Wonder if anyone here feels this way?

[Mixxy]

I miss the ol' Star Wars Galaxies. It wasn't as sandbox as some other games, but it also wasn't "rush to max level, raid for a week, and then bitch for 3 months about there being no content"

[Jynx]

The game doesn't need to be a total sandbox, but for the love of god I play a MMO to play in a world.

Not wait in line in ques.

[3Jane]

The game doesn't need to be a total sandbox, but for the love of god I play a MMO to play in a world.

Not wait in line in ques.

Very well put.

[ulti_19]

Games once upon a time - Aww, I beat the game, what a beautiful adventure and epic story! Man I wish I could play it from the beginning not knowing anything from scratch just to be able to re-live it!

Games nowadays - YES!!! I beat the game now I can start it!!!! Farming here I come!

[Synra]

I have about 15 years of MMO experience now, and this article did a good job of spelling out the design gripes I have had in mind for years.

There is, or was something special about MMOs. This sensation of having a virtual world to run around in, as whoever you wanted to be in that world.

But that sensation vanished with the release of WOW, and people dropping the RPG from MMORPG. Where as in EQ, I logged in each day and decided for myself where I was going to go and do, In WOW people are just lead around by the nose.

The old EverQuest raids were incredible. These new games have it all messed up. Raids were amazing not for the loot, but for the crazy server event of getting 60+ people together to go attack a dragon. Even if you failed horribly, it's a memory you will never forget.

Today you do a raid, and the games funnel you into a specific (small) number of players, and the fights are all tweaked to be difficult for that exact number of players. And there's always highly valuable loot to be had.

And yes, the leveling portion of the game doesn't even make sense either. Why force players to work their way through XX number of levels, only to completely shift gears on them?

Back in the original days of EverQuest, the level 1-50 game WAS the game. Getting to 50 just meant you were 50 levels of success, and one of the most powerful guys around. It didn't mean you needed to suddenly gear up and start doing raids. Raids were a cool activity, but not the primary focus. It just ended up being popular, so they added tons of more raids over time.

But as this article explained. It was really WOW that turned the concept of raiding into some kind of true end-game player trap.

[Penguinmayhem]

How is having something to do when you're "finished" with the "plot" of the game and hit level cap a bad thing?

[Gramul]

How is having something to do when you're "finished" with the "plot" of the game and hit level cap a bad thing?

When it becomes the central focus.

[Codek]

Meh, I've played sandbox MMO's and I just get bored with them within a month.

I honestly prefer this current style we have. As a gamer, it's just a preference thing.

[Cabalabob]

It's not really the developer's fault so much as the players, when you go into your first MMO blind you have fun just exploring and working things out. You don't have this concept of endgame until you've gained that experience and settle in. But once you've gained that experience you can't really have it again. If you go to another MMO you know the drill, get max level and unlock all the stuff at the end. Now that MMO's have established quite a following everyone pretty much already has that experience so the devs want to cater to that crowd. The ones who already did all the grindy stuff on a previous MMO and just want to skip having to do it again and get to the end game of the new game they're playing.

If they can't do that they'll get bored and quit.

[Calyanare]

Meh, I've played sandbox MMO's and I just get bored with them within a month.

I honestly prefer this current style we have. As a gamer, it's just a preference thing.

Same here. I prefer some kind of structure to my video games, not just "here's a world, go do stuff!" Without the game giving me goals to accomplish I get bored quickly.

Why can't we have both?

Because the sandbox-lovers immediately start the wailing and gnashing of teeth as soon as they see a quest indicator over an NPC's head? I personally love quests, and I also love being able to tell which NPCs will give me one without having to talk to them and hear their life story first, but apparently some people think that a quest indicator is the most horrible thing in the world and that players should be forced to talk to each and every NPC to find them. That's just one example of why we can't have both. The list goes on: minimaps, regular maps, tutorials, etc. There's plenty of stuff a person like me considers to be essential that someone who likes immersive sandbox games considers to be anathema.