Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-27007805-20150922010546/@comment-25555436-20150922194124

Phantomlink959 wrote: A sandbox game is defined as: A game where players can roam freely as per their will, or can complete missions/objectives

A sandbox game CAN include creative elements, like Minecraft, but any game whee you can say 'screw missions' and explore however you like is also a sandbox, whether it includes creative or not. Wrong.

What you defined first is an open-world game. Or in the case of many games these days, wide-open world games. That's just a form of how to make the map, not a true genre in itself.

A sandbox game, like I said, is one where you can do or create whatever you want, within the limits. Whether you are given an open world to do that or not is irrelevant.

In a Sandbox game, you normally have no true goals, and can do what you want where you want. Usually these also have no ending to speak of. Spore is an example. It never ends, you just create whatever you want and go expand your empire and screw other empires.

Of course this is an age where people mix genres often. Many non-sandbox games include sandbox elements, like Halo with Forge. It's still an FPS, and you're not given an open-world exactly, but in Forge mode you can still create and do what you want like in a Sandbox.

Skyrim is an example of a sandbox game of the "do what you want" type. You are encouraged to go around and explore things like Indiana Jones, and there's really nothing to do but that. The game's main asset for this is it's wide, open world.

An Open-World game is not necesarily a Sandbox game. Many games are not Sandboxes and have no elements of the sort, yet have open worlds. However, most Sandboxes have open worlds, because the more you have, the more you can do. X is common in Y, but X is not Y per se, and Y doesn't necesarily need to have X to be Y, and in the same way X's presence doesn't make Z a Y.

Basically, most Sandboxes have open worlds, but Open World =/= Sandbox, and a game needs much more than just "free roaming" to be a Sandbox.