What is the hype around the sandbox all about? The term has been circulating for a few years. It became popular through quirky titles like Minecraft or Dwarf Fortress. Now it is supposed to cause a stir in MMORPGs like Everquest Next or ArcheAge.
Current blockbuster games like WildStar, The Elder Scrolls Online or World of Warcraft are skeptical about the concept, yet the word can be heard everywhere on the internet. We at mein-mmo.de will take a closer look at the term “sandbox” and consider how it could shape the future of MMORPGs in 2014, 2015 and beyond.
What is a sandbox actually?
When we remember the best moments in our gaming time, there are two factions.
The roller coaster ride
One side raves about having defeated an incredibly strong opponent: How they took on Mother Brain in the second Phantasy Star. Or they talk about the wonderful atmosphere in Zelda, rave about the clever dialogues in Planescape Torment, or drone on for hours about the balanced, exciting maps in Warcraft 3.
The game developer wanted them to see and experience exactly those things. The gamers boarded a roller coaster and passed by exactly the stations that the designer of the ride once dreamed up. This half of the player base enjoys the carnival, the trip in the amusement park.
They love sitting in a darkened room and cranking the speakers up. They enjoy the story unfolding before them like in a movie. And they love taking on the role of a character in a fantastic world that they can enter with a click of the mouse.
The games they love are also called “theme parks”: They are adventure worlds, roller coasters, amusement parks. It is Disney World.
Building and dreaming
The other faction of players still knows how fantastic their city looked in Sim City. They can remember every branching of a 300-year spanning family tree in the first Crusader King. They created huge realms with settlers and organized a perfectly running hospital with the rather cheeky Biing, even though only idiots worked there.
They have built a near-manic relationship with their creature in Black&White, which they tell a psychologist about every Tuesday and Thursday in individual therapy (“And then I dozed off for a moment and when I woke up, my wolf had devoured the entire Maya village and his fur was red and he grew horns.” – “(After a long pause) How was your relationship with your mother?”.)
At the moment, they are neck-deep in a primal survival struggle in DayZ, where survivors torture and massacre each other for a few valuable resources. Or they play Minecraft or even Dwarf Fortress and have cut off contact with the outside world months ago.
These players have been given a few tools by the developers, a few shovels and molds, and could build great things with them. They played in the sandbox and let their imagination run wild.
They often play games that don’t visually impress much because the important half of their gaming experience takes place in their heads. They become not just a character in a game but a creator, a builder, a world shaper.
They do not experience a story; they tell it.
Has this existed in MMORPGs before?
Hardly at all, but a little. Before the triumph of Blizzard’s flagship World of Warcraft, there were a few games that showcased sandbox elements. The open housing in Star Wars Galaxies is still missed and mourned today, and Ultima Online had significantly more of a sandbox than many current games.
Generally, the terms sandbox and theme park are absolute and theoretical terms that are rarely found in their pure form. Even a prototypical theme park game like World of Warcraft has sandbox elements. Not every detail is regulated by Blizzard.
Players can shape the economy themselves. Blizzard does not dictate how much an item should cost. The players decide that among themselves. Other parts of an online game can also not be predicted or controlled by Blizzard: the interpersonal, guild politics, the poaching of players between guilds disputing for first kills. All of this, if you broaden the term, belongs to the sandbox.
In EVE Online, players have whole zones for themselves, known as Null Sec, which they compete for. They shape and manage this space themselves. But even in EVE Online, there are elements of an amusement park in the early hours with a few introductory missions. And the developer regularly guides the course of the game with new expansions in a certain direction.
Why is there so little sandbox in MMORPGs?
Because Blizzard won with World of Warcraft and for years everyone thought that to guarantee success, one must imitate World of Warcraft.
After all, the development costs for an MMORPG are huge. The developers and their bosses in suits believed that success could only come from emulating Blizzard.
A sandbox requires a lot of trust in the players from a corporation. The developers relinquish responsibility and lose a piece of control over their creation. Corporations usually do not like that; otherwise, we would all have jetpacks. It is ironic that the giant Electronic Arts has so much success in a supposed sandbox world with The Sims. However, upon closer inspection, The Sims are also not sandboxers but rather a theme park wolf in sandbox clothing.
League of Legends or Minecraft?
In recent years, e-sports have been on the rise, especially in Asia. The MOBA League of Legends, designed entirely for e-sports and comparability, is breaking all records today. A MOBA or an e-sport game is the opposite of a sandbox. The developer needs absolute control over it to create comparable possibilities.
Only through the indie wave in recent years have titles like Minecraft developed so well that studios are now brave enough to incorporate sandbox elements into MMORPGs.
Why is the sandbox necessary for MMORPGs?
Most MMORPGs today have problems with the long-term motivation of their players. If a player wants to experience new adventures constantly, someone must be there to write and design these adventures. Not even World of Warcraft can accomplish that. Other games even less.
Developers cannot keep up with the pace of players. Therefore, existing content is artificially extended. Quests do not need to be done just once, but fifty times – that is called dailies. Instead of developing three instances, only one is completed and it is offered in three difficulty levels. And when players really get bored, they simply invent particularly time-consuming tasks in the existing world and call that achievements.
While there have also been efforts in recent years to loosen a theme park, it usually results in offering the player just three alternative routes through the amusement park.
The relationship between developers and players sometimes resembles that of a babysitter and a child.
The child says: “I’m bored.”
The babysitter says: “Read something.”
“I already know everything.”
“Then read it again.”
“I’ve done everything already.”
“Well, then read it backwards and upside down.”
With a sandbox, developers hope players can occupy themselves for months and years.
What are the hopes for MMORPGs then?
In Everquest Next, sandbox possibilities are taken seriously. Players should be able to creatively shape and change the world around them. At the moment, everything is still being discussed and is in the air. It will be crucial to see to what extent the world and the engine can keep up with the players’ creativity.
So far, the focus has primarily been on the ability to directly influence the game world in the fantasy MMORPG Everquest Next. One can dig a hole in the ground and reach a deeper level of a cave. But the plans for Everquest Next Landmark, the associated world-builder game, go much further and allow the construction of starships with the engine of the actual fantasy game.
[intense_blockquote color=”#f0f0f0″]
You haven’t heard anything about it yet? Then read these articles:
Everquest Next: The Next Big Thing
Everquest Landmark Developer: Sandbox is the Future
[/intense_blockquote]
In addition to Everquest Landmark, several other titles are in the wings that cultivate sandbox elements: including ArcheAge, which we have already introduced (the best MMORPGs 2014).
There could also be a surprise coming from the crowd-funding corner. With The Repopulation, a promising title is approaching beta, which aims to impress mainly with a sophisticated crafting system. And perhaps even Ultima Online will experience a renaissance with the spiritual successor Shroud of the Avatar.
But I already hear so much about sandbox; what’s going on?
At the moment, sandbox in a blockbuster title is still a thing of the future. While many games today advertise with “sandbox” elements because it is a new selling point, whether a relatively limited quest builder really deserves such a designation is another question.
Such advertising measures have not yet shown resounding success. In Star Trek Online or Neverwinter, players have the opportunity to build quests and design spaces. However, they rarely match the quality of a developer quest. Often, they exist only to grant other players items or experience points easily.
However, it could be that the year 2014 is the last big year for theme park MMORPGs, with the upcoming release of The Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar. Although these games already have larger sandbox elements than were conceivable a few years ago. For example, The Elder Scrolls Online gives a lot of responsibility in the trading area and in PvP to its players. WildStar, on the other hand, seems to be an advocate of the “multiple routes through the amusement park” strategy.
[intense_testimonies]
[intense_testimony]
[intense_testimony_text]One thing is clear: With Everquest Next (Landmark) and other high-profile “sandbox titles”, the world of MMOs is becoming more colorful and creative. We look forward to it.[/intense_testimony_text]
[intense_testimony_author image=”https://images.mein-mmo.de/magazin/medien/2014/01/Logo-022.png”][/intense_testimony_author]
[/intense_testimony]
[/intense_testimonies]
