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In Defense of Empty Space: A Game Design Rant

by John Rairdin - July 9, 2016, 9:52 am EDT
Total comments: 4

How full do you like your open worlds?

It happened with Xenoblade Chronicles X and now it's happening with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Youtube comment sections are filling up with the phrase "empty space" as viewers express concern that the giant open world before them might not harbor much in the way of activities. At the same time I see others insisting that they don't want the world to feel too cluttered. But which is it? Are open world games forever doomed to alienate half of their audience with each release?

I decided to take a look at a variety of open world games and try to figure out what I like about them and why.

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Talkback

oohhboyHong Hang Ho, Staff AlumnusJuly 09, 2016

I despise most open world games not because they are open world but because they were bad games.

I couldn't get into Oblivion simply because the combat is just dreadful, same with the 3D Fallouts. It just doesn't matter how impeccably designed the world is if it plays poorly. There is no point having stuff to do if doing them is a chore. Yay cave! there is something in there, but damn I don't want to because there will be enemies there and fighting them isn't fun.

Xenoblade Chronicles X has something of an opposite problem for me, I like the game a lot, combat is good, but I haven't finished it due to the absurd amount of things to do. You get bogged down and eventually lose too much momentum to keep moving forward.

I hate all MMOs due to the simple fact they embody the problems of both. Large, very empty open spaces that exists only to suck up time doing nothing in order to run down your sub, it's so bad WOW* has an automatic run button and people use the speed skills just to waste less time instead of using them to effect some real gameplay. The combat is just wrong as you are just working a spread sheet with fancy graphics layered over it.

But wait! What about Xenoblade Chronicles X! isn't that a single player MMO? Yes and no. The two games play very differently. WOW is just you, your one character, everybody in that one class is going to level up the same, having a friend is only there to speed this process up. X has you customising your team to work exactly how you want them to, you are in control, you have to think about how you want your team to function. If something isn't working for you, change it.

While there is a fair bit of "empty space" in X fast travel is trivial, it is there to save you travelling time so you can do what you really want to do. Size is important there is a "Too big" and X rides that line very finely as it gives you a choice as to how large it is by being liberal with the probe system and Skells. You still have to go there to plant the probe, earn your ride, but you are exploring while you are doing it, giving you an immediate goal.

Wasteland 2 has a problem you didn't go into, gating exploration. X, WOW, WW, Metroid etc has gates, but WL2 ties almost all it's exploration rewards to arbitrary numbers, so if you don't level them up exploration is worthless and there are just so many skills that exists just to roadblock you like this. Yay! Exploration! fuck, no reward.

Mad Max does the balancing act beautifully, you can plough through the plot if you like, the only limit is your own skill as getting non-essential upgrades exists to make things easier and fill that explore/reward. The world size is near perfect as it doesn't take too long to go somewhere and because you are driving, you are engaged with the game, you are playing it instead of hitting the auto run. Driving hides travelling and the size of the world. The combat is great, it is satisfying to crush your enemies not because you have bigger numbers, but because of your personal skill, it is visceral. The funny thing is that Wind Waker nailed all these great design elements a decade before MM. MM has a lot to owe to WW.

I find the idea that Watch Dogs has a well constructed world laughable. It lacks any sort of character, it's generic American city XXXX.

In comparison, Sleeping Dogs is bursting with character, it's Hong Kong not just because it has the geography. Those crowds, the vehicles, the language, the neon lights. I would almost mistaken it for HK if I could smell the not so clean harbour. This is a world that is actively engaging you with it's sights and sounds. It's alive with culture.

Oblivion, Fallout falls into this genericness like WD, green forest or blasted wasteland there is nothing there, it's not alive, as you move through it there is nothing to see, it's filler between points of interest, it suffers from the WOW problem as travel is really wasting your time compounded by poor gameplay and the Lego block like construction of areas.

Open Worlds doesn't need defending, it never did. What this video should have been is an attack on bad gameplay practices common to Open Worlds.

*Last time I played WOW was well before any of the expansions.

EnnerJuly 09, 2016

In Xenoblade Chronicles X you have to learn to determine what's important to you and what's not. The game doesn't give you a hint in to that at all.


My rule of thumb is that nearly everything on the BLADE mission board is frivolous.

oohhboyHong Hang Ho, Staff AlumnusJuly 10, 2016

It gives you a pretty strong hint that anything not "Main plot" is frivolous. Compared to other games it is really easy and tempting to get side tracked as getting another quest is trivial. Most quests are on a nice scrollable list and the rest are contained within the hub area are clearly marked. You can even stack multiple quests into the same area saving you more time and making you feel clever from clearing a batch of quests instead of just the one.

Before you know it, you have eaten one too many Chicken nuggets choking yourself to death.

Hear hear! Long live empty space! And secrets to explore for and discover within that empty space!

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