Originally Posted by LoathsomePete

I think people are using the terms "sandbox" and "open world" interchangeably when I think there's a fair amount of difference between them. I think of sandbox games as less about story and more about giving the players what they need to create their own fun. So things like Minecraft, every survival game on Steam, and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, where the bulk of the fun comes from what the player does to create their own story.

Open world games have advanced to what sandbox games use to be back in the early '00's when Grand Theft Auto III came out. Where it feels like there's two worlds, the "mission world" and the "non-mission world" and you just hop back between them and the open world feels like connective tissue between the two.