I agree with the OP about the importance of exploration, but to me, what makes exploration fun is also the fun of moving about in the world. I think games to me are a lot about mobility, which is also why I love playing Tracer and Pharah so much in Overwatch. To me, the original Doom did this really well: once you’re done with the monsters, you can just zoom around the level, looking at everything and trying to find secrets. On the other hand, while I enjoyed BotW, I think the way stuff like rain and stamina limited your ability to explore freely really kept me from loving the game.
On this subject, I came by this video on /r/SRSGaming yesterday. Haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but it looks interesting and relevant to the discussion.
I usually prefer a complete, straight forward experience, but I have some moments where I enjoy the vastness of a place. My favorite parts of the original Mass Effect were exploring planets, for example. It takes forever, but there’s just something relaxing about traversing all these alien spaces and taking them in.
My issue is that most game worlds don’t have that affect on me, or they’re so completely devoid of anything of substance to do that they come off as dead worlds (see NMH). I think what made Mass Effect different for me was how varied in look every map was, while exploration in most other games is a huge map, usually samey in everything you can see.
A great game for this (and one I’ve been playing lately) is The Witcher 3. The game will route you to some of the “points of interest” across the map, but you’ll also find some really interesting and cool stuff just by not fast traveling and running from place to place, things that aren’t really on the map or that the game isn’t necessarily actively pointing you at.
My favorite recent example of this is the Nilfgaardian camp in southeast Velen. The first time I played the game I didn’t even know it was there because none of the quests ever pointed me in its direction. I know at some point I probably saw the notice board on the map, but because it looked like a larger settlement I think I assumed it would eventually have a story quest pointed at it. As far as I know, it doesn’t; it just sits there waiting for you to go check it out (or not). It was especially rewarding to go exploring and stumble into it this time since it had one of the more interesting contracts I’ve done so far…one in which you can kill the monster and immediately walk back for your reward, or, if you’re paying attention, notice something that reveals the truth behind what led to the contract in the first place. Good stuff.
