Blizz should make WoW more sandbox.

[Caolela]

Wow is more than 10 years old, they aren't going to make massive changes, they will just milk it to the last drop by making copy-pasted expansions.

Also, blizzard last good game was wotlk, all their recent games suck. They are polished turds like hearthstone, diablo, hots and soon overwatch.

That's the reality here. Blizz is nothing but profit-driven now. I agree except I'd say up to Cata pre-DS WoW was OK. Even MoP was tolerable but Pandaria to me was missing a lot of the old "real" WoW flavor, like when you zone into Northrend, Outland, or Cata areas.

Blizzard North is long gone and isn't coming back.

[Seefer]

You don't have to talk to other players to interact with them. Spending all day chit-chatting doesn't make a game an MMO. Unless NPCs are buying my auction items and participating in my LF* groups the game is still very much an MMO.

Players in LF* groups may as well be NPCs, they don't say anything unless it's to insult people, just admit that the players running around may as well be NPCs they do not interact with you at all.

[Deleted]

I agree with all the points. WoW has been driven by minimizing development costs rather than by creating a better game.

[Kazgrel]

I can't facepalm hard enough at the idea that wow, in any way-shape-form, is even remotely close to sandbox.

[Paladin885]

Community: If a boss takes 7 hours the respawn, nobody will wait. They will go do other stuff.

never gone hunting for a rare mount have you?

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I can't facepalm hard enough at the idea that wow, in any way-shape-form, is even remotely close to sandbox.

Just look at the auction houses being dominated by scalpers and gold hoarders.

[oldgeezer]

Players in LF* groups may as well be NPCs, they don't say anything unless it's to insult people, just admit that the players running around may as well be NPCs they do not interact with you at all.

*shrug* I don't have a problem with that.

[Deleted]

You cant change blizzards grand old themepark into a sandbox without a lot of development effort.

And development effort is something thats being saved nowadays.

[Armourboy]

You cant change blizzards grand old themepark into a sandbox without a lot of development effort.

And development effort is something thats being saved nowadays.

It's never been sandbox and frankly can never be. It isn't even WoW anymore if you made it sandbox. The same thing would happen to it that happened to SWG when they tried to turn it into WoW. It crashed and burned and smoldered until Lucas Arts finally pissed on it and completely put it out.

[Halicia]

You cant change blizzards grand old themepark into a sandbox without a lot of development effort.

And development effort is something thats being saved nowadays.

Yeah, you'd have an easier time changing WoW into an MMOFPS at this stage of the game.

That being said, people in this thread clearly have contradictory ideas of what "sandbox" means.

[Seefer]

*shrug* I don't have a problem with that.

So you have no issue with an MMORPG turning into a single player RPG?

[Socialhealer]

no flying? sounds interesting, i believe the community basically told blizzard, ADD FLYING OR YOUR GAME IS DEAD ASSHOLES.

blizzard gave wod flying.

so to even put it in your OP is beating the deadest of dead horses, you're literally attacking a stain of blood with a stick the horses remains are long gone.

[Queen of Hamsters]

How about no?

You people can gtfo and stick to those "sandbox mmos". I like WoW's model and it's why I stuck with it for 7 years but couldn't spend more than 70 hours in a game which "let you do whatever you want whenever you wanted"...
And leave my flying on dragons the fuck alone, go to a game which hasn't had flight for the major part of its life if it bothers you so much...

[Lady Dragonheart]

You keep saying "sandbox" but you obviously don't know what it means.

[Deleted]

So you have no issue with an MMORPG turning into a single player RPG?

Doesn't seem too different from WoW's current state, aside from hc/mythic raids and arena.

[oldgeezer]

So you have no issue with an MMORPG turning into a single player RPG?

Yes, because WoW turns into a 'single player RPG' when people don't chat during LF*.

Right? Wrong.

[StationaryHawk]

Customization
Old talents allowed for customization for maybe gimped, but maybe powerful situation builds. Now there's a best talent for every boss every PvP encounter so the customization is gone either way.

There was a best build for everything in the old talent system too. You can still choose the less optimal talents if it'll make you feel better about customization.

[Deleted]

never gone hunting for a rare mount have you?

It's an rare occasion, OP talked about make all/most bosses have these kinds of downtime.

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There was a best build for everything in the old talent system too. You can still choose the less optimal talents if it'll make you feel better about customization.

Blizzard could just have stuck with the old system and just add some talents that make an alternative path viable. For furrys in WotLK they could just have added a talent that made one handed furrys as strong as two-handed and you had 2 viable choices. In an MMO there cannot be unlimited choices for balance sake, but if they gave us talents where you could only choose one out of two, both being viable and that in each tree 2 or 3 times, you get 4 to 6 viable choices (per spec).

[Amerissis]

At release the game had a lot more sandbox features. Basically that's what a lot of people are feeling and why the game to a lot of players is depressing and boring in it's current state.

Classic WoW was never a sandbox. It had no sandbox features either. You could do nothing but the pre-determined quests, not even choose a different answer/path, or PvP.

Leveling
After the first few zones of leveling you were all over the world, could be leveling and questing in various parts at the same time. Now it's on rails all the way.

Having the rails run in different directions don't make them less of a rails. It's more streamlined now, yes, and you can like or dislike that, but it has nothing to do with Sandbox. I enjoy the more streamlined experience. Running all over the world to do one quest in a different zone and then get send back wasn't fun at all. It was time consuming and tedious and added nothing for me.

Community
Meeting other other players from exploring, from need to group up because difficulty are long spawn times etc. Downtime leading to conversation. Idling in hubs and cities. All gone.

Again, nothing to do with Sandbox. I agree that it's a shame red (group) quests are gone, they were fun. You could skip them if you didn't find a group, or do them if you did find other people to join in.

PvP
World pvp, random raids on capitals and hubs. Randoms zergs a la crossroads, darkshire, SS/Tarren Mill. All gone.

This is on the community. Nothing blocks people from still doing this, but people themselves. There simply wasn't much to do at that time, so people tried to enjoy themselves by means of world PvP. Now that people have plenty to do, and play only for rewards, world PvP died. No Sandbox thing and nothing you can do about it but kick people in the butt and organize a zerg yourself.

Customization
Old talents allowed for customization for maybe gimped, but maybe powerful situation builds. Now there's a best talent for every boss every PvP encounter so the customization is gone either way.

Not Sandbox. And you really didn't have a choice. If you didn't follow a guide, you weren't allowed in on raids. There always were best talents for everything.

Flying
No flying is sandbox, flying is anti-sandbox.

That makes so little sense, I don't even know how to respond. Mode of transportation has nothing to do with Sandbox.

List could go on, just some thoughts. I wish WoW was more sandbox personally, best lore and universe and in-game history to want to just run around, explore and find fun things to do be it pve or pvp. If only Blizzard would let us. But nah. Sit, queue, raid. Repeat ad infinitum. Barf.

You have absolutely no idea what a sandbox game really is. None of the things you mentioned have anything to do with it. WoW never was a sandbox and never will be. It would make the game completely different. It's like wanting GTA4 to be about cuddling unicorns. If you want a sandbox game, you go play a sandbox game, instead of transforming a vastly different game into one.

[SirBeef]

At release the game had a lot more sandbox features. Basically that's what a lot of people are feeling and why the game to a lot of players is depressing and boring in it's current state.

Leveling
After the first few zones of leveling you were all over the world, could be leveling and questing in various parts at the same time. Now it's on rails all the way.

Vanilla leveling was on rails. It just was not that noticeable due to 3 different paths per faction over 60 levels. Kind of hard to do over 10 levels and a much smaller leveling area in expansions.

Community
Meeting other other players from exploring, from need to group up because difficulty are long spawn times etc. Downtime leading to conversation. Idling in hubs and cities. All gone.

You can still meet people, you still need to group for harder outdoor content. There are still hubs to idle in, still have cities. Just becasue people choose not to do these things doesn't mean it is not there.

PvP
World pvp, random raids on capitals and hubs. Randoms zergs a la crossroads, darkshire, SS/Tarren Mill. All gone.

I transferred a toon to a PvP server to play with a old friend who just came back and this happens all the time on that server. I'd rather PvP stayed on PvP servers frankly.

Customization
Old talents allowed for customization for maybe gimped, but maybe powerful situation builds. Now there's a best talent for every boss every PvP encounter so the customization is gone either way.

Sounds like more customization to me.

Flying
No flying is sandbox, flying is anti-sandbox.

I don't relay care about flying. Keep it, remove it. It won't effect me much.


List could go on, just some thoughts. I wish WoW was more sandbox personally, best lore and universe and in-game history to want to just run around, explore and find fun things to do be it pve or pvp. If only Blizzard would let us. But nah. Sit, queue, raid. Repeat ad infinitum. Barf.

As for sandbox v theme park. People do not want sandbox. They say they do all the time but those games rarely do well. I am not expecting 1m+ but most seem to go by the wayside soon after they release. It's like the old coffee survey. The vast majority of people surveyed say they want a bold rich coffee. When given that they don't like it. They actually prefer a milder coffee with a lot of sugar and cream to sweeten it up.

[Sierra85]

i'd rather they kept it more linear progression, but you can choose where to start. true sandbox would be very overwhelming.