sandbox/thempark and how it relates to swtor

[Shingara]

Yeah SWTOR is probably the most restrictive MMORPG I've ever played (which as I said wouldn't matter so much IF class quest content was much, much higher).

 

It would certainly be one of the easier ways to make SWTOR better, to allow some sideways expansion of levelling content and certainly go for a more open world feel on any new planets.

 

well if you look at it from another angle. only the class quests themselves lock you in, you dont have to level on the planets the class quests are on. Prime example is alderann, that planet is so easy to skip if you so wish and just doing the class quests alone takes you deep into your story so adding other planets and alternative ways to level wouldnt hinder that it would just allow you to do something else with the class quests instead of the designated planets they are on.

[Goretzu]

well if you look at it from another angle. only the class quests themselves lock you in, you dont have to level on the planets the class quests are on. Prime example is alderann, that planet is so easy to skip if you so wish and just doing the class quests alone takes you deep into your story so adding other planets and alternative ways to level wouldnt hinder that it would just allow you to do something else with the class quests instead of the designated planets they are on.

 

Yeah, I agree if you think of levelling in an older Everquest 1 or DAoC sense then yeah you do have options.

 

But in the way SWTOR is marketed not so much.......... but if they could have bumped up story content to ~50% of levelling content that would have totally changed the nature of effectively the same game entirely.

[Shingara]

Yeah, I agree if you think of levelling in an older Everquest 1 or DAoC sense then yeah you do have options.

 

But in the way SWTOR is marketed not so much.......... but if they could have bumped up story content to ~50% of levelling content that would have totally changed the nature of effectively the same game entirely.

 

Yes but there is a line you have to cross and which the devs did. If you have to much solo class story you remove the mmo part of the game, if you dont have enough then you lose the bioware story telling and you being in the adventure. Lets not also forget most of the class story is aimed at you getting companions and that is there primary role.

 

Now if they made something along these lines, class quests had a key minimum level they can be attained but after that level the quest automatically scales with your level so if you do something else whilst leveling then the class missions are always relevant. This could be done retro activly so added in new content wont be limited to top level.

 

After that throw in an achievment system to go alongside the codex, have something like a loremaster achieve with a very nice bit of fluff, be it a mount or something for completing lore master, aka every world quest in the game and its all good.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Shingara

[Goretzu]

Yes but there is a line you have to cross and which the devs did. If you have to much solo class story you remove the mmo part of the game, if you dont have enough then you lose the bioware story telling and you being in the adventure. Lets not also forget most of the class story is aimed at you getting companions and that is there primary role.

 

Now if they made something along these lines, class quests had a key minimum level they can be attained but after that level the quest automatically scales with your level so if you do something else whilst leveling then the class missions are always relevant. This could be done retro activly so added in new content wont be limited to top level.

 

After that throw in an achievment system to go alongside the codex, have something like a loremaster achieve with a very nice bit of fluff, be it a mount or something for completing lore master, aka every world quest in the game and its all good.

 

 

Yeah you're right, but really how much of the current SWTOR levelling experience is done in a group?

 

Even levelling in a very close knit guild (that orginally came to SWTOR) I wasn't doing a lot of group levelling except for flashpoint and helping out with difficult quests or story quest parts.

 

I did the odd heroic 2 and 4 but mostly they weren't worth the time (and could be done later).

 

 

Really the game needs for end game for the MMO sense, but for levelling in the current amount of content moving the story quest up to 50% would help.

 

That's not to say the game couldn't be improved in a multitude of ways, however.

[Shingara]

 

 

Yeah you're right, but really how much of the current SWTOR levelling experience is done in a group?

 

Even levelling in a very close knit guild (that orginally came to SWTOR) I wasn't doing a lot of group levelling except for flashpoint and helping out with difficult quests or story quest parts.

 

I did the odd heroic 2 and 4 but mostly they weren't worth the time (and could be done later).

 

 

Really the game needs for end game for the MMO sense, but for levelling in the current amount of content moving the story quest up to 50% would help.

 

That's not to say the game couldn't be improved in a multitude of ways, however.

 

Its not so much how much of it is leveled in groups but how group friendly that content is. The none class story is just as group friendly as any other mmo but the class storys are limited, anyone going with the class cant get the mission if not the same class and anyone of the same class cannot complete in someone elses phase. That is good though as it allows the player to dictate what there char does within the story.

 

It also has to be considered that gameplay whilst leveling and endgame do not have to be quests or operations. Roleplaying and social gaming is also a big part, mini games, swoop racing and making a part of the game personal to you either through player housing of some kind, char looks and achievment systems.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Shingara

[Goretzu]

Its not so much how much of it is leveled in groups but how group friendly that content is. The none class story is just as group friendly as any other mmo but the class storys are limited, anyone going with the class cant get the mission if not the same class and anyone of the same class cannot complete in someone elses phase. That is good though as it allows the player to dictate what there char does within the story.

 

It also has to be considered that gameplay whilst leveling and endgame do not have to be quests or operations. Roleplaying and social gaming is also a big part, mini games, swoop racing and making a part of the game personal to you either through player housing of some kind, char looks and achievment systems.

 

 

 

Yeah, either way the story quests could stand being made more group friendly. That's a big fault in and of itself.

[Shingara]

Yeah, either way the story quests could stand being made more group friendly. That's a big fault in and of itself.

 

I wouldnt say its a fault. i would say it is a bonus. Can you imagine doing your class story and someone else altered it and you could never do it again. The self story itself doesnt have to be huge, yes it could have played a bigger role but doing to much class story would have limited alot of the world gameplay.

 

The only time you hit a bump in the road with it is when 2 of the same class are leveling together. When its with an alternative class it actualy adds more depth to the story as what your class does actualy is slighly mirrored in the story of the other class so you get to see the bigger picture.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Shingara

[Goretzu]

I wouldnt say its a fault. i would say it is a bonus. Can you imagine doing your class story and someone else altered it and you could never do it again. The self story itself doesnt have to be huge, yes it could have played a bigger role but doing to much class story would have limited alot of the world gameplay.

 

The only time you hit a bump in the road with it is when 2 of the same class are leveling together. When its with an alternative class it actualy adds more depth to the story as what your class does actualy is slighly mirrored in the story of the other class so you get to see the bigger picture.

 

 

 

I mean stuff like giving social points, not bugging you in ships and such. It's actually a real PITA to try and do story quest with others (and impossible in certain cases, of course).

[Shingara]

I mean stuff like giving social points, not bugging you in ships and such. It's actually a real PITA to try and do story quest with others (and impossible in certain cases, of course).

 

Well the key is that you dont need to be hand held whilst leveling, leveling itself should never enforce group gameplay, it should encourage it but never enforce it. Also whilst leveling and at endgame there should be alternative things todo apart from extreme themepark. You need time sinks in a game and social aspects and minigames play the biggest role in that. The longer you can let people enjoy self motivitated content like sandbox and achievment stuff the longer the distance between people feeling or thinking there is a content draught or even ever having content draughts in the 1st place.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Shingara

[Enochx]

This is the first forum post I think I have ever seen that is actually well thought out and not just full of a bunch of "EFF the fanbois" or "This game is Dying."

 

Having played this game since beta and having played a little bit of The Secret World, I can say this.....SWG absolutly was ahead of its time. If that game came out TODAY (with 2012 tech mind you...engines, whatnot) it would be the game to end all games in my opinion. TSW is a very very cool game and while the modern era setting of it is pretty cool, it just didn't grab me the way WoW first did. (and lets be honest....WoW is the game to which all other MMO's are measured...sad but true). THIS game ALMOST grabbed me the way WoW did, but it just became a little too linear and a little too "I have done this a thousand time before except with Orcs and Trolls. At least we have lightsabers...but EHHH."

 

Now if there was a way to combine TSW---(which has pretty darn good voice overs in its own right and one hell of a story) with SWG flight simulator action AND SWTOR graphics and story......well then there you go. See companies seem to be focusing on one flaw of fantastic games and improving solely on THAT aspect. WoW had a subpar story that a lot of people didn't pay attention too...ergo SWTOR has the same dynamic gameplay as WoW, but with an excellant story. SWTOR was/is too linear, but it's shining grace is good story.....ergo....TSW takes elements of the voice over story driven game and combines it with a "not-so-linear" open/semi open sandbox style game....but it isn't Star Wars and there is nothing other than the character running around....no mounts...no side space missions nothing.

 

All three are great games.....the goal of the next developer should be to combine EVERYTHING into one. I have a feeling that Titan or whatever Blizzard throws at us next will be what THIS game was supposed to be. Think about it....Titan has been a rumor (copyrighted rumor at that) for a good while now and still no one knows anything about it. I think they are studying everything that is out there now and will create THE Game that shall end all Games. They did it with WoW...with all these other disappointments....they might be our only hope to do it again.

[TOJOLOBAL]

Yep I agree with your point the and poster's above. I really wish a major developer would do a Sandbox MMO a good one. I would play EvE but it's just not my type of theme.

 

I've got the same item on my wish list. SWTOR would need a heavy face lift to meet my expectations, but space combat off rails would be a start.

[Diktat]

You are confusing different things. GW2 is in no way a sand box.

 

Eve is a sandbox. Players control or have influence over almost every facet of its universe. You can do just about anything you can dream up.

 

Tightly scripted story does not work in this setting, because the whole point is to throw the script out. Story has no value a sandbox. The POINT is to write your own story.

Somthing you can perfectly do in Guild Wars 2. You are not obligue to do your storyline (except the part of the creation of the character that is heavily scripted). You are free to do whatever you want. Even the economy (except gems store that is vanity and a few utility items) is players driven. Guild Wars 2 is clearly built around a sandbox model. You are free to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. I don't know how you call that, but I call it sandbox.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Diktat

[anstalt]

Sandbox = Content created and completed by the players using tools provided by the developers

 

Themepark = Content created by the developers and completed by the players

 

That is the distinction. No MMO is wholely sandbox or themepark, every mmo has elements from both. Both elements also have advantages and disadvantages.

 

The main issue with a sandbox MMO, and the reason why I think hardly any sandbox MMOs have succeeded in recent memory is this:

 

Upfront design decisions.

 

Sandbox MMOs are exceedingly complex. You have to design your entire game around giving players the ability to create content and maintain a living world. Its like being a God and having to design the laws of physics. The sheer possibilities of such a system are so vast and complex that virtually every MMO that relies on sandbox features has done worse than similar themepark MMOs. The systems are so complex that they are either fundamentally flawed or prohibitively complex that the average player can't understand them.

 

Themepark MMOs on the other hand are childs play by comparison. By controlling everything you ensure a certain level of balance and quality. The risk level is so much lower than sandbox MMOs that investors like EA just wont fund sandbox MMOs.

 

 

However, long term, a well designed sandbox mmo will always do better than themepark MMOs. Whilst a sandbox MMO requires the quality of design to be absolutely flawless at the start, once the game is live the developers can mostly sit back and relax because the community can create all the content they want. On the other hand, themepark mmos place a massive burden on developers to keep churning out new and interesting content for years in order to retain players.

 

 

The "answer" is probably a solid combination of sandbox and themepark features. People are like children: they require guidance when encountering new things, and themepark mmos provide that guidance. However, children grow up and very quickly that guidance becomes restrictive, like your mum nagging you all the time. Adults require freedom and choice, and themeparks usually don't offer this.

 

Imagine playing SW:TOR. You join the game as a jedi, level through tython and corusant, learning the basics of the game, learning your "class" etc. but, imagine that after corusant the game simply opened up and let you do your own thing. Imagine quests that scaled to your level and group size. Imagine dynamic quests so if you found somewhere you really liked, you could just keep generating quests and leveling up over and over. Imagine a crafting system with more freedom to choose stats on items when crafted, but that needed replacing rather than just repairing. Make 90% of all hubs and bases neutral to encourage full planetary exploration and crossover between factions. Bioware could even keep their story in there, linear quest routes are not the only way to tell a story, in fact it is the least imaginative way to do so as it removes all control from the player.

[ThiborF]

Each style has its merits and each has it's potential pitfalls, especially when done to nearly the exclusion of the other.

 

People interested in RPing in a game tend to gravitate towards wanting a sandbox game or at least a plethora of sandbox features in the game. And by RPing I do not mean simply that the game is a RPG where you assume the role of a hero or at least a large supporting role to the heroic movement of the side of the story you're on. By RPing I mean people who want to be able to delve into the game and feel not that they're just passing through a living, breathing world but are actually part of what makes it a living, breathing world.

 

It's the difference in being the warrior coming into town and there's plenty of hustle-n-bustle of NPCs going about their daily lives and you can interact with some/most/all of them OR, the warrior coming into town, going into his/her house and swapping out their adventuring gear for perhaps a costume and instrument to go perform some place in town, or swapping into crafter's gear and plying their trade when they're not off somewhere bashing in skulls, setting them afire or keeping the rest of the folks doing that healthy.

 

That whole RPing style of gameplay does not appeal to everyone though. It can be similar to discussing favorite authors where one likes a writer that takes time (and a lot of pages) describing in great detail the backdrops for all the plot that takes place in the book. Which usually results in the story moving along at a slower pace. Meanwhile the other person favors the author that keeps them on the edge of their seat from one point of action to the next in a book. Or if it's movies, one where a lot of attention is paid to character development while the plot slowly unfolds around them while the other is an escapist joyride of near non-stop action, car/ship chases, explosions, shootouts and decapitations.

 

Neither view is wrong. Neither defines what is considered entertainment. Both sides are simply what people favoring them are willing to pay for to be entertained.

 

Back to games, when one comes out that heavily goes down only one path, they tend to isolate those players hoping there would have been more of the other. It's exactly how I felt in SWG. There were certainly some cool aspects to the game BUT, after only a month or two I felt there was absolutely nothing in the game that I wanted to do. There wasn't much of story/plot points that I hadn't seen and what little the devs were putting in was consumed extremely quickly. Meanwhile, while it was fun (for a bit) to invest in a robust crafting system, decorate my houses or just hang out fishing with guildies, it also became very quickly "been there, done that, what's next"? And that's just it there was no "next"

 

And the same accusation can be leveled at most theme park games. You reach level cap, defeat each of the end game instances once and then what? Oh yeah ... gear grind for ...

For your gear to get "reset" by an expansion and rinse/repeat the whole hamster wheel again of gain a few levels then repeat "end-game" instances to get gear.

Don't get me wrong. Some of the artwork and what not can make those instances a lot of fun ... the first couple of times. But, like the fishing (or dancing, instrument playing, crafting, house decorating, etc.) it can get old fairly quickly.

 

And in the case where only one of those is really fleshed out in a game, you reach that "it got old fairly quickly" point and there isn't the other aspects of the game to invest your time in. Which leads to burn out, seeking other games and eventually unsubscribing.

 

Themepark aspects of these games at least tend to serve a purpose, even if the purpose isn't always the best idea (ie. revolving gear grinds.) They tend to advance a story line or at the least, result in equipping you with some decent gear you can use in the next instance. Sandbox elements sometime though do not have a purpose. To SOE's credit, at least many of theirs did. Player housing coupled with merchant skill options provided a means for players to sell their craftables beyond the means provided by the auction house. As opposed to some games where housing is just tacked on because the developers hear that's a feature a lot of players like but, aside from a player being able to say I have a house, it doesn't serve much purpose.

 

I think there is a distinct opportunity for some developer to really do it up right. However, I think we're destined to see many more doing it wrong first before someone comes along with the right formula, at least my idea of it.

[Darth_Halford]

Imagine playing SW:TOR. You join the game as a jedi, level through tython and corusant, learning the basics of the game, learning your "class" etc. but, imagine that after corusant the game simply opened up and let you do your own thing. Imagine quests that scaled to your level and group size. Imagine dynamic quests so if you found somewhere you really liked, you could just keep generating quests and leveling up over and over. Imagine a crafting system with more freedom to choose stats on items when crafted, but that needed replacing rather than just repairing. Make 90% of all hubs and bases neutral to encourage full planetary exploration and crossover between factions. Bioware could even keep their story in there, linear quest routes are not the only way to tell a story, in fact it is the least imaginative way to do so as it removes all control from the player.

It is actually the only way to tell a story in a traditional narrative fashion. I don't know what other games you've played over the years, but you can't have the kind of story that Bioware does and at the same time give the player ultimate control.

 

There's the difference between the story driving the content, and the content driving the story. Bioware has always been first and foremost about story driving content. Sure, your idea may be interesting and fun to certain people. You could even argue that one method of game design is always going to be "better" than another (which I say is an absolute impossibility). At the end of the day though, if you're trying to make the best story-driven game you can possibly make, you will never get there by using sandbox gameplay.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Darth_Halford

[Jmann_]

I think sandbox MMOs such as SWG came at the wrong time. They were too ambitious, had a huge learning curve and required PCs at that time to have at least Transform & Lighting(T&L) - which was only found on expensive cards despite Nvidia offering a confusing line up of budget cards.

 

Fast forward 2004 and World of Warcraft. Structured in its approach, didnt require a mid range PC to play and offered a clear direction for the gamer in progression.

 

Fast forward 2012 and many gamers have become bored with the themepark MMO. It relies too much on developers to churn out regular updates and this is something most simply cant do. Players rapidly lose interest and unsub. They may/not come back when theres some 'new' updates but even rehashing the same old crap, giving it a different colour doesnt always help.

 

I think had Bioware flexed some creative muscle and offered a mixture of both, then it probably wouldnt have lost 700,000 players in under 5 months. Their decision to use the Hero Engine, was a bad mistake as its simply too demanding and clunky and requires a pretty good spec PC to get some stable FPS.

 

Every step of the way, SWTOR is littered with design flaws as they clearly focused way too much on copying World of Warcraft and thinking that 'Story' would be enough to keep people here.

 

If SWTOR did have some sandbox elements, players could have been free to do what they like until some new content arrives - without the need to be whisked away to some shame hole instance for a pvp fix(for example).

 

QFT, I agree with every point

[scrubmonkey]

It is actually the only way to tell a story in a traditional narrative fashion. I don't know what other games you've played over the years, but you can't have the kind of story that Bioware does and at the same time give the player ultimate control.

 

The type of story that Bioware did in this game is just not that complex though, at least compared to their single player games. That's mostly due to the limits of the MMO genre. There's some pretty good story moments, but the complete lack of consequence and all of the contrivances involved with every character having to go to every planet at specific points in the story make the overall experience into something that's pretty shallow, when all is said and done.

 

Stories such as the ones that this game has would have little problems being adapted to a more open ended world. The Elder Scrolls series has been doing broad gameplay with a shallow story for years.

Edited July 27, 2012 by scrubmonkey

[Tornak]

Imo most mmos should have adopted the trash mob random spawning thing from SWG, thats was genius i think.

You could do same stuff yet everytime it was bit different as the mobs were different place and so on. Its very suprising its not been used in anyother game ive played....well EVE does it i guess wich is great.

 

Oh yes and ofc craft system, even a player wich dont enjoy craft so much swg made it most fun for me out of any other game.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Tornak

[Diktat]

[quote=anstalt;4917037

Imagine playing SW:TOR. You join the game as a jedi, level through tython and corusant, learning the basics of the game, learning your "class" etc. but, imagine that after corusant the game simply opened up and let you do your own thing. Imagine quests that scaled to your level and group size. Imagine dynamic quests so if you found somewhere you really liked, you could just keep generating quests and leveling up over and over. Imagine a crafting system with more freedom to choose stats on items when crafted, but that needed replacing rather than just repairing. Make 90% of all hubs and bases neutral to encourage full planetary exploration and crossover between factions. Bioware could even keep their story in there, linear quest routes are not the only way to tell a story, in fact it is the least imaginative way to do so as it removes all control from the player.

 

You've just described Guild Wars 2, with the difference that there's not heavily scripted starting areas, except the introductory minitutorial instance that consist basically in teach how to move and use your skillbar through a minquest: 5 minutes long. Even players can come back to lowbie areas because the game downlevels them to the level of the area to ensure nobody overlevels it, so you are free to go anywhere in the world and still have fun.

 

Edit: Since I quoted you before finish read your analisys, I must say that I agree with all of it Anstalt. However, no game made me feel part of the world in my screen like SWG did 'till NGE. But it is true that a pure sandbox game like SWG requires a huge effort from the players to Role Play, and by role play I mean create your own background story (I read too few good background stories in SWG live while I played it) and act accordingly to it. However, my experience in SWG live was never boring because when I get bored of something I had something else completely different to do. Form my point of view, what made fail SWG as sandbox was the hologinding. As soon as everybody knew how to unlock jedi through hologring the "civil war ended", there were no more imperial raids on anchorhead, no more assaults on opposite faction strongholds, no more player dirven event like theater performances at cities theatre buildg (we had a troupe of players that play SW stories at theatre and they did awesomely), there were no more troupes of musicians and dancers..., the RP element in SWG simply died. And the worse was that in a wolrd were the lore was Jedi's (good and evil) are virtually extinct (only 2 dark jedi's: the Emperor, and Darth Vader, and only 2 light: Luke and Leia) suddenly we had thousands of jedis... ***!!! SWG was mismanaged from the beggining, pushed live unfinished and with broken professions like smuggler (never fixed), and is an example of what not to do, not because of its sandbox model,but because of very losy and wrong management.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Diktat

[Talon_strikes]

I'm posting this on related threads, but one thing that's holding SWTOR back is this frame of mind from the devs:

 

(article on Daniel Erickson on digitaltrends.com)

 

“What we always say is, before the game came out it was our game. As soon as it launched, it became the community’s game,” Erickson added. “The number one request we get with a bullet [in terms of] what people want more of, is story. They just want their story to keep going. They want to see more of The Old Republic, they want to see how the galaxy is developing, and they want to do it with their prime characters.”

 

If they think all they need to do is add more of this story element, players will just burn through the content and return doing dailies again. They'll be extremely bored, tell off BioWare that you're releasing too little content or releasing it at such a slow pace, and possibly unsubscribe.

 

It'll be an endless cycle because BioWare thinks an MMO can survive with a majority of it being a themepark, story-based MMO.

[Nnekk]

Lots of great ideas and some not-so-great comments about the great ideas.

 

Suffice it to say I'm adding a "+1" to the Sand-Box theme request.

[anstalt]

It is actually the only way to tell a story in a traditional narrative fashion. I don't know what other games you've played over the years, but you can't have the kind of story that Bioware does and at the same time give the player ultimate control.

 

There's the difference between the story driving the content, and the content driving the story. Bioware has always been first and foremost about story driving content. Sure, your idea may be interesting and fun to certain people. You could even argue that one method of game design is always going to be "better" than another (which I say is an absolute impossibility). At the end of the day though, if you're trying to make the best story-driven game you can possibly make, you will never get there by using sandbox gameplay.

 

Whilst it is certainly hard to have a strong story line using sandbox features, it is definitely possible. Whilst SW:TOR currently has a strong story, it is very dull and very disconnected from the player. Like many others have said, it is almost like watching a movie. Its fun the first time, but you don't really feel part of it and you certainly dont have any control over the direction. No matter what choices you make during conversations, nothing changes.

 

Lets take Alderaan as an example. The main story line is House Organa vs House Thul, with influences from the Empire and Republic behind the scenes. The main story line should be kept relatively linear and "epic", like traditional story telling. Everything else could easily be more sandbox. All you need if for your interactions with the world to spark conversations, rather than conversations driving your interactions.

 

An example of this is exploration. Lets say im off exploring Alderaan and I find a hidden path in a mountain. Along the path I come across a hermit who, through conversation, fills in some more backstory of the conflict on Alderaan. In this way, it is the user that is driving the content and their level of interaction, but the story is still controlled by Bioware.

 

Another example: A village on alderaan is being attacked by the Thul. There are four possible states to the village: controlled by organa, defended by organa, controlled by thul, defended by thul. When you arrive, the village can be in any of these states. If it is currently held by thul, you can attack the village, clear out the thul, grab some loot. Organa would then move in and reward you for reclaiming their village. Then the Thul might attack. You can help defend (light side) or sabotage the defences (dark side). Your actions are driving the story and the consequences are semi-permanent. Your actions can trigger NPC conversations that fill in more story and provide rewards.

 

You still have the story, but the onus is on you to "create" the story. Alderaan is having a battle, sure, but your place in that battle would be determined by your actions, not by quests that tell you what to do. NPCs can still give you the cut scenes and conversations, but they would be a consequence of your actions, not the driver.

[Goretzu]

It is actually the only way to tell a story in a traditional narrative fashion. I don't know what other games you've played over the years, but you can't have the kind of story that Bioware does and at the same time give the player ultimate control.

 

There's the difference between the story driving the content, and the content driving the story. Bioware has always been first and foremost about story driving content. Sure, your idea may be interesting and fun to certain people. You could even argue that one method of game design is always going to be "better" than another (which I say is an absolute impossibility). At the end of the day though, if you're trying to make the best story-driven game you can possibly make, you will never get there by using sandbox gameplay.

 

 

 

Honestly I don't think it would have been difficult to bolt SWTORs class story quest onto SWG.

 

I'm not saying it would have been the best of ideas, in the sense of the how best to merge the two games, but what I mean is that with a bit of imagination it is possible to blend the best of sandbox and themepark.

[Shingara]

I think at this moment in time there are some people tripping on something. And that thing is expecting xp from anything and everything we do. We dont and not everything requires it.

[Zaemiel]

Shingara as always made a good job. I support the idea. The game really in need of sandbox elements...