepark and it did well
EvE is sandbox and it did well
shadowbane was sandbox and it did well
rift is themepark, and it did well.
What game has been able to incorporate themepark and sandbox together and make a good game? The next biggest game i see that may be able to actually pull it off is archeage.
I would need much more details before i can even call it sandbox. Can towns be built? Can they be attacked and taken over? is there open world pvp? and when i say open world i mean open world, as in 90% of the world is open for pvp. Will there be rewards for killing people? Will there be consequences for my actions in pvp? are there quests ( i dont think they should even be in a sandbox mmo)? Is each character going to be unique in thier own way? i.e by making a warrior, will i be able to customermize my character as i see fit? If i want to make a dex war, can i make the stats as such? what about a super crazy int build warrior? can i do that? Part of sandbox is being able to play how you want to play. I dont want to lvl then bam i get like +2 to str,vit, +1 dex, and .5 for int and wisdom (random stats, dont even know if they are in game). I want to be able to put all my points into int if i want to.
Need more info before i can call this a sandbox let alone the Biggest sandbox ever.
Originally posted by grafh Sadly im going to call this a lie until proven wrong. Calling a game the biggest sandbox ever is fail, and i know for a fact that they cannot keep that promise. Either a game is theme-park, or sandbox. I have yet to see a really good game that was both. WoW was themepark and it did wellEvE is sandbox and it did wellshadowbane was sandbox and it did wellrift is themepark, and it did well. What game has been able to incorporate themepark and sandbox together and make a good game? The next biggest game i see that may be able to actually pull it off is archeage.I would need much more details before i can even call it sandbox. Can towns be built? Can they be attacked and taken over? is there open world pvp? and when i say open world i mean open world, as in 90% of the world is open for pvp. Will there be rewards for killing people? Will there be consequences for my actions in pvp? are there quests ( i dont think they should even be in a sandbox mmo)? Is each character going to be unique in thier own way? i.e by making a warrior, will i be able to customermize my character as i see fit? If i want to make a dex war, can i make the stats as such? what about a super crazy int build warrior? can i do that? Part of sandbox is being able to play how you want to play. I dont want to lvl then bam i get like +2 to str,vit, +1 dex, and .5 for int and wisdom (random stats, dont even know if they are in game). I want to be able to put all my points into int if i want to.Need more info before i can call this a sandbox let alone the Biggest sandbox ever.
IMO a sandbox game doesn't have to have pvp at all in order to be considered a sandbox.
also, you mention making a warrior, set classes isn't really a sandbox element.
point is, this is your view of what a sandbox should be and if this game doesn't meet that criteria, it doesn't mean it isn't a sandbox.
me personally, i really don't care if it has some theme park elements as long as its main focus is the sandbox elements.
to be honest, i would be happy with a game that was exactly like everquest was when it first came out with some added sandbox elements,some new bells and whistles, and open pvp servers, but that's just me.
IMO a sandbox game doesn't have to have pvp at all in order to be considered a sandbox.
also, you mention making a warrior, set classes isn't really a sandbox element.
point is, this is your view of what a sandbox should be and if this game doesn't meet that criteria, it doesn't mean it isn't a sandbox.
me personally, i really don't care if it has some theme park elements as long as its main focus is the sandbox elements.
to be honest, i would be happy with a game that was exactly like everquest was when it first came out with some added sandbox elements,some new bells and whistles, and open pvp servers, but that's just me.
Then what is a sandbox to you? Sandbox to me is where users have the majority of the control over the game. How can a game be sandbox without pvp? What would you do?
Set classes are fine in a sandbox. i.e in shadowbane you could make a class called templar, but there were so many viable builds of templars that it was crazy. You had some that were str based, some that were int, some that were dex. Weapons were effected by certain stat modifiers. warlocks had a weapon called psi blades that did more dmg based on what your warlock skill was. But you didnt have to use them, you didnt even have to have a high warlock skill. You could be a melee warlock if you wanted. this flexability of the player is what makes up the elements of the sandbox.
Kill the wrong person in a sandbox game like shadowbane or eve and you have a political conflict on your hands, that can grow into a fullscale war. The devs didnt make that happen. you the players did. In sandbox devs job is to stay out of the game as much as possible and just take care of bugs, and introduce new content.
So in your mind, how would it have thempark elements, and what would make it sandbox? If you were making the game yourself, how would you do this?
Comments
Here's a small nugget from June in a TTH interview with Georgeson about SoEMote:
"Wait until you see spellweaving in the next EverQuest," Georgeson teased. "I've said too much but you've never played a game like it. I can promise you that.
"We have two EverQuest games we can already use as testbeds for what we plan on with the next one. While we're doing that we're putting a huge focus on storytelling over the next year. We want characters to become memorable parts of the story arcs. We want to bring back the world to virtual worlds. This is a re-imagined Norrath. Think of the EverQuest games as three separate universes--a multiverse."
http://www.tentonhammer.com/previews/everquest/soemote-and-eq-next
Um... Yeah... I've said for a while now that being able to cast via voice and swinging my own sword while standing would be an MMO "engame" for me. Looks like part of that is not far off. If what I'm reading into here is true and EQN will feature casting via speach (or mouth motion) it's not far fetched that quests could go back to "[quest trigger]" as something you speak rather than type.
/sigh, it's hard not to get too excited right?
Planetside 2 has given me hope, it's a great engine and obviously able to do big seamless worlds that we haven't seen in years. Also SOE are actually doing a long beta and they're listening, so many things I've said have done, though I'm sure they were planned and other people have said them too.
I personally still don't like Planetside 2, it has a long way to go before it gets to playability levels, however it's on a solid foundation this time around. Frigging also Planetside 2 is so complex, I think it will have to be streamlined a bit, it's way too crazy with the mess of stuff they have on their UI.
SOE Live is Oct 18-21
http://www.soe.com/soelive/
EQ2 fan sites
This is terrible news. In other words, they are making another single-player-focused game like WoW and the countless remakes that failed. MMO industry. Wake up call. We don't need to be the hero or the focus of the story. Don't coddle us; don't patronize us. Just create an interesting virtual world for us to explore.
EQ Next sounds like yet another example of the MMO industry not understanding its customers. "Incoming, an Epic Fail." Hope it doesn't cost as much as SWTOR.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Ask I asked Smed what the chances were of NQNext info at this SOE Life, his reply, high.
it will probably get mentioned in the opening tomorrow (10/18)
but SOE Live has no panels to discuss EQ3
http://www.everquest2.com/news/article?month=102012&id=51422
EQ2 fan sites
We could use a good game and they could use a success.
They don't need to streamline Planetside 2 any more than it already has been, they've already cut huge amounts out of it compared to Planetside 1, that 'streamlining' it any more would leave next to nothing, the game is already a huge disappointment, sure doesnt need more of that.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/18/soe-live-2012-keynote-announcements/
EverQuest Next has been redone from scratch so that it's not EverQuest III. Smedley promises it's going to be the "world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made." It'll be playable at the next Fan Faire.
http://eq2wire.com/2012/10/18/soe-live-2012-welcome-reception-live-refresh-for-updates/
“I have to be honest with you. We have completely blown up the design of EverQuest Next. For the last year and a half we have been working on something we are not ready to show. Why did we blow up the design? The design was evolutionary. It was EverQuest III. It was something that was slightly better that what had come before it. IT was slightly better. What we are building is something that we will be very proud to call EverQuest. It will be the largest sandbox style MMO ever designed. The same exciting content delivered in a new way. Something you’ve never seen before. The MMO world has never seen before. We didn’t want more Kill 10 Rats quests. We didn’t want more of the same. If you look at the MMOs out there, they’r delivering the same content over and over again. So are we. We need to change that. When we released EverQuest, we changed the world. We want to do that again with a different type of game.
What I will commit to is, at the next Fan Faire, not only will you get to see it but you will get to touch it. Most of the EQNext devs are in this room. If you get them drunk enough they might tell you. They’re led by Dave Georgeson. Terry Michaels. Vets from EQ and EQ2. We are remaking Norrath unlike anything you’ve ever seen, but you’ll recognize it. I’m sorry we don’t have anything to show for it, but I wanted to be honest with you and tell you a little bit about it. Keep the faith.”
EQ2 fan sites
when is the next Fan Faire? lol
its going to be using the same engine as PS2 that will not run on the web.
Great news.
It is a shame it is 2 years away though
I can't wait
Sadly next year
ill be there bros
Smed interview
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/20/soe-live-2012-john-smedley-on-eq-next-and-soes-future/
Massively: Let's start with EQ Next. When did you make the call to scrap everything? What was it that made you choose to do so?
John Smedley: A year and a half ago, we made that decision. I didn't get to cover this in the keynote, so I should mention it here. The engine and underlying technology has not changed. A lot of the guts and infrastructure are staying the same. What we're really changing is what the game is all about, all the design elements. We made one fundamental shift to emergent gameplay.
Once we made that shift, everything else had to follow. And what we saw was RIFT. We saw the writing on the wall with SWTOR. We saw The Secret World. We saw all these games that we knew were in development and very high-quality, but we saw what was going to happen -- this big spike and then it goes down. That's the truth of what's been happening with MMOs. The fans need to realize that if you don't change the nature of what these games are, you're not going to change that core behavior. We want to make games that last more than 15 years. That's why we made the decision to change it.
You mentioned last night that EQ Next will look like nothing we've ever seen. Will EQ Next still have the familiar feel to it that EQ fans are used to? How do you strike the balance between innovation and still staying true to the franchise?
I also said in there that it will still be very familiar to you, but what I meant by that statement is that we're changing what an MMO is. MMO means something now, and it means the same thing to everybody because it's the same game. EverQuest, WoW, SWTOR all use the same core loot gameplay, which is kill stuff, get reward, get loot, level up. Very few games have broken out of that mold. One or two have. EVE Online is a great example; it's not standard level-based gameplay, although I'm not saying we're going to a big skill-based system. You're still going to recognize the roleplaying game heritage in it. In EverQuest Next, the world itself is a part of the game. What is the world in these other games? It's a simple backdrop. It's nothing. We are changing that greatly. We're changing what AI is in these games to a degree that we're going to bring life to the world. That to us is the essence of the change that we're making.
At GDC last week, you also talked about how quickly traditional MMO content is consumed and how that plays into your decision to adopt a philosophy toward emergent gameplay. The question comes up about how that affects the future of raid content -- something that takes a lot of time to design and is usually played by only a portion of the community. What are your thoughts on that?
This is a very interesting question. I think it's at the core of why what we're doing is sustainable. I'll go right to the heart of the matter. You get to the point where we make an expansion, and when I say we, I mean the entire MMO community. You make your expansion, the real hardcore players consume it in a month, and they're doing the raids over and over and over until the next round of live content that we put in. Typically, three or four times a year, we as MMO companies put new endgame in there to keep the raiders happy.
We absolutely need to build that style of content into every game we make because players want that. We're not talking about the end of raids, the end of this incredibly high-level content. We're talking about changing the nature of the world around it so that there's a lot more to do "in between" expansions. A good example, but a very narrow example, is battlegrounds in WoW or EQII, where players get bored doing it over and over again. But imagine the entire world as part of the interaction. Imagine seasons changing. Imagine if you're a Druid and you need to literally seek out reagents for your spells or worship your deity in a glade somewhere off in the wilderness, but you don't know where. Or image forests growing back after they're burned to the ground by invading forces. What we want is a dynamic world that gives all those other possibilities and doesn't just say OK, go to raid X with group composition of X, Y, Z, and kill the dragon for the 52nd time to get the tier 800 gear. It's this rinse-and-repeat gameplay that's got to change, and so we're changing it.
EQ2 fan sites
^^ nice read, i really want to get exited about this game but, yeah.
this is the type of game i have been waiting for on paper but that's all it is right now.
I have to call bullshit on Smed. To me that sounds like a lot of intentionally misleading hype. At first it sounds like they are really going to make an effort to make a good sandbox game but then if you look a little closer you realize that---oh yeah---not so much sandbox after all.
The first clue was when he referred to is as "sandbox style". By adding that little modifier there, the word "style", he was covering his arse so he can't be called a lier later. Basically what this tells you is that it won't really be a sandbox game but rather it will be a typical sort of game with some elements which could concievably be labeled sandbox elements.
He also says, " I'm not saying we're going to a big skill-based system." Which is just another way of saying it's still going to be a level based game.
Ok, then when talking about raiding he says, "We absolutely need to build that style of content into every game we make..." So, yeah, more of the same.
Alright so what do we learn when we look closely at his comments? We learn that he's planning to make a level based game with end-game raiding. Well golly gee I never heard of something like that before!
Yes, he also talks about better AI and a dynamic world but, come on. The game will be shaped by the fact that it's level based and raid based. Those two basic facts will dictate what the game will be and they pretty much make a sandbox game impossible. Ok, say a raid guild kills dragon X. Dragon X stays dead. Instead of dragon X respawning there will be something else like < Mountian Giant Y> or whatever. Maybe this is generated somewhat randomly. Well ok, now they can say that their world is "dynamic". But really it's just the same ol' thing in a different graphical package.
And if you think I'm clueless that's fine, but really, does anyone have any faith left in SOE or Smedley?
It isn't a theme park. It isn't a sand box. It is a county fair. Somewhere in between. Feel better?
Sadly im going to call this a lie until proven wrong. Calling a game the biggest sandbox ever is fail, and i know for a fact that they cannot keep that promise. Either a game is theme-park, or sandbox. I have yet to see a really good game that was both.
WoW was themepark and it did well
EvE is sandbox and it did well
shadowbane was sandbox and it did well
rift is themepark, and it did well.
What game has been able to incorporate themepark and sandbox together and make a good game? The next biggest game i see that may be able to actually pull it off is archeage.
I would need much more details before i can even call it sandbox. Can towns be built? Can they be attacked and taken over? is there open world pvp? and when i say open world i mean open world, as in 90% of the world is open for pvp. Will there be rewards for killing people? Will there be consequences for my actions in pvp? are there quests ( i dont think they should even be in a sandbox mmo)? Is each character going to be unique in thier own way? i.e by making a warrior, will i be able to customermize my character as i see fit? If i want to make a dex war, can i make the stats as such? what about a super crazy int build warrior? can i do that? Part of sandbox is being able to play how you want to play. I dont want to lvl then bam i get like +2 to str,vit, +1 dex, and .5 for int and wisdom (random stats, dont even know if they are in game). I want to be able to put all my points into int if i want to.
Need more info before i can call this a sandbox let alone the Biggest sandbox ever.
IMO a sandbox game doesn't have to have pvp at all in order to be considered a sandbox.
also, you mention making a warrior, set classes isn't really a sandbox element.
point is, this is your view of what a sandbox should be and if this game doesn't meet that criteria, it doesn't mean it isn't a sandbox.
me personally, i really don't care if it has some theme park elements as long as its main focus is the sandbox elements.
to be honest, i would be happy with a game that was exactly like everquest was when it first came out with some added sandbox elements,some new bells and whistles, and open pvp servers, but that's just me.
Then what is a sandbox to you? Sandbox to me is where users have the majority of the control over the game. How can a game be sandbox without pvp? What would you do?
you can review this thread for others people opinion of what sandbox is but they all seem to have pvp, and city building, with very minimal theme park elements. http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/4578396#4578396
Set classes are fine in a sandbox. i.e in shadowbane you could make a class called templar, but there were so many viable builds of templars that it was crazy. You had some that were str based, some that were int, some that were dex. Weapons were effected by certain stat modifiers. warlocks had a weapon called psi blades that did more dmg based on what your warlock skill was. But you didnt have to use them, you didnt even have to have a high warlock skill. You could be a melee warlock if you wanted. this flexability of the player is what makes up the elements of the sandbox.
Kill the wrong person in a sandbox game like shadowbane or eve and you have a political conflict on your hands, that can grow into a fullscale war. The devs didnt make that happen. you the players did. In sandbox devs job is to stay out of the game as much as possible and just take care of bugs, and introduce new content.
So in your mind, how would it have thempark elements, and what would make it sandbox? If you were making the game yourself, how would you do this?