Hey everybody,

Just so everyone is aware, this isn't another thread about why ESO should be a Skyrim clone or why it's going to fail because it's a WoW clone. The reason I created this thread is because the MMO industry is one of the most dynamic as well as one of the most difficult industries to develop a game for. That being said, I think there is a lot that developers can learn from current MMOs as well as those that are no longer running. With the current trend of the industry and the explosive success that WoW had, MMOs have been shifting towards more of a themepark/casual experience heavily dependent on new content, raiding, battlegrounds, end game features in general.

This current trend in MMOs is also an inherent flaw as it's impossible for a brand new MMO to have the level of content and production value that a game that has been in development for almost the past ten years, in particular WoW, has. This is why I believe MMOs in this current generation can't solely just rely on themepark elements, but also need to look at the older generation of sandbox MMOs, which had limitless hours of entertainment with very little content. So far, ZOS is already moving in the right direction by taking cues from DAoC and other older generation MMOs by having features such as RvR, public dungeons, etc. that allow players more control and social interactions over their gaming experience.

I think this will ultimately be ZOS's best bet in order to help compensate for the inevitable lack of content ESO will have in comparison to MMOs that have been out for years, as well as giving players more choice and freedom to personalize their own experience. This is why I personally believe ZOS has been pushing the factions so staunchly as well as the player-driven politics that will come with them. In order to bring this immersive and player-driven experience, ZOS has to give us the tools to craft our own experience, while also supplementing us with themepark standards we come to expect in current generation MMOs.

We still currently only know the bare bones minimum in terms of features and what ESO is about. But the more social features and player control ZOS gives the player-base, the better in my opinion. ZOS couldn't expect stable success for this game based off of limited and initial theme park elements as well as the IP alone. ZOS needs to give people a reason to play and why this game could be an alternative to WoW. Games like SWTOR hoped that one major, diverging feature with limited themepark content would separate it far enough from the years of content that WoW has developed. This may be feasible in the long run when a game like SWTOR has more content to offer, but in the short run people just lose interest quickly and go back to the obvious game that has more to offer.

I played Star Wars Galaxies (sandbox MMO) for six straight years without any expansions and the game was able to hold my interest for all that time. It's that kind of longevity and interest current MMOs typically lack due to losing their social elements in favor of game elements and I think it's one they can't afford to forget. I'm not asking for a full-on sandbox MMO. I just want a game that has a nice mixture of sandbox and themepark elements, as I believe one element alone isn't enough to survive in this age of games. Success for MMOs isn't just solely based on the content that ZOS delivers to us, but the content players create for themselves as well.

What are your thoughts?

Lots of great points. I think you're definitely right about ZOS being smart about implementing plenty of sandboxey elements into the game. Personally, I think that pure theme-parks are flawed in general, because a player can blast through content way faster than a developer can develop it, so if you don't have any sandbox elements to keep the players creating their own experience, it become this constant back-log of the developers trying to keep up with the speed in which the players can zip through their content, which of course they can't....

That being said, when you give players like in DAoC, the ability to control the outcome and power shifts of the different factions, it becomes a constant and on-going game in and of itself... that doesn't require the tread-mill of new content that a game like WoW would.
Personally, I think the only reason WoW is so popular, is because they brought in so many players from outside the MMO community, who've never experienced an MMO before, because all the people who have played a more sandboxey MMO like DAoC, can't really understand the appeal of WoW. The appeal is that it's a Premium Pay-to-Play MMO, and if you're comparing a Premium MMO to a game you played on Xbox, then of course it's going to look good....

But once players have the chance to experience a real MMO with the proper amount of sandbox/theme-park elements mixed in, they're going to look back on WoW, and be like "Why did I play that game again? I can't remember why I liked it."

I agree completely. I think a mixture of themepark and sandbox will ultimately be the future of MMOs. So far, ESO seems to be on the right track for that.

Like everyone else said, themepark and sandbox will be key. Linear games are a thing of the past. We want freedom!