I've been trying for the past couple days to find a playable and well functioning sandbox, and i was kinda disappointed. I tried pretty much everyone that comes to mind besides for ryzom which i'll give a go tomorrow i guess, just tired of downloading for now.

Anyway,I'm mainly just looking for a level-up- skills-based mmo as opposed to a levelup-characters based one

On a side note, wurm looked interesting, but everytime i try that it either crashes, the textures go insane and look like a kaleidoscope, or it makes what resembles a infinite loop. I hear its a  decent sandbox if u can actually get past the initial installation, so if anyone could help, would be appreciated.

I am in the same boat with you,

I've done EVE, Darkfall (not a sandbox imho), Wurm, Ryzom, and others i can't name off the top of my head that are tiny little indie put outs.

My short answer for you is, there isn't one. 

This Xysom (or however one spells it) looks like is has some promise, assuming it's even real, you can read the threads about it if you don't know what I mean.

There is another called LOVE that is pretty sandbox that you may want to look in to.

Right now everyone is still catering to the themepark crowd, and who can blame them, it pays.

Perhaps we will see a great sandbox (or even semi sandbox) soon, but I fear it will be unlikely or so indie and unfinished it's basically unplayable (I'm looking at you MO)

Ya I'm hoping xyson turns out to be the great sandbox everyone seems to be looking for, but time will tell if it's even for real lol.

Im gona giggle if blizzards secret mmo turns out to be some sandbox that takes over the market, creates a huge influx of clones and 10 years down the line themeparks and sandbox have switched places. Probably won't happen, but would be funny as hell imo.

Ryzom and Wurm are definitely worth testing out. The aren't many options, unfortunately... EVE is the best there is at the moment, but doesn't appeal to everyone, neither you I suppose. Darkfall has very little sandbox elements.

Future is looking pretty good though. Earthrise is promising. Dawntide will take some time to develop, but it's promising as well. I recall seeing a bunch of positive posts about Linkrealms beta. Craft of Gods is one as well. Xsyon is very suspicious, might very well be Mortal take two... or the best game ever.

Care to share why Ryzom is sandbox and Darkfall is not? I really liked Ryzom but lack of PvP turned me off. Except for crafting and gathering which is best system on market imho, Darkfall is superior to Ryzom.

To OP. If you want some sandbox try Darkfall. For me it's best choice on market and I tried almost all (EVE close second, played it for 2 years).

One side note: Ryzom is far more grindy than Darkfall but I don't see many whine posts about it :)

Originally posted by drago_pl

Care to share why Ryzom is sandbox and Darkfall is not? I really liked Ryzom but lack of PvP turned me off. Except for crafting and gathering which is best system on market imho, Darkfall is superior to Ryzom.

To OP. If you want some sandbox try Darkfall. For me it's best choice on market and I tried almost all (EVE close second, played it for 2 years).

One side note: Ryzom is far more grindy than Darkfall but I don't see many whine posts about it :)

The main problem being DF's 'open skill system'  is that it pretty much makes most every normal sandbox profession worthless as everyone is a jack of all trades or close enough.    This is what ruins the "sandbox" as it segments everyone off into their own little partition instead of having people play together in all aspects of the game.    Jack of all trades could easily be a requirement for everyone with no optional choices and I doubt you would see much of a difference than what it is now except for the few guild-only crafters.    I wont even touch the PVE  * treasure hunts for uncraftable items* and such.        

As I see it everything you do in game comes down to the point where you currently must say,  "Ok  I crafted my gear,  tamed a horse,  grinded my skills up,  now I must use them to PVP!"   There really isnt much other reason to play right now as not much else can be a full experience.

Well, I don't think Ryzom is much of a sandbox either, but at least it has very interesting character specialization process. Darkfal is kind of a sandbox, but it's just so simple, raw game. It has twitch based combat, clan focused sieges and naval warfare. That's what it does well, but rest not really. It's still pretty fresh game, so I don't expect it to be anything more. At the moment it just isn't an actual RPG or sandbox game. I personally won't be back before it gets a level cap or some similar mechanic, as the skilling up is absolutely mindless and pointless as of now. It can be great fun if you like the thrill of FFA PvP, twitch combat and exploring a large world, but anything else...

Eve-- 14 day free trial-- probably the most fully realized sandbox out there currently, but as I understand it the pacing of the game is very slow much of the time.

Darkfall--  $1 for 7 day trial  The political landscape and interguild PVP is the most "sand-boxy" thing about it.  PVP will probably overshadow everything else in the game.  Could be good or bad, depending on what you want

Xsyon-- 6 weeks from release and no in-game footage? sounds fishy to me    I wouldn't call it mortal online take 2 since there doesn't appear to be anything there yet.  Besides Mortal Online take one hasn't happened yet.   Speaking of which...

Mortal online--  In open Beta currently and can play for free.  As I understand it, you just have to click through one part of the application without entering info if you want to download the beta without pre-ordering.  By most accounts, the game is still fairly buggy, but many people feel it has potential and is enjoyable when the bugginess is manageable.

Entropia-- Free to play with micro transactions   know nothing about the game play

Ryzom-- well your experience with it trumps anything I could say about it

Love-- looks cool.   Sort of like second life, but in watercolors, with more elements of a game,  and fewer walking phalluses. Looks very sand-boxy, but if you are looking for anything like a conventional roleplaying experience, this probably isn't it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-MmieTyLQ  The ultimate in ambitious projects by small independent studios