If you're willing to turn to the MUSH side, I think OtherSpace fits all of those quite well.
Sandbox-like play: We have players running all kinds of their own plots (some even on their own worlds), doing whatever they find fun. Mad science, training mercs, rock bands, bar-going, rebuilding a 1973 muscle car... it's very open.
Players having a lasting effect on the world: Players not only have a permenent effect on the game world via overarching rp story arcs, but also have the ability to participate in the Dominion game, gathering resources to create one's own business, government, or empire that can have more systemic effects on the game world.
Politics and economics: Economics tends to also be focused on Dominion, in crafters selling and bartering their gathered raw materials, value-added goods or finished products with others, or in specialists doing crafted 'gigs', essentually one-off tasks requiring a specific skill which they can sell to vendors to simulate off-screen jobs. Politics in the greater game world often take the form of news articles on the posturing of politicians and the in-game consequences of such (war, trade, treaties), though small-group face-to-face political maneuvering does occur. Smaller-scale politics between player empires happens quite often and can take a variety of forms.
Roleplay that matters/effects the game: Not entirely sure how this is different than some of the other points.
-If you're referencing the inability of some sandbox games to have actions with lasting consequences, we have a tabletop-style skill system for both conflict resolution and to allow people to make rolls to change the world. For example, a small refugee group on an island had a cheap dock made of floating 50 gallon barrels. In the course of rp, some characters captured an enemy spaceship to make their escape from enemy clutches, but had little use for the ship otherwise, so they decided to sell off the ship's hard drives to the good guy military, and used the money to fund forging some of the ship's hull plating into a fancy dock and marina, with a refugee currently rolling his architecture skill every week to see how long the project takes, and has used our
+tag system (which allows players to make additions to the room descriptions to mark changes to the environment that wouldn't go away in just one scene) in the docks room to show his constant progress.
-If you mean that the poses themselves should change the physical environment, we don't have that, but that's a neat idea.
Crafting and building: As stated before, the Dominion system allows for a wide variety of simulated fun, but also allows for item creation, from simple knives to spaceships (which you trade in for an actual working one), and will likely soon include houses, office buildings, and other player spaces. We also have a player building committee for the creation of new discoverable worlds and other dynamic content.
Theme does not matter much: While we're pretty open, we do have a pretty cool original sci-fi/space opera theme we stick to in the game world with defined player races and societies. So if you mean the theme shouldn't matter, we are flexible to fit a lot of concepts, but we may not be flexible enough for you. If you mean you don't care, then carry on.
Gameplay centered on social play: I assume this means instead of combat-style play. We have no mobs to slay, but we do have PK, so there's never a 0% chance that your character will be involved in combat involuntarily. That said, we have NPC police forces/militaries that keep peace very well in civilized areas, and thus unwilling player death in civilized areas is almost unheard of, as even a two year jail sentence is effectively character death in a game played in real time.
-With that disclaimer out of the way, our most common rp is people hanging out in a bar, on the beach, or on the landing pad of some world, chatting and doing day-to-day activities. While we do have periods of action and adventure for those who choose, there's a good deal of down time between bits of action. Many simply choose to do social rp all the time, and we have plenty of resources to support that.
Friendly community: We strive to be as newbie-friendly as possible, and have a bunch of people who are eager to steal you for their organization as soon as you come through the door. We don't have too many worries there.
Sound at all interesting? Take a look at OtherSpace at , or take a look at our wiki at . Hope to see you there!