Exploration

     What is exploration? It is the action of getting lost for the sake of adventure and wonder. At least in my definition. No clue what a dictionary might say, but that is how I see it. Now most of us likely aren't secret archaeologists who venture into temples and plunder treasure Indiana Jones style. We still might hold this desire, though. Games can fulfill that desire through simulation. This is why I like games in the Point-and-Click Adventure genre or First Person Exploration games. But how do these games give us that feeling of adventure and wonder?

      They give us just one simple rule: do whatever you want. The rule is always implied through gameplay, but never explicitly stated. The object of the game is to explore everything. That is what makes Point-and-Click a fun genre for me. Take Machinarium for example. You start off as this little robot named Josef. You gradually discover what he can and cannot do. After you have all of that figured out, you learn to click on anything that might stand out. You also pick up items and use them with other items to see what happens. In some cases, you can come up with unlikely combinations that surprise you. These combinations can help you progress through the game and open up new areas to explore.

      In other games that take exploration from a first person perspective, it feels easier to be immersed in the world. As you look around, you see everything through the character's eyes, but it almost feels like it is your own vision. It feels as if you are doing all of the exploring. It's a wonderful experience.

However, incorporating exploration into a game that isn't all about the adventure is tricky. If the game is too linear, the player just feels like they should follow the rails and if there is a path they could branch off of, they almost never take it. It's almost like a form of “pseudo-exploration.” Branching paths is not a fun mechanic for discovering new things. It's just a hallway that leads to a somewhat useful object, and then turning around to get back on the rails again.

      I see Borderlands 2 as a big offender to exploration. Yes, it is a game with large maps and places to go that are not linear, but I have one big complaint about it: map markers. When you want to finish a quest objective, just follow the diamond shaped icon on the map and you will be there. It makes reading the text of questlines pointless. And when they offer one quest that does encourage you to get lost and actually go looking for something on your own, it feels insulting because it deviates from the norm the game has already established! That norm is the rule of “Go here to do the thing, then turn in to progress.” I still like the game. I just dislike the sense of exploration that isn't all there.

      The best form of exploration I have seen? Xenoblade Chronicles. If you own a Wii or Wii U and you haven't played this game, go buy it. The developers went through utter hell to get this localized for America. The game lets you roam anywhere you want so long as it is humanly possible to traverse the environment. As much as I want to trek that mountain, it's too steep. But that's alright! It makes sense that I cannot do that. When you have a job to take care of, the quest text tells you the general area to go, then you figure out the rest. It feels great when you find what you are looking for. The only bad thing about this is the text can sometimes be misleading. One quest directed me to go north when the actual objective was northwest. Took a very long time to find the objective because the quest text directed me to a specific area and I felt I was limited to searching THAT particular area, not any of the other areas that might be close by. Other than that, this game has incredibly good exploration and it feels like a world you would want to live in.

      In short, exploration's main rule is to do whatever you want, but only if it is possible within the game's conventions. It should also be careful in how it makes the player feel about what they can do. Telling the player they can look in a tomb and find a treasure of incredible value is just fine. It might obviously be located at the back, but to the player it could be anywhere! Telling the player exactly where something is just ruins the whole experience. Making up for that failure much later in the game by telling them to “just find it” just messes with the player's head.