From this article, we are going to learn about ‘open-world games’ which is a very much famous gaming category nowadays.
Make sure to read our article about computer gaming too.
In the modern classification of games, open-world games have occupied a huge position within the gaming community. The concept of the open-world has come all the way from 1980’s but it truly comes to effect since the early 2000s.

Why we call it ‘Open World’ ?
Basically in open-world games, we can see a virtual world we the player can feel a unique amount of gameplay experience. In most cases, they do not have a more linear gameplay storyline but the freedom of playing the game the way the player needs.
As mentioned earlier, the concept of open-world games began to grab the hearts of the gamers in the early 2000s by the release of ‘GTA’ (Grand Theft Auto) III’. That game made the basic standards of an open-world game which followed later.
Key Aspects in Open World Games
Games that have this freedom of gameplay has some main aspects comparing to other games. Let’s talk about them in detail.
Character Creation and Development
These games give the player the opportunity to create their own character in the game. The player can decide the gender (some games don’t give this ability), race, and how the character looks like. As examples, we can point out Bethesda’s ‘Elder Scrolls ‘ and ‘Fallout‘ franchises.

There are some games that are not giving character creation but they give some advanced character development mechanics. This determines the skills of the characters we play in the virtual world. We can simply say CD Projekt’s Witcher franchise for this type.
Decision Making
Many open-world games give this ability to make the decisions in the story of the game. These decisions can affect the story directly or indirectly to the story, some may affect NPC’s (Non-Player Character). In fact, these decisions can some times kill your favorite NPC when the story continues. We can have CD Projekt’s Witcher and EA’s Mass Effect as prime examples for this type of scenario.
Autonomy
This is the quality that illustrates the freedom of doing things in the game itself. Basically we can’t do anything in a game, because the current game development technologies are not too powerful to do such things. However, MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) has more autonomy, providing players to do many things in the game.
Limitations in Map
Practically, these games must have a limit on the map. So the developers have to put some limitations in the gameplay (especially in the map). Normally it can be invisible borders. Sometimes they use geographical ways such as huge mountains, oceans, or huge walls.
Experiencing Open World Games
Gamers tend to explore the game more and looking at the beauty of that virtual world than playing the main story for hours. Many game development companies encourage this tendency of the gamers by adding various enhancements in gameplay.

Majorly Ubisoft’s open-world games don’t give full map access at the beginning of the game story. The Player has to discover viewpoints in order to unlock that particular area as a clear mapped area. This mechanism can be seen in most of Ubisoft’s games such as ‘Assassin’s Creed‘, ‘Far Cry‘ and ‘Watch_Dogs’ series.
Another thing in this open-world game is that the player is able to continue from last saved checkpoints ( In the player death in-game). However, there are some exceptions. Too many player deaths or some major story condition failures can force the player to start over.
Conclusion
Open world games give gamers the ability to live in another world. In other words, we simply love to live within that virtual world. That’s why I think these open-world games have made a huge impact on the gaming industry and the community.
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