The MMO Landscape: A Look At The Best Upcoming Sandbox MMO's

[News Portal]

Upset by the constant linearity in modern MMO design, James Pinnell has assembled this collection of the best upcoming sandbox MMO's, designed to encourage creativity, teamwork, and player authority. Take a look.

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[DoHo_]

I have never played an MMO for a few core reasons.

Monthly subscriptions/payments. I understand why this exists, but I'd feel like a chump having to pay for a game I already own (regardless of content updates); which is why if future gaming ever becomes subscription or pay-by-the-hour deals I would probbaly give up gaming.

Secondly, while many MMO's can aesthetically look amazing (especially some newer ones), many sacrifice strong visual fidelity for whatever reason.

MMO's may have "deep" skill trees, or something similar, but from the outside look to be nothing more than massive grinding operations that only offer the illusion of choice.

They almost always look to be floaty, loose, flaky... how do I put this, like a cheap adventure game with poor animations and lack of detail.

In essence, MMO's lose their deep story structure that makes singleplayer games so fun and they lose the focused gameplay and features and high fidelity visuals that many SP/multiplayer games have. I want an MMO to feel like a singleplayer game that I am playing with other people, which is why this Elder Scrolls MMO was disappointing from the moment I saw it. It didn't look like Elder Scrolls, and from early descriptions it didn't sound like it either.

I think games like Minecraft or DayZ have a better reception for me because I am doing what I'd be doing in singleplayer, only I get to do it with other people. In essense, I want a large scale multiplayer game, not the idea that is now synonymous with "MMO" (which tends to have "RPG" on the end) which is that of an RPg with terrible/boring quests, grinding, lack of detail and focus, etc

[wazzuppi]

Doing a quick look at these 2 stand out

And before looking too much into it, my imagination goes and im thinking planetside 2 - which i never played the orignal im imagining lets you build bases, technology, horde bases have turrets ect that would be an AMAZING game i hope it has this

and the vampire one, not sure what they mean about princes? this is modern day london by the looks of it. the graphics looks amazing though would love a batman arkham city scape of freedom and you can start off as a human with lots of balance between humans vs vampires looks very nice, i have always wanted these type of freedom games since i was veeeery young and still no one develops these

What i would love is freedom, an open world, your own base thats based on REAL LIFE no faires no dranai no elves, just humans

Im glad things are moving on from crappy old mmos like world of warcraft, the game looks like its from 2000 WE NEED BETTER GRAPHICS and gameplay

[Mekon]

Out of that grab-bag, only 3 pique my fancy... and 2 of those are MMOFPS, so hardly justify any criticism of WoW-clonism (they are essentially scaled-up shooters, in the BF vein). They certainly aren't sandbox MMOs from my point of view - I highly doubt there will be anything more than what you expect on the box: shooting and ranking up.

Apples and oranges.

The third, WoD, has always appealed, primarily due to the lore rather than any claims as pertains to potential design. We'll see if it ever sees the light of day - wouldn't that be a bad thing for a Vampire game, anyway?

[Nekosan]

Skill based game play

HAHAHAHAHA

[MunchY]

That Planetside game looked awesome! I signed up for the beta.

The rest didn't really interest me unfortunately..

[Vencha88]

Are the bases and whatnot in Planetside 2 heavily instanced? Or is it one massive area with multiple bases, terrain features etc?

[Nekosan]

Are the bases and whatnot in Planetside 2 heavily instanced? Or is it one massive area with multiple bases, terrain features etc?

I havent read anything about it in the second game but the great thing bout the first was that everything was open, you just just fly/drive wherever, instanced bases would destroy the point of the game imo.

[Vencha88]

Are the bases and whatnot in Planetside 2 heavily instanced? Or is it one massive area with multiple bases, terrain features etc?

I havent read anything about it in the second game but the great thing bout the first was that everything was open, you just just fly/drive wherever, instanced bases would destroy the point of the game imo.

This is my assumption. If it's the former and it's one massive world, with some seams between large areas that's cool. If I fight kinda map-to-map with some big meta game in the middle, not so much.

EDIT: Oh and I'd cash all of these MMOs in for one 3D MMO Pokemon game that plays out pretty much like the GameBoy games, but with players as the enemy trainers.

[Nekosan]

EDIT: Oh and I'd cash all of these MMOs in for one 3D MMO Pokemon game that plays out pretty much like the GameBoy games, but with players as the enemy trainers.

I honestly would too, I want something like a crazy Monster Hunter/Pokemon crossover where we can all go hunt monsters and catch pokemon and fight bad guys and stuff, would be badass.

[Vencha88]

EDIT: Oh and I'd cash all of these MMOs in for one 3D MMO Pokemon game that plays out pretty much like the GameBoy games, but with players as the enemy trainers.

I honestly would too, I want something like a crazy Monster Hunter/Pokemon crossover where we can all go hunt monsters and catch pokemon and fight bad guys and stuff, would be badass.

Always surprised me that it's not done already. Make it free to play, maybe even browser based. Seems like it'd work. Perhaps they'r worried that an MMO would reduce the viability of the handheld games. Or maybe Nintendo just doesn't like the MMO space.

[PinothyJ]

World of Darkness sounds almost like what Shadowbane's gameplay was like with the except of the permadeath.


Good thing the emulator is almost on its way…

[masternick13]

Skill based game play

HAHAHAHAHA

???? a quick search shows that you are quoting something that isn't in the article

[thefinn]

Nothing about Embers of Caerus ?!?!

The PVP looks like it will house FAR better systems than ArcheAge even.

[Nekosan]

Skill based game play

HAHAHAHAHA

???? a quick search shows that you are quoting something that isn't in the article

Heralding itself as a theme park MMO that’s been unshackled from the chains of linear progression, TRP doesn’t pretend that it won’t have quests, raids and loot. What it does promise, however, is that the predominant theme will be free will and creativity, from skill-based player progression to full city building with an active siege engine.