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
How Star Wars Galaxies pioneered a ‘living society’
Former Star Wars Galaxies Creative Director and current Crowfall consultant Raph Koster returned to his blog last night to pen the fourth in his...
Global Chat: Are WoW Tokens worth it?
The debut of World of Warcraft Tokens into the game's economy has caused quite a stir, particularly after the prices plunged during the first...
CCP would like you to buy some EVE ship SKINS in its cash shop
CCP is ramping up the focus on its cash shop thanks to a new dev blog examining EVE Online's ship SKIN system. Ship skins are...
Landmark shows off its upcoming achievement-based progression
The next big update to Landmark will bring a major update to progression, and that means a major update to how the game's achievements...
Not So Massively: Star Wars Battlefront is revealed; GTA 5 beats Skyrim
It's been a big week for competitive play in MOBAs. League of Legends opened the registration on its European Battlegrounds tournament and lifted the...
Pathfinder adds holdings and outposts
Goblinworks rolled version seven of Pathfinder Online's early enrollment out to backers last week. The update adds holdings and outposts, though CEO Ryan Dancey says that they...
Koster on Star Wars Galaxies’ dynamic world
Raph Koster isn't done talking about Star Wars Galaxies yet, and that's good news for fans, aspiring designers, or really anyone who realizes that...
EVE is adding an assembly effect for anchorable structures
EVE Online is getting a bit prettier with its April 28th patch. CCP's latest dev blog outlines the visual changes coming to anchorable player-owned...
Anarchy Online overhauls its world and professions
Anarchy Online is deploying patch 18.7.0 to the live servers on Tuesday, but if you play the game, you'll probably want to look at...
MMO Week in Review: Star Wars Galaxies’ new narrative [April 19, 2015]
Were you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMOÂ news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered's Week in Review!
Raph...
EVE Evolved: How many subscriptions does EVE have?
Two weeks ago, a mathemagician over at The Nosy Gamer published some interesting calculations showing that EVE Online's subscriptions may have dropped by around...
El Somni Quas developers issue a design manifesto
We introduced El Somni Quas to you last week -- it's an old school sandbox created by an indie team in the Czech Republic. But...
LOTRO Legendarium: Why LOTRO needs a progression server
At some point this year -- Turbine isn't saying when, yet -- Lord of the Rings Online will be making an effort to consolidate...
Worlds Adrift dev blog shows early character designs
Want to get a glimpse behind the curtain of character design and development in the MMO industry? The latest Worlds Adrift dev blog may...
Learn about ship customization and more in today’s ArcheAge livestream
There's lots going on in the world of ArcheAge this week, and most of it is summarized in a Trion website update focused on...
Elite: Dangerous ups the ante for mining
A big Elite: Dangerous update called Powerplay is on the way, and with it will come significant improvements to the space sim's mining game....
How Jedi ruined Star Wars Galaxies
Hope you're not tired of hearing about Star Wars Galaxies because Raph "Holocron" Koster's got SWG on the brain this week, and he's answering...
Massively Overthinking: The pure PvE ‘niche’ of MMORPGs
This week's Massively Overthinking question is posed by Kickstarter donor Winterskorn, who wants to talk about something getting less and less love in MMORPGs lately: PvE.
"There...
Chaos Theory: Six more tips for new Secret World players
You didn't seriously think that six tips could come close to encapsulating the knowledge needed to start in The Secret World, did you? Of...
Trion snaps up Linda ‘Brasse’ Carlson
Nothing tells your player community that the transition to a new corporate structure will be totally fine like firing a pillar of community interaction,...
