ED - sandbox or themepark?

Sandbox or Theme park?

  • ED is a Sandbox primarily

    Votes: 90 57.7%

  • ED is a Theme park primarily

    Votes: 66 42.3%
  • Total voters
    156
  • Poll closed .

Pendra

P
Is ED sandbox or theme park type of game?
In short:


Theme park is game where you can find different activities (rides) that provide a specific type of fun. You can repeat a ride as many times as you want, it will always play out roughly the same (win - lose, random drops).
A mission to kill XY. You search USS/SC, you engage him, you kill him or die trying, you collect the reward. 5 mins after, you may find XY flying around and later get a mission to kill XY again. Practically repeat the ride.
You go to a EZ and you enter a ride of killing an endless wave of hostile ships. You can stop to collect reward and then repeat the ride.
Theme park before you interact with it: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/31/article-2181649-140948A2000005DC-846_634x396.jpg
Theme park after you interact with it: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/31/article-2181649-140948A2000005DC-846_634x396.jpg


Sandbox is a game where you have some in-game tools to build in game content for yourself or for a group of players. (the internet and forums are NOT in game tools, imagination is NOT an in-game tool) The sandcastles the players may build can be different each time you check. A simple sandbox may be an item you craft and sell to others. A house or base you build and show to others or use it for story purposes. A script to make AIs act or events unfold in a certain way etc. The sandbox MMO is ultimately only ever as strong as the tools that it provides to the players. The size of something does not make it a sandbox by default. You can build huge theme parks.
Sandbox before you interact with it: http://www.idea-sandbox.com/assets/images/sandbox_graphic_baby_blue.png
Sandbox after you interact with it: http://cleeng.com/open/images/brown-sandbox.jpg

It seems to me that ED is the anti-thesis for a sandbox.
ED does not give any power to the player. Heck it even impedes simple conversation and gatherings.
It was stated many times that pilots or a group of pilots should be small and meaningless in the great universal scale. Pilots should not be able to build anything or have an effect on anything. No player built bases, corporations etc. Emergent gameplay, like blockading, cornering market is not possible at all.
The ships you build for yourself are reset after sale.
The enemies you kill simply respawn. You kill for the sake of killing (killing ride).
The materials you transport are not needed or used. You transport for the sake of transporting (shipping ride).
The stellar cartography data you gather is not shared with anyone. You scout systems for the sake of it (scouting ride).
The fact that you can take multiple rides in any order does not make something a sandbox. A theme park can have many different rides and you can ride them in any order and as many times as you so desire.

If you feel ED is a sandbox, can you please share the last sand castle you built in it?
 
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Chann3l

Chann3l
I don't think it matters as long as you enjoy the game. If you don't enjoy it, don't be a masochist, there are plenty of games out there, can always come back when new content gets added. I think it's a sandbox in the sense that you build your own adventure and you dictate what kind of character you want to be. Also, there is a background simulation and people are actively flipping systems. There is also powerplay and your actions do have visible consequences within that. Example, I spent several hours earning merits undermining and contribute a large percentage to the prevention of expansion in a system. You may not like the tools that are provided but there are tools.
 
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Insomnia

Insomnia
True sandbox.
Player gets thrown into a sandbox filled with 400 billion grains of....sand, gets a bucket and a fancy spade, and the game is on!
I don't see ED as a theme park. In theme parks you build your own world. ED is already made up and nothing you do affects the world you're in.
 

Pendra

P
Insomnia said:
True sandbox.
Player gets thrown into a sandbox filled with 400 billion grains of....sand, gets a bucket and a fancy spade, and the game is on!
I don't see ED as a theme park. In theme parks you build your own world. ED is already made up and nothing you do affects the world you're in.
Click to expand...

In SANDBOX you build your own world. ED is already made up and nothing you do affects the world you're in hence it is a Theme park.
 

Mungrul

Mungrul
Neither.
It's not a pigeon-holed MMO.
I understand that MMO players have a tendency to try and fit all games into the same categories as their favoured genre, but MMO guidelines simply don't apply to everything.
 

Asrar

A
Hi,

OP i dont know if it is actually true what you telling, since 1.3 i discovered many things that lead to a sandbox.
I lurking around in a more or less small populated system and the systems around are not that populated as well, so some stations only supply between 1k and 10k goods... if i do transport runs with my t7 and carry 200t with it i see the supply dropping in one station and the need dropping in the station i brought it. so after 3 runs i cleary see a drop of income of a route, so i change to other goods.

i see how the supply is growing over time in the station that is producing and i see the need going up again by consuming the goods i delivered.
i also discovered as i filled one station with the goods it was needing, that suddenly a new ship appeard to be bought and i could buy more parts for my ship as well.. for example i searched military composite for some jumps for my vulture never found it.. but after i did the supply for that station i could upgrade my vulture with the military composite..

the system now is expanding and i see the company of that system in surrounding systems as well appearing on stations with missions.. also a lot of ships mostly pirates appearing in neighbour systems from that company. i did a lot of trading so around 20k tonns so about 100 trading runs.. i completed several missions for that company and more and more trouble appears in surrounding systems.. i went wanted and started to kill authorities in surrounding systems for missions.. now they go civil war over and over.. i saw 4 civil wars related to the expansion of the main system i supported.

all this could be a random factor.. but i doubt it tbh.. i did this an a low populated system where the mainsystem is technology based and the surrounding systems are production and mining based within. the company i supported appeared up to 15ly away from the main system.
 

Wicz

Wicz
For me the best description would be a sandbox, a huge empty sandbox waiting for the sand to arrive. However, I am perfectly happy to accept that it may be a theme park, a huge dilapidated theme park waiting for the new rides to arrive :p
 
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Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Why do people who dislike this or that always feel the need to 'engage in misinformation? It is factually not true you dont have any influence, unless you consider, for example, starting a democratic revolution in a harsh anarchy system 'no influence'. You can conquer entire regions of space in powerplay, and trading will impact prices, espescially in tiny systems. Your entire rant falls flat here.

Oh wait, you cant craft a bronze dagger. I guess it'll come soon, but for now ED is a bronze dagger-less themepark game according to your arbitrary distinction.

Boo FD! Boo!

Or just get EvE if your looking for large clans, bases and blockades. Or get mass effect if you want to be the hero who saves the galaxy. Or get x3 if you want to be a trade mongul. ED is ED, arbitrarily making distinctions and then criticising ED on not being this or that is pointless.
 
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Moriarte

Moriarte
ED is sociopath's idea of a massive multiplayer online game. Which is alright. Nothing wrong with being a shut in, drunk and lost in space. *Cough.

Voted theme-park though.
 

Pendra

P
"You can conquer entire regions of space in powerplay,"
Is it possible to call this region I conquered the United Federation of Worlds, appoint one of my buddy as a finance minister of the region and set up a HQ station and hire security?

"Get EvE if your looking for large clans, bases and blockades.
Mass effect if you want to be the hero who saves the galaxy.
X3 if you want to be a trade mongul."

So you are saying that ED lacks all of these genre defining traits? Ouch.
While there in X3 you can save the galaxy, too and that is the game I'm playing currently.

The definitions are not mine and not arbitrary. They are kinda industry terms to classify the gaming experience to expect.
You can try to sell a VW Golf as pickup truck, it will not make it a pickup truck by industry standards.
 
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