I think the author is not familiar with modern gaming. He takes a single example (a modern sandbox fps game) and ignores sandbox games in general - which would

I think the author is not familiar with modern gaming. He takes a single example (a modern sandbox fps game) and ignores sandbox games in general - which would have yielded way more interesting observations. The only other titles there are either way older or totally different in genre. I know this type of argument-building is traditional in academic writing (elaborate analysis of a single barilla pasta ad from the 50s comes to my mind) but it always struck me as a low effort.