The Thrival Sandbox or How I Learned to Love the Grind

Tags

elite dangerous, MMO, mmos, multiplayer, multiplayer gaming, no man's sky, sandbox, sandbox mmo, survival, survival sandbox, survival sandbox mmo

I’ve made no attempts to hide my distaste for survival sandbox MMOs and games. They’re one of the laziest forms of game design and I still hold to that opinion for the most part. That said, I have slowly begun to find a few exceptions to the rule that have endeared me to at least a couple of aspects to the sub-genre and, perhaps in some small way, helped me to build a bit of empathy and appreciation for those who love these kinds of games.

Stop Survival, Start Life

Tags

design, game design, games, MMO, mmorpg, open world, sandbox, sandbox mmo, sandbox mmorpg, survivail, survival sandbox, survival sandbox mmo, survival sandbox mmorpg, world, world building

The MMO genre is in a pretty fascinating place right now, and that’s an opinion I still maintain to this day regardless of what I write beyond this lead-up. That said, I’m beginning to see something of a bothersome trend in the form of the survival sandbox MMO, and I’m not really a big fan.

Allow me to elaborate on why survival sandboxes aren’t just boring and lazy, but they’re missing the point of the MMO genre and further making things more disjointed.

“No sir, I don’t like it.”