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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 5121818" data-attributes="member: 2205">As a guy who's been participating in online discussions about roleplaying games for close to 15 years now, it's come to my attention that at various times fads have come and gone; certain playstyles come into vogue and then fall back out again, etc.&nbsp; One that I find very curious, and which seems to be one I sure hear an awful lot about lately is the concept of the sandbox.As many could rightly point out, the basic idea of the sandbox is an old one, and arguably, in many respects, the first format and playstyle associated with the genre.&nbsp; For many years, however, it's been &quot;conventional wisdom&quot; that some element of &quot;sandbox&quot; is fun, but that a &quot;pure&quot; sandbox is merely an endpoint on a spectrum of playstyles.&nbsp; A theoretical end point that no game could (or should) actually attempt to emulate.Lately, however, I see an awful lot of people toss out &quot;sandbox&quot; as if it were the Holy Grail of gaming.&nbsp; I'm trying to understand where this view came from, why it's become so suddenly very popular and ubiquitous on the internet, and... well, whatever else is going on with the idea of the sandbox.Not necessarily interested in a bunch of anecdotes about how you've always played a sandboxy game, or whatever.&nbsp; I'm sure plenty of you have.&nbsp; I got it.&nbsp; I'm talking big picture general trends as percieved (by me at least) in the online RPG discussion community.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 5121818, member: 2205"] As a guy who's been participating in online discussions about roleplaying games for close to 15 years now, it's come to my attention that at various times fads have come and gone; certain playstyles come into vogue and then fall back out again, etc. One that I find very curious, and which seems to be one I sure hear an awful lot about lately is the concept of the sandbox. As many could rightly point out, the basic idea of the sandbox is an old one, and arguably, in many respects, the first format and playstyle associated with the genre. For many years, however, it's been "conventional wisdom" that some element of "sandbox" is fun, but that a "pure" sandbox is merely an endpoint on a spectrum of playstyles. A [I]theoretical[/I] end point that no game could (or should) actually attempt to emulate. Lately, however, I see an awful lot of people toss out "sandbox" as if it were the Holy Grail of gaming. I'm trying to understand where this view came from, why it's become so suddenly very popular and ubiquitous on the internet, and... well, whatever else is going on with the idea of the sandbox. Not necessarily interested in a bunch of anecdotes about how you've always played a sandboxy game, or whatever. I'm sure plenty of you have. I got it. I'm talking big picture general trends as percieved (by me at least) in the online RPG discussion community. [/QUOTE]

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