Ever since the first video games, developers have been racing to make bigger and more engaging games. The longer gamers engage with your game, the longer your game stays in the spotlight. This has a higher chance of pulling in more players, which means more revenue for developers. So, it is no wonder that the open world has been a popular model for creative development.
But what about the gamers? Why do we as gamers love open world games so much? Why do we continue to ask for bigger and bigger worlds with each game? It seems like a simple answer. But diving deeper may reveal how the masses consumes games and what they are looking for.
A World of Possibility Realized
The appeal of video games at its core is the escapism we feel when playing them. The real world can be a bleak place at times. Life is unfair and every day is a grind. Video games can give a sense of escape and freedom like no other medium. The sky is the limit and the escapism from our mundane lives are real. Whether you are riding Torrent across the Lands Between, hunting robot dinosaurs across the wastes of the Old World, or driving across Night City, each time you jump in you get a few moments of escapism.
But, while linear games allow you to experience a story, an open world allows that world to truly come to life. You aren’t just hearing tales of monuments or seeing buildings in the background. That location in the distance is a place you can go to. Each town and ruin you enter has a story to tell. No matter how deep the game is, there is always a moment of awe in any good open world where you enter a new location for the first time and learn about it.
Some of the best open worlds give a concrete feeling that these locations could be real places. It’s even more impressive when a game world can make you believe that the impossible is possible. A good open world can suck you in for dozens of hours as you want to experience every nook and cranny.
Live a New Life Your Way
But the world is only as good as the content inside. When people complain about open world games, the most common criticism is usually wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle. This is an issue when a game has a massive open world, but the world feels empty. Whether it be lacking life or just things to do, this can be a turn off for many gamers from the open world.
Many of Ubisoft’s games have been criticized for being copy pasted content. Big open worlds that get bigger with each game. But then the only thing to do are mundane fetch quests, climbing towers, clearing out copy pasted outposts, and looking for collectables. If you are lucky, you might have a fishing minigame.
But what about the games that truly feel like they do the open world right? Grand Theft Auto has so many activities and shops that you can play for hundreds of hours and still have things to do. Do you want to just relax and take it slow. Go do some yoga or take a drive while listening to the over 750 songs on the radio. Want to have fun? Steal a plane and see if you can hop out of it and swan dive into a pool. Maybe you want to take on a heist.
Skyrim is still a beloved game that still averages 25,000 to 50,000 daily players despite being over13 years old. Why is that? Maybe it is because each time you start a new game, you can try something different. There are 547 named locations across the 9 different holds. Each hold is different from each other. Whether you just want to build a house, go tomb raiding, or just sit at the Bannered Mare and have a drink… There are even randomized events that can happen on your adventure. So much content to engage in that even players are still finding new things today.
Open worlds allow us to play our own way. They often give us the tools and mechanics, but then leave us to our own devices to see what we will do. If we want to tackle the main quest, we can. But if you just want to hop on your mount and see what is on top of that mountain, feel free. There probably is something there.
Open World vs Linear Games
The debate of which is better will never be solved and both sides have merits. With linear games, you can have a shorter but tighter story-driven experience. Open world games are much longer and allow more player freedom. Neither side is inherently better as it depends on the story that the developers want to tell. It also matters in the skill of the creators. Part of the reason communities dunk on open world games is because developers get lazy. Ubisoft has mastered the open world genre. But they have also made cash grabs that dilute the world. The same can be said about linear games. As we continue down the road and games continue to get bigger; we can expect to see more open world games. There is something enticing about seeing a fictional world come to life. The feeling of having a few moments each day to not worry about your job, schooling, or the mundane life and just enjoy a vast open world. There are players that just enjoy riding across the sunset in Red Dead Redemption, while others enjoy living the life of Avatar in Mists of Pandora. An open world can truly give you that freedom. That is the magic of gaming and why open world gaming is so beloved
