𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 (𝐌𝐒𝐐) 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐬 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬?

Earlier in the week I praised Crimson Desert for its engrossing exploration loop, but it has a big problem: the game does not do a good job of communicating to players whether or not players have completed enough of the MSQ to explore a POI.

This is a common problem with open world design with MMO roots. Many MMOs actually discourage exploration completely because you cannot get the reward from that POI unless you are on a relevant part of the MSQ. Therefore, players should only visit POIs when the MSQ instructs them to, as exploring for curiosity’s sake offers no extrinsic reward.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. A mountain’s prominence is the vertical distance between its peak and the saddle to another peak. It’s a measure of how tall it is relative to its surroundings, and for level design purposes, how much of a silhouette it’s going to create on the horizon.

In Crimson Desert’s early game, the Spire of Stars is one of the most prominent landmarks. Players are drawn to intriguing, prominent landmarks. But there’s a problem, you can’t actually enter the Spire of Stars until Chapter 4, but nothing is preventing you from going there. As such, it’s very likely players will venture to the Spire of Stars before they can interact with it, which is unsatisfying and discourages exploration.

𝐒𝐤𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐦 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. MSQ POIs are mostly non-prominent, meanwhile prominent landmarks are usually fully explorable (Throat of the World is an obvious exception). This means when players’ curiosity is sparked by a distant POI, their curiosity is usually satisfied on arrival. Meanwhile, MSQ POIs are often hidden in places like caves, so when players discover one of these POIs and are locked out, it’s not that big of deal, because there was limited anticipation. Putting MSQs POIs in non-prominent spaces is ok because UI navigation will guide players there in mass-market games.

The obvious downside of this approach is that it can reduce the grandeur of your MSQ POIs and decrease anticipation for them, but I’m curious what other people think.