Week 5 - Plots within Games

Why Open World Story are more popular than Linear plots

The gaming landscape has a large range of story, but how that story is developed over the journey of a game is dependent on the type of gameplay elements in the game. Open world games have been on the rise for quite some time now and have started to show how great a world can be when you can explore. Whereas the streamlined stories can still have great story telling capabilities, but may not be able to capture the world that the game is set in. 

There has been a multitude of open world games released, whether it is one created by Bethesda with their well-known Elder Scrolls and Fallout series or by the goliath that is Nintendo with it’s recent release of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", there are many different companies going for the Open World genre over the linear plot line. A great example of how the story can be expressed in an open world game is CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This single player game, has won the hearts of many gamers out there, with its main story, which is outstanding and then the ability to be able to explore the world of Witcher as the main character Geralt, to see the different stories around the region. This open world story also had multiple ending which is a great way to help immerse players into the world by allowing their actions to have an impact in the story with the choices they decided and made Geralt the man he is at the end. 

A key area that is the reason open world games are popular is due to the expansive environments that have been created with the large range of people and creatures threaded throughout a game. The landscape that you can explore is very important when creating an open world game, as it all should fit the genre and the story. But, when it does, the games that can be created are amazing and show how much story there is in a world, whether it is helping a poor npc with a quest or just the interaction with the environment itself. These aspects of being able to explore and meet people in a world, help cement the story in place and see the different stories in the area. Were as, linear story games can have a great plot, but it’s not the same as an open world as you only see the world on the path you take and cannot explore the areas around to get the feeling for the game.

Open world games are largely popular now due to the amazing ability to capture a fantasy world and make it seem real when exploring the landscape as it encapsulates you into its world and gives you more than one story to play through. Therefore, more game developers are stepping away from the linear story games where you can play through it once and be done with it. Instead they are creating games that can have multiple endings with a lot more story components and content to be explored in an open world environment to give people endless hours of gameplay into a world that they enjoy.

Reference:

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, 2015, Video Game, CD Projekt RED