Game lobby vs. living world

There was a bit of discussion between sandbox vs. theme park MMOs in another thread.

I'd like to suggest another kind of dichotomy I've seen come up in the development in SotA. In my opinion, there are two ways of looking at a RPG,


- One is where you view the world as a giant "game lobby" with all sorts of mini-games you can get into. The mini-games would be defined activities like PvP, resource farming, crafting, home decoration, story questing, cosplay. Your avatar in the world is just a representation of you as a player that you can bring into the mini-games -- just like your Xbox avatar, or your Mii on Nintendo consoles, or your forum avatar. The mini-games are segregated from each other and don't have have any effect on each other, and the lobby -- the larger world -- is just a space where you can socialize and hook up with people to play the mini-games. You might earn some tokens in the mini-games that you can take and use elsewhere, and tickets that you can spend on prizes, but otherwise there's no consequences to anything you do.



This experience is integral to what I'd call the "theme park" MMO: the lobby is the theme park, and the mini-games are the rides. The more common definition of a theme park is to contrast it with a sandbox game; in a theme park game, the content is created for you, and in a sandbox, you can create the content. But a sandbox game can in my mind be pretty theme-parky the world is created in the "game lobby" model.


- The second is to view the game in itself as a "living world", and this is what I see Ultimas as traditionally being. None of the various activities in the world are segregated, and all have an integral effect on each other. There is no "lobby" in the sense that just existing in the world is a gameplay activity. While your avatar might be you, it also represents some of your limitations as a character existing in the world. You can't go everywhere you want all of the time. If you die, you get hurt. If you want help, you have to seek it out.



But while Ultimas have tilted towards this model, I've seen SotA lean heavily towards the first model in most aspects of gameplay.

 

Do you think it's the difference between single player and multiplayer that makes you feel this way? ie: When multiple people mill around 'x' activity, it will always feel like a lobby, versus you doing the same thing, solo?

 

I completely agree. From my point of view, SotA has become kind of a "living themepark" in which the lobby is integrated within the rest of activities; you can actually feel some coherence between all the content, but most of the content are rides.

I think it's not only the direction of the flow between content and players what creates that distinction. Game elements that allow players to sort of create content can feel pretty themepark-y (housing) while company created content can be totally sandbox if it's implemented with that intention in mind. I think the motivation of the average player is what really matters. Sandbox tries to motivate the player through their character, and the player actions are reasoned within the context of the game. It could be things as hardcore as "i shouldn't go exploring right now if i don't wanna starve alone in the forest" or as mild as "i'll participate in the war to gain the respect of that faction". On the other hand, theme Parks funnels their motivation directly towards the player, and the actions are reasoned from the metagame point of view. "I'm going to swap this piece of gear because this gives more strength hence i'll be powerful" or "I'm going to PVP because i enjoy fighting against other players" could be examples of that.

Besides that, there's also how the content is presented to the player. If every activity is isolated from the rest, the game would feel more themepark the more isolated each activity is from each other. There's also consequences; if the world has some degree of dynamism whose changes depends on the player actions (individually or as a whole) it will feel more like a Sandbox, but if that dynamism doesn't exist or are generated through external events they would only feel like Special Rides (and even more if clearing the Special Ride doesn't have any impact somehow).

I personally don't think multiplayer is at fault. I've been alone for most of my time online in SotA and i get the same feeling. It's just that multiplayer needs to be accounted for in the mix; well known requirements of party/gear/level makes the game feels gated, but if the impact of those elements would be lessened or even eliminated, the ThemePark feeling may subside.

 

The main difference is that in a theme park usually players actions don't have consequences on other players most of the time.

Virtual world is the exact opposite. I also see the Ultimas more in a sandbox environment.

Of course a game is never built in absolutes. Also a sandbox needs rules, but more than that it needs to enable players to setup their own environment.
e.g.: Do not make an Arena - let the players build one and host tournaments.

I hope that at some point guild politics will matter in SotA. I don't know if anyone ever read the EvE story, where they have written up what happened in the games
political world. Better than most science fiction books out there

 

I don't mind the compartmentalism if rich dynamic environments and encounters awaits. We could consider how in Train simulators how NPC trains spawn into the maps at certain times from "portals". those portals seemingly bring a sense of interconnectedness across maps. Wagons could enter a town now and then, ships sail across the horizon or into port etc etc.

I'd like to see ocean maps created that could be quite huge and that/those area(s) could bring an open world feel, seeing they would have almost nothing in them aside from players and perhaps a skybox of the coast with port entrances shown. 8/more or less large water maps where players can sail ships to do "delivering mail quests" and maybe even Escorting players/npc's taxi quests also.

Question will be how long does Port think it should take players to cross the map via ocean? Slowly in big maps? or teleporting from ocean port scene to ocean port scene via periodical npc "taxi" ships or player sailed to zone exit?

Maybe EVENTUALLY add long coastal maps (and say our ships are only good for coastal waters, with Port town loading sections clearly indicated at various points along "coastal water scenes")

Sail boat races around Novia really would be amazing to be a thing one day, even if it takes 10 loading screens and as many skybox swaps!

I would think those kind of maps would really help open up our world, show how instanced games can really open up and yet still provide key areas of incredible detail while maintaining a sense of journey, beauty, scale while not nuking an CPU this game encounters.

We can dream