You’ve all seen this in lots of games. It’s that moment when you’re fighting the last boss, you win, and then the cutscene shows the last boss turning everything around. This might not seem like an issue, but given how constant it is, it seems like a very solvable problem. I’m going to focus on open world games, because they’re so common there. This is usually called Ludonarrative dissonance. I’m starting to hate open world games, and I really don’t want to do that.

You just know that you're gonna be kicking the crap out of Sauron, but then in the next cutscene he'll just destroy you. — You just know that you're gonna be kicking the crap out of Sauron, but then in the next cutscene he'll just *destroy* you.

The most annoying thing about this design choice is how early it shows up in open world games. With a few exceptions, the second you get your main quest, the game starts getting confused. “You are the only hope, chosen one! The great demon will be here soon! Head to xyz and warm the imperial chancellor!” Yeah, sure. I’m just going to explore literally every corner of the map before I do that. Oh, and join every other faction. Oh, and I’ll learn how to be a master blacksmith, the world’s best sword fighter, and maybe I’ll marry an NPC or two. When a game warns you about the crazy extreme danger you’ll be facing when this big evil thing comes to your land, and then nothing happens after literal years of in game time, you know there’s a problem. It separates you from the game faster than your parents unplugging the box when you were a kid.

Yeah, sure. I'll stop the world ending dragon or whatever, but for now, I'm going to explore the hell out of some caves. No, shut up. They might have stuff in them.

This is so avoidable as well! Just put a time limit on the damn main quest. Fallout 2 did a great job of this. If you don’t move your ass, your village dies and you fail the game. This makes sense, and the gameplay works with the mechanics. Yes, it’s open world and you do end up exploring a lot the wasteland, but it’s because you’re looking for something rare and precious. Stop telling me I need to do something and then not doing anything to make that real. It’s stupid, annoying, and so common. Fallout 4, Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 are examples of this, but those are just the games I’ve played the most.

This guy will show up every few weeks in your dreams to kick your butt in gear. The messages get progressively more desperate the longer you take. It's like the ultimate passive-agressive parent. "Oh, you didn't find the one piece of technology that… — This guy will show up every few weeks in your dreams to kick your butt in gear. The messages get progressively more desperate the longer you take. It's like the ultimate passive-agressive parent. "Oh, you didn't find the one piece of technology that saves our village because you're off in New Reno gambling? No, that's fine honey. I wanted to lose some weight anyway. I hear starving is good for that."

The next part of this dissonance is a total lack of draw with regards to the main quest. Exploration is inherently fun and interesting, because you’re discovering something new and finding new things. The Legend of Zelda wouldn’t exist if not for how much Shigeru Miyamoto loved exploring his childhood town. So where is the draw for the main quest? Fallout 4 made an admirable stab with its family angle, but you never get to know your family, so it’s hard for them to mean a lot for you. Hell, I care more about Dogmeat than I do about anybody else in Fallout 4. He’s adorable, he helps me carry loot around, and he holds enemies in place while I try to line up a shot.

Just look at him! Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?! — Just look at him! Who's a good boy? *Who's a good boy?!*

Maybe main quests shouldn’t start so early. Maybe your main quest should have some kind of goddamn effect on your gameplay? Anything, really, to make sure that you care about it even the littlest bit. You don’t have to make your players fall in love with the main quest, but if you give it some kind of tangible effect, people will care about it. Aren’t you tired of main quests that have no kick to them at all?

Lastly, why do open world games let you do everything? Why can I become the leader of the Companions in Skyrim, the Archmage of Winterhold, the Speaker of the Dark Brotherhood, and the leader of the Thieves’ guild? Many of these guilds are opposed, or at least, don’t like each other. How are they okay with this? For some reason, developers seem to think that anybody that plays games can’t stand having closed doors in their proverbial house. In older games, you couldn’t do everything in one run, which makes sense. This means that being the leader of one of these guilds is meaningful, and enjoyable. It’s no fun playing a game if you know you’re going to win every time, and it’s no fun starting up an RPG if you know you can do everything in one run. I’m not quite sure why developers are doing this so much. I think it could be a time issue, but then why are you putting 500+ hours on content in a game. Why not make something more concise that has multiple options for playing? It’s just strange, really. It’s almost patronizing. “Oh, you want to be king of hill and the best at tag? Sure, kid. And you don’t even half to work for it. Oh, you’re also the most popular kid in class!” Let us earn our place, please.

I love open world games. They offer a kind of exploration that you can’t get outside of video games, except when you actually explore the real world. However, ludonarrative dissonance is so common, it makes it hard to get excited for any open world game. It’s getting to the point when I hear “open world” and I just start to wonder how many of the usual decisions are going to be made. I know developers are not in complete control over their games. They have marketing people, producers, and more to answer to. Money people don’t want to hear about how a game is going to be great, just how it’s going to sell. That doesn’t make the current state of things any less frustrating. If the status quo is bad, then you change it.