Earl's Musings: Why I think sandboxes kinda suck

Well gee, I just went ahead and ruined the plot of this musing. You can basically tell what my thoughts are from the title. Great job me. And it doesn't even imply there's anything sexy going on. There might be though, I haven't gotten into it yet and I'm sure I can weave it in somewhere.

So, I've started playing two games recently. I've picked up Oblivion again, and I've been playing Gravity Rush (also Gravity Rush 2 but they're almost the same game). Playing a purely open world game like Oblivion alongside a somewhat open world but mostly linear game like Gravity Rush has kinda made me realize that for all my claims of wanting an open world game, in a lot of ways I really don't. I mean, even looking at the porn games I play, Princess of the Ring remains my favorite, and that's basically an arcade game. It's a shame, because the promise of an open world game is huge. And it's that exact promise that kinda makes them suck.

The big problem I have with an open world is how...inorganic a lot of it can be. I've made at least a hundred characters for Oblivion over the years. Only one ever made it to level 10. My current character is level 4. That having been said, the one who got over level 10(I think they ended up being level 15 or something) was on the Xbox, and so the lack of mods meant all the content was appropriate for my level and I could just walk everywhere I wanted without any fear. So there's still hope for my PC characters one day getting that high. The main reason I don't gain all that many levels is because, in order to gain levels, you basically need to be aimless. The best way to level up is to pick a direction and walk. Any time you see a cave, or a ruin, you walk inside, kill everything, loot some stuff that's good, and then leave to keep going.

The problem with that is that it's the opposite of how the game presents the way of leveling up. Which is completing quests and going on focused adventures. So if you're trying to do the things the game suggests you should, you end up being pretty weak and never growing, and if you level up you find yourself feeling no sense of achievement other than getting stronger. Furthermore, getting quests is...strange. You just sort of, ask around town until you stumble onto something most of the time. Or decide to look things up. And the limited number and scope of the quests means that you can't really have a home in these games. Eventually the content in an area will dry up and you'll have to move on. That isn't inherently bad, but it does limit your options for what to really do in such games.

Even more conventional sandbox games suffer from this sort of hub-based, activity-based approach that prevents you from really *making* a story, instead of simply playing one out. Personally, I think the solution lies in creating a framework by which a player can create and pursue an ambition. To use Oblivion as an example, making it possible to overthrow a count, and become count yourself could be a rather interesting ambition. It doesn't even need that many new mechanics added in, base it off fame and disposition to local NPCs, as well as some authority figure somewhere. Or add in an ability to make a faction. The DLCs allow you to build up a base, simply adding on a few more mechanics to that, territory control and an abstract measure of power would be sufficient to give a sense of achieving something.

And now we get to the sex element. Cause even sex is negatively impacted by this in some ways. Well, it isn't, but it could be better with them. Defeating enemies and taking them as slaves is fun. I've played at least one playthrough of Oblivion along that general premise. Being defeated and taken as a slave is also fun. However these interactions are, ultimately, random and meaningless. I might be enslaved and swear revenge on my captor but most of the time, he's just a random bandit. I might defeat my enemy and capture them but this is our first encounter, there's no history to make it more interesting than just what it is. With ambition systems and the like however, it could be possible to have rivalries that have meaning to them. You could be enslaved by someone you can't just kill when you get out, who you have to work for your revenge on. Enslaving rival leaders would be equally exciting, because you've known them for some time before finally winning out over them.

Thinking about it, what I'm describing is a lot like the Nemesis system. That was a cool thing, I've heard lots of nice stuff about it. Personally I couldn't really enjoy Shadow of Mordor however, so I can't say for sure if it was actually as good as people say. Either way, I realize what I'm talking about is a pretty massive stretch, so I don't actually expect to ever see it happen.

Hope you all enjoyed the ramblings, if there's something that does what I'm dreaming of please do let me know, it'd be lovely to find out about.

Pudding Earl