What is the point of open world games?

[Zhukov]

It occurred to me while playing Sleeping Dogs that I don't think I've ever seen an open world game that was improved by it's open world aspect.

What exactly does having an open map add to a game? I suppose you could say it adds a certain degree of veracity. After all, the real world isn't arranged in a neat linear sequence. That's the only advantage I can come up with.

There's the "non-linear screwing around" aspect. But when does that ever amount to anything beyond killing random civilians or doing vehicle jumps?

I would have thought that the appeal of an open world was allowing the player to get into spontaneous unscripted situations and then having to find creative solutions to them. However, I've never seen an open world game with sufficiently complex or in-depth mechanics to allow the players actions to have any impact beyond the immediate. (The one exception is Dwarf Fortress, but I don't play that because the interface can go fuck itself.)

To me, an open world just means I have to bloody commute between missions.

 

[ChupathingyX]

In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction there were multiple contracts which allowed different approaches by making use of the open world.

There's one contract where your first objective is to assassinate an officer holding a press conference at a plaza. Soldiers are set up around the perimeter (and the rest of the city) and you have to find a safe spot on the ground to snipe from if you don't want to be seen and forfeit the bonus.

Of course you could go on top of one of the buildings if you had a helicopter but at that point in the game there are no helicopters available to buy. Well then, why not explore the map and find a military base that has one? Well lo and behold, at that point in the game there are bases with helicopters that can be hijacked and used in the mission.

But then there's the problem of snipers who have been set up on the roof. You could kill them but due to the games faction system you might (see: will) lose some standing if you attack them or kill them.

The game also features a bounty system, presented as a Deck of 52, which features numerous members hiding throughout the country at numerous installations. Capturing them alive can be very difficult if you don't plan ahead and survey your surroundings, particularly in regards to AA/SAM units.

Captcha: two cents worth

 

[Aeshi]

What's the point of a newborn baby?

 

[King Billi]

Because exploring is fun.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Exploration. Running around and finding new things that you might not have found otherwise (sometimes dungeons filled with baddies, sometimes whole cities, sometimes rare treasure or a monster that will eat your face). I prefer it in RPGs. It only really works if there's actually stuff to find...

 

[Occams_Razor]

I think there is a lot of purpose behind open world games. Few things add a sense of scope and scale to a game like an expansive, massive world(ala Skyrim or Oblivion). A lot of the fun in those games comes from the events that take place as you're on your way to the next objective. Finding sidequests, random trinkets, all the little things that simply make the game feel bigger.

Then there are examples like Assassins Creed, which give you an open world to match the feel and expansiveness of the time period. And to give you a hundred different directions to leg-it when things go wrong.

And then you have your Just Cause 2 and Mercenaries example, where its just you, a world, and a thousand and one ways to fuck that worlds shit up. No linear game can really come close to an open world game for pure catharsis.

 

[Bostur]

One purpose is to act as 'immersive simulators', where the player takes on the role of some person in the game world. As such the props making up the world is sometimes more important than the gameplay.

In driving games the most important props are cars, roads and traffic. Detailed modelling of those elements is very important for the genre. Thats one reason Sleeping Dogs failed as an open world game in my opinion, it was too linear, had poor physics and awfully short draw distance. I still found it fairly fun as a linear action game though.

Another purpose is exploration. If the game can keep surprising the player it works well in that regard. Creating the feeling that there is more to see and experience. If the game can make the player curious about what is behind the next bend in the road, then it accomplishes the exploration element.

Some examples of open world games that at least does some things right:

Elder Scrolls series
Teraria
Minecraft
GTA Vice City / GTA SA
MMOs - Fallen Earth / WoW / Wyrm Online / Darkfall
Borderlands series
Mass Effect 1
Thief series

Sometimes these games feel more like toys than games.

 

[Blunderboy]

Mostly it's an exploration thing. I love just wandering about a game world.
But I don't think it works with every game at all.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I'll continue to bang the same drum the other have and say exploration.

I have never experienced a feeling in gaming OR real life like the feeling I got the first time I stepped out of Vault 101 and saw the landscape before me.

Ruined buildings and scorched earth stretching as far as the eye could see. I knew I had an objective, but it mattered little. I knew there were stories here. Details that revealed lives of people from hundreds of years ago. New and interesting creatures to seek out. Buildings that had gone untouched for two hundred years just waiting to be uncovered.

Spoiler: Honestly, it can be summed up like this:

[image/]http://stancarey.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/star-trek-to-boldly-go-where-no-man-has-gone-before-split-infinitive.jpg[/IMG]

 

[Legion]

Well examples such as Fallout and Minecraft it's the excitement of discovering things. Of exploration and finding new things. Like exploring the ruins of a city in Fallout, of discovering a dungeon for the first time in minecraft.

Games that have done open world badly would be Mafia 2, where there was literally nothing worth doing or seeing, and where the game is constantly trying to pressure you to ignore it and play the missions (you can't even remove the waypoints on the map outside of missions).

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

It occurred to me while playing Sleeping Dogs that I don't think I've ever seen an open world game that was improved by it's open world aspect.
To me, an open world just means I have to bloody commute between missions.

**blinks**

Skyrim.

Saints Row 2 and 3.

Just Cause 2.

Kingdoms of Amal-whatever: The Reckoning.

These are all games about ignoring the fuck out of the missions and just running around bumping into cool stuff the game designers left hidden around for you. And that's the appeal - exploration. Finding things. Completing your map, because there's a grayed out spot and you just have to know what's there.

 

[Fappy]

Like many have said already: Exploration. A world can be truly fleshed out if you're allowed to go off the rails and experience it for yourself. I think Skyrim's "radiant quest" system is a step in the right direction for what you want, but it's ultimately just a stepping stone. We'll see how refined that kind of system will become in the next gen methinks.

 

[AnarchistFish]

What's the point of RPG games?

 

[Yopaz]

It gives you an illusion of freedom wile you're struggling through an empty hollow world.

For me it all depends on how it's used. I quite like open world games if there's a purpose to it. Take the first Assassin's Creed where you get to ride around the kingdom and look at the countryside and explore the outposts. Now add the fact that the moment you start moving faster than a slow walk you get guards chasing you.

Now I do love a linear game, go from A to B, but if I can explore a little on the way that's the perfect balance. Give me some freedom without making it enough to distract me form my objective.

 

[Yellowfish]

What exactly does having an open map add to a game?

Well, an open world allows the player to explore and become immersed in the game. I mean really immersed, not hypnotised by all the non-stop action and cutscenes. In a well-done open-world game the player has the ability to learn more about the game world not by listening to the exposition given by the characters or watching cutscenes, but by running around the game world and exploring stuff, discovering stuff, touching stuff, kicking stuff and and generally messing around, which is more fun. Of course, a badly done open world only hurts the experience (see Dead Island), and not every genre mixes well with an open world, but it really does add a lot. Say, do you really think The Elder Scrolls would be so popular without the open world? Having a large world the player can explore from the very beginning is perhaps the best thing about these games.

 

[synobal]

It occurred to me while playing Sleeping Dogs that I don't think I've ever seen an open world game that was improved by it's open world aspect.
To me, an open world just means I have to bloody commute between missions.

**blinks**

Skyrim.

Saints Row 2 and 3.

Just Cause 2.

Kingdoms of Amal-whatever: The Reckoning.

These are all games about ignoring the fuck out of the missions and just running around bumping into cool stuff the game designers left hidden around for you. And that's the appeal - exploration. Finding things. Completing your map, because there's a grayed out spot and you just have to know what's there.

Pretty much this. The fact you haven't seen it doesn't mean it is pointless. Just go play what ever games you enjoy. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to walk to Balmora.

 

[alphamalet]

People like to fuck about. Fucking about is fun to some.

 

[Krantos]

It only really works if there's actually stuff to find...

So much this.

If there's no reason to explore, there's no point (that I can see) in an open world. Two worlds 2 actually broke this. There were a number of locations spread throughout the world. However, unless you had a quest sending you there, they were empty. There's no reason these couldn't have simply be self contained missions.

Compare this to the most of the locations in Skyrim. Many dungeons/caves/ruins had little stories behind them, told through a mixture of environmental details, note/journals, or even carefully chosen items. Most of these had no quests associated with them, but they gave the feeling that there was actually stuff that happened in the world when you weren't around.

 

[Nepenthe87]

If spider-man 2 didn't have an open world then it would have sucked. Hard. Webslinging around New York is hands down the most fun thing about that game.