I think the next 'great' sandbox, if there ever is one will get players to care about their worlds as much as their characters.
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So - in my opinion - the next best sandbox game will revolve around players accomplishing 'worldly' goals with and/or against each other and in such a game, a variety of roles would be needed. Ultimately, these games need to be dynamic to some degree in order for the 'end game' to be infinately endless (players may personally stop advancing but community collaboration and adventures wouldn't).
This is something a game like UO can accomplish that others can not, and it's a heritage that, like what AoS did or not, completely altered it's course.
It used to be, magic items were very, very rare. Especially vanquish. Hell, half the time, didn't even know what you got unless you had an ID wand or Item ID. Not like now, where there are TONS of artifacts at your local Luna shop. Why are they just sitting there (Aside from the absurd prices) if they're just as if not more relevant than when we had simple magic items? How long do you think a Exceedingly Accurate Katana of Vanquishing (Silver or not) would have lasted on a vendor? You could have demanded a kings ransom of 250k at the time, and SOMEONE would have got it.
And by the way, odds are good, someone would have LOST it too. Items lose their meaning and their value when they are easily replaced. To this day, I still don't understand the allure of fighting for items that once you get, are almost impossible to lose. What's the feeling of accomplishment? Don't feel like hunting them on your own? Buy them. Everyone sells them. What's so great about it?
UO should have focused more on giving the players more tools to create their own content. To this day, I don't understand why some of these basic ideas aren't implemented.
1) Player-run Cities. Like Trinsic. Players register to be a citizen of a city. Citizens vote on leaders from the controlling guild. Leaders appoint officials, set taxes, declare war on other cities. Factions on crack.
2) Destructible cities. Complements #1. City sieges. Guilds vying for control of a city. Destroying buildings, killing guards, taking time and resources money to recover from and rebuild and execute. Necessitating alliances, social elements.. Imagine the pride of your first city capture, or turning in that batch of ingots or boards that gets your bank rebuilt.
3) Declaring NEW cities. Setting up a Trinsic in Malas. Guild claims an area of land, gets a marker, sets up walls and roads, hires NPC's.. Then apply 1 and 2. Hamlets fighting against city nations. Rebellions. Political intrigue. Treachery.
3) Food! Why don't we have a food system yet? Need to eat every few hours or you get debuffs to combat and trades. You walk slow. Certain foods keep you better fed than others. Have a banquet at your guild house for the best food to keep your character going!
4) Sleep! That'll put a dent in the scripters. Same debuff's as food, only applied if the character hasn't been logged out.
See, these things, they make it more of a WORLD rather than a theme park. THIS is what a sandbox can do. Now balancing these sort of things with a PvP and PvE/RP/Crafter friendly way may sound impossible, but not if you think about it. Make all PvP voluntary.
For example, you chose to be a citizen of Trinsic, which is at war with Brit. Brit invades Trinsic. The attackers can only attack citizens who have chosen to be part of the militia. But if a non-militia citizen helps a solider (Heals, rezzes, etc.), they can be attacked too. Territories determine who's attacking and who's defending. Militia can only attack the militia in cities they are at war with.
Then you give it a flip side. If you're not in the militia, you can't become, say, mayor of the town, or on the high council. You're safe to travel anywhere and not be attacked, unless you do something to provoke it. And the cities you are at war with, well, let's just say the merchants won't be so kind and will attack your purse with a vengeance. So you can partake in anything, but unless you do more than farm monsters, you have less of a say in what goes on in the world around you.
Then you have yet another division, Mercenaries. They can fight anyone in any faction (including their own) who participates in PvP (Soldiers/Militia), and they too can be attacked by the same people (and other Mercenaries). They don't have a city, they just want a fight
Free for all PvP, Factional PvP, PvE, all rolled in to one, with pros and cons.
Things like that. THAT'S where sandboxes like UO should go. Give players not only the option to do what's scripted for them (PvE), but give them chances to actually make the world their own, and create their own conflicts, and just generally be creative. I'm in no way saying it would be EASY, but it's a direction it doesn't even feel like we're aiming for.
No, no... Much better to add a new dungeon with a new uber weapon to drop that people will be farming in a few hours after it's released. Everyone keeps what they have, there's little risk other than inconvenience of insurance money.
Most people aren't people who will risk losing anything, even if it means a greater appreciation for what they have and what they did to earn it.
