Why i like sandboxes

I think one of the biggest downfalls of a themepark, beyond the quest hubs and on rails gameplay is the lack of the melding of pve and pvp.  In a sandbox my pve efforts fuel my pvp efforts, which fuels the meta game involving faction free guild activites. Its this cycle that keeps me going. 

See a common complaint with sandboxes, is the inability to get over the fact that when you die your probably going to lose stuff...and that the game is some gankfest where your helpless.  I know a lot of people despise any forms of pvp...and well...they make themeparks for you with nice little premade scenarios you can pvp in and not lose anything.  Its this loss however that fuels crafting and often pve...pve loses its appeal when its simply for levels to get to endgame. or to grind for gear thats both hard to get, and used for entry into the next tier of pve instances and repeats.

This loss factor plays heavily with the metagame and guild vs guild mechanics...which again is tied into small scale pvp and pve.

This is the beauty of the sandbox imo.  This wonderful blend of all aspects of the game no matter what your doing...and theres risk involved...something that for me, makes mundane tasks a bit more exciting.  Im not excited in a battleground where when i die i just go back to the respawn and jump right in, i dont care about if i can game the end of game stat sheet and put myself on top of some metric with aoe's and dot's or alphastrikes / last shots.  Its more fun when something at stake.  My gear, my guilds territory or holding.  Theres reason for the pvp too, in most cases its tied into the meta game, i dont like you, or your alliance..its revenge for a past encounter...or your just plain obnoxious to be around...either way i can explain to you why...because the game hasnt divided the community into faceless enemies with no-contact factions.

Yes i wish sandboxes werent reserved for basement developers and game launches based on the fact they ran out of money so its not finished and will probably never get finished.

The one thing these sandboxes all have in common, from EVE to darkfall, even mortal online...its this wonderful cycle of pve fueling pvp which ties into the metagame that is blending all aspects of the game together.

I wish more people could get over the pvp factor, once you do...full loot cant be beat for offering excitement..granted every sandbox ive come across makes it quite easy to be self sufficiant...and losing gear is never a big deal...and the good stuff thats hard to get is typically reserved for use with guilds...who help you get it to begin with.

Just so hard for me to get into a game with seperated pve and pvp, a seperated community via factions at war, lack of metagame from said factions.

So, why do you love or hate sandbox games?