Whats the appeal of open world western rpgs?

[winds]

I've never been able to get into any open world western RPG, and it sort of bothers me as I really feel like i'm being left out of some really great experiences. Just looking at skyrim trailers makes me want to play it so badly, but I know inevitably I will turn it off 30 minutes in and never play it again. I tried playing Oblivion and Fallout 3 but quit after about 30 minutes into each. I think what really bugs me is the lack of direction. Maybe I am playing them wrong but with oblivion I remember starting the game and having absolutely no idea what to do or where to go. I just chose a direction and started running, and for about 30 minutes I found nothing of interest and had no idea where I was supposed to go to start something... anything. Same with fallout 3. I loved the opening sequence where you start growing up, but once I made it outside I was so lost. Is that what people love about this genre or is there some secret to playing them that i'm unaware of? What is the appeal here? Please someone explain this genre so maybe I can finally see the appeal and pickup skyrim from start to finish afterall.

[Dylan]

My biggest question would be are you talking to the NPCs? In Oblivion at least when you finish the beginning/tutorial segment you hand an item to an NPC and he tells you what you have to do next in the main quest. If instead of that you dashed off into no-man's land, I could see how game would feel like there was no point. The game will do a decent job of directing you into areas that have some way of finding out what will further the main quest. Starting sidequests isn't extremely difficult either, just look for the different guilds in the cities (they'll have branches in most of them).

[DomitorInvictus]

For me, there is none. I have been there, done that, and it isn't interesting anymore.

The open virtual world is an appealing concept, but I don't think even Bethesda has executed it well enough to keep the game genuinely fun.

[AmishSamurai]

In Bioware games, you can usually choose what town or region you go to first. In Dragon Age for example- you feel like helping the mages first? Go ahead! You aren't constrained to a strict order of events. What happens happens.

In Bethesda games, you can go further than that. You aren't even required to go save the world from the big bad things. Go ahead and spend time doing assassinations for the dark brotherhood first, or exploring ruins for the Mage's College. Heck, in my current Skyrim run I'm avoiding Whiterun like the plague and beating every faction and daedric quest before dragons even spawn. Because I can.

[Korpi]

That's the appeal, I guess you could learn to like it. Fallout 3 felt pretty straightforward to me, don't know about Oblivion. Perhaps if you give it some time, and not stop after first setback, you may get into the game.

Have you played something like SimCity or Minecraft? Do you like them or are you unable to see the appeal? I don't know why it's so, but some don't like sandboxy and open feeling in games at all, and want more linear experience. I like both, but I play a open-world game, when I want to feel freedom of exploring and experimenting things, I suppose there's need to be that desire to be interested in them. There's is also lack of desire for completion when playing such game, it's much more about making your own journey, and end is when the game gets tiring.

[JC48573]

I have the same problem with Western Rpgs in general actually. I could see how "interesting" it can be, but it's still a mixed bag for me. All I know that wrpgs are not anything like jrpgs at all. Funny, I was about to create a similar topic, so I guess I don't have to now. There are times when I really want to play Dragon Age and Mass Effect because it reminded me of those Japanese (or Erotic) Novel PC games, but then the feeling fades away after an hour.

[pakopako]

Well, to me, open-world means one of two things:

• I get to poke my nose around everywhere and see what happens
• I get lost as ***

I will pick two non-WRPGs to illustrate both points.

• Final Fantasy I was open-world after the Earth Orb. I picked up the canoe, the airship, and class-change before even tackling Kraken, Kary and Tiamat.
• Metroid is fairly open, but I until I break out the maps or graphing paper, all the damn corridors and enemies look the same.

[Hobie-wan]

Well, I take it you don't like to explore in real life either. The Elder Scrolls games I've tried so far didn't gel with me, but I explored every inch of Fallout 3. Heck, I found way more minerals than I needed in Mass Effect because I pretty much covered every square inch of the maps in the mako despite it driving like ass.

I enjoy wandering in real life occasionally as well sometimes. There's a mostly wild park near me and occasionally I'll head there for a bike ride and just explore instead of taking my other 'normal' looped path. If I'm out running errands that are away from home with plenty of spare time I'll often stop at random shops just to look.

If you're the kind of person who likes to keep a tight schedule and plan everything, I can see not liking games where you explore and happen upon sidequests or don't always have an exact pointer to your next goal.

[isiolia]

I enjoy WRPGs in part due to defining the character more. While not to the extent that it could potentially be, they're usually at least trying to give that freedom.

Open world just tends to disguise the path a bit more. The first time I tried an Elder Scrolls game it didn't click. Really, the Fallout games grabbed me a lot more (though Skyrim is fairly close).

I tend to think of them as the true eventual ideal of the genre, even if what's there now doesn't grab me as much. A virtual world that you can make of what you will...pick a role to play and run with it. I've yet to see one that actually adapts to player actions to the extent it'd need to in order to pull that off...but at least Bethesda and crew are going that direction rather than the increasingly linear one that Bioware is.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I do like Western RPGs quite a bit, but the open world thing has never appealed to me much. I'd rather play a JRPG where clear objectives are always defined.