Open World Fatigue and Shenmue III

[Monkei]

Glad I could help!

[Naomi Daniels]

I'm making my own site. Just made the URL.

[strider16]

Very good article. Shenmue is a saga that worth a deep approach, no matter if at the end someone likes it or not. And this article is as deep as well written. Good job!

[Naomi Daniels]

I published it on my site.

Note, this site isn't for games but my upcoming comic series. I'll be talking about games every now and then.

If you're going to share the article from now on, share this version.

http://lifesliced.com/2015/11/06/open-w ... geneity-2/

[Master Mo]

I absolute agree with most people here.

What I definitely dislike about most open-world games is they give you side-quests and incentives to do other stuff and that definitely is a good thing but how it is executed is not what I look for in a believable open world games...

An example - Batman AK: You have your main quest but they give you a dozen sidequests that granted are optional. But at some points in the game you try to do some and when you really want to do those the urgency of the main quest decreases. This hurts the experience as a whole quite a bit in my opinion. The same issue I have with the Witcher III (though that game has some exceptional side-quests).

The implementation of side-quest should be designed into the experience and therefore in most cases it should be toned down and that would make it easier to have these believably integrated into the story and the experience.

This is gameplay stuff of course. Having a hollow city that doesn`t inhabit believable people doesn`t help make it feel like a real place either, which is another issue I have with most open-world games.

Shenmue on the contrary has exactly what I criticize about this modern open-world games: A living world, a common thread where there is nothing completely distracting from but still instances that give you time to explore and do optional stuff. Great design over all!

What I have an issue with is that in the inception of the open-world-genre there was Shenmue and there was GTA III and most developers these days tend to take GTA III as the blueprint. But I believe the majority of people like this kind of open-world more but as someone who experienced Shenmue and love that style more I don`t really like how the genre developed.

But at the end of the day that definitely is a matter of taste...

[fittersau]

An example - Batman AK: You have your main quest but they give you a dozen sidequests that granted are optional. But at some points in the game you try to do some and when you really want to do those the urgency of the main quest decreases. This hurts the experience as a whole quite a bit in my opinion. The same issue I have with the Witcher III (though that game has some exceptional side-quests).

The implementation of side-quest should be designed into the experience and therefore in most cases it should be toned down and that would make it easier to have these believably integrated into the story and the experience.

The mini-map with markers really reduces the reliance of players to become familiar with the environment itself. This means the world becomes less recognisable since players are rushing past well crafted content in favour of rapidly completing the gaming checklist. I'm doing this myself as I play through Assassin's Creed Unity. The end is more important than the journey with this focus, whereas with Shenmue the journey and development has equal weighting as the end in the experience.

[Master Mo]

An example - Batman AK: You have your main quest but they give you a dozen sidequests that granted are optional. But at some points in the game you try to do some and when you really want to do those the urgency of the main quest decreases. This hurts the experience as a whole quite a bit in my opinion. The same issue I have with the Witcher III (though that game has some exceptional side-quests).

The implementation of side-quest should be designed into the experience and therefore in most cases it should be toned down and that would make it easier to have these believably integrated into the story and the experience.

The mini-map with markers really reduces the reliance of players to become familiar with the environment itself. This means the world becomes less recognisable since players are rushing past well crafted content in favour of rapidly completing the gaming checklist. I'm doing this myself as I play through Assassin's Creed Unity. The end is more important than the journey with this focus, whereas with Shenmue the journey and development has equal weighting as the end in the experience.

Definitely, personally I never thought about that aspect. But you are totally right.

It kinda streamlines the process of finding stuff but at the end as you said it hinders you to appreciate everything the world has to offer. That is probably why they don`t feel the need to have NPCs with behaviour that resembles a person that really lives in that world.

It is kind of a trade: With huge scope you sacrifice that attention to detail, which seems to be OK for most devs and players.

[Naomi Daniels]

Quest markers take away from the game experience. Instead of being just one part of the game world, your character is now the driving force of that world, even above the game world itself. Who is going to look for detail or soak your surroundings when the game is more than willing play the game and tell you where to go for you? And today's titles are so big that it would simply impractical to NOT use markers in the first place.

[Peter]

So why are you posting from a duplicate account? As if we wouldn't work that one out.

[Naomi Daniels]

Because I assume the staff here would be smart enough to understand that some people don't want their online accounts attached to their real name, but would still like to address points made about their article.

Forum staff have IP's but I also expect that forum staff to contact me privately rather than outright start something public.

[Peter]

Such a serious attitude problem, it's unreal. How about the rules apply to you the same as everyone else, and the account is banned.

Consider yourself lucky another warning isn't added to your original account for it. If you want your name changed, contact the site admin.

[Hyo Razuki]

I guess the problem with most sandbox games is that, like Naomi Daniels said, a lot of the freedom conflicts with the protagonist's personality. The game's freedom does not add to the gaming experience but makes the game bland and the characters very replaceable and meaningless.

[shredingskin]

Shenmue is an adventure game.

[fittersau]

I guess the problem with most sandbox games is that, like Naomi Daniels said, a lot of the freedom conflicts with the protagonist's personality. The game's freedom does not add to the gaming experience but makes the game bland and the characters very replaceable and meaningless.

Even more to the point, every npc in Shenmue had a name a personality. Can the same be said for GTA, Assassins Creed, The Witcher, Watch Dogs etc?

[Zoltor]

Not only that, but most so called open world/sandbox game, have a severe lack of content issue.