We’re about 3 weeks in to Alpha Season 3, and this time around, The Sandbox ‘s open world has brought more experiences, more features, and more events than ever before. So what are some of the experiences that really stand out? And how is The Sandbox trying to capitalize on the partnerships they’ve managed to garner thus far? Let’s take a peek at what’s been going on!
Building Connections Through Experiences
One of the things that sets this season apart from ones that have taken place in the past is the fact that anyone can join in on the fun. That’s right, you don’t need to hold a special NFT or buy land to be able to participate in the vast majority of experiences and events that have been going on in The Sandbox this season. Another aspect that makes this season unique is the heightened level of participation of various traditional Web2 brands and artists.
One such artist, Sueco , launched his own experience shortly after the season opened. What attracted him to The Sandbox was that he could use this opportunity to build real connections with his fans in a way that you simply wouldn’t be able to with traditional social platforms like Twitter and Discord.
I got really interested in building more of a community online in ways you can’t do in traditional social media. Originally, we wanted to build a virtual concert space and have a place to throw virtual concerts for my fanbase and artists that I am friends with. - Sueco
The experience itself, dubbed Sueco: Split Personalities, is more than a virtual concert though. In addition to the social hub, the team behind the experience also put together quests and mini-games that feed into a larger story.
Depending on the success of these experiences, we may see more brands opt in to create something similar in the future. So far this season we’ve already seen experiences from Warner Music , A7X , Steve Aoki , The Walking Dead , and Ubisoft through their collaboration with Rabbids .
Looking at What Could Be…
Suffice to say, there’s a lot of content packed into the latest season of The Sandbox. However, a lot of the content is comprised of shorter experiences created alongside The Sandbox team.
The content from the Rabbids experience, for example, has you embarking upon and completing a few quests. You search the map looking for a secret code, you fetch certain items from around the map, and you participate in races. Are these experiences something that will grip you like popular mini-games from titles such as Fall Guys or Mario Party ? No, far from it. A lot of the gameplay itself still has a long way to go…
However, looking at what The Sandbox could be as it continues to evolve definitely shows some promise. The care for the creative elements of some of these experiences is more than apparent. Backgrounds, props, and the scenery in general is fun to look at and explore. But despite all of this added detail and care, it still feels like something’s missing, and in all likelihood, it’s the limited depth of gameplay.
So What’s Up Next?
For those of you that have yet to experience The Sandbox’s Alpha Season 3, I encourage you to at least download it and play around in the different worlds/experiences. As far as metaverse games go, The Sandbox is one of the only projects out there that has a working concept that showcases the potential of the genre. They have also been able to successfully integrate NFTs from over a dozen different projects into their platform, so this has enhanced the overall gameplay experience (for some at least).
In the coming weeks there will be more experiences that unlock special quests such as The Walking Dead’s Alexandria experience that starts on September 14th. It’s awesome to see how The Sandbox comes back after each season with new ideas and mechanics on how they hope to win over players. This constant will to improve and bring in new elements to their platform is one of the many reasons why they stand head and shoulders over just about every other project out there. So here’s to The Sandbox! Onwards and upwards!
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