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
Brighter Shores launches the first phase of its combat rework
I don't think anyone was going to argue that Brighter Shores had the most engaging and thrilling combat system in the MMO space. In...
APB Reloaded is fully online after a month in the void as Little Orbit calls Fallen Earth its ‘next big priority’
After a month offline, APB Reloaded is fully back - and we don't just mean the test server.
At the beginning of February, both Little...
Stars Reach passes $550K on Kickstarter and unlocks a detailed guild alliance system
The Stars Reach Kickstarter continues to climb since its debut last week, as Playable Worlds has now pulled in over $550,000 from players eager...
Massively Overthinking: What should MMO corpse runs look like in 2025?
A couple of years ago - yeah, I save weird things in my "ideas bin" folder - MMO designer Damion Schubert tweeted about a...
PlanetSide 2 patches in a new base and a new related assault game mode
If you've been itching for server merges in PlanetSide 2, well, we still don't know what's happening on that front since Daybreak/Toadman's aka ToadBreak's...
Black Desert adds ship crew management to PC, class updates to console, new Black Shrine difficulty to mobile
This week in Black Desert can be summed up thusly: managing a ship's crew, wondering what things were done to your favorite class, and...
Fractured Online and its dev team have been bought out by a new studio – and it’s not a crypto scheme
Kickstarted MMORPG sandbox Fractured has been teasing something big coming for the last month, punctuated by a promise from Dynamight's Jacopo Gallelli earlier this...
‘I think we’ve cooked’: MMO sandbox BitCraft prepares for a Steam early access beta
Way back in 2021, we started following an up-and-coming MMORPG sandbox sim called BitCraft that - despite its perhaps inauspicious name - was not...
Star Citizen outlines progress on base building, crafting, and mission updates in February report
Like clockwork, Star Citizen has pulled together another monthly progress report to recount development steps made for the previous month, and so that means...
‘Infinite’ sandbox MMO DreamWorld unveils a gameplay trailer and runs an open playtest until March 16
Four years ago we first started covering Kickstarted game DreamWorld, a so-called "infinite sandbox MMO" that made some sky-high promises and hung its hat...
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen introduces the Druid class and applies several fixes and adjustments
It's time to get all nature wizard up in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen as the sandbox MMORPG has officially released the Druid class...
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming rides shotgun for more Elite Dangerous space combat
MOP's MJ and Chris are riding shotgun in the cockpit of a big internet spaceship once more for tonight's Backseat Streaming. That's right, it's...
MMOs You’ve Never Heard Of: QANGA, Urban Dead, Voxile, and Cyborg Immortal
Welcome back to another roundup of MMOs and MMO-adjacent multiplayer games you've never heard of!
QANGA
QANGA is a new-to-us multiplayer sci-fi survivalbox from iolaCorp Studio...
Black Desert is promoting a Korea tourism package inspired by Land of the Morning Light
Black Desert's Land of the Morning Light and Land of the Morning Light: Seoul expansions have been a beacon of historical transmedia synergy over...
Pax Dei adds more features to its Discord chat system, including voice chat and chat bubbles
Pax Dei's switchover to a Discord chat client last November is about to get a substantial upgrade with the game's next patch.
The studio announced...
Brighter Shores says combat updates are on schedule as testing continues
The tuning of combat in Brighter Shores that Fen Research has been talking about for a couple of months is now updating behind the...
Star Citizen details updates to character item recovery arriving in alpha 4.1 and beyond
The penalty for character death in Star Citizen is going to get a fresh new wrinkle, as CIG has begun to test item recovery...
Elite Dangerous pauses new colony establishment to address an unspecified ‘important issue’
The first week of system colonization's open beta in Elite: Dangerous has passed, and it's been an extremely active week, with over 8,000 systems...
The Daily Grind: Why are people reacting so strongly to Stars Reach?
Ever since Playable Worlds fully unveiled Stars Reach, we've seen a huge wave of conversation and interest rise around this sci-fi sandbox MMO. This...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 508: Stars Reach fires up crowdfunding
Justin and Bree discuss Stars Reach's Kickstarter, LOTRO's U43 and server transfers, Jake Song departing ArcheAge Chronicles, Dauntless' sunset, and Monster Hunter Wilds' debut, with adventures in LOTRO, WoW Undermined, and SWG Legends, plus a mailbag topic on the Elder Scrolls Online difficulty situation.
