MMOGs and Sandbox-Style Play

An anonymous reader writes "Why do so few games truly embrace the sandbox metaphor? The folks at GamersWithJobs have their own opinions, and think that MMOGs may be replacing The Sims as the center of the 'emergent gameplay' movement. From the article: 'I don't know if it's a function of age, or experience or perhaps just changing tastes, but my favorite games are increasingly the ones where I can find my own methods of play. I loved that Dead Rising simply gave me a maul, a chainsaw and an army of zombies. Perhaps my love of MMOs is as much related to the opportunity to explore and adventure on my own as any actual construction of gameplay.'"

Re:The Ultimate Evercrack Killer...

[frosty_tsm]

Most of us never played knight in shining armor off to rescue the princes; cops and robbers; or tag since we were kids, yet we play Mario and FF; Need for Speed and GTA; and Super Smash Bros as adults.

If Super Smash Brothers is your equivalent to tag, then that must have been one crazy game of tag...

Re:Star Wars: Galaxies

[Tackhead]

> I think SOE handled the whole game badly

In other news, poster also describes the Grand Canyon is a "ditch", and the the act of drawing the Virgo Supercluster through a trillion light-year section of buckytube as "suck".

I, for one, welcome our understated overlords.

Re:The Ultimate Evercrack Killer...

[rkanodia]

If Super Smash Brothers is your equivalent to tag, then that must have been one crazy game of tag...

Ah, to be a kid again... I'll never forget the look on Billy's face when I used a Downward Smash Attack to spike him off of the cafeteria roof, then yelled, "Tag!"

Re:So, typo or not?

[skroz]

Is this a typo, a clever play on words, or an unintended pun?

Absolutely.

Re:Star Wars: Galaxies

[Null537]

When Star Wars: Galaxies first came out it was more of a sandbox game

Well, you were on Tatooine.

Re:Sandboxes aren't fun

[ChaosDiscord]

Thats why most games don't embrace it- because most gamers (not all, but most) don't want it.

Which is, of course, why The Sims, the ultimate sandbox game, has been a catastrophic financial failure. I have no idea why they keep releasing more expansions into that money pit.

I pity the companies that invested in games with strong sandbox components like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivian, and Simcity. Those poor fools are just throwing good money after bad.

Re:So, typo or not?

[Wornstrom]

yes, there is a maul in the game, as well as battle axes and katanas, a high powered lawnmower, guitars, boomerangs, golf clubs (which I would have rather not had it be a ranged weapon, you hit golf balls at the zombies with it), 2x4s, propane tanks, potted plants, trash cans, televisions, cash registers, hunting knives, guns, police night sticks, severed limbs (that you can shove in zombies mouths to distract them for a few), parasols, skateboards, lead pipes, dumbbells, super soakers, nerf ball guns, jewels (another range weapon), and many many others. My all time favorite is the louisville slugger, you can hold down the attack button and wait until the zombies get close, and slam the crap out of them for extra points :D
that game is teh awesome but I haven't played it since the accursed WoW xpac came out...
but probably a typo, given the structure of the statement. I have yet to find a chainsaw myself, but I have heard you can remove the machine gun from the jeep if you kill the 3 escaped convicts that are riding around on it, trying to kill you in the courtyard after it gets dark on the first night...