sandbox/thempark and how it relates to swtor

You said in your first post..."What do you think the lessons learned from different aspects of sandbox/themepark gameplay could be seen within swtor. Be it playerhousing, player created quests or basically anything else you can think of that relates to games in general along sandbox/themepark aspects."...by that statement you are leaving open for those who think WoW is not like TOR in reference to sandbox/themepark espects and why they think so. And we have not got off the topic by bringing up WoW. :P You want to have a open discussion about MMO's in relationship with thier sandbox/themepark aspects you have to accept some will bring up a very popular and well known MMO.

I have also reference, sto, rift, war and many others, im refering to not going in a debate about wow has this or wow has that and tor has this so its lacking. thus throwing back and forth that wow is mainstream and thus can be discussed is off topic which is what you were trying todo by stating you never said anything about wow which i never said you had or that its not ok to talk about which is something i never said either. thus off topic.

I do, the feeling that your exploring, even if it goes no where the option to go off the beaten track is appealing as you never know what you might find.

Lol! I give up. Enjoy your pro TOR thread.

Hybrid MMO's that support both characteristics of Theme Park (20+Raids/dungeons/solo instances/16 and lower operations/pvp warzones/story questlines) and Sandbox (Dynamic changes in game, random world events per zone, player generated content via crafting/housing wars/ open world pvp for resources // land dominance) is the only future. More developers need to take from both worlds and mash them together.

If SWTOR taught future MMO designers anything: It's stay away from the old game plan. MMO players are sick of the same boring Theme park design.

Good Thread.

@Shingara are you going to do a summary and mod post #1 with a summary of findings?

There are some good generic nuggets in this thread. If Shingara keeps it game agnostic then I think the thread may have some value based on the collective empirical experiences of gamers.

But yeah I too don't want to see this thread turn into:

Fan Boiz Assemble!!

The one thing SWTOR should learn from SWTOR is that it is not enough of a themepark. The 'open world' areas are a waste. Each class should have just had class missions and they would be just like flashpoints with hardmodes (+2 and +4) that were meant to be repeatable for each level range.

If there is anything it should learn from sandboxes it is the time wasting activities people did to take a break from the grind. The problem is that there is nothing that makes you want to stop and enjoy the scenery while leveling. Not only is the game on rails, but it is moving pretty fast. This is a problem with most themepark MMOs mostly seen with gear/rewards that are looted and replaced too frequently.

I also started play videogames in the '80s. My first MMORPG was SWG and I concur it was a shame how was managed and is an example of how to ruin an awesome game. I left the game 5 minutes before NGE became live because WoW-like games are not my taste, I knew it was going to turn SWG into a MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game with no RP at all).

Sure you wonder why I'm playing SWTOR if I don't like wow-like games. 2 words: Star Wars; and that I expected it was be a bit different because of Bioware, though I had very bad feelings (rails in space? too bad idea). Unfortunately, like OP, I've got only 1 level 50 character (I've got other 4 but none is above level 39) and the game has nothing to keep me playing specialy because I find extremly boring grind doing again and again and again, day after day after day after day after day, the same FPs/OPs.

Since I left SWG I've been looking for a game that could give me the same sense of freedom and inmersion without any luck. I played for some time, with long breaks, EVE-Online but never was like play SWG, too limited to spaceships, and was very hard feel attached to your character because it was, is, a spaceship. But recently I found a game built around sandbox concept that makes me think there's hope for us, vet MMORPG players, who misses freedom and role play. I'm speaking of GW2. Is a bit of fresh air in a long time closed room, and from my point of view, after play the last 2 BWE, is going to revive sandbox MMORPGs.

Remember with SWG as well they had no clear design on a lot of issues, "no Jedi" firstly, then grinding for perma-death Jedi then no perma-death then all the later CE NGE game changing stuff.

If they'd had a clear design from the beginning (and not realising that a SW game without Jedi was a mistake from the game design stage was frankly stupid of them), instead of constantly chopping and changing things, the game would have been very different.

In fact in some ways I think that SWG was a Sandy/Skill based game rather and than a Themey/level based game wasn't as important as the incredibly poor management decisions made by SOE, in determining SWGs fact and relative success.