VN Could someone explain the hate for sandbox games?

[Arclightning]

The simple reality of sandbox games, both in the realm of sfw and nsfw is that it's just a catch-all term for games where the developer didn't bother to add in progression/story content. The only fun you get to have in a sandbox is the fun you created, the sand provides no input.
Can be done better than usual, but usually it's very mediocre.
So for every Minecraft there's 20 asset flip sandboxes that just throw you into a basic, often poorly designed game world and tells you to go have fun.
So, if you do the open world sandbox well, you get something great, but it requires a LOT of actual thought process, and a ton of content, otherwise it gets repetitive very quickly. NPC's are just a reskin of one or two archetypes and every interaction is the same with them, so once you've seen one, it becomes boring.
Think Lab Rats2 with the procedurally generated npcs that even with their preferences set in various ways will react almost entirely the same to your actions, respond with the same phrases and act the same.
Similar with Strive for Power and others. To do the sandbox well, the game needs to have a very expansive set of mechanics, allowing the player to interact in various ways. Very few games have the development time and resources to do that.

 

[LewdLogic]

If they are well made with branching storylines and well written characters and plenty of activity opportunities in every part of the day in different settings they are the best kind of ero games imo, in terms of engagement. But it can be a lot of grinding for little to zero content in so many of those kinda games that made people cautious about those games.

 

[DoubleDabbler]

It sounds like you mistook it as 'running games IN a sandbox', which is kind of adorable.

But yeah, sandbox games catch it because they're usually poorly structured. It's not a bad thing to have less of a point-A-to-point-B narrative or the ability to pick and choose what you want to pursue, but they're usually presented with a bunch of time-wasting grinds to get to the next thing rather than having a whole bunch of worthwhile things to do as a reward for exploration and experimentation.

Yeah I did exactly that, silly me.

Still a lot of people answering are talking about something that sounds like what I would call "open world" like skyrim. I haven't seen anything close to that for ero. Just maps taking you to locations where interactions happen.

I think the answer is mostly for things that seem to be associated with sandbox rather than sandbox itself.

 

[Jaike]

I've only been at these game a little while. I search for sandbox specifically and run across 1/3 of these games that are indeed grind but for me the give away tag that it might be violently frustrating is "management." Also if the description is "you are blank in charge of blank."

You overlooked another key sign... is there a Russian language option? /s

Still there's this to consider:

Grind is a problem and cheats solve this? Oh, my friend, you are overlooking...

The Russian Grind
When you have to repeat an activity an absurd number of times to progress and even the cheats don't help and your resolve is worn down worse than the Wehrmacht during the Russian Winter.
View attachment 37382

"Life is suffering" is a Russian proverb. Thus, to make your porn true to life, you must be suffering in porn as well. A grind so terrible not even cheats can make it tolerable, when you spend entire weekends just to get a handjob from one character after you've installed cheats.

Consider a character that you can only talk to once a week, when the stars align, at Saturday, 6AM in the morning in an obscure corner of the park. Your character normally awakens at 7AM, so to be anywhere at 6AM you need to spend the night in the park. You have to miss out on the Party on Friday night, which is a much more preferable location overall. To interact with the character, you have to bring her fairy dust, which you can't stockpile because you can only carry one at a time, and you can only get it during the day time. But there is only a 50% chance the character will be there at all, and only a 50% chance the character will accept your gift of fairy dust based on your maxed out speech skill, and if the character accepts the gift, there is only a 50% chance it will actually advance the counter based on pure luck. This makes it a 1/8 chance to increase the counter at all - PER WEEK. To what level do you need to advance the counter to get a sexual interaction? Just about 10. That sounds like a reasonably low number, right? Except because of the 1/8 chance it works out to 80 weeks where you attempt this, missing out on all the important friday night activities for over a year of in game play time. Truly a grind from hell.

And what does the cheat do? It gives you unlimited money. Which doesn't help you in this situation at all. The cheat also fills up your fairy dust, and lets you max your speech skill. So now you only need to do it for 80 continuous weeks. THAT is a russian grind.

Your reward? Your new friend gives you a handjob and the unfinished storyline ends there.

And if your game is very extra Russian, it will contain "anti cheat measures" that locks up the progression if it detects tampering of any kind, and will probably do so silently and unbeknownst to you.

Examples of a Russian Grind:
Big Brother
Second Happiness
Girl Life

Anyway that kind of heavy grind is usually used by a few of the devs who don't live in 1st world countries and try to raise play time for little content per update.

The simple reality of sandbox games, both in the realm of sfw and nsfw is that it's just a catch-all term for games where the developer didn't bother to add in progression/story content. The only fun you get to have in a sandbox is the fun you created, the sand provides no input.
Can be done better than usual, but usually it's very mediocre.
So for every Minecraft there's 20 asset flip sandboxes that just throw you into a basic, often poorly designed game world and tells you to go have fun.
So, if you do the open world sandbox well, you get something great, but it requires a LOT of actual thought process, and a ton of content, otherwise it gets repetitive very quickly. NPC's are just a reskin of one or two archetypes and every interaction is the same with them, so once you've seen one, it becomes boring.
Think Lab Rats2 with the procedurally generated npcs that even with their preferences set in various ways will react almost entirely the same to your actions, respond with the same phrases and act the same.
Similar with Strive for Power and others. To do the sandbox well, the game needs to have a very expansive set of mechanics, allowing the player to interact in various ways. Very few games have the development time and resources to do that.

On this site sandbox is used for a style of progression, not for a lack of story content. Love of Magic is an example of a very story-heavy and plot-driven sandbox.