There are two platforms of mmo’s. Same box and theme park. Traditionally wow has been a theme park where blizzard provides the rides and we just buckle up, for better or worse. My question is, do you all think wow would benefit from more sand box features/ gameplay. Below is a chat gpt summation of the two. It seems like the current grind for wow loses people be it direction of the game or life outside the game unable to keep up with wows “demands”. When I’m not actively playing current content, which is gear driven I’m playing solo, which is 90% of the time and most of that time is just running previous content no longer relevant. It would be great if there were more things to do in the game that wasn’t structured around getting more gear.
Sandbox MMORPG
Player Freedom: High – players shape the world and set their own goals.
I think it could be fun. It can also induce nightmares. I guess it depends on the community. Seems like a different variation of the game like Season of Discovery was.
Yeah those were some atrocious examples. I think the argument ultimately falls back on solo vs group content which is already a divisive issue. I mean it more in a things to do that don’t involve doing something for progression or collecting, some game play elements that are just for entertainments sake, for example things involving the new housing/neighborhoods coming.
Edit: I suppose you could say world quests or overworld content in fairness but they kind of just feel trivial
“Sandbox” games are pretty bad IMO.
Their aimless nature forces a CYAO mindset which I honestly do not have.
Above all, they pretty much require group play, and the group’s “quality” will dictate the game’s quality.
They could work only if we could have a “game master” of sorts, or multiple ones, like in actual RPGs, to shape the experience, promote events, or control undesirable outcomes.
You’re better off playing other games for that kind of experience.
The best thing WoW has to offer in that regard is something most players revile: PvP.
That would be my complaint as well as the few sandbox games I have played I fall out of due to “what’s the point” syndrome. But I’d like to say blizzard could cook something up to get away from that
WoW is not a sandbox game. It is RP. Be creative with it and you can get close to sandbox. Furthermore, we are getting a sandbox-esque feature with housing in Midnight. Not really sure what else there is to give.
If WoW moved to Sandbox, it wouldn’t be as popular.
Themepark MMO’s provide some benefits, besides laying out the content so you to progress.
Happiness is prioritized: You are constantly winning. Dying has little to no penalty and gear is relatively easy to acquire and power can be maintained.
Sandbox’s, in my experience, tend to be chaotic PvP-laden hellscapes. There’s little to no direction but the gameplay loop is to grind something, make something and then struggle to hold onto that while progressing. Dying/Losing usually is a giant setback.
They also tend to be completely and utterly one-sided over a long enough period of time. There’s always a faction, a guild, a very large group that tends to dominate. Nobody likes to lose so that faction always grows. WoW has already been through this with Classic PvP servers becoming single faction servers, the other faction ganked into oblivion becoming uninhabitable for a faction. Sandbox MMO’s tend to go the same route.
Even if you think sandbox provides a bad player experience, there is no harm and it does cost much for Blizzard to allow it.
One thing I feel Blizzard should attempt is to allow player controlled factions. Let players form their own factions. Let them determine who is and isn’t an enemy. All while maintaining NPC factions for players who do not want to partake in the player factions.
I’m not against it per se, it just can’t work with the current game’s structure.
They could launch a sandbox server and I’d likely play it, but how would it work?
Free picking of factions is something even current WoW should have.
I’ve stated it many times in these forums (I’d be a Scarlet Crusader eliminating undead scum all day long).
Breaking the faction barriers would enable a plethora of new playable races too. I feel their reason for rejecting a lot of these highly requested playable races is that they won’t fit into either Horde or Alliance. And at this point, I don’t think the players care about this anyways. Just let it happen…
And if you’re a true PvPer (as in, someone who genuinely enjoys the PvP aspect) you don’t like this. People who like to fight and PvP don’t like the faction imbalance just as much as anyone else. I know tons of PvPers who wish they could become hostile to both factions. It’s not about loyalty - no one cares about that. They just want to fight. So if one big mega PvP guild formed, I can almost guarantee you they’d fight each other out of pure enjoyment.
Sandbox MMORPG
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