That Feeling of Discovery...

While I was browsing Twitter, I saw a thread that highlighted a recent GDC talk that served as a post-mortem of sorts for Cyberpunk 2077's level design and it reminded me of something that I've been mulling over for a while: I think it's very cool when games have content that I'll probably never see.

I understand that this is a bit of an odd claim to make but watching that talk helped me put a finger on why I feel that way. Essentially, I think I like knowing that my experience with a game has been tailored, at least in some small way, by my actions; every choice, conscious or otherwise, should feel as if it has weight. That's not to say I dislike purely linear games (I love 'em too!) but I suppose a better way to say what I said earlier is that I appreciate it when games have more meat to them than I'll ever need.

There are hundreds of these guys in Breath of the Wild but I only found sixty

I've had a hard time identifying why so many other games that, on paper, seem like they're doing that don't vibe with me and I used to think it was just a matter of presentation but now I feel it's more complicated than that. 

Side content or optional challenges can be some of the most memorable parts of a game but I feel too many games immediately let me know exactly how many knick-knacks I need to collect or minibosses to defeat (and where to find all of them). While this means that players who want to see everything can, it also means that the game's immediately spelling out what the bounds of its world are and it turns a game that was once filled with unknowns into a checklist that needs to be completed.

I feel I should enjoy games laid out like this, but I don't

Breath of the Wild is a game that was largely driven by how I wanted to play it. There's an end goal to work towards and a story to follow, but the world was open and full of things to do or find even if I chose not to engage with the obvious Main Plot. This may feel like a petty issue of semantics but finding something because I was told I should find something feels less satisfying, to me, than spotting it because I was curious or because I got lucky and stumbled into it. There may be great sequences or encounters that I never see during my playthrough, but each individual item I do come across feels as if I, personally, discovered it

They're still specifically designed and placed so there's really only a "discovery" in the Christopher Columbus sense but there's a satisfaction that comes from knowing I did something because my actions made it available and I chose to interact with it.  I love the early sections of a game when the world feels limitless and full of possibility, so a lack of clarity on those bounds almost always improves the experience for me, provided the things they've littered across the landscape are worthwhile.

Picking up this (optional) collectible after spending God knows how long trying to get it is one of my greatest gaming accomplishments

I don't think I've ever tried to fill out my Pokédex in any of the Pokémon games but the fact that I can do that is a core part of that franchise's identity. Undertale is a game I've only played once, but a large reason my ending felt so satisfying to me was because I knew just how drastically different that narrative could have gone. Regardless of how significant any given decision is I get to pretend to be part of the team writing the story or designing the game. I love knowing that there are portions of games I haven't seen because it makes me feel ownership over what I did see.

I know this all seems a bit greedy, to want more from a game than I'll ever need, but I feel so much of this medium loses its lustre when it doesn't seem there's much potential beneath the surface. That's not to say every game needs an absurdly large budget or even needs to be filled to the brim with "stuff", I just love it when games appear to be deeper than the average player will ever need. Telltale's The Walking Dead, for example, is a pretty linear story with a few minor tonal changes here and there, but it's incredibly compelling because Telltale did a great job of making every choice feel significant when I was making it. Even though there aren't many other ways for the story to go beyond the one I chose, the game acts as if there are and in a lot of cases that can be enough for me.

Games would be worse off without the choices I'd never make.

Lee's choice here ultimately doesn't change much but it dramatically colors how you see this situation

I have a bad habit of writing something without having a clear end in mind so I hope this hasn't seemed too self-indulgent or aimless, but every once in a while I like to think about why I like the things that I do and I thought I'd share my ramblings with anyone who felt like reading them.