Expanding the sandbox?

From Azeroth and onward the World of Warcraft has expanded and grown. The virtual world (or open world/’sandbox’) has gone from its two initial continents to now include several and with more on the way. It combines an open environment for its players to explore and interact with, but at the same time it also represents the limitations that the game presents us with. Exploring is a natural part of the game, and most players will at some point try to find their way to places that seem to be out of reach or difficult to reach. To some it is a challenge in itself to find ways to discover areas in the game that are difficult to reach, but so far no ‘new dimensions’ have been added to game.

If we look at another MMORPG like Neverwinter we find that they have added tools for the players to ‘add’ content and expand ‘the sandbox’, and then letting other players rate the experience. And one could say that WoW lets its players introduce some such additions through ‘addOns’ that lets the players track game data as well as create and adjust the user interface of the game. With the number of such ‘addOns’ numbering in the 1000s it is clear that this one of the areas where the WoW players are ‘innovating’ their game. Players also interact in other channels (official forums, guild sites and so on), but it is through the ‘addOns’ that they create interfaces for player interactions within the game itself. And when it comes to collaborating this is the only area players are given a limited level of freedom to innovate. And looking at the number of such ‘addOn’ projects and how many of them involve more than one developer it is main area for player innovation.

Now why is this interesting? It shows that players innovate. But it also shows that innovation is exclusive for those willing and able to invest time and effort into developing ‘addOns’. What I would like to see is a lowering of the threshold for having players innovate as part of the game beyond the ‘addOns’. Make it easier to create ideas, come with suggestions, rate suggestions and actually influence how the game evolves from a game experience perspective. It looks as if Blizzard both enjoys a close relationship with its gamers and that they want to be able to communicate with their players, but at the same time they have not developed any integrated services for this type of interaction.

If I return to Neverwinter and their solution for adding content to their game I really enjoy this concept, but alas it also felt like it failed on achieving what it set out to do. The solution felt a bit too simple and the created content all to often felt ‘cut off’ from the game and with little or no direct in-game connection. To a certain extent it felt like this part of the game was ‘under construction’ on a permanent basis and that everything within would have an ‘un-finished’ feel to it. Which felt sad as I really loved the concept and idea of having your players add both content and expand on your game world. So how does one continue to improve on such player generated content? I think that most gamers today that invest time in MMORPGs would love to be involved its development if it was made simple enough and easily accessible, and I hope to see this part of such game improve. Large games will always be a collaborative effort where the players are just as much a part of the creation as the actual producers and developers.