MMORPG with "sandbox" style play? (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gardiner]

Hello everybody,

I was a happy and loyal player of STAR WARS GALAXIES for a little over a year, but I quit when most of my in-game friends left the game.

I tried the 14 day trial of WORLD OF WARCRAFT, but I must be the only person on the planet who does not like the game. The main activies seem to be limited to killing creatures and leveling up.

What I liked about Galaxies was the huge variety of activities available (which I sometimes see referred to as "sandbox-style play"). In addition to killing creatures and leveling up, a character could:

• Pursue a career in the Rebellion or the Empire
• Learn the ways of the Force
• Explore the Galaxy (for its own sake, or a celebrity sighting tour, or to collect Exploration badges)
• Collect rare items
• Experiment with interior design
• Start a town and enter local politics
• Pursue a secondary career as a pilot
• Crafters can cultivate a business
• Entertainers can put together an act and take it on the road
• Any character with specialized skills can sell those skills (as a Ranger, I made millions tracking NPCs and beasts for various clients)
• Clever players can develop and pursue, in meaningful ways, professions that were not even built into the game

My server, Intrepid, was home to a delivery service, a news network (which provided live coverage {via weblog} of special events), and professional event organizers. My character, Konishi, pursued a secondary career as a stand-up comedian.

To my knowledge, WOW and most other MMORPGs do not support this type of gameplay.

Are there any MMORPGs out there that come close to satisfying what I am looking for? Any recommendations would be appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[BrianB]

SecondLife sounds exactly what you're looking for. It's not a traditional 'grind' mmorpg, instead it's a complete sandbox environment where you get out of it exactly what you put in.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Thanks, Brian. I will check it out.

Coincidentally, I just discovered this Wired article about people making a living (i.e. actually earning enough cheddah to quit one's day job) with Second Life. I must investigate further.

 

[BrianB]

Like I said, it sounds exactly what you're looking for - less a game & more of a tool to communicate, role play & interact.

 

[Christopher_P]

http://www.eve-online.com

Eve is very open ended and there is a no real 'end game'. Also don't think its just a mining sim. Lot of newbies get the feeling that the game is all about mining and its not there are LOTS of other things to do (missions, roleplay, PvP, Trading, and even now with ISS's new project stock trading. I went nearly a year and a half without mining any. I do it sometimes now when I'm relaxing though).

I have been playing nearly 2 years now and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. It also isn't loosing subscribers like most older mmorpg's it is GAINING. It is also all on one 'shard' other than the new China server thats in beta testing (different rule set due to funky rules in that country).

Eve also has its own magazine (http://www.eve-online.com/eon/) that has ads in it made up from the in game corps and alliances. Included on the web site and the magazine is also many short stories. The game also has several major roleplaying alliances (CVA and Ushra'kan are based around the Amarr VS Minmatar story line).