If FFXIV is a theme park MMO, what other types of MMOs are there?

And can you give me some examples? Thanks.

Theme Park and Sandbox Rant

It's a decent intro.

Sandbox is the other one. You have far more freedom to do what you want and kind of help build the world. EVE online comes to mind for that one.

Sandbox MMOs are fun, but the downside to them is that they typically take a lot of time to do anything meaningful. I like EvE Online, I just don't have the time for it anymore.

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Originally Posted by Slick

And can you give me some examples? Thanks.

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These are just fan-terms.

MMO's basically fall into three camps
"Themepark" which is where every piece of content is delineated like a "theme park" and whatever you do in A has no bearing on B. eg you can play the storyline or skip it, and the world will remain the same. Likewise what you do in the game has no bearing on what someone elses storyline.

"Sandbox" which is where you have a lot more control over the world beyond just making a house in a "housing area", sandbox MMO's do not use instances or shards to create multiple versions of the world (for more players), rather they have one world that isn't indelible, the content reflect it. So far no MMO in existence actually qualifies for "sandbox" because ... The closest thing are minecraft clones, but they all fail the sharding test. Sandbox MMO's are designed for Role-play by not providing a thematic element.

"Pseudo-sandbox", which is somewhere between themepark and sandbox. These are games that adopt some sandbox-like elements (eg placeable housing, large explorable areas, physics engines) in a larger themepark style MMO. Most games that call themselves sandbox MMO's are actually this. So the players can have some soft-effect on the world (that other players can undo) but in the end, if a player quits the game, everything they left in the game will disappear or be claimed by someone else.


The point is that a "themepark" mmo is designed around storyline content. You can have multiple storylines. You don't have to pay attention to the storyline, but there is a "theme" running through all the "rides" (eg dungeon content, overworld content, crafting, etc)

Other kinds of games (eg Destiny, PSO2) that have some dynamic multiplayer elements, but are otherwise single player games with one multiplayer lobby are also just themepark MMO's.

A "MMO" itself is "Massive Multiplayer Online" and can refer to any game with an online component, including games like farmville, even if all the game does is invite your friends for goodies. However this classification of game is neither a themepark or a sandbox, because the world isn't shared at all, and the extent of MMO'ness is visiting another friends town. Just like minecraft.


So generally all MMORPG's are Themepark MMORPG's even if they call themselves sandbox MMORPG's. There are no true sandbox MMORPG's, and at best, the sandbox elements are just another "theme" to the themepark, that is completely optional play with.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

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Wakfu was the closest thing I've seen from a sandbox MMO when it launched. All mobs and plants were finite in number. Kill them all ? They'll never come again unless you took the time to collect semen/seeds to repopulate. In a matter of days, the devs had to put a safeguard because 90% of the starting areas had become a wasteland with nothing left alive.

Sandbox MMOs will never ever work just because players are unable to actually manage a world.

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Originally Posted by Kuwagami

Wakfu was the closest thing I've seen from a sandbox MMO when it launched. All mobs and plants were finite in number. Kill them all ? They'll never come again unless you took the time to collect semen/seeds to repopulate. In a matter of days, the devs had to put a safeguard because 90% of the starting areas had become a wasteland with nothing left alive.

Sandbox MMOs will never ever work just because players are unable to actually manage a world.

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Exactly.

Archeage was another game that was a "sandbox mmo", but it was only sandbox'ish in building houses and ships. The houses were persistent but the ships were not. Players could strip all the "free" resources from the game, but the bots were faster at it. Players could produce farms or "illegal" farms (farms planted in common areas that anyone could loot) and what would happen is you'd get people who just outright destroy other players stuff for their own amusement.

After a while the "sandbox" elements wear thin because other players find it fun to metaphorically "kick the sandcastle down"

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Originally Posted by Kuwagami

Wakfu was the closest thing I've seen from a sandbox MMO when it launched. All mobs and plants were finite in number. Kill them all ? They'll never come again unless you took the time to collect semen/seeds to repopulate. In a matter of days, the devs had to put a safeguard because 90% of the starting areas had become a wasteland with nothing left alive.

Sandbox MMOs will never ever work just because players are unable to actually manage a world.

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That Anime is a real MMO. Interesting.

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Originally Posted by Ferrasper

That Anime is a real MMO. Interesting.

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Not a really good one though it has really interresting mecanics.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

Snip.

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If we're talking about Purity, then I don't really know any MMO's that don't have any sandbox elements.
All MMO's are between those two terms, they get categorized by which side of the spectrum they're closest to.

By the same right, they're all psuedo-theme park. They're opposing terms, so you can't be purist for only one side.
Most developers are smart enough to lean on one side while appropriating parts of the other.