Is war the sandbox endgame?

Has anyone figured out the Dwarven Armor thing yet? 

I like to try most parts of this game. War happens to be one of the few parts I am not interested in although I do enjoy tournaments and hunting and expect these to get more interesting once faction diplomacy starts and animals become more agressive. I understand that people ONLY hunting npcs might get bored... but if you do some of a lot of different things than you won't get bored of any one thing so quickly.

As I saw it when I started playing 2 years ago, there are 8 types of player ranks and 3 or 4 alliance ranks. Of these 11 of 12 'goals', 2 are about fighting and you don't have to do actual war to get them. There are also a lot of other things that don't have offical ranks but you can work on (gold, mysteries, rare object collection, etc.) And the game is flexible enough you can do all sorts of fun activities with alliances.

As for people quitting out of boredom.. war does not seem to be a solution to this... Although I have never played any, people often talk about other similiar games with too much fighting and how they quit those games out of boredom and joined this one.   And I have certainly seen quite a few people quit this game because of war.

One solution for boredom is for the devs to keep putting out new things. The devs have always told us about future plans and it is clear this game can get better and better over time if these plans come to fruition. There is not necessarily enough to do in the game to keep one particular person entertained for years and years. at this point. But if things keep being added, there will be. It just depends on the person whether they get bored faster or slower than the devs work. As this is a very slow-paced game, it is understandable that some people get bored and quit eventually but that is not bad if they had a few months or a year or two of enjoyment. A particular hobby does not have to last a lifetime, it is just supposed to be fun while you do it.


As for people who like war, I think there is room for it. I agree with what some other people said that diplomacy is a major part of this game. As in the real world, people always train their troops, keep war supplies.. and in the meantime use diplomacy to avoid wars or to keep wars short or small. Since this is a game and real people are not killed, two alliances can even war for fun which takes a different type of diplomacy to make sure it stays fun for both sides.

Obviously there has to be some policing of bad behavior in this game and those turn to wars sometimes.

But, apart from that, Smaller wars where both sides are enjoying themselves seem like a good goal. I think if small wars turn into huge world wars that involve a lot of players who don't want to be involved, then things have broken down-- people are not being creative enough. If you want total war, there are other games where that is the point.


I am not actually talking about the current war which I know nothing about really. I am not involved and the fact that I am able to not be involved tells me that this game hasn't broken down into a war game. It is still a flexible sandbox where war is one aspect amongst many.

If war really turns out to be the sandbox endgame for this game as a whole, I think the game will fail. people will become bored, the game will lose many of its best features. I just hope that doesn't happen. I have some faith, there are a lot of really nice and reasonably mature people in this game and players make the game as much as the devs do. Although the devs need to keep putting out fun things too.



Edited by Alcie - 11 Nov 2013 at 21:16

Lwyllyn wrote: The other thing is: back off the DEVS' case, man! I have yet to see a browser game that could hold a candle to this one. Illyriad is a very deep, very detailed game with many facets.

I agree that in all the forumns lately people have been DEV-complaining too much. That was not my intention in my post above, I was just trying to say that as long as the new features do keep coming (slowly but surely) , it will be a game that can contnue to improve and continue to be very fun even for long-term players. It is a strange aspect of games like this... you would never demand that Monopoly have new features constantly added... on the other hand if you play Monoopoly every day for 2 years you might go insane xD

I think this game is great and there have been many improvements since I started playing and I expect there to be many more great improvements over the next couple years (maybe not quickly, but nothing in this game is quick). Advertising broken lands for 2013 back in January and still not having it in November was perhaps a bad marketing decision which is, I think, leading to some of the current waitng-frustration which is, I am guessing, one of the (possibly many) causes for the war as well as an increase in general complaining.

Ironically people are less impatient about the things that have been advertised for years and are still not out xD Somehow giving us a vague timeline for broken lands has made it harder to wait for many people.

But, weird marketing psychology issues aside, the devs are working hard and have made this a fun and complex game that really does have room for many non-war related activities.

Sometimes we just have to take a step back. If you like this game as is, that's great. If you have suggestions, there is a suggestion forumn. If you truly don't like the game, don't play. If you liked the game for awhile but got bored, stop playing if you wish but don't blame the game--unless you were for some reason playing a game you hate for long periods of time, you got enjoyment out of illy for some weeks or months or years.

Sorry if that was off topic for this thread, but the 'sandbox endgame' question really leads to 'why should there be an endgame?' If it goes more war-like for awhile, it can become less later. And as good of a game as I think it is, I doubt it will exist 40 years from now nor will most players play any game for more than a few years. The real question is what you can do to enjoy it now and also to play in such a way as to help make it the type of game you and everyone else can continue to enjoy into the near future.   I really do think the types of maturity, helping hands, and player-imposed-guidelines-for-fairness that are in illy are a big part of what makes illyriad unique and a nice place to play. It is a benefit of the flexible 'sandbox-like' way illy is made that players have this power. I hope people continue to see this and use it to their own and the game's advantage, not allowing temporary diagreements to cause trouble to the game as a whole.



Edited by Alcie - 11 Nov 2013 at 23:13

Q.Is war the sandbox endgame?

A.No.

the much-vaunted "many paths" in illyriad all end in the maintenance and procurement of armies.  why trade?  to accumulate gold to support and equip larger armies.  why craft?  to create better equipment for armies.  why quest?  to get...erm...a couple of discoveries and increase your overall ranking...but i digress.  in the early and mid-game, there are many paths, but in the endgame they all converge to military.  i couldn't say how much disillusionment this progression causes in players who don't especially want to engage in pvp, but i suspect it's significant.

to their credit, the devs have promised a compelling questline and better faction ai in concert with the Broken Lands release.  i look forward to seeing what they've done, because factions could be much more than pve opponents to fight.  they could be sources of mercenaries, gateways to new lucrative off-map markets, opportunities for diplomatic ties, and motivations for questing that affects something more than small amounts of inventory.