Sandboxes are a type of MMO that emphasize player freedom and expression. They frequently include mechanics for building, crafting, trading, character customization and development, roleplaying, destruction, and significant interaction with the world and other players. A sandbox that is dominated by an open-PvP or free-for-all ruleset is sometimes pejoratively called a gankbox. Contrast with the themepark.
sandbox
The MOP Up: WildStar suffers another indignity
Miss WildStar? Well at least there's the soundtrack to listen to on various sites, right? Nope! Apparently NCsoft pulled the acclaimed score from sites...
Global Chat: The big question mark of Anthem
What's the biggest gaming unknown for you going into 2019? For MMO blogger Cary at Virtual Bastion, it's whether or not BioWare is going to...
One Shots: Dream home
Housing wish fulfillment (or lack thereof) was the main theme running through last week's community postings here at One Shots. Where would we like...
Classic MapleStory is bumping its level cap in next week’s Black Mage: New Beginnings update
Over in classic MapleStory, players are anxiously awaiting the launch of Black Mage: New Beginnings next week on the 23rd, which itself will be...
MapleStory 2 posts three-month feedback plan for gemstone, pet, and Meso improvements
January always seems to be a time of regrouping for MMO communities and studios, and Nexon is joining the trend with MapleStory 2. Producer...
Nexon founder’s controlling shares in the company are now officially up for sale
Remember how Nexon's founder and 98.64% share holder Kim Jung-ju made it clear early this month that he was looking into selling his controlling...
Star Citizen: Hoverbikes, female character models, and item insurance
Who do you love now? HOVERBIKES. Yes, one of the key bits from this week's Star Citizen Around the Verse episode focuses on the...
Bethsoft is banning more Fallout 76 exploiters and teasing its free-for-all PvP mode
Even before Fallout 76 launched last year, the game was becoming well known for bugs of the exploitable sort. The most recent to make...
Massively Overthinking: What would you want out of a World of Warcraft 2?
Let's pretend for a moment that the reason Blizzard appears to be dropping the ball with World of Warcraft right now is that it's...
Tamriel Infinium: Examining the features (and hype!) of Elder Scrolls Online’s Season of the Dragon
I have mixed feelings about dragons coming to Elder Scrolls Online. Originally, we knew that we would not see them because they were hibernating...
EverQuesting: Can Daybreak make it through 2019?
Those who've been long-time followers of Massively OP's long-running EverQuesting column might have noticed a distinct lack of new year hopes and predictions articles...
Gamigo is expanding ArcheAge’s team, reducing lockboxes, and evaluating the Gazillion assets
MMOBomb has an interview up with Gamigo's top brass today that has some interesting nuggets for MMO players wondering about the current state of...
ArcheAge rolls out update 5.1 as players call ‘bait-and-switch’ over normalized mounts
As promised, Gamigo pushed out update 5.1 for ArcheAge yesterday, complete with its hero system revamp, tweaks for pirates, the Abyssal Library do-over, and...
Atlas teases dev livestream and the guillotine, announces imminent devkit release
Avast, ahoy, and all that jazz, Atlas players: It's time for another entry of the Captain's Log, in which the folks at Studio Wildcard...
Project Horseshoe’s design papers confirm decades of MMORPG lessons
Not everyone involved in game design is trying to squeeze every last penny out of you. Yes, a lot of them are, but many...
Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures in 2019
Working in this field has given me something of a sense of how a lot of the industry is going to play out. Take...
Black Desert’s battle royale mode, Shadow Arena, hits early access for current players today
Black Desert is formally hopping on the battle royale bandwagon this week with the "early access" release of Shadow Arena today. How does a...
Project Gorgon’s latest update features more robust zombies, skill-training changes
When it comes to cheap labor, you really can't beat zombies in terms of pure value, but sometimes that whole being dead thing makes...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 204: SpatialOS spasms
Justin and Bree discuss the Unity vs. SpatialOS showdown, the Destiny 2 Activision split and investigation, Elite's massive event, big updates for Guild Wars 2, FFXIV, and LOTRO, plus our adventures in ESO, LOTRO, SWG, and DDO, and reader mail on games that don't click with you, the MMOs we'd like to see built, and video game eyeballs.
EVE Online’s first release of the year is really smashing rocks
You move 16 tons (of asteroids), what do you get? Another hour of skill training and a whole lot of destroyed asteroids, plus a...
