Public Opinion & Sandbox Games

[Fatalmasterpiece]

I hate to argue semantics, but most Korean MMORPGS are not sandbox games and sometimes do have big budgets. It's arguable whether Skyrim is truly a sandbox game or not; personally, I think it's an open-world adventure game with RPG elements. I don't agree with this assessment about the need for a high budget since many actual sandbox games are made by small indie devs. For example, Rimworld and Terraria are sandbox games made by very few devs on a low budget. 7 Days to Die originally had a small budget too. The sandbox games I'm looking for don't need a huge budget, at least at the beginning, unlike AAA 3D realistic FPS or a MMO.

CoC2 is probably a good example of a sandbox RPG, but its setting didn't draw me in, so I don't really know. I may try again later, but I'm not looking for a text-based RPG at the moment.

Again, the whole problem with "sandbox" games on this site is that they're mislabeled so people have no idea about the gameplay. More often than not, it's the exact opposite of sandbox, with a very linear story and no procedural or user generated content. If you're looking for "content" like in plot-driven game, then we're not talking about the same type of "sandbox" where the content is emergent and structured differently.



Yeah, that's the main problem. It's great that you actually named some real sandbox games. Perhaps someone can explain this to me, but it seems like it wouldn't be much harder to create some of the "text-based" open RPGs with basic graphics like in CDDA. I think it stems from the development by template issue where most open-ended RPGs on this site are made in a similar format with the same dev tools like HTML sugarcube and interfaces like that. Like I said earlier, this is both good and bad since it helps minimize technical problems but also leads to many games playing the exact same way even if their setting and stories are very different. Matter of fact, I like some of these games, so I have no issue with developing this way; it's just hard to find gameplay that isn't like this.

I'm pretty sure the type of games I'm looking for are already somewhere on this site, but I keep finding games with very linear paths. I really think it's an issue with the "sandbox" tag rather than development being inherently more difficult or costly. Furthermore, I don't think people dislike sandbox games in general, it's just some players dislike the common development template that gets labeled as "sandbox" on this site.

TLDR most sandbox games aren't properly filled with content and devs introduce grind to fill that empty space. This is especially true of Korean MMO RPGS. Some games avoid this, like Skyrim, but have big development budgets. Games like Corruption of Champions 2 can get really grindy and repetitive because there isn't true narrative to fill all the world they have made.

If you want a good sandbox, you need to spend a lot of time(money) filling it with content. Otherwise they are bad.

 

[dookie85]

Fatalmasterpiece:
why did you quote me if you are just going to copy&paste your post from yesterday and not reply to anything I said when it clearly contradicts your TLDR? I guess you want to troll and claim your points still stand, but being passive-aggressive doesn't make you right. We can disagree without being dicks; it's not that serious.

This actually proves our point that some people here have a definition of "sandbox" that's too broad, which makes it useless.
A tag is pointless when it can also mean the exact opposite.

Again, it has little to do with time or money when most games tagged as "sandbox" here were never designed to be like what I described, no matter how much content is added. We gave at least 7 examples of successful sandbox games, and just about all of them were low-budget projects made by a small indie studio or a single developer.

 

[GreenGobbo]

Love sandboxes.
Can be great in the amount of freedom and player choice they offer.
Unfortunately, it's pretty easy to do sandboxes wrong, and a lot of devs are in love with doing things the wrong way.

Just think of all those games where the dev(s) decide for whatever reason that you need to grind stats just because open world. And then you really have to grind those stats out forever. Like redoing the same interaction 20 or more times before making any progress. And being forced into a similar interaction grind cycle for all your stats.

Or how about those games that force you to do 50 laps around the world map to complete each quest objective? Or how sometimes with those point and click types of sandbox games you can end up stuck with those puzzles that require some stupid ass moon-logic to get through, but the game offers no hint what-so-ever because the weird convoluted solution is somehow supposed to make sense even though the only one who gets it is the dev.

That kinda stuff is just dumb. Breaks the games, kills the fun. And it happens way too often. Even as someone who loves sandboxes and openworld games, I can totally understand why people are so off-put by them.

So yeah, they can be great when the devs behind them remember the point of an open world is to give the player fun and freedom of choice.
Sadly, all too often devs just treat them as an excuse to punish their players with unholy amounts of grind just for the sake of grind.

 

[Junisdottir]

They get tedious and grind-y very easily and it feels like padding for lack of content a lot of the time.

 

[Schlongenberger]

It seems so many people just want sex and no gameplay why not just watch some hentai/porn then?
80% of high rated games are just linear Visual Novels i want more gameplay and even if its a grind i don't care

 

[DontCareWhatYouCallMe]

It seems so many people just want sex and no gameplay why not just watch some hentai/porn then?
80% of high rated games are just linear Visual Novels i want more gameplay and even if its a grind i don't care

But say that gameplay is talking to character X 10 times to unlock a scene, often with repeating dialogue. Even worse if you need to watch the same sex scene 12 times to increase "lust" stat or some shit.

I like gameplay but that's almost nonexistent, 99% of "sandbox" games on here add nothing except repeated dialogue.

 

[freedom.call]

Why does the majority of this community dislike sandbox games? Personally, I wish there were more of them.

I prefer linear stories in these games. I don't like running around clicking until something happens and it's also why I don't like 'you have to play multiple times to see everything'. You don't get to replay life in another way.

Lucky for sandbox fans no one listens to me.

 

[Adabelitoo]

It seems so many people just want sex and no gameplay why not just watch some hentai/porn then?
80% of high rated games are just linear Visual Novels i want more gameplay and even if its a grind i don't care

I want stories, that's why I like visual novels. My favorite is still sandbox but if you put hentai/porn and visual novels as the same thing just for their lack of "gameplay" then you haven't played enough VNs or watched enough hentai/porn to understand the basic difference between them.

 

[khumak]

I like sandbox games if they're done right. To me that means that they do have a storyline, they just give the player a lot more freedom to do their own thing. Basically it's a story that is set up to be nonlinear. The ones that are done poorly tend to have little to no story and can rapidly devolve into either an annoying grind fest, or something like The Sims where it feels like you're just kind of fucking around without any goal.

The big advantage that I think a well done sandbox game has over a linear VN is that you can set it up so that people can try out different ideas in game, fail some of the time, succeed other times, make mistakes, etc and still recover from it and reach a satisfying conclusion without cheats or a walkthrough. IMO, if you have to open a walkthrough to get the best scenes in a game, it's a failure.

 

[Meaning Less]

Different games for different people:
1-People that want kinetic novels only care about the story/porn and will complain about any gameplay mechanic.
2-Visual novel enthusiasts look for choices but only in a limited basis, as long as choices are straightforward or puzzles can be skipped they get behind it, many games in this category will sometimes add navigation mechanics but they are there just for flair and I would hardly call them sandbox in the first place if you don't have any freedom to do quests in the order you want.
3-People that look for sandbox/puzzle/management are looking for more complex games in general, they want not only to fap but also to play something. Searching around the map to find and solve quests is part of the experience just like solving puzzles or managing your resources. My bet is that most people here are gamers in general so they look for games and not novels.

There are more nuances in between but those are probably the three main profiles of people you will be seeing, and yes of course you can enjoy more than one or even all of them but usually people that hate sandbox fit on either 1 or 2.

 

[Donjoe81]

The sandbox elements can break the flow of the game and some games have implemented it so badly where you have to hunt pixels or have to read a walkthrough to continue the game.
The issue is not necessarily that people just want to click through a story, but that many sandbox games are just not well done and can kill the gaming experience.

 

[ImariKurumi]

Sandbox is a pointless mechanic in a VN. It just provides an illusion of choice and fake immersion for the player.
If devs can provide a sandbox experience comparable to RPG games(a huge gap, mind you) then yes, it is a game changer. But if not, it has little value add. Understandably so this is impossible due to budget, resources, target audience etc. I rather devs invest the time and effort into enriching the storyline and characters.

I still do play solid VNs that have sandbox but holy hell, its such a chore.

 

[Deleted member 5744918]

I admit I'm not a fan of sandbox games or even free roam events in general.

Rather I would have a VN with a good story that doesn't take you out of it to roam around looking for events or triggers for things. The only one I do play is Bright Past and the grind in it drives me crazy. It's hard to enjoy something when you have to keep checking your various stats and figure how to keep them positive. Ugh.