Waypoints

Waypoints in games are such a simple idea but create a very large side effect. I noticed this throughout my playthrough in GTA V. I've put a silly amount of hours into that game. Well over 100 hours. But even after all this time of gameplay, I still can't really traverse the map with ease. I have a general idea of where things are, but it's difficult to return to locations I've seen. On the other hand, I know the map to GTA Vice City pretty damn well and can probably find a location based off another picture of the surrounding areas. GTA V has 100 collectibles in the form of spaceship parts and letter scraps. I found none on my initial playthrough. Meanwhile, I found about 60 of the 100 hidden packages on my own playing Vice City however long ago. Now, yes, comparing the map size of Vice City to V's is pretty silly, as the game made 11 years after is obviously going to be bigger and more dense. That's not the point I'm going for.

Sandbox games getting bigger are a natural development. GTA 3 was an early big sandbox game with three islands. Each island would take like a minute to traverse. 13 years later, games like The Crew are being released to simulate an open world racing game that would take at least a couple hours to traverse. Sandbox games are getting bigger. It only makes sense. The point I'm getting at is the consequences of the waypoint.

Nobody wants to figure out routes on their own with such a big map. That would be frustrating and annoying and people generally don't have time for that. Solution? Create a trail for them to follow! It's simple, easy, and solves the problem! But creates a world based on a minimap. People become more focused on how to get to their destination than the trip it takes to get there. Now, one may argue that in a game like GTA where you're driving through the same city over and over that the trip isn't that important. If that's the case then you're not enjoying the drive. Take a taxi everywhere, which I ultimately ended up doing. The issue that arises is, even with this massive environment with plenty to look at, people are taken away from enjoying it past the first couple hours. Because of how tedious it becomes to get across this massive playground, it becomes boring to traverse, even with a waypoint directing you where to go.

The fast travel is another thing that could lumped in as an issue of huge environments. Why go through the woods and explore when you can just bypass that trash to get to our destination super fast? It's the video game equivalent of taking a nap on a plane. Yeah, you might see some interesting stuff, but the longer it goes, the less interesting stuff becomes. You start to see everything, nothing's new. I imagine that likewise, people begin to dread longer flights and search for anything to do in the meantime.

So what's the solution? People want sandbox games to get bigger and better. Sandbox games like Minecraft are never ending. Games like Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky are taking people into space for exploration.

I guess in the end, it comes down to what people want in a game. Do people want a sandbox they can familiarize themselves with? How are they going to traverse it? Or does it not matter? It was surely convenient to know how to get between any two locations without a map in Vice City without needing a waypoint, but I guess the population is pushing towards a different sandbox. With more and more games, it becomes less about becoming comfortable with specific areas and just general ideas. Or, games like Assassin's Creed IV where exploration is a big point. You're not expected to get comfortable with the Caribbean sea, and it doesn't matter. If it's fun to explore the game world, then you're set. If it gets boring, however, make travel exciting. Or incentivize an exciting way to travel that people can work towards.

Game maps like Vice City are gone. Video games have moved to a much grander scale, where you can get lost easier and spend hours combing through the environment. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe sandbox games are going through a paradigm shift. And maybe in the future, I'll interact with game environments in a manner that I enjoy more so than simply being comfortable with a familiar setting.