Out of Pod Experience

So, capsuleers, I must say, EVE is the best dynamic sandbox that I have ever played, and I will happily continue paying $15 every month to play this awesome game, the true king of sci-fi MMOs.
But, you have to give it to Wurm Online, that is the best survival sandbox out there. But what is this game, you ask?

Wurm Online is a survival MMO sandbox that was made by the same people that created Minecraft, only that this game is less autistic and more complex. Wanna build a wooden house? You'll need to chop down a tree, then chop it into smaller logs, then you'll have to convert the logs to planks, you'll also need iron for the nails etc.
Just as in EVE, after finishing a brief tutorial you are thrown into a brutal world that is filled with a bunch of dangerous wild animals and scarce infrastructure. Xanadu, the newest addition to the servers, is a large 32x32 km island with pretty coastal towns and isolated hamlets with almost no roads in between. These are still being worked on to improve trade between players. Also, locals are building canals under mountains to connect various water bodies.
The gameplay is amazing, but a bit complex, but once you learn it it's easy to remember. It's also fun to team up with others and make a nice village with stone streets, pretty lamps and big stone houses. However, the game can be more tedious than EVE when it comes to maintenance - your items will decay over time and must be repaired. Not so easy when you have a monolithic settlement.
The skill system is a grind and reminds me of Runescape - every time you do an action you get a certain number of points for a certain skill. This can be rather tedious, as getting your Carpentry up, for example, requires you to make lots and lots of planks and other wood-related items. However, this is combatted by the satisfaction that you get when finishing a structure or a seaworthy vessel.
Just like EVE, the benefits come when you pay with real money. Normal accounts have a level cap of 20, meaning that you can't ride horses, operate ships or carts and construct cool stuff like colossal statues, stone houses etc etc. Is the price worth it? For 8 euros a month I'd say it's definitely worth the pay.
The sad part is that this game is extremely under-rated and the servers are only at 25% occupancy, meaning that seeing another player can be a rare treat.
Give this game a try, and post your opinion below!

I tried to play it. After 10 minutes I returned to minecraft. I had more enjoyable experience solo in minecraft. I build a castle, many towers, underground dwarf settlement with golden throne, lava chamber, water chamber kitchens, forges, libraries with table for enchanting items, mushroom farms, anvil, portal to nether, and in the nether the tower from where I watched pigmans living their lifes. I restored abandoned mines to working condition, build a ship on surface, I journeyed to many lands, villages, caves and and mushroom islands when I settled at old age and wrote many books about my journeys and made many copies of my maps in case anybody would stumble on my mumified corpse laying in bed at the tower.

They have.
It does take a lot of effort. A friend of mine there has this huge castle he is trying to finish for a community meet up this December.
He has a massive bridge that has buildings for supports, leading up the side of a mountain with a collosus at the entrance to another huge tower, than then leads up to the castle.

Always amazing what people can do with relatively simple construction tools.

If you guys know Wurm, you might possibly know Xsyon? Another post-apoc game, with scrounging, crafting, building. And amazing beautiful terrain, trees and rivers graphics. Our clan had a great time in that one, but unfortunately the game launched too soon, people rushed in, rushed back out..... Still have a good bud in EVE from that clan though.

Found your problem.
As for depth. It is what you make of it. I spent over a year trying to do everything myself. Introduced my mum to it and put her straight into a village and she blasted off without all the struggle.

If you are really socially adept then you have a group of you who all specialise into different things, such as a miner / mason / black smith with a wood cutter / carpenter / fine carpenter with a hunter / leather worker / fisherman and a farmer / cook / healer / forager.
Then things are done to a high quality and you can all start making things worth selling early on with the support of each other.

The depth, edge of the precipice is looking at the long list of skills.