This is one of the topics I've talked about before, but after today's earlier posts I thought it would be appropriate to write about...

One of the big things that bugs me with GTA is the fact that the city itself feels too clean, too model, too dead. I'm not talking about the people or the vehicles, but the urban geography itself. There is no aspect of what makes cities truly alive: construction, deconstruction, businesses moving, opening, closing, renaming, dying, ...

I think a truly great sandbox game needs a good time frame. Most interesting so far for me has been Dead Rising, even if 72 hours is too short for real geography change, but the near-real-time feel is neat. (Speaking of real time games, I've been trying my hand at Shadow of Destiny and The Last Express on GameTap...) City of Heroes has done some interesting geographical shifts over the time frame of "the Issue", even if most of the really interesting have gone unnoticed (buildings under construction, then finished) due to little "ownership" in individual buildings (most of them have little "personality" due to the random placement of missions and ads).

So I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed in the lack of geographical depth in Sam and Max Episode 1 and part of that is that the mystical genre that I keep mentioning as something of my holy grail, whether it is massively multiplayer or single player I've sometimes thought of as the "sandbox adventure". I've been thinking about, refining, and debating ideas in this space since before GTA, even.

The plan would be build a good geography. Taking the time to build a good set, be it city, planet, whatever, provides a deep place to script intricate stories, which you could episodically. Those that are interested in exploration might be able to spend a lot of time in each episode, and those that aren't can follow the main plots. Sure there are a lot of RPGs that somewhat follow that formula, but I've already established that RPG gameplay is boring for me.

Perhaps one of the best ways to describe some of my ideas in this space would be an example. I'll write one up later if there is interest. There's a lot in my head on this and related subjects.