Open Worlds

I have spent many years complaining about the lack of new games in this world since the 90s. Every possible game genre seems to have been developed then and there have been nothing but rehashes over the years. However, I can now see the beginnings of a new form of game – the open world game. The growth in computing capabilities over the last decade have given developers the opportunity to create endless games set in an open interactive world where anything is possible – almost.

The risk with these open world games is that they get repetitive after a while. The computer is a finite state machine and there are only so many combinations of actions that can be executed. Like in Assassin’s Creed, you will either eavesdrop, pick-pocket, interrogate, assassinate or something else. There are less than 10 game modes and this becomes clearly repetitive after a while. The same thing happens in every other game that lays claim to an ‘open world’ experience.

However, it is theoretically feasible to create a game world where the interaction between the game elements becomes virtually limitless, with the right amount of powerful hardware. The game does not actually need an infinite combination of game modes. All it needs is enough game modes to keep people happy throughout its lifetime of a few years. While some of the games today can lay claim to extensive hours of game-play, this is mainly controlled through the use of some sort of plot-based story line that moves things along.

It would be totally interesting to see how this ‘new’ genre of games develop.