Sandbox vs Theme Park style MMOs

Crazy00Eyes

I see these terms used a lot when refering to gaming and I don't think I understand quite what they mean.

 

Can someone explain?

Murdus

One of the million thousand billion ways to interpret these two words are:

Themepark MMOs are linear. Meaning you are often progressing on one track. The "track" is the mechanics behind the game. Ex: WoW, LOTRO, DDO, games like that.

Sandbox MMOs have not as much rules and allow you to do what you want (not really?) but moreso than a game like WoW. You will get a feeling of freedom in a sandbox game that you won't usually experience while playing a themepark game (I can't prove that at all). Exampes are Darkfall, Mortal Online, and EVE Online.

You must remember: I could make a post saying that there is not one true sandbox game, I could make post arguing how themepark games are the same as sandbox games.

Basically there isn't one correct way to interpret the actual words, so it is much easier to just not ever use them, and just describe the game thoroughly with a lot of words that seemingly not only one [word] can handle.

Hipster

Sandbox= No quests, open world, construction/building heavy, player tools, usually no levels and skill-based. Content is player driven.

Themepark=Quests, instance and raid zones, players guided from one area to another dependant upon level. Content is server driven.

Castillle

Sandbox = {Fallout, Oblivion} = Open Ended

Themepark = {Final Fantasy 13, "Tales Of" Series} = On Rails

 

Edit :

The best way to differentiate between them is askign the question "How open is this game to let me do what I want?"  Can you be a fisher in WoW? Yes(+2 sandbox points).

 Does the game encourage you to do so? Not that much(-1 sandbox point). 

Does the game encourage you to participate in doing specific things and pretty much ignoring other aspect? if yes (+ thempark points)

Can you go around focusing on one aspect of the game you like and will the game allow you to do so without the game mechanics pulling you to do something else instead?  Thats what makes the main difference IMO

Rohn

These games have varying systems that attempt to give players a particular type of experience.  There is often overlap, so it's hard to define exactly.  I've always looked at it by the experience they are trying to give:

Themepark players want to read a great story.  Sandbox players want to write one.

Ragnaven

Mostly people use themepark to describe any mmo where you level via exp, gain set skills for your class when you level, and cannot add content ie houses and the like to the world. Sandbox is used to describe skill based, levelless, worlds where your character goes off it's skill, usually has no class of any type, and you build stuff within the world.  Then there is hybrid which uses a combination of any of the above from both to make a world that has elements of both styles.

Disdena

A lot of people choose to unnecessarily weigh down both of these terms with a lot of baggage, such as whether or not heavy crafting is involved, or player housing, or instances.

To put it quite simply, themepark games are those in which each goal and the most optimal path to achieving that goal are clearly laid out. Sandbox games are those in which neither the goals nor the most optimal paths are made apparent.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by Disdena

A lot of people choose to unnecessarily weigh down both of these terms with a lot of baggage, such as whether or not heavy crafting is involved, or player housing, or instances.

To put it quite simply, themepark games are those in which each goal and the most optimal path to achieving that goal are clearly laid out. Sandbox games are those in which neither the goals nor the most optimal paths are made apparent.

One of the most gracefully simple and concise definitions I have seen so far.

 

@OP, it's hard to nail down a definition of those two words. Actually, the decade and a half history of MMOs is riddled with broken and nebulous terminology. This is very probably because the people in a position to tell the audience something they possibly don't want to hear are the same people that rely on the audience for their paycheck. As such, we have ganking, PKs, griefing, zoning, instancing, phasing, RPG, sandbox, hardcore, themepark and several other terms that form the core of our most heated discussions with little or no common ground as to what each one means.