The author wishes there was more of a storyline to the game. Which is absolutely fine as it’s their preference.
But it made me think of how Minecraft has almost no story (well, something was added later but it’s optional to follow it) and perhaps that contributed to its major success.
Decent sandbox games don’t need stories if the mechanics are satisfying enough and games like Sawyer’s Tycoons and Minecraft are evidence of that.
Sometimes it’s nice to just unwind by playing a game with little to no pressure. You pick it up and drop it at your leisure. The only downside is they can turn into huge time sinks as they don’t have a clear “The End” to them.
Yeah, the author wants a story saying there wasn't enough continuity between scenarios or motivation to continue, but that was a non-issue for me personally. It's been many, many years, but my memory is that while RCT didn't have a completely open sandbox like TT to boot, each scenario was effectively its own sandbox with restrictions that made them interesting. New rides became available you progressed, and each park enabled creativity in different ways. When you finished all of the scenarios, I believe there was a completely open sandbox that became available, and that was like a nice reward. There really was no need for a story, and I think that would have detracted.
> It's been many, many years, but my memory is that while RCT didn't have a completely open sandbox like TT to boot, each scenario was effectively its own sandbox with restrictions that made them interesting
Also a very long time ago I played it, but I seem to remember that you could continue any scenario for as long time as you wanted after completing it, you didn't need to exit the scenario once completed. Maybe I misremember? If not, that'd basically mean every scenario is also a sandbox once the goals were completed.
Minecraft doesn't have (much of) a story, but it does have progression, which is just as important in a sandbox game
Story is one of the easiest ways to add progression, but it's not the only way.
That's not to say story is bad but you can have quite good games without it, and any "long lasting/replayable" game has to have gameplay that stands alone.
People will put up with crappy gameplay for an amazing story, but they're not going to replay it much.
RCT, Railroad Tycoon 2 (which has scripted scenarios and sandbox ), SimCopter and Streets of Sim City were great
RRT2 has it scenarios like Hell or High Water where you have fill in a giant crater with cement by orchestrating trains before ocean levels rise or just sandbox play building railways buying up business and watching connected cities boom. Always loved using cheats to make all competitors trains break down then take over their bankrupt company.
SimCopter and Streets of Sim City had missions/scenarios. Or you could just go fly/drive around any SimCity2000 map.
Remember a SimCopter cheat would essentially nuke the city and set everything in fire.
And Street let you blow up buildings by adding weapons to your car.
Story of my life. Literally.
(wonder how many people, especially engineers share this, uh storyline... Just get up, build things)
I think his critique wasn’t that it didn’t offer a story, but that it didn’t offer a sandbox mode, only a campaign mode… and that the campaign wasn’t really a campaign.
Yes, there is a reason sandboxes are so popular among kids.