First Steps: Freedom in the Open World (Part 1)

“Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word ‘understanding.” – Werner Heisenberg

Welcome to the first post of many focusing on open world games! It’s a project I’ll be working on over the first few months or so of the Spring semester. (FYI, this isn’t the research project I referenced in December’s final post.) This project is something I’ve been pondering for a while now, and I decided last month to get moving on it.

Now, to the meat of the matter.

Open world video games have become a staple of modern gaming and for good reason. They often provide players with agency, a range of play styles, vast expanses for exploration, and hours upon hours of entertainment. My goal is to explore how open world games manage a balance between engagement (which depends…