Lately as I’ve been out and about checking and commenting on other blogs in the geek-sphere we call the Internet, I’m seeing a bit of a trend among the MMO blogs that I frequent. Seems to me there’s a lot of labeling being thrown around, whether to call a game a themepark, which leads you on an instant gratification fest of fun that is controlled, or a sandbox, which alternatively gives you choice and freedom to shape your own experiences.
I’ve seen a lot of fierce debate over the viability of one or both in today’s MMO world, as well as those who prefer one or the other, sometimes to the point of zealotry. It doesn’t really end there, either. People are quick to label an MMO as “PvE”, “PvP”, “RvR”, and any other number of attachments meant to categorize MMOs into neat little compartments.
It must be a bit dizzying to see all this argument and labeling from the development perspective. No doubt that any developer out there is looking to find a way to make their business model lucrative, successful, and fun all at the same time. It might be easy to find some kind of appeal or solace in attaching oneself to one or more of those labels to find an audience to grow and retain.
Me? I don’t really get all the infighting about themeparks and sandboxes when it comes to MMOs. In a time when players have more choice than ever when it comes to what they get to experience with an MMO, I don’t understand why people need to find superiority in the games that they choose to play over all others. This is mostly because you can put aside subscriber numbers and find that there are plenty of MMOs that remain viable despite having vastly different playstyles from one another. I’ve always prioritized having fun over having the “right” MMO to play, and whether that is a themepark MMO or a sandbox MMO makes no real difference to me.
I’d also hope that developers take this prioritizing of fun over labeling to heart as well. I’m not really a developer, and I have no experience in the industry, so far be it from me to tell people what to do. But I would like to think that every developer out there starts off with a core design that they think is unique and fun and will engage players. In the course of design, development, marketing, and improvement, however, sometimes the labels can creep in, forcing developers to make compromises to their core design in order to appeal to a phantom element of a wider audience – and they sweat bullets doing it, too. I think that some of the best and most successful MMOs were successes purely by more word of mouth and fun design elements rather than being more “themepark” than “sandbox” or vice versa. If the core design of the MMO revolves around riding aardvarks as the endgame, and it’s fun, go for it. I’d look forward to it, that’s for sure.
I thought Damion Schubert had a good take on this simply telling fans that SWTOR would be both.
That's pretty much part of what inspired this writeup – well, that and the interesting responses I read to it from around the web.