Open-World or Plot-Driven?, Which do you prefer? Options

[TheDreamWriter]

This is the basis of a new long-term game project that I am developing (Explorer, exclusive to RPGRev).

It is an open-world explorer with no pre-set plot. The game will evolve around the player's game style.

If you complete a quest, it may unlock one quest but lock another from access. But, at the same time, you could sit at home farming.

Do people think it would be better for a game to be open-world or plot-driven?

~TDW

[thatbennyguy]

Well yeah duh your game got the Best Story award for the R3 awards xD

But the thing I don't get it is when games try to tell a story as if it is a novel. What I end up doing is reading an interactive novel rather than experiencing an atmospheric game. I like the world to tell the story, not be told it through several blocks of text, like in a book. If I wanted a story, I'd pick up a novel, not play a game. However, an open world with no story at all is just as bad.

I think that your game can be a mixture of open-world and plot-driven; it doesn't have to be a choice. Final Fantasy games let you roam around and do random things, before going on the main quest. The strength of an open world game is that you can do what you want, when you want, with little restriction. The weakness of this is the story, and the character development. A game like Fallout 3 had a good balance, and backed it up with awesome post-apocalyptic atmosphere.