How do you play your sandbox games?

[J T]

When games like the Grand Theft Auto series or Minecraft give us an open world to play in, none of us experience the game in quite the same way. I'm curious to find out which sandbox games you have played and how you played them. I'm also curious if you think that how you play these games says anything about your personality, or if you play opposite to how you normally are.

When I play Grand Theft Auto, I do all kinds of crazy shit I wouldn't do in real life. For example, I might run over a pedestrian on purpose and then drive around the corner, then walk over and pretend I'm an onlooker, just like the other pedestrians that have stopped to gawk over the dead body.

My favorite things in GTA: San Andreas are the BMX bike and the camera. I often just pedal around San Andreas looking for good photo opportunities of people and sunsets; or scenes of horror after one of my blood bath rage fits. I could care less about the storyline. I'd rather take a picture of a sunset, then jump off a building senseless, and five minutes later I'll kill everyone in a pizza shop except for one person huddled under a table. GTA sometimes makes me worry about myself. I play the game in a lazy fashion and just meander and appreciate the scenery, then I go kill a bunch of people before I return to taking sunset photos.

In Minecraft, I find I'm an explorer and a hermit. My home base represents how I play. It's full of fancy things like a bedroom with a wall of windows that has a waterfall flowing down the face of it, indoor pools, and organized work areas... then there is the basement. Order falls away once you go downstairs. I built my house on a huge underground cave. I prefer to leave it in its natural state, untouched unless I need to craft a stairway to get back out. I spend a lot of time crawling through this dungeon and just placing torches to explore its depths. I mine only to open new caverns and it is huge. I usually go down there without any items other than a pick axe, knowing that I will probably get lost and die. Then I respond and explore further. I also have a chain of living locations that allow me to explore the upper world. I like to just set out and walk in a direction to see everything that is out that way. I die a lot because I'm careless and driven solely by curiosity.

I've tried to play on multiplayer servers, but that's not really my thing. I don't want to feel like I have to create things to impress anyone other than myself. I like the solitude of wandering and building. That's not to say I don't value creative ventures. I am working on a sky castle with a glass bottom floor. I just enjoy doing this for its own sake without attachment to anyone's expectations. It's pure creativity for the joy of being creative. And if I want to walk away from it, I can. I think it's this freedom and lack of responsibility to others that drives my play in Minecraft.

How do you guys play games like these?

[emwearz]

In games like GTA, I find if I don't stick to the main missions, I get overtly bored and will stop playing all together.

[o.pwuaioc]

In games like GTA, I find if I don't stick to the main missions, I get overtly bored and will stop playing all together.

This, and generally most sandbox games in general. It's quite fun to explore, and I'll do it for hours on end, but there's only so many hours in a game before its limitations bore you. It doesn't necessarily have to be missions that keep me going, but definitely something new. Does this boredom ever happen with World of Warcraft?

GTA sometimes makes me worry about myself. I play the game in a lazy fashion and just meander and appreciate the scenery, then I go kill a bunch of people before I return to taking sunset photos.

Between this and Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, we worry about you too.

There's unfortunately not a whole lot of Sandbox games out there. Although sometimes I try to make games that way. For example, in games like Rise of Nations, I tend to take over all of a nation's territory except one city, and move on. I play out imperialist conversations in my head, makes it more fun that way...

[J T]

GTA sometimes makes me worry about myself. I play the game in a lazy fashion and just meander and appreciate the scenery, then I go kill a bunch of people before I return to taking sunset photos.

Between this and Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, we worry about you too.

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[hashiriya1]

In GTAIV I went on apeshit killing sprees or played multiplayer for the longest time. I think about after a year of having the game I decided to actually do the story mode and beat the game.

[o.pwuaioc]

I don't know if GTAIV had it, but it was always fun in GTAIII going into god mode and getting unlimited ammo/full weapons. Reminded me of days when I would set up shop above in the exit in the facility level in GoldenEye and just mow down all the soldiers that would keep on coming.

[Curlypaul]

I've not really played that many Sandbox games, I did finish Bully though. I played a good chunk of the missions to start with, as doing this unlocked more things to do. About halfway through I stop the missions and just spent my time causing mayhem.

I'm playing San Andreas atm, and yeah it worries me the way that I play. I was speaking to my brother the other day and he said that only killed people when he really had to. This kind of made me feel guilty as I generally walk round killing everybody that gets in my way. Interestingly though, I really dont like killing the women - it makes me feel bad

[Lone Wanderer]

Whenever I play GTA or Scarface, I'm a terrible person. I used to be really evil in Fallout but I've been good for a while. I tend to feel a lot more connection to the people so I play more like I would be in real life.

[d123456]

For example, I might run over a pedestrian on purpose and then drive around the corner, then walk over and pretend I'm an onlooker, just like the other pedestrians that have stopped to gawk over the dead body.

Don´t any of the other recognize you? what happens then? Does an ambulance come or do they not because it is such a rough neighbourhood?

Anyway, what I like to do in San Andreas is drive with the view set to birds eye viewpoint. It is very difficult to drive this way and thus alot of fun as well. Are there any masters in driving like this?

Also In San Andreas. I try to find a spot, like on a balkony somewhere and shoot everything that moves/doesn´t move. I like to make as much chaos as possible. Most casualties, bundles of cars stacked on another, police, exlosions, fire and what not.

[irixith]

I will typically ignore the main missions, unless I need to complete certain things to open up the full area. In the GTA games, sometimes I just spend hours driving around in different cars. In Terraria, I've probably already spent about 20 hours or more just mining material. (..and advancing to the endgame slightly, as spawning and killing some of the bosses is the only way to advance towards being able to mine certain types.)

The freedom to play without a time limit and just explore/create/destroy at my leisure is fun.