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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

I want STORY AND SANDBOX


DarkSentynel

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I think over time BioWare will see the veracity of opening up the game world with updates and expansions to add new takes on the "sandbox" variable that may make the ideal of it more appealing to the general populace.

 

They have right now, in place, a very good system for getting people through interesting and engaging content, the classes are fun and the game play is fun.

 

This is something SWG really lacked for most of its life span until well after the NGE was finally fixed and balanced out through a classes entire combat lifespan.

 

So basically what we have here is BioWare did the quality game play first, the additions to come later may address some of the things lost that players might find interesting...but not done in exactly the same way.

 

Instead of player cities you might find guild alliance space stations or capitol ships.

 

If theres one thing I'd definitely agree on though is they really need to come up with a way to make the "social" centers actually social. The Imperial Fleet even on the busiest servers is a ring of people all around the outside, not interacting with anything but the vendors and game systems there.

 

The cantina there is usually empty, and lets face it, theres a reason its usually empty, theres absolutely no reason to be there. Even the VIP lounge has zero reason to spend time in it unless you just want to get up out of the general morass of people.

 

Simple facts are is BioWare does need to consider what will bring actual "life" into their game. They have the game...its a good game, now they have to make it an actual galaxy that people want to live in. And that is going to take some concessions towards social and/or sandbox content.

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It was a failure because they changed the game completely and remodeled it to be just like World of Warcraft. The game was a huge hit until they screwed it up and completely revamped the game more than four times in its time of launch. It wouldn't of been a failure if they had kept the game like it was when it launched.

 

This. It was the revamp of SWG that killed it, not the original design. The SWG revamp is pretty much universally hated like Trials of Atlantis was for DAoC.

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I want story and sandbox

I want Star Wars Galaxies and TOR combined

I want something way better than WoW

I want no bugs, glitches any incident that might ruin my gaming experience

I want something that doesn't exist or will ever exist

I want a perfect MMO

 

Keep dreaming people, you will never find that mmo.

 

(GW2 common, that will be an even bigger let-down)

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I want no bugs, glitches or any incident that might ruin my gaming experience

 

and this is 1000x more important than any amount of wow-ishness or sandboxyness....

 

if I learned one thing from RIFT it's that developers should put fixing their game on #1 and not pushing out as much content as possible

 

I don't care if the game design is perfect, as long as everything works (which it doesn't atm)

 

atm I report multiple bugs every day, I feel like I'm a beta tester. The sad thing is that I'm not...

Edited by Miathan
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I also miss some features of SWG, which I'll always fondly remember in it's original state (pre-Jedi grind and pre-NGE):

 

The resource and crafting system. I LOVED doing my resource tour twice a week to find new spots for hot resources. Absolutely awesome. As a good crafter you had a name and reputation. People travelled to your vendors to buy the really good stuff. Nowadays crafting is always bland. Anyone can do anything and everything is the same. Boooring.

 

No levels and mixing trees of different classes. I loved my Ranger/Rifleman and my Pistoleer/Droid Engineer. I tried lots of different combos and it was fun.

 

Just going out on hunting trips with the guild. Just random missioning and resource gathering. I put a camp down and we killed Rancors. Good times, good times.

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If you want a sandbox, I'm sure your local park has one, lol. When people buy games that are clearly not the type of game they are looking for, then they are just setting themselves up for disappointment. Then, they end up on the forums of the game blaming the designers for designing a bad game just because it wasn't the type of game they wanted.
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Maybe for you but not for other few millions players

 

Here's a question:

 

Would GW have had a lot of players if it had a monthly fee? Probably not.

 

Games that are F2P or have no monthly fee always have a larger customer base because, well, they're free.

 

The true test of a game is whether people would pay 15 dollars a month to play it.

 

I highly doubt GW would have even broke a million players if it had a sub attached.

 

It was the MMO for poor people and, hence, had a lot of players.

 

League of Legends isn't one of the most played games in the world because it's super good, it's one of the most played games in the world because it's free and is a really good game for a F2P title.

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I want to feel both the vastness and emptiness of the dune sea on tatooine, I want the long distances to be boring so much I need transport to traverse the planet. I want sandstorms, wildlife and krayt dragons.

 

I want little points of interest in the middle of nowhere waiting to be discovered, I want to explore!

 

I want to join a guild and go to war with another guild, I want to be able to arrange to meet the other guild any time and place and not play a multiplayer side game.

 

I want a real world economy that isnt perfectly balanced, I want space for players to create their own stories and content.

 

...I want Star Wars The Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies...

 

...yes I'm that greedy, I want both awesome story telling and sky-high production values, but I also want to feel immersed into a living breathing world of player economies, vast spaces and yes sandbox elements.

 

Don't shoot me for saying what I want :p

 

you won't get sandbox in this game. it will be a monorail gameplay with possible deviations to some extent. still there's enough to do and developers will be conjuring some more stuff (hopefully more imaginative)

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I want to feel both the vastness and emptiness of the dune sea on tatooine, I want the long distances to be boring so much I need transport to traverse the planet. I want sandstorms, wildlife and krayt dragons.

 

I want little points of interest in the middle of nowhere waiting to be discovered, I want to explore!

 

I want to join a guild and go to war with another guild, I want to be able to arrange to meet the other guild any time and place and not play a multiplayer side game.

 

I want a real world economy that isnt perfectly balanced, I want space for players to create their own stories and content.

 

...I want Star Wars The Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies...

 

...yes I'm that greedy, I want both awesome story telling and sky-high production values, but I also want to feel immersed into a living breathing world of player economies, vast spaces and yes sandbox elements.

 

Don't shoot me for saying what I want :p

 

Here's the problem.

 

Really good sandbox games never have really good stories.

 

Is Skyrim an awesome game? Yes, but it's story is mediocre. Same with most sandbox RPGs.

 

To create a strong story, one must be channeled through hallways to some degree. Freedom is good, but that freedom should be an illusion.

 

There's a trick we use in DMing (Dungeon Mastering, for Pen and Paper games) where there's 3 doors that all lead to the same room.

 

You, as the player, think you have three choices. You feel good about having these choices. If the DM is good, you'll never realize you didn't actually have a choice.

 

A good story telling game is generally the same idea. The illusion of freedom must be maintained, but true freedom breaks up a story and makes it harder to maintain a gripping narrative.

 

Creating a very open world with a very good story is something RPG creators, from pen and paper to videogames, have failed to do for over 40 years.

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Here's a question:

 

Would GW have had a lot of players if it had a monthly fee? Probably not.

 

Games that are F2P or have no monthly fee always have a larger customer base because, well, they're free.

 

The true test of a game is whether people would pay 15 dollars a month to play it.

 

I highly doubt GW would have even broke a million players if it had a sub attached.

 

It was the MMO for poor people and, hence, had a lot of players.

 

League of Legends isn't one of the most played games in the world because it's super good, it's one of the most played games in the world because it's free and is a really good game for a F2P title.

 

 

You been forgeth that you need to buy game?

Maybe cause GW is nice game not just cause its free to play. Noone cant force you play something what isnt good or u dont like. Gw can only hate or love, but Arenanet know to listen players and to add what ppl want to see in game. Not to buy Title as Star Wars and make rly bad mess with all this problems we see in game.

 

Poor ppl dont buy games they dow torrent...

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World of Warcraft has two planets — Azeroth, and Draenor

 

I want to be able to cross the black empty vastness between the two on my netherdragon. Why the hell aren't they implementing that? I can't be the only one craving for this feature and this feature alone!! And what about those lame continent barriers? I want to be able to fly for hours over nothing but the sea and maybe finally get to Northend, Kalimdor etc.

 

Meh. I'll just quit WoW, there you have it! Hear me Blizzard!? I QUIT!

 

Uh...

 

wait...

 

wrong forum, nvm.

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You been forgeth that you need to buy game?

Maybe cause GW is nice game not just cause its free to play. Noone cant force you play something what isnt good or u dont like. Gw can only hate or love, but Arenanet know to listen players and to add what ppl want to see in game. Not to buy Title as Star Wars and make rly bad mess with all this problems we see in game.

 

Poor ppl dont buy games they dow torrent...

 

Could you run that through Chrome's built in spell checker for me?

 

I'm not even being facetious, I honestly can't figure out what you mean in some of those sentences.

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