The Study Of Sandboxed Video Games

"Sandboxization" is the greatest trend of video games over last four decades,and it is also an inevitable trend for video games to return to its cultural authenticity in the Internet era.This paper is the very first study for this trend under the history of technological culture.The so-called "Sandboxization" refers to endowing each player freedom of expression,which is supported by technology.Since then,players can generate their own personalized game content as possible as they can.And it is casual and free like children playing sands.Although the technical process of "Sandboxization" of video games has been more than twenty years,while the definition of it with "playing sands" for thirteen years in Game industry,the current academic discussion on "Sandboxed Video Games",which is still stuck on single case and various superficial introductions.The theoretical and systematic research is extremely weak and way behind the development of Game industry.Directly,this situation resulted in the stagnation of further research on related games and the obvious tendency of "Technological Egotism".The misjudgment of this trend caused by above tendency would bring unexpectable serious consequence.Not only the dislocation between the development of game products and social needs,but also the blind and disorderly due to the lack of systematic game theory to master technology.Even the whole industry may be led astray in one dimension.Also ultimately,the possible social risks.Based on the history of technological culture of the development of "Sandboxed Video Games",combined with the general laws of game development,this paper starts from key concepts such as "Games","Video Games" and "Sandboxization",and tries to start from game design,carry out multi-dimensional and progressive research on "Sandboxed Video Games" from various perspectives such as narrative mode,interactive ceremony,symbolic expression,and industrial development,and deeply analyze the spirit of "Creation Freedom" contained in "Sandboxed Video Games",as well as the production mechanism of"narrative-interaction-ritual-symbol",thus for the first time raising and trying to answer the extremely important question in what form the "Sandbox Video Game" as a game development trend should be realized.This is also the biggest problem consciousness of this paper,and the retrospective investigation and prospect of it constitute the basic content and main viewpoint of this paper.First,freedom players’ pursuit of game is the fundamental driving force behind the development trend of“Sandboxization"."Sandboxed Video Games" are the product of video games,and its realization must first follow the external clues of the macro development trend of video games,that is,game developers respond to players’ needs through game design under specific technical conditions.In this process,the development of video games has shown that the three elements of the game(carrier,rules,and players)are constantly "reconstructed",which fully reflects its continuous pursuit of the concept of realizing the freedom of the game.With the enhancement of the information processing capability of hardware devices,video games have realized the dismantling and reconstruction of the carrier and the rules on the basis of the separation of software and hardware,so that the game plots no longer need to be organized in a fixed order;Augmented,video game players also don’t need to rely on the aggregation of physical physical locations to play together in reality.In this process,players’ pursuit of game freedom is the main driving force behind its "Sandboxization"trend,and it has gradually become a guiding overall concept.The essence of game design is the process of comprehensively considering design concepts and implementation conditions,and finally forming a product.Second,by retrospecting and examining the three most mainstream "Sandboxed Video Games" at present,we can find that they have all gone astray and missed the "Key Sections" in "Sandboxization".Whether it is "RogueLike","Open World" and "Creating Sandbox",the common problem of these three "Sandboxed Video Games" is that,driven by real business interests,in order to present users with more straightforward "Selling Points",the game forms that should be regarded as "solutions" are constantly being typed,and gradually solidified into three distinct game types with distinctive features.The advancement of technology not only accelerates the solidification of the above three game types through more sophisticated game design,but also magnifies the unrealistic technical expectations of some developers and even the entire industry due to its intuitive characteristics and its tendency to wait for it.It is increasingly falling into the self-reinforcing "Information Cocoon Room".Therefore,only by getting rid of the cage of "Sandboxed Video Game" design from the perspective of existing technicalism,breaking disciplinary barriers in a higher dimension,and going back from the perspective of technological cultural history,can we achieve the "Sandboxization"process of video games.Find the "Key Section" on the right path.Third,this paper anchors the key section of "Sandboxed Video Games" to the PC-side MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game)for the first time.There are four reasons:First,compared with dedicated game hardware platforms,PCs are open in terms of system architecture and hardware composition,and users can upgrade at any time as needed,so video games are subject to the least technical restrictions on the specific implementation.Secondly,MMORPG retains the task system in traditional linear video games through a role-centric approach,and relies on the Internet to realize the sandboxization of players in a multiplayer online mode,so MMORPG also takes into account the fluency of the narrative with the freedom of the game.Third,in the Internet era,video games including "Sandboxed Video Games" not only rely more and more on online platforms such as Steam,Epic and Origin for game distribution,user verification and content updating,but a considerable part of them also the online multiplayer function has been opened or the corresponding online version has been launched,showing obvious network characteristics.At this time,MMORPG was still at a crucial point full of contradictions and meanings.At that time,the concept of"Sandboxization of Video Games" was not mentioned,and there was no such thing as the spirit of“Sandboxization" and its relatedness.The corresponding "Sandbox" design concept,but the "Character-centered" design concept it contains is the source of all "Sandbox"game design concepts.Fourth,in MMORPG,interaction is an important link that constitutes the connection between players and players.It is based on the interactive ritual of player socialization and presents an obvious sandbox style.In this process,players are affected by both numerical-driven personal achievements and plot-driven virtual immersion,the former points to the degree of freedom of the game,the latter points to the narrative of the game.As a result,MMORPG is presented as a combination of gameplay and artistry:the gameplay part means the satisfaction of players’ interest needs,which is the most essential driving force for the realization of video games;the artistic part means the player’s free creation,which is the very essence of "Sandboxed Video Games".In this complex,players can let the game generate new narrative content through ritual interaction,and based on this,start to "break up and reconstruct" the linear narrative of traditional video games.Fourth,players(users)have the power to "break up and rebuild" the game in MMORPG,which constitutes the UGC of "Crowd-created" game content for millions of users,which is the foundation of "Sandboxization" in the future target.A real "sandbox" needs to be created by sands.Likewise,the new "Sandboxed Video Games" is reconstructed by breaking up traditional games.And it also requires raw materials.For video games,the Gameplay is obtained through complex assembly of different modules,while the Artistry is created by the infinite combination of various materials.It means that the above-mentioned "assembly" and "combination" are the basis for the practice of "Sandboxization".Both of them point to the behind basic element of"Sandboxization"-"symbol"."Symbol" is the smallest unit of functional module and artistic material in video games.The game narration generated by players is essentially realized by the assembly and combination of symbols produced in the interaction.Meanwhile,it also proposes a question:Who will implement power to break up and reconstruct the game.The answer under MMORPGs is obvious,the player is the producer of "sandboxed" narrative content,and the above power has been implemented at the same time as the content is produced.Therefore,the "User-generativity" in the design concept of"Sandboxization Video Game" is not only the best combination point of technology and culture in the process of "Video Game Sandboxization",but also the highest indicator of measuring the "Sandboxization" level of a specific video game.In a "Sandboxed Video Game",the boundaries between developers and players is becoming blurred,and the game is carrying the functions which originally belongs to game engine.It is presenting a "Meta Game" content creation platform.And it shows clearly that the future of "Sandboxed Video Games":UGC(User Generated Content).Once UGC "Crowd Creation" model becomes mainstream of game production,it is predicted,the cultural ecology of the global Game industry is going to be changed,also the global layout will be overturned.Considering the starting point of "Sandboxization" for China Game policy,the more sober assessment and more positive choices are necessary.