Who Still Wants A Sandbox MMO?

15 Mar 2010 at 00:00:00 by Bill Vaughan

The term 'Sandbox MMO' seems to cover a very broad range these days. I've heard games including EVE Online and even World of Warcraft described as sandbox before, so I took it to mean that players were free to roam around in-game, do things in whatever order they wanted, build what they like and so on.

After reading up on the topic, I'm aware that there's an on-going debate among gamers about the term and which games should or should not rightfully earn the sandbox title, so I'll leave that can of worms alone. But, knowing the aforementioned games were sometimes labelled as sandbox, I wilfully dived into the latest MMO that claimed to fit the description; Mortal Online.

Here's what you get once you've loaded the several-gigabyte client onto your machine: A character customisation section including heritage selection, a pop-up that tells you to press H for help, then you're on your own in the beautifully rendered 25 square mile continuous virtual world. Your character has no money, but is equipped with an axe, is clothed in some rags, and you start in the wilderness near to a town of your choice. You're not told how to move, how to interact with objects, how to trade or how to fight – to find any of this out you must ask in local chat or press H and navigate through the help system, which is sparse to say the least.

Once you've got the basics, you must improve your character without the benefit of features that we take for granted in even the most simple MMOs these days such as quests which reward money, instances where new gear can be obtained and the knowledge that anything you pick up is yours – if you're killed by another player in Mortal they can take everything in your inventory, even the clothes and weapons you were wearing. In my opinion, this is the true definition of a sandbox game. It's a completely open world where players aren't obliged to do anything other than survive in whatever way they can, be it through stealing, trading, crafting or besting others in battle, and I think that Mortal is probably one of the few true sandbox MMOs out there. It's a medieval life simulator of sorts, with some magic thrown in for good measure.

Now to the crux of the matter – how many people still really want to play this type of game? Clearly some do, because there are always plenty of players going about their business whenever I log on to Mortal, and there's been a lot of interest in the community, but to me it lacks excitement, and I can't understand what would keep bringing people back to the game, besides friends I suppose.

However, when I recently mentioned these musings to a colleague of mine, he pointed out that Mortal sounded like the 'good old days' of Ultima Online, the game many think of as the first proper MMO. Actually, the makers of Mortal make no secret of the fact that they are big Ultima fans. In fact, you might think of Mortal as their attempt at making an up-to-date version of Ultima Online, which apparently still has around 100,000 subscribers almost 13 years after it was launched.

But why go back to the old way of doing things? The MMO is a different beast than it was back in 1997. Some may argue that more recent games like WoW, LOTRO and Aion are too easy-going on players, handing them everything on a plate rather than making them work for their progress, taking away the challenge. No one can argue that the formula doesn't work though. Those who do complain that modern MMOs are for 'care bears', well, they may relish the idea of a game where you literally have to chop yourself some wood then learn how to craft bows before you can get your first weapon, but I think the majority of gamers are looking for something that provides them with an adrenaline rush within moments of logging in. It may only be against rats, bugs, kobalds or flimsy droids, but most new MMOs have new players shooting off fireballs, swinging a sword or firing a plasma gun in under five minutes, and it's great! There's bound to be a small dedicated group of people who like the sound of Mortal and other games similar to it, but I don't think there's going to be a mad rush for pure sandbox games any time soon, if ever.

If you're one of those who like the sound of Mortal Online, you can read more about it in our earlier coverage.

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