The future is sandbox, and I can’t wait. The announcement that Everquest Next will be a sandbox confirms what many of us in the blogging game have been thinking for some time; the era of the theme-park is over, let the time of the sandbox begin. I have been following the Pathfinder Online game development closely, and this announcement from Everquest just confirms that Pathfinder were correct to get their foot in the door early. As Ryan Dancey the CEO of Pathfinder Online said on their forum today;
“… From what Smed says, it sounds like they’re at least two years out, minimum. He’s promising that next year they’ll show work in progress but they don’t have anything to show this year.
That’s about what I expected when I first pitched Pathfinder Online to Lisa last year; that there’s a window open right now for a great fantasy sandbox MMO but it won’t stay open forever.
I think the net effect of more companies coming into the space is more awareness getting raised about why sandboxes are a fundamentally better way to play an MMO than the Theme parks were. And that does nothing but help us, so that makes me pretty happy …”
I’m quite certain that other companies will jump on the bandwagon as well. While I couldn’t possibly tell you which game I’ll end up playing, what I am hopeful of is at least one company getting it right. Whether that turns out to be WoW huge or niche game market, either way it’s good for me.
October 22, 2012 at 9:18 pm
TBH, I don’t think we really had the technology to pull off a good sandbox MMO before. Sure, you could have some good elements to it, but to have a polished, well-balanced sandbox MMO… The companies probably needed to develop the tech to support that sort of gameplay.
Kinda makes me wonder, though, how does the whole F2P model work with a Sandbox game. Personally, I’d rather pay a monthly fee for a well-balanced game, than buy random stuff to enhance the game, or have to pay extra to unlock features of the game. Let me pay to play, don’t make me try to work out the price. I’ll play if it’s good.
November 4, 2012 at 8:01 am
Upcoming SimCity’s reboot is going to be a sandbox MMO.
January 11, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Good point about the tech. I think it has been obvious to many people that theme parks are sub-par experiences in light of what you pay.
F2P is a phenomenon separate to theme park MMOs. That was sparked by the ease of digital distribution the last 5-6 years(?). Theme parks are just getting hit because the product lacks substance.
A quality sandbox that gives the players a changing environment, that supports multiple play styles (not Darkfall’s FPS-battleground parody of a sandbox) will be viable as a subscription model.
And even though I know this will still be too much for many people, even sandbox supporters, permanent death even if it is only by eventual character ageing is needed. The game must have a timeline. Without a timeline you still have a timeless mush of events. The more context you give to in-game actions the more immersive and meaningful the experience becomes. The more epic a character’s achievements. Another reason why the single player RPG design aspect of “character levels” is archaic for a multiplayer platform. Fortunately most sandboxes have already ditched that and manual harvesting is also being phased out in others.
The future is indeed bright.