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
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.0 inches closer to testers, CIG touts its mission system
In this week's episode of Star Citizen's Around the Verse, Cloud Imperium says it's reduced its must-fix issues by 50 over the last week,...
Elite: Dangerous brings the Thargoids with patch 2.4 on September 26
There are dangerous things in deep space when you play Elite: Dangerous. More dangerous than system failures, or pirates, or interstellar phenomena. The Thargoids...
Wild West Online’s first closed alpha has officially begun
"Open-world action-based, online multiplayer" game - somewhere between a survival sandbox and an MMO - Wild West Online officially hits closed alpha today, or...
Star Citizen denies claims that a backer sought and received a $45000 refund
If you're as "fed up" with waiting for Star Citizen as Chris Roberts is "fed up" with providing endless moving release dates for alpha...
Wild West Online’s alpha begins this weekend, keys begin rollout today
Wild West Online is gearing up for its first alpha test this weekend, which means alpha invites will begin going out soon. How soon?...
Choose My Adventure: Shroud of the Avatar in summation
All the time through playing Shroud of the Avatar, I found myself wanting to like the game a lot more than I did. And...
ArcheAge celebrates its third anniversary with giant corgis
It's hard to believe that ArcheAge has been with us for three years now, but that's what the game is celebrating with its new...
Project Gorgon is ‘gearing up’ for a Steam launch, adds item context menus
When the history books go to record the development of Project Gorgon, they're going to have to use terms like "ages" and "epochs" to...
Storybricks CEO shares early EverQuest Next proposal documents
It has been a while since the dust settled on late, lamentable EverQuest Next, and even longer since the sandbox MMORPG acquired and then...
PAX West 2017: ArcheAge’s Corgi Conundrum, anniversary update, and the 4.0 expansion
Nothing may quite compare to last week's big server evolution in scope of change for ArcheAge, but there are more changes coming over the next...
Perfect Ten: The 10 tiers of MMORPG lore
In which we discuss varying levels of MMO lore effort and Eliot admits he doesn't remember the names of Pac-Man's ghosties.
Funcom promises better communication for Conan Exiles
Get ready for a flood of information from Conan Exiles. Funcom admitted that it had been dropping the ball on talking with fans about...
EVE Online political betrayal results in record-breaking theft
The EVE Online twitterverse exploded late last night with the news of a political twist so enormous that it's become the largest recorded theft...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 135: PAX in the P.M.
Justin, Bree, and MJ discuss PAX West, Secret World Legends, Guild Wars 2, LOTRO, EverQuest II, Destiny 2, WoW, ArcheAge, and WildStar, plus a mailbag question on Destiny and raiding.
Notorious EVE Online player banned for threatening to cut off someone’s hands in real life
Yes, you've read that headline correctly. It's been an insane day for EVE Online, as players awoke to the news that powerful military alliance...
Pearl Abyss is building four more MMOs as Black Desert swells to 7.65M registered users
We've been tracking Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss' path to IPO since last spring, when multiple Korean outlets began reporting that the company sought...
Valiance Online puts out a call for hurricane heroes for charity event
When real-life tragedy occurs, it's perfectly OK to give priority to assistance over interest in video games. But what if you could do both?
Valiance...
EVE Online: Lifeblood will kick ship balancing into high gear
One of the things that players will notice when EVE Online: Lifeblood arrives this October is a whole slew of balance changes for frigates,...
The Stream Team: A look at life after the big ArcheAge server merges + giveaway
It finally happened: Massively OP's MJ was uprooted from her ArcheAge server of over three years and tossed onto a new world with a...
