Theme Park vs Sandbox, What Do The Players Think?

Eve is what it is. A full on sandbox. It may be a "snoozefest" for some, but for others its great. Just like we don't all have to be astrophysicists in order to appreciate the beauty of the heavens, so we don't have to be a "fan" of a style of development, or "get it", in order to appreciate how it IS a success in one form or another.

One just accepts it for what it does best, whilst being mindful that it isn't the pinnacle in being a "one design suits all".

Personally, although I like SOME general sandbox elements found in the game, I'm not a huge fan of Eve in its entirety. I'd like to see SWTOR have a themepark "core", but gain outer layers of "sandboxyness".


In short: Eve IS a success story. But not one that fits all situations (i.e. a role model for the entirety of the MMO industry). Just like how WoW, whilst being a success story, doesn't fit all situations either.

Theme Park will always win. It's better suited for casual players which bring in the big bucks.

Sand box is cool, But tends to require massive time investment to get the most out of that play style. It's not a log in and log out game style.

It's a OMG my town I spent days building is under attack but i have to go to work now, What do i do play style.

Which is why both are extremes on the same scale, and why many devs and players alike believe that the "sweet spot" is to be found somewhere in the middle. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Damion Schubert posted a blog about this prior to launch (original source no longer available):
Unfortunately, in my opinion, it would seem that SWTOR has yet to actually hit that "sweet spot".

I' ve still got hope they will change the planetary concepts for future expansions. I can't believe they will pull off tne same thing with categorized lvl51-100 planets and raise the cap, simply to run through further corridor planets.
I'd prefer 1 huge new cross server sandbox planet anytime over further 15 planet zones of the old design.

This....

Without some sandbox elements, MMO become stale, mundane and basically a grind....SWTOR is going deeper and deeper down that road and needs to change fast. 1.3 should be about sandbox, open world, proper crafting and non combat classes.

Without it this game will go the same way as all other themepark MMO's.....F2P, dead and forgotten.

preferably a sandbox, but with theme-park features.

exactly, because it's not a contradiction.
Sandbox is "downwards compatible" to theme park. Everything we have in ToR would also work in a sandbox environment.
Unfortunately theme park is not upwards compatible to sandbox and involves a lot of work.. but hey 200 millions and 1.7 million subscribers... such amounts of money can not only be invested in ads, voice acting and Ferraris for the managers.

I believe the Sandbox experience is overrated at the least. I dealt with Sandbox in my years over at SWG and after a while it just gets boring.

Entire planets with no wilderness area whatsoever because player housing and structures took up every possible free spot until specific "no construction" zones were implemented? And the simple fact that those structures were the ONLY effect players had on the environment? That doesn't strike me as being all that great.

Let's not forget the fact that a number of activities took on all the excitement of a job where you did the same thing every day for hours upon hours, tracking information on spreadsheets and scouring the web for information that might give you an edge but probably won't since the edge was taken by the person who posted that information in the first place.

The EVE Online sandbox? Even more boring. And if you are new player, you may as well forget having an enjoyable game experience as the old-timers just look at you as fodder and use you accordingly.

Theme parks at least have a bunch of things to do. They aren't player designed so they aren't limited to the small or non-existent tool set players have. So what if I have no effect on the environment? I'm not so egotistical to need to feel as if I'm making a difference in a game...I'm here to be entertained.

Even the descriptors say it best: Sandbox - one kid with a shovel and a bucket within a small limited area playing make-believe... or Theme Park - a bunch of kids playing with toys they could never make on their own in a much larger area.

Since I play games as entertainment, I'll take a Theme Park every day. I don't want to play a game that mimics my real life job in both data collection requirements and boredom.

Personally I far prefer theme park. I don't get much out of most sandbox elements.

mechanics, graphics, game play in general... bleh. And those thousands are the only people playing at all.