I have a long post about AoC coming up that's mainly waiting to be dolled up with screen shots to illustrate some of my points. However, I stumbled on this story at Gamespot and thought I'd pass it along.
I have often cited the Elder Scrolls: Morrowind as an example of a sandbox done right. It gives you incredible freedom, while also giving you a compelling series of quests and story lines to follow should you care to. I am skeptical that a design with so much freedom would work well in an MMO. For example, how do you balance a game where anyone can design and create pretty much any spell or magic item they can think of? I think the answer is that you can't, and that the game would have to be a lot more restrictive than it's offline counterparts.
Still, if Bethesda can give us the first sandbox MMO that is a game first and a sim second, I think I will be pretty happy with a product that is "only" as open in its design as UO or EVE.
I'm sure the Elder Scrolls would make a good MMO as long as they stick to what makes an good Elder Scrolls game. A Me-Too WoW-alike would kill the game dead.
ReplyDeletePut my vote down as interested in seeing what they come up with.
@Anjin: I am right there with you in the "waiting to see but intrigued" boat.
ReplyDeleteI loved both of the most recent Elder Scroll games. But I do think that Oblivion did do some things a bit better than Morrowind. I too am interested in seeing what Bethesda has brewing.
ReplyDelete@Jaydub: I'll be honest, I never gave Oblivion much of a chance. I have it sitting on my shelf, and I think I have played it less than an hour. I'm certain a month of my life would dissapear if I played it long enough to really get into it.
ReplyDelete