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
Black Desert revamps Node Wars and ports the North American servers today
Black Desert's promised Node Wars revamp is upon us this week even as the North American servers are on a journey to a new...
Age of Water receives middling player reviews as it addresses problems with mob spawns, rewards, and more
In an ideal world, an early access game evolves and improves over the course of its time in what is essentially beta testing that...
MMO Business Roundup: Nexon’s Q1 2024, Microsoft’s AI fiddling, XDefiant’s monetization
Welcome back to another quick roundup of some MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! This time around, we've got only one first quarter report to...
RuneScape surveys players on 2025 plans while locking a YouTuber in an OSRS dungeon for 51 days
Just because Jagex put out a roadmap for RuneScape's development through the remainder of 2024 doesn't mean that the studio can't adjust and maneuver...
Nightingale outlines the benefits and limitations of today’s offline mode release
The primarily multiplayer survival sandbox that is Nightingale is now becoming an optional solo act, as today sees the game introduce its single-player offline...
EVE Online blockchain spinoff Project Awakening begins Phase III and ‘hackathon’ testing today
CCP Games is continuing to push forward with Project Awakening, the blockchain side piece/spinoff of EVE Online, as the game is launching into its...
Black Desert Mobile gets the Askeia class today as PC preps for six-hour server move downtime
Black Desert is busy this week, starting with the launch of the Askeia class in the mobile version of the game. Askeia is essentially...
Mortal Online 2 begins public testing of its revamped tutorial experience May 22
Last week, Mortal Online 2 outlined plans for its next content update, which include additional pastoral tasks and changes to its new player experience....
Embers Adrift discusses quest design, player feedback on trade systems
Embers Adrift is talking questing and player trading this week, as the MMORPG's recent developer stream brings in one of its quest makers to...
Victorian survivalbox Nightingale adds its offline mode this week
From our perspective here at MOP, generally we like to see online RPGs evolve toward becoming expansive MMOs over time. However, once promising Victorian...
The Daily Grind: What’s the best desert biome in MMOs?
Until I lived in one for a few years in real life, I was not a big fan of the desert - anywhere. Cue...
The Quinfall’s latest video preview shows off caravan runs, sky rift world events, and PvP arenas
The Quinfall is continuing its rollout of video previews as the sandbox inches toward its June closed beta, and this time around Vawraek Technologies...
Star Citizen’s Invictus Launch Week free-play demo and ship sales event is underway
It's time once again for CIG to set its cash registers ringing, draw in new players, and otherwise give everyone playing Star Citizen a...
V Rising shares some launch week numbers as it continues to attack release bugs
With just over a week in the rear view mirror for the newly launched survival sandbox V Rising, developer Stunlock Studios is in a...
Fallout 76 vs Fallout 4: Which is better to play in 2024?
Growing up as a computer gaming geek, I've been quite the Fallout nerd since 1997 (and, arguably, since Wasteland in 1988). Other than Tactics,...
Star Citizen’s current development roadmap tentatively plots alpha 4.0 for the third quarter of this year
Regular readers and followers of Star Citizen news know that CIG has been promising a "road to 4.0" in recent months -- recall that...
The Daily Grind: What is the ‘gold standard’ example of MMORPGs?
Earlier this year, a poster on the MMORPG subreddit posted a controversial take: While admitting that he hadn't actually played EVE Online in a...
Massively Overthinking: Fixing boring MMORPG dungeons
Earlier this month, MMO genre luminary Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street tweeted something from someone on his Ghost MMO team that's going to resonate with a...
PlanetSide 2’s latest update revamps warzone rotation and the friends list
PlanetSide 2 has been in a state of limbo for the past several months following revelations that Daybreak had sold the IP for cash...
Tower of Fantasy enters a virtual world on May 28
May 28th brings the next big addition to online RPG Tower of Fantasy with the arrival of Version 4.0. This introduces players to a...
