sandboxes
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Working As Intended: The unfortunate conflation of sandboxes and PvP
A certain perplexing belief about sandboxes pervades the blog comments, forums, and general chats of MMOs: All MMO sandboxes are free-for-all PvP games. If it doesn't have free-for-all PvP, it's by definition not a sandbox because sandboxes let the players make all the rules and decisions. Free-for-all PvP adds the necessary spice to keep you on your toes and keep a game fresh. Without it, you may as well be playing The Sims. All of these statements are wrong.
Albion Online offers a new gameplay trailer
Excited about Albion Online? Ambivalent about Albion Online? Never heard of Albion Online before this very moment whilst being extremely tired of this narrative device? Whichever category describes you, you can click on past the break to get a look at a new trailer for the game, showing just what players can expect once they load up the game. Albion Online boasts a variety of features including a player-driven economy, freeform progression, a lack of levels, and abilities defined by your choice of equipment. You can see some of it in action in the trailer; you can also support the game now to purchase alpha access and watch as the game moves through development. It's a cross-platform game designed for Windows, Macs, Android, Linux, and iOS devices.
Why do games prompt cruel behavior?
Games like DayZ and Rust have become a whole genre unto themselves: open-world survival sandboxes that quickly turn into simulations of human cruelty. But why is that, exactly? Why do people in a sandbox devote so much of their energy to tearing one another down with such vigor? A recent article on Wired asks exactly that question, exploring these open-world games and why they tend to provoke such abject cruelty in their participants. The piece comes to no hard and fast conclusions, speaking both from personal experiences and from interviews with other players. One player speculates that the core of it is that these games give you nothing but tools, so players invent their own fun by using other players as content. Another possible explanation is the very nature of catharsis, envisioning dark behaviors whilst knowing that you would never carry them out in the real world. Take a look at the full article if you'd like a deeper look at why players spend so much time in games where anything goes by clubbing others with rocks.
The Daily Grind: How have you gotten outside of your gaming comfort zone lately?
I think that one of the secrets to avoiding the "routine rut" as you age is to constantly be challenging yourself to try new things and get outside of the comfortable bubble you build for yourself. As a nester who likes his routine, this is a difficult thing for me to do but I try to do it nevertheless. In 2014, I made it one of my resolutions to get outside of my comfort zone as a gamer and continually try new things instead of going down the same-old paths as I always do. So I'm trying new classes. I'm playing ugly characters. I am giving crafting, PvP, and even roleplaying a go. I'm diving headfirst into sandboxes and plucking away at older titles that have eluded my attention for years. Sometimes this is very frustrating and reminds me of why I like what I do, but once in a while I make a pleasant discovery and grow a bit more as a person and as a gamer. So how have you gotten outside of your gaming comfort zone lately? What have you discovered? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: How can survival sandboxes keep the challenge fresh?
Shawn and I have had several conversations about the conundrum present in Fallen Earth. Namely, that the first part of the game is really exciting because you get that cool feeling of scrounging for survival and clawing your way out of the wasteland -- but then this turns into a different game when "survival" makes way for "laser tag with high-tech gear in PvP zones." It's made me wonder how MMOs that are being built with a survival sandbox angle are planning to keep that sense of challenge and building yourself up fresh. I think that there's a point in these games where you have accumulated and built enough to keep yourself comfortable unless the game deliberately removes that attained protection or keeps escalating the danger past the point of lunacy. So this is our thinking exercise for the day: How can survival sandboxes keep the challenge fresh for players? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
TUG closes in on its Kickstarter deadline with a new video
It's the final countdown for TUG, with less than a week to go and about $50,000 more needed as of this writing. The development team has penned a penultimate Kickstarter update for fans and would-be fans, compiling several updates and news posts for everyone to read. It covers the care and development of player characters, the use of companions, and the structure of the game servers... all questions to be asked by anyone looking to back the game. There's also a video on the page, one you can watch after the cut to see how the game is being based around science, even more so than the other games that turn your computer into virtual three-dimensional worlds. You can also take a look at our recent interview with the staff behind TUG to learn a bit more about the game's structure. If it piques your interest, now's the time to hop over and give the game a bit more funding.
The Daily Grind: Do sandboxes overwhelm you?
You've probably heard of the paradox of choice, the idea that the human brain can't really process more than a dozen or so choices at a time under certain circumstances. We get overwhelmed by too many choices, and sometimes we withdraw from choosing altogether. It's not always true -- Ben and Jerry's offers over a hundred flavors and seems to do just fine -- but I wonder whether it's the reason that some MMO gamers just do not get sandboxes. An MMO sandbox dumps you in and is indifferent to what you do next. It won't hold your hand; it won't tell you where to go, what to be, or how to progress. In short, it presents hundreds of choices to you with no guidance and sometimes no context. I love this style of game, but given the sandbox struggles of the past few years, I admit it's potentially a problem. Glitch, for example, shut down in part because players, according to the devs, just didn't know what to do. And how many times have I read that someone quit Skyrim because he'd finished the main questline and thought it was over? But then I'll bump into a blog about how someone spent 300 hours collecting all the cheese in Skyrim to build cheese mountain. Clearly, this problem is not universal. So are you also building cheese mountain? Or do sandboxes overwhelm you with too many choices? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Storybricks team announces EverQuest Next collaboration
What's the Storybricks team been up to lately? Oh, nothing much. A few tweaks here, an idea or two there, and a whole lot of vacationing in Norrath. What's that, you say? It turns out that Namaste Entertainment has been teaming up with SOE to work on EverQuest Next, of all things. "After several months of working together with Sony Online," the team posted, "we can finally reveal that we are collaborating on EverQuest Next. EQNext is 'the biggest sandbox ever designed' and we are extremely happy to be working on the most innovative MMORPG under development." The post couldn't go into specifics about the project, but it did say that the team is doing "remarkable things" with the game.
Dig through the sand(box) in the latest Camelot Unchained devblog
Camelot Unchained continues its foundational principles series of dev blogs with entry number 11, in which Mark Jacobs talks about what exactly constitutes a sandbox game and the philosophy behind the sandbox elements in Camelot Unchained. He starts off with a clarification that "CU is not a true sandbox MMORPG" because "a true sandbox MMORPG would allow the player to build out his stats, skills, alter the world, etc. without most of the fixed conventions and limitations that are found in CU and most other RPGs." Regardless, Jacobs believes that his studio "can learn from and adapt the concept of [sandbox games]." Jacobs goes on to talk about how and where he decided to implement traditionally sandboxy elements into Camelot Unchained and where he decided it was best to go a different route altogether. For instance, he argues that "in a true SBRPG a player's actions within the game would dictate evolution and progression." Jacobs claims that while CU earns some "sandbox points" because of its relatively unrestrictive class system, it loses some simply because it utilizes a class system. He spends the rest of the post running through the game's list of features and explaining the rationale behind the sandbox elements (or lack thereof) in each one, so if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of Camelot Unchained's sandboxiness (which is now a word), settle in and read the full post at the game's official site.
Some Assembly Required: How do you define player-generated content?
During a recent conversation with my fellow Some Assembly Required columnist, it became apparent that we had slightly differing opinions on the definition of player-generated content. We both agreed that it was content generated by players (obviously), but when it came to the type of content, our opinions diverged. Seeing as PGC is one of the founding premise behind SAR, I thought it would be a good idea to start the new year out by defining the term more precisely to give us a stable foundation to build on. After all, we want to be on the same page, don't we? Of course, that gives you the chance to weigh in with your opinions as well! What is the first thing you think of when you hear the term? Let's see whether your ideas about player-generated content mesh with mine, more closely resemble Jef's, or embody something totally different.
Exclusive: Storybricks dev diary expounds on bringing NPCs to life
In much of the MMORPG world, NPCs are nothing more than quest-filled Pez dispensers, human vending machines doling out the standard kill-10-rats chore to each and every player who roams by. They are lifeless tools at best and forgettable backdrops at worst. But the folks working on Storybricks believe NPCs can be more, much more. In this exclusive dev diary, Brian "Psychochild" Green and Stéphane Bura discuss making AI that can interact with players on an individual basis, adapting to individuals' choices, needs, and emotions and even remembering and drawing on past interactions to make a deeply engaging sandbox experience. Check out their thoughts in the full dev diary after the break!
Ask Massively: Site redesigns, editorials, and sandbox coverage
For those of you hiding out from family or working your brains instead of your stomachs on this sacred holiday on which we celebrate food or something, this edition of Ask Massively will mop up a few little questions and demands made in the comment section recently. We're addressing a potential site redesign, whether editorial articles really need a gigantic sign declaring the obvious, and whether the Massively writers are fake sandbox fans. Put down that turkey leg and let's get to it!
Embers of Caerus launches Kickstarter campaign
It looks like Forsaken Studios is piling onto the Kickstarter bandwagon to help raise funds for its upcoming sandbox title, Embers of Caerus. The studio has set a funding goal of $25,000 US to "fuel the development and production of [the studio's] prototype, bring [the game] to the attention of the major players in the industry, and help put Embers of Caerus firmly on the MMORPG map." The 25 grand will specifically be used "to cover software licenses and development costs," and the studio vows that "every single cent pledged will be put toward this goal." Of course, as with any successful Kickstarter campaign, Forsaken Studios is putting forward a number of nifty bonuses for its backers, ranging from beta access to dinner with the devs and a tour of the Forsaken Studios office. If you want to help the studio reach its funding goals, you've got until Tuesday, June 19th, to head over to the Kickstarter page and chip in.
The Repopulation populates pre-alpha
Above and Beyond Technologies, the studio behind upcoming sci-fi sandbox title The Repopulation, has been spending the last couple of months preparing new features for the game to show off at GDC 2012. Well, the wait is over as a new changelog post on the game's official site gives players a look at all the hard work that's been put into the game over the last two months. Oh, we're sorry, did we say changelog? We meant novel. The team has clearly been slaving away nonstop if the sheer number of changes and additions is any indication. If you're waiting to see these new features in action, though, don't worry. The studio says that some new video footage has been prepared that will be publicly released after GDC 2012. And to top it off, the post announces that the studio "will be opening Alpha testing in June." More information on that will be coming next week, so hang tight and read up, and be sure to stay tuned for our own MJ Guthrie's look at the game straight from GDC 2012.
The Daily Grind: How would you define a sandbox MMO?
So yesterday on Twitter I conducted an extensive, exhaustive survey in which I asked, "Hai guyz, what makes a sandbox MMO a thing? You know?" It was probably a little less articulate than that. While I might be seen as the ultimate source of information in video games, the truth is that I'm struggling to come up with a precise definition of what, exactly, makes a "sandbox" MMO. Interestingly enough, the responses that some friends sent back my way were as varied as could be, suggesting that this might be more of a murky area than I assumed. Considering how much we throw the term around, both on Massively and elsewhere, I think it might be beneficial to come to a consensus. So how would you define a sandbox MMO? Is it the tools, the freedom, a lack of traditional leveling, the variety of non-combat activities, the tone, or something else entirely? Can you sum it up in one precise sentence? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Wurm Online client update brings proximity voice chat, UI update, and more
The latest client update to Code Club AB's construction-oriented sandbox title Wurm Online brings a cornucopia of new features to the game, but perhaps none so interesting as the addition of proximity voice chat. That's right, players will now be able to vocally communicate with any players in the immediate vicinity without the use of third-party applications like Ventrilo or Mumble. Have you ever wanted to gather up your village group, sit around a fire, and tell stories or just enjoy a bit of idle banter? Maybe typing "oh god help there's a rabid pachyderm devouring my face" just isn't expedient enough when there's a rabid pachyderm devouring your face. Either way, players now have access to proximity voice chat, an updated UI, and much more. For the full details on the latest client update, just click on through the link below to Wurm Online's official site.
Xsyon announces newest Guide-run event: The Grand Cart Race
Earlier this month, we reported on a player-run event being held in Notorious Games' sandbox MMO Xsyon, and bear-fighting was involved. Today, the team has put out an announcement for a new Guide-run event, though unfortunately bear-fighting is not involved. What is involved, though, is cart racing. The event, known formally as The Grand Cart Race, will begin at 3:00 p.m. EST on this coming Sunday, January 29th. Players are encouraged to bring their own carts to race, but if you haven't built or traded for a cart yet, don't worry; the guides will be handing out loaners for the duration of the event. The team doesn't reveal what exactly the race will entail, but mentions that "there will be different stages of the course aimed at taking advantage of each of the features of the carts." For the full details, check out the event's official thread on the game's forums, then prepare to do it up NASCAR: post-apocalypse-style.
Second Life rolls out Linden Realms publicly on December 1st
Something very unusual is coming to Second Life on December 1st: a game. All right, that in and of itself isn't all that unusual, since the virtual world has long empowered users to create their own systems and their own games. But this is still something different because it's not a user-created game. Linden Realms has been developed specifically by Linden Lab, and as of December 1st all users will be able to experience what a first-party game for the virtual environment feels like. Second Life content creators will, rather unfortunately, be facing off against an in-house project. Luckily, the tools used in the development of Linden Realms will also be made available to the community, giving everyone a chance to play with the new tools and improve upon gameplay experiences. Whether or not this is a good thing or not for the game's overall health remains to be seen, but it may well provide an interesting boost to the community's user-created content.
