Perspective. Simulation games tend to be top-down and focus on controlling large swaths of things from an abstract point of contact. Sandbox games tend to be

Perspective. Simulation games tend to be top-down and focus on controlling large swaths of things from an abstract point of contact. Sandbox games tend to be perspective-based and focus on controlling some single person or group of persons from an intimate point of contact. Or, more pithily: In a simulation game, you pan; in a sandbox game, you walk.