What is a Sandbox?
2015
A Literal Sandbox
I had a sandbox when I was a kid, it was exactly what it sounds like, a box with sand in it. While this doesn’t sound very exciting it did usually have a couple tools in it like a shovel and a bucket and maybe a couple good sticks. where the joy came in was what I brought with me and what I did with the sand.
it was any world I wanted it to be. If I brought a couple matchbox cars I would build winding roads and mountains and tunnels. I could “drive” my cars for hours over a limitless landscape. Or if I brought my starwars action figures I could make an alien planet to explore or create a base to defend or attack and destroy.
It only took some building tools, my imagination and whatever toys I decided to use became my theme. My sandbox was anything and everything.
The Gaming Sandbox
My Definition of a Sandbox = A box filled with sand (the world) and tools to play with the sand (how you interact with the world), what you do with it is up to you. The developer hasn’t given you any objective you set the rules, you create the content, you put in the theme, you create the space.
The closest game I can think of to this would be Minecraft. It has no set theme, you can build whatever you want, you can gather, create and explore. It is really just the build aspect of a sandbox though, the “toys” and “tools” available are a bit limited when it comes to creating actual playable content. To go on and adventure, to defend a base to crawl through a dungeon or an alien infested spacecraft. Yes, you could build these environments but how could you actually “play” in them.
The Sandbox MMO
I can think of two MMO’s currently in development that are actual sandbox mmo’s
My first trove build
The first is Trion’s Trove. it reminds me a lot of Mincraft. The look and size of the voxels give it a similar feel though there are some differences to make it work as an MMO. over all it is a fun game but it still falls short for me on achieving a true sandbox. though I can build the environments and there are procedurally generated dungeons and bosses that add to the play. I cannot control the what, where and how. I cannot create the adventures like I could in my sandbox.
My first Landmark build
The second is SOE’s Landmark. While its similar again to Mincraft on some serious steroids. It s not nearly as far along in its development as Trove but it has far loftier goals. The smaller voxels and smoothing make far nicer and more detailed builds but it is also far more complex and more difficult to learn to build well. There are a lot more sticks and shovels to use.
At this point in development it is also lacking in a lot of basic things like mobs to combat is very basic. and you can now place mobs on your builds. Their previously stated goals go far beyond that though, They say they will be adding more scripting tools for dialog and hopefully at some point they will add some sort of DM tools. If and when they achieve this, It will truly be the closest thing we have seen to a real sandbox
