Sandbox game
More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay.
Sandbox games also found ground with the ability to interact socially and share user-generated content across the Internet like Second Life (2003).
"[8] In describing video games, sandbox design is often associated with the open world gameplay mechanic and vice versa, but these are two disparate concepts.
[2] Sandbox design can incorporate several different game mechanics and structures, including open worlds, nonlinear storytelling, emergent behaviors, and automation of believable agents.
[11][12] This freedom is always a question of degree, as a sandbox design "engenders a sense of player control, without actually handing over the reins entirely".
[2] A sandbox sometimes gives the player "transformative" power over the game world, where "the free movement of play alters the more rigid structure in which it takes shape.
"[14] Will Wright describes this generative aspect of sandbox designs, leading to a measurable increase in player possibilities.
[15] John Smedley describes this type of emergent gameplay more succinctly, having seen in EverQuest "how hungry people are for sandboxes -- for building stuff".
[22] Cohesive narratives in sandbox design can be difficult since the player can progress through the game in a non-linear manner.
[2] According to Ernest Adams, "in sandbox storytelling, the idea is to give the player a big open world populated with opportunities for interesting interactions ... in any order".
[24] Sandbox stories can also be told through shorter quests, conversations, collectables, and encounters, all of which reward players for engaging with the world.
[25] This side-content becomes an "extremely common and an excellent format for sandbox gameplay: one central campaign (itself perhaps multi-threaded), plus a large number of side-missions".
[2] In general, sandbox storytelling occurs when the player can move through the story independently of their movement through the game space.
[28] As a best practice "when creating these sandbox worlds, [designers] should divide them up into distinct areas to aid the player's navigation and orientation.
"[30] Overall, a sandbox world should "provide the player with a large open set of spaces in which to play, and give him or her things to do".
"[33] This means that "believable and self-motivated characters have become key to sandbox play, because they produce a rich space for interactivity and greatly help establish the open-world aesthetic.
[46] Minecraft became a massive success, having sold more than 180 million copies by May 2019 and being the best selling personal computer game of all time.
[51][52] Long-time series such as Metal Gear had made the "shift to an open-world sandbox design," where the game dynamically "adds more missions as the story progresses and players complete the available side-ops".
[54] The series became influential, creating a new template of games "that echo the same emphasis on sandbox design, open-ended mission structure, and sneaking".
They observe that "because of its sandbox nature, Mount & Blade's quests are procedurally generated around many set templates," which leads to a game where "the simulation is the story".
[58][59] The release of the 2007 game Crackdown, redefined these gameplay elements by adding the ability to level up and earn new weapons and powers.
"[2] Some sandbox games have gained favorable use in education settings for inspiring studies to use creativity and critical thinking skills.
[65] Part of Microsoft's rationale for acquiring Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, for US$2.5 billion in 2014 was for its potential application in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, according to CEO Satya Nadella on its acquisition in 2014, as the game already helps to pique children's curiosity.
