Aye. I've seen a few games that manage to synergize exploration with the rest of the gameplay in pretty cool and natural ways.

Sadly there's a lot of other games these days that tend to rely on a lot of (fetch) quests to motivate or steer players into exploration. Which then often lead to achievement-styled checklists and "collectathons". Can't remember any specific scenarios I can describe, but I remember this sort of vibe in Darksiders 2, a lot of the Dead Island/Dying Light games, and some of Elder Scrolls Online.

IE, forcing players to follow along a linear path (usually with a dull and meaningless backstory), which often leads to a backlog of incomplete sidequests, which often don't flow intuitively with normal gameplay, and rarely is the reward even worth the level of hassle involved.

Aye. I've seen a few games that manage to synergize exploration with the rest of the gameplay in pretty cool and natural ways. Sadly there's a lot of games these days that tend to rely on a lot of (fetch) quests to motivate or steer players into exploration. Which then often lead to achievement-styled checklists and "collectathons".

Can't remember any specific scenarios I can describe, but I remember this sort of vibe in Darksiders 2, a lot of the Dead Island/Dying Light games, and some of Elder Scrolls Online.

It often forces players to follow along a linear path (usually with a dull and meaningless backstory), often gets backlogged progression is so strictly tied in with a quest chain, doesn't flow intuitively with normal gameplay, and rarely is the reward even worth the level of hassle involved. And frankly, I don't even think good rewards would be solid justification for the needless and mind numbing annoyance, at least in a singleplayer game.

Aye. Sadly a lot of games these days tend to rely on a lot of (fetch) quests to motivate or steer players into exploration. Which then often lead to achievement-styled checklists and "collectathons".

Can't remember any specific scenarios I can describe, but I remember this sort of vibe in Darksiders 2, a lot of the Dead Island/Dying Light games, and some of Elder Scrolls Online.

It often forces players to follow along a linear path (usually with a dull and meaningless backstory), often gets backlogged progression is so strictly tied in with a quest chain, doesn't flow intuitively with normal gameplay, and rarely is the reward even worth the level of hassle involved. And frankly, I don't even think good rewards would be solid justification for the needless and mind numbing annoyance, at least in a singleplayer game.