Stargrace found herself standing by the Wizard spires with her bags packed full of goods. It had been a long trek, but she had made it. Now, it was just a matter of gaining their attention.
“Tungsten! Gold! Amethyst! Traveling peddler here on Drift, you want it, I’ve probably got it or can tell you where to get it. Step up and find me by the wizard spires! Bargaining is my middle name folks!” She smiled as the locals started to gather.
Meanwhile
Xartan was cackling maniacally. It was done. His creation was completed. Sweat and even a little blood had gone into his latest experiment. The monstrosity rose from the ground, jagged peaks and tall walls combined with confusing tunnels. At the end, a treasure chest filled with goods for the taking – if you could make it that far. He grabbed a piece of parchment paper and quickly started writing out his plans, then summoned a scribe to carry it far and wide. His laughter echoed over the rolling hills. They would come.
In another part of the same continent a new store was opening up. Blesse had cleared a great portion of land into a flat manageable space, and built display stands every few feet. On top of each display was one of her artistic pieces. From one display a hedge stood, carved into a beautiful horse rearing its head. One section of the sales area didn’t hold a display case but instead held a small cottage, draped in moss. Another held a selection of machinery.
“Oh, are you interested in purchasing the legendary pickaxe?” Blesse smiled at her latest customer. Business was good.
The point of this blog post was to show people that Landmark is indeed a sandbox game and that game is going to be limited only by your imagination. None of the scenarios I posted above are things you can’t already do right in this alpha aside from the final one because player studio isn’t in game yet (but we know it’s coming). None of them require any fancy mechanic and things that are not currently in game. Sure they require a stable game, but again that will come. When I talk about enjoying a sandbox game and the potential it’s not potential based on hype or features I think may be added later. It’s potential based on what I see, what I experience and then mold with my imagination. The game will be what you make of it.
I can’t begrudge people the limits of their imagination, but I can lament them. Some folks just really can’t deal with an open ended situation. It overloads them with possibilities, or they need someone else’s star to steer by. For people like that, it’s probably not the creativity that drives them; those are the folks who need to be able to measure themselves against others using a predictable metric (gear score, achievements, levels), or are those who don’t consider themselves to be “creatives”, at least not to the point where they feel comfortable putting their creations on display (again, maybe because they don’t feel that they’ll measure up favorably to the creations of others).
Your format is actually appropriate, as one of the things you’re illustrating is (in a way) roleplaying. Mechanics for the sake of mechanics are only interesting academically, IMO. The act of digging in EQNL is fun for the first few minutes, but if there was no purpose, it would get old quickly. The purpose can be to get materials out of the ground, and that’s practical. That’s where a lot of folks would draw the line if they claim to not understand why people are enjoying EQNL NOW. The reason why WE enjoy digging is because it’s a means to an end; we need the resources because we want to use them for a greater purpose. We want the materials to build and create because we see things that aren’t there, but which we can PUT THERE.
In order to find the enjoyment of EQNL NOW (and in the future) people have to picture things that aren’t there (structures, opportunities, interaction) and be the ones to PUT THEM THERE. Even as it stands now, the game allows us to do this, and I suppose if people can’t see that, they won’t ever see it.