Level up by Exploring your World!
Before the pandemic, I went on a trip to Niagara Falls.For those of you who aren’t aware, Niagara Falls is a small, tourist town in Ontario, Canada. For the record, it shares the name with it’s American counterpart. I would argue that Canada, however, has a better view of the falls. Anyway, during this trip we went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) - which I might add is also opening up another location in my hometown! Very exciting. We don’t get many IHOP’s in Canada, let alone, Ontario. Prior to this, I had never been to an IHOP before. Yes, yes, I know. In my defence, I rarely travel to the US, especially now that the pandemic has limited most travel across the border. I've been to the Falls numerous times but each time I travel to the falls I find that there is always something new to experience. I’ve done a lot of travelling in my life. Mostly around Ontario. There’s lots to see and do here. If you’ve never had an opportunity to go on adventures by yourself or with friends I definitely urge you to explore.
Exploring the physical “open” world can be rewarding and our only limitation is that set by technology... and of course now the pandemic. Yet even though technology advances at an alarming rate, there remains a limit on what we can accomplish as humans. Sorry folks, you may have already come to the realization that we humans don’t have access to ‘fast travel’ or ‘teleport’ abilities. One of my favorite abilities in a game like Final Fantasy XIV or Elder Scrolls games is the ability to get to places quickly. Imagine having to travel to each individual location without fast travel. I’m looking at you Final Fantasy XI.
Sure, life can be a grind sometimes but you can certainly make the most of it. Some people hustle more than others, reaching the success they desire and despite Bret Hart’s quote - ‘The best chance you have if you wanna rise to the top, is to give yourself up to loneliness. Fear nothing, and work hard’ - I’ve found that taking life too seriously can be difficult. Gotta take some time, you know, to just have a beer with friends now and then. I, for one, am guilty of working too hard at times. Naomi is always telling me to slow down. I’m sure you will agree that finding the time to do everything in the span of a day, whether it’s in a video game or life in general, is exhausting. Seriously guys! if we never had to sleep -- man, the number of things that could get done in a day would be killer!
I’ve recently found out, however, that I need to make an effort to focus some of my time to create balance between work and play. Making time to balance out life is not an easy task. If you are anything like me, you enjoy a good few hours of video games nightly. Yet, I find myself constantly comparing the tasks I do in a game to aspects of my life. I don’t know about you but I play video games to escape from reality.
Let’s break this down. Exploring new things comes naturally to me and is probably why I’m drawn to playing video games but more specifically role-playing games. I’m certain that many who enjoy video games as much as I do feel this way as well. Recently, I watched a pretty funny video from Casually Explained that highlights the similarities of our lives to that of a role playing game *rifles through his bookmarks of cool stuff* Voila!
Just as with video games, our lives are full of adventures that take place in our own narrative. People to see, places to go and getting things done in general are all part of our daily list of activities. If any of you have ever played an mmorpg (FFXIV, WoW, etc) then you’ll know for sure what I’m talking about and you’ll know how increasingly difficult it becomes to travel from place to place, quest to quest, as the virtual worlds of these games get larger and more open. It’s almost overwhelming. Luckily, quality of life adjustments have been made to video games that help with general game play. Again, imagine if these were available to us in our physical world! Yet, I find that these adjustments take away from the open worldness of the game itself. If exploration is not a focal point for a game in an open world game, then it strikes me as odd why gamers continue to push for games that have an increasingly larger open world or a sandbox to play in.
Before we go any further, I need to make mention of the fact that I do support the open world and sandbox concept in video games. I understand that having a virtual life in a world that is not bound by the main quest is both exhilarating and free. But if the world is meant to be open and free then why do gamers continue to punish developers for not having anything to do in a game where exploration is the focus? Why have an open world in the first place if people just want to speed through the main quest and not take their time to explore the universe and experience the wonders of living in a virtual reality? With a game that promotes itself being open world or sandbox you should expect to be thrown into a world where you can be anything, or anyone. Yes, there are restrictions to what you can do in the game but those restrictions are input to keep you on the path that the developers designed so that you follow the narrative of the story so that one day you can in fact complete the game. Open world and sandbox style games place a large emphasis on exploration and that is what developers hoped you would do. Of course, if your main goal is to speedrun a game then all the power to you but don’t complain that the game was too short or that you had nothing to do!
I know, I’m not the only one that has lived countless virtual lives in the land of Skyrim, Morrowind and Cyrodiil; have raced across Hyrule, Eorzea and Azeroth in search of fame and fortune; and have laid waste to wizards, knights and monsters out of spite or revenge! I’m not the only one who has accomplished all these tasks because of an appreciation for living in a world of my own. Yet I consistently find myself drawn to complaints on forums or on the internet where gamers unite under a banner of two opposing factions. The open world is either too open or not open enough. Come on people, make up your damn minds.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.” said Jojen. “The man who never reads lives only one.” - George R.R. Martin, 2011, A Dance with Dragons
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