He makes a good point. "Open world" has been butchered as a genre by too many games. I'd call them "linear in a big arena" or something like that.

I'm Tired of Open World Games

youtu.be/7k7VsP5p66Y

@alyx I am really not a fan of all these games going open world. It's really tiring. Sometimes I don't want to play a game for 40+ hours.

@beardalaxy
I still have more fun replaying something like Half-Life or Dead Space, inherently linear but well choreographed games, than spending hundreds of hours in even the best open world games that will inherently have a lot of dead air.

A linear experience is more condensed and focused, and is better able to provide an emotional impact. I like spending dozens of hours in Elder Scrolls or Fallout games, but I don't exactly pour my eyes out when a character dies.

Open world games inherently provide something else, the joy of exploration. But if you're doing it wrong, it's very easy to take that away too, and create a different kind of linearity through mission/quest waypoints. But because you've wasted time on the open world, it's very possible that this linearity isn't polished either, so you're left with the worst of both worlds.

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@alyx the only open world games I have REALLY enjoyed have been breath of the wild and infamous second son. Everything else is just okay I guess, but I can only play so many okay open worlds before it starts to wear. Skyrim modded is great, but the catch is that it's modded.

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