Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

239 Open World Games – Part 1: Freedom, Frustration, and Fox-Stroking

• Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

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In this episode, Jem, Alex, and Matt take a deep dive into the sprawling landscapes of open-world games. From their first taste of exploration to the joys and pitfalls of the genre today.

What makes a game “open world”? Are they genuinely free-roaming experiences or just clever marketing? An opportunity to lose ourselves for hundreds of hours, or a cause of overwhelm?

We share personal memories, from Skyrim’s paper map magic to the intimidating sprawl of Horizon Forbidden West. Debate the perfect balance between exploration, story, and accessibility. Explore the unique “character” of game worlds like Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, and World of Warcraft. All exerting the lure of just one more quest for better or worse.

Whether you’re an open-world devotee, a time-strapped gamer, or someone who’s daunted by a messy, quest-strewn map, this conversation unpacks why these games inspire such passion… and frustration.

  • Defining what “open world” actually means
  • Our first-ever open-world experiences (not all of them had graphics).
  • Game design choices that can make players feel powerful… or completely overwhelmed.
  • The lure of the horizon, “what’s over that hill?”
  • Why sometimes stroking a fox is the perfect gaming moment.

Part 1 sets the stage – join us next week for Part 2, where we dig deeper into the best and worst examples of the genre.

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alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

I'd not played a game like Skyrim. and having a physical map. To look at was a really nice, thing to get me into that head space of being like, well, I can go anywhere. I would like that mountain over there, or, that town over there, or, I wonder where this path leads.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

how do you create a world that is. Auto generated Makes sense and isn't. Boring has life in it has something to go and see it is all well and good having, massive deserts and mountains and forests. But if there's nothing in them, you're going to speed travel your way through them as quickly as possible,

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

There are rules everywhere and limitations everywhere in life. And to be able to turn something on and then you can go literally anywhere in the city and do anything was. Was fabulous.

Speaker:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. I'm your host for today. I'm Jem, and I'm here with my friends Alex and Matt. So before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our patron at patron.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Gaming the System, today, myself, Alex, and Matt, are going to be diving into the vast, sprawling, and sometimes overwhelming worlds, of the open world gaming experience. They've played a huge part in gaming over the years, are they? Real do they actually exist or is it just another marketing spiel? Are they something that we enjoy? Is it something that we look for in a game? Is it something that we avoid in a game? And we also wanted to talk about the inclusion and diversity that is either facilitated or um. by these games. So we're gonna just cover the whole topic and, leave no stone unturned much like exploring the endless wastes of one of these open world experiences. I suppose we should start with the basic question, which is, what do we view to be. A genuinely open world game. And do we think that there might be layers to this? Might there be different ways to be an open world?

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

I think there can be different ways to be an open world. Growing up gaming, open world wasn't really a thing when I first started gaming. It was all very much linear. There's this level and then there's a loading screen, and then there's another level, and then there's a loading screen, you had your one story and that was it. No side quests or anything like that. When open world became a common genre of game. It denoted the fact that you weren't tied into a main quest. You could decide what you wanted to do when you wanted to do it and choose your own path through the game. Um, and I think of course there's lots of dig different iterations of that. There's, what lots of people kind of call linear open world games where there is a direction of the main quest, but you can go off and do other bits for a little while there's more open world where there isn't so much of a linear story. You can complete the story in the order that you would like or you can shape the story by the actions you take although that's more of a player choice driven, type game than an open world game. It's difficult really, when we talk about it, I think I've not sat down and really thought. About defining it, which is what's so interesting because I'm already getting myself modeled with other, other genres, which is interesting as well, which kind of just shows that it's hard to say it's specifically one type of game over another. There's lots of games with open world elements and linear elements and games with choices that they try to interweave. It's an interesting idea to think about. I'd love to know what Matt's thoughts are on it as well.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

It's a big topic I think my perspective on an open world game and our individual ones, it'll be interesting to come on to what the game companies who make bad open world games think there are so many terrible open world games and they miss the point of them. For me, an open world game is one where it's a massive map that you can go anywhere from the start of the game, and everything you do along the way is basically in Dungeons and Dungeons don't have to be. Underground, they're towns, cities, fortresses, their little islands of specifically designed environments dotted throughout the landscape, a semi-open world is one like God of. Where you can go between different large areas, but each of those areas is designed very specifically to be semi linear. It's a collection of more linear environments. One massive thing for me that makes a good open world game is the feeling like I could go literally anywhere on the map right away. When you walk out the front door and go, okay, tutorial's over death stranding was my latest One of that because you can build the road system and the monorail system that connects you all the way around Australia and mine materials and then drive them to the thing, build the thing. And then when I'm going through the quest, the main quest where it has to go across the continent, I can go, Ooh, I made the monorail get me from here to there ages ago. And there's something incredibly satisfying about going off into uncharted, dangerous territory rather than it being sealed off from you, for story purposes, it's sealed off by how difficult it is and how difficult the enemies become there. And I also like, when it comes to the Quest design, there needs to be one massive. Overarching main quest, that can be ignored at your leisure. The best ones they measure. The, the measurement of that quest allows you to explore the world and mine all the stuff from the world as you go along, so that by the time you reach the end of the main quest, you've experienced the majority of the side quests in the world as well. So that's really good. I'd be interested to see what you two think of what makes a bad open world game. I'm sure we'll get onto that.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Thank you both for that. I think you both hit on absolutely what is, and I. Open world and apparently the commonly, argued open world was actually Ultima one back in 1981. Because that had sort of freedom to explore in the way that you're talking about Matt. Legend of Zelda, was one of the other ones usually. Cited as being one of the first open world games, but I think both of those would probably fall into the sort of linear open world game that you were talking about, Alex. And for me, in some ways I think that open world games are persistent worlds, which again, I think is a whole. Genre. And I think that that hooks into, what you were saying, Alex, about how it, crosses all these different areas and means different things for different people. But to me, the idea of a, massively multiplayer online game is that that is a sort of persistent world that ha that is. Completely open. You can go back to places and do things that you were doing when you were really low level and you can wander into the high level areas and get your ass well and truly handed to you on a plate. So I think that gives me that freedom to step out there and walk around and do almost anything at whatever level I want to do it. And if it's too difficult. It's not gonna stop me going there. You can't go into that area yet. You're not this level or you've finished this section and therefore you can't go back to it. Which you have in the more story driven games. There is also a real, skill and talent in making a world that has. Elements of open worldness, even if it's not 100% open world. But also a really good game and a really good gaming experience with the storytelling and the characterizations and all of that that we in our little group of really keen on and really enjoy and really look for in our games.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

What was the first open world game you remember playing?

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

That's a good question.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Hmm.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

I think for me, one of the earliest I remember playing was probably Skyrim. The idea that you get out of the, wherever it was that you were in the beginning, you come out and you pick whether you are Imperial or what, the other one, and then you've got the whole map. Back when we all had physical discs, the lovely Skyrim map was actually inside the case and you could refer to it like a physical map, which was really cool. At that point, I'd not played a game like Skyrim. and having a physical map. To look at was a really nice, thing to get me into that head space of being like, well, I can go anywhere. I would like that mountain over there, or, that town over there, or, I wonder where this path leads. That gave me that feeling of, open world. and the freedom to explore without being, shoehorned into, the story right away. That is my earliest memory of a big open world.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

I think for me, the first open world that I experienced was, elephant Mud, which was a, text base, multi-user dungeon that I ended up helping to run. I suppose it's a bit weird to call it open world because in some ways it was really restricted because every single. Physical space that you went into in the game had been written by somebody and was an actual individual code file, so obviously there was a restriction. You couldn't literally go anywhere. However, we did spend a huge amount of time the team who ran it talking about creating, a fractal map to create a genuine text-based world that was. Procedurally generated, and how do you do that? One of the accusations often fired at Open World Games is that they feel empty and lifeless and a bit seay, and that was one of the things that we used to struggle with when we were trying to come up with a way to do this fractal version of our game how do you create a world that is. Auto generated Makes sense and isn't. Boring has life in it has something to go and see it is all well and good having, massive deserts and mountains and forests. But if there's nothing in them, you're going to speed travel your way through them as quickly as possible, or you're not even gonna bother with it. So you know, you want something that actually encourages people to go and explore for me, I think probably the real first experience I had of that was World of Warcraft, because that was, something where you would go, I'm going to go and swim around the coastline. And you'd just go off and spend days, literally days swimming around to do the whole thing. Just to be able to say, I did that, you would find funny little things hiding out in the middle of nowhere there was definitely an experience of exploring and I might be rewarded for exploring. Which is I think one of the real benefits of, open world games. Do you think that they're getting more popular?

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

Hmm.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

it wasn't a phrase that. Was common, even amongst the gaming community, this idea so is it something that we are seeing more now? Is it something that we're seeing touted as a good thing is it something that people are using to sell their games?

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

It's a popular genre, but I think it's grown. In line with the industry as a whole, as gaming has grown exponentially, the amount of games that provide Open Worlds has grown. You've got the well known franchises that, contain open worlds, like, the bloodborne, games, essentially Alden Ring and you've got, the Fallout games, obviously games like Skyrim and vin. yeah, so there's like these huge franchises with what we would call our, go anywhere from the get go, kind of open world. Then there's the more linear open worlds, which I think are a big staple of games these days, they have a lot of open world elements where they're trying to pack in not just a linear story so you have lots of exploration and you can choose when to do X quest and y Quest, but there's also a more focused story in them. The more popular games over the last decade have tried to incorporate a lot of open world elements. The trend is moving a bit more. I dunno if it's because of our gaming habits and us getting older and having less time, but I feel like people are moving away from larger games, which perhaps is what prompted the, the, idea of this topic we've talked about the move towards more indie, smaller bite-sized games. Games you can finish in under 10 hours, know, being, becoming slightly more popular now as well. I dunno whether that answers your question, Jem, but I think generally that's, it's not, I think it's, it's kind of had a sort of upward. Curve with, as gaming has grown, so have open worlds, because the technology is there to support them more as games have evolved over time.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

It is interesting that you split this part about player appeal into two parts. When I first read a skimmer and go, why do I play open world games? I play mostly long games. I'll come on to more of that in a bit, but the first question being phrased as why are they so popular in general, I really don't know because the one true thing that is true of all open world games is that they take a very long time to play if you said to someone, right, you can either play one game for a hundred hours or you can play four games for 25 hours each. When it comes down to just a question of time and someone thinks, oh, I'll, I'll play something shorter. And I just know that there, there are so many good open world games and they're really popular, but I can only. Come at it from my own perspective of what I like about them. I have no idea if those things are true. If they weren't popular game companies wouldn't invest in making them. But then it's also a big swing for a gaming company to go, right, we are gonna spend, rather than trying to make the next fortnight a shorter game. We are gonna invest a lot of time and resources in this, in a massive game on the off chance that it'll be really successful. So it's a bit of a mystery to me why this particular format is so popular.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Yeah, and I think it's a mystery for, um, other people actually, because if you, look into what's actually going on, you get a mixed picture as to whether they are becoming more popular or whether they are actually declining so just to throw some statistics at you, they are valuing the global open world games market, at,$27 billion in 2024, and it's projected to nearly double by 2033. It is a massive market. Other research I did said, it's peaked and now it's, it's heading back down. But whatever way you cut it, they obviously are worth a lot of money. I think people play, want to play them because it's an immersive experience. It's a way to go into something and properly lose yourself in a world that feels and, um, safe to explore perhaps we can answer this question by exploring some of the reasons why we think they might be popular with players. And then maybe, we can find out why they might not be popular with players. You mentioned time, Matt, and I think that influenced. My interest in this topic recently I was looking for a new game to play and I was deliberately looking for a game that was time limited because I wanted a chance of finishing, I find that open world games are daunting but side of that argument is that if it's a good game and you enjoy playing it, then you don't want it to come to an end. We are not in a race to see how many games we can complete or how many games we can tick off. It's, actually about, something I enjoy doing. And if that's the same game. For a very long time is there a problem with that? Does it always have to be new? New, new, different, different, different? Why do you think people choose the games and why do you think they might not choose these kind of games?

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

Grand Theft Auto. That was one of the earliest, ones that I played. I remember I was very young. Probably like. 12 whenever the PSP came out and the sense of freedom in it was fantastic.'cause everywhere there are rules everywhere and limits limitations everywhere in, in the world and in life. And to be able to turn something on and go anywhere in the city and do anything was. Was fabulous. That sense of freedom and yeah, I definitely agree about the immersiveness. You can immerse yourself in an open world game, a good open world game in a way that you just can't for short games.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

Yeah, I'd agree. One of the big things that appeals to me as a person that enjoys playing open world games, is that the world. Is a character itself. When it's a good open world game, you immediately get the sense of a very, stylized atmosphere. It's designed to make you feel a certain way. For example, I'll probably come onto this in a minute, but, i've just started playing Ghost of Sushima quite late to the game. But, very, very much enjoying it, doing it in small chunks. As I know it's, it's relatively large. I know it is also very, very linear in terms of when we compare it to say, ring or something like that. but it's also very cinematic there's a lot of dialogue in the missions and by the characters themselves talking about the island of Oshima. And the island has it its own atmosphere. It is separate from. at the time. A sort of law unto itself. There's lots of myth and legend and, all sorts going on there. Obviously it's the Mongol invasion, Mongol invasion. So there's lots of danger and the world feels like it can be a very dangerous place sometimes. I certainly got that sense when playing games like shadow of war and the first one, which I think was just shadow of mort, wasn't it? I absolutely love how threatening the world of Modor feels and the surrounding places. You're just constantly under attack all the time, which is a very, again, similar sorts of themes within the souls borne, games. You're constantly in danger of being killed immediately part of it is what makes it exciting. Part of it is what makes it terrifying to play as well, but that, depends what you're looking for in a game.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

And it's also confusing that if you've got a first person shooter, they're basically all the same. You have a corridor, you fight your way down the corridor, it ends, repeat that until you finish the campaign. But with open World games, there are so many different types, genre wise.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

forgotten about GTA when you mentioned it, that it's, like you said, of course GTA is open world, but because it's not like very popularized, stereotypical open world that everyone associates, like a fantasy setting, you kind of forget. Of course it is, in its framework and the way that you play. It definitely is open world. It's funny when you think about it like that.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

Because it makes it even harder to categorize why people play it, because someone who plays say, grand Theft Auto versus someone who plays Eldon ring. I played it for 250 hours. My first time playing it on PlayStation and had no idea whatsoever what was happening. I had no idea what the world was, what was happening in the world, why I was there, how I was there, who all these people were that I was killing. I just go, oh, this place looks awesome. Gameplay's fun. I get the Eldon ring, become Eldon Lord. I played it like nine times through with the new game plus thing, and that just completely discounts the thinking that. A massive narrative and main quest is so important and characters are important because every character basically says three lines each.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

Yeah.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

And then there are games where the game plays are rubbish, but the story's really good.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

Yeah.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

You know, there's, there's a, there's quite a long list of good games in an open world setting. And I think you're right that the idea that. It has to be a fantasy genre. Is intriguing actually, that we feel like that. I think that's because those stories tend to have more epic settings Matt, so in Elm Ring, why do you think people play that If it doesn't have much characterization or story, then what is it that encourages people to play?

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

It is just a stunningly made world. One of those things that it's just awesome to walk through the challenge is incredibly compelling because the first thing that happens when you get out of the dungeon, well, you get killed immediately by this weird spider thing, and then you wake up and. You step out into the stunning first area, limb grave, this awesome, beautiful, melancholic environment. And then you see, a mounted warrior that is four times your height and has an ax whose circumference is the same as you. And then you get absolutely smashed into the ground with it. But then you go, oh, I'll be back for you later. And I think a really important part of a game like that is that there's always something unbelievably cool on the horizon that you can see from wherever you are. You can see the earth tree, you can see storm, Vale, castle. You can see these towers. You see the skeletons of massive giants on the landscape, and it just makes you go, oh, what's that over there? And I want to go all the way to it.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Which is exactly how you want an open world environment to be. You want it to draw you on to the next thing. I just wanna see what's around that corner. I just wanna see what's over that hill. I just wanna find out what these people are asking for, you know? And I think that is. That's what you want. And that's the sort of environment where you can really get sucked into and feel like you are actually existing in some level within that space. The flip side of that is the amount of time you have to sink into these kind of games to do all of that, to explore all of that i'm a completionist. I'm not obsessively completionist, but I do like to have looked down all the little side routes and to have done most of the side quests, I find. Open worlds appealing because I want that escapism and to feel that I'm in a living, breathing world. But I also find it really, really overwhelming because it just feels. There's no way that I'm going to have the time to invest in this or to do all those things. And then when you get into, the grind, of games, and obviously the design of a game could possibly deal with this, but it seems at the moment that most games that have this kind of setting will have an element of grind in the middle where you are having to work your way up to being able to take on that really big boss or to find the solution to this problem and there's a lot of having to kind of go back and do. The same things repeatedly. And that's obviously on one hand a way of getting you to explore the world and do the things that the world can offer you but it's also can be very time consuming. It can be a little bit tedious. And if you've got hours and hours you can spend three hours doing this. That's fine. But if you actually only have hour a day to game, then grinding for three days in a row can sometimes feel a bit disheartening. They feel like they're not accessible to me. I think some of that's a problem with the way that I approach it. It's not all about completing the game, and maybe I need to step back and recognize that in these big games, they're not designed for you to do everything. They're designed for you to take the route that you want. Like Boulder Gate is great example. Of that because it has so many different ways that the game can go you just can't do them all in one play through. So you have to accept that there will be things that you won't see in your play through,

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

Okay.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

decide whether or not you want to do a second, third, fourth, fifth, hundredth play through to do all those things, but you can still complete the game. Without seeing everything, and that's okay. That's the way the game has been designed. Is it just about having a shift or are these games exclusive rather than inclusive when it comes to that sort of thing?

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

I think for me it depends on the game. I was gonna give you kind of two examples of open world game that I have experienced major overwhelm on and subsequently stopped playing. Unfortunately horizon. Forbidden West. I'm still, I'm afraid, stuck in the, first area. I like a tidy map and there's a lot of icons on the map. If I can't do them all without feeling like, it's gonna take tens of hours, I got to the point where I was like, well, this mission says to go. many meters into the fog of war, and I haven't even tidied up this first area. I was getting really frustrated at the idea of a mission that sent me ages away, knowing that. On the way I would probably have to tidy up everything around me and that would add another 10, 15 hours to actually reaching the start of that mission. it became really overwhelming, I found with that game. Every person I spoke to would give me a quest and I like to tick off the list. Some of the quests I was being given could not be completed very quickly.

jem_1_08-09-2025_145622:

Mm.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

I think maybe, it was just my particular mood at the time I was playing it, I was just not on board with helping Eli. Reach our goals, our quest markers, et cetera. I very much enjoyed being in the world and, it felt like a very dangerous world. And I think part of the issue also how powerful do you feel at the start of the game? And opposite experience that I'm having at the moment is with Ghost of Sima. Where right from the start of the game, you feel properly powerful and capable and a really impressive Samurai Warrior who can take on anyone and come out, out on top, even if maybe you have a struggle in certain encounters or with certain numbers of Mongols and things. But the way that gin moves and the way that you can get him to wield his weapons and stuff, it just makes you feel. Ultra powerful right from the beginning. That emboldened me to go and explore more because I'm like, whoa, nothing's gonna stop me now. I'm not gonna face any barriers here. and I think the way the fog of war unfolds is quite similar to, horizon Forbidden West, but the amount of stuff to do. a lot less. So it's a lot less overwhelming. There are sort of mini games inside activities and things, but they're not like the level of, things that a lot of games are doing these days. Influenced by gwent from the Witcher, the card game that has become,

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

Yes, pointless

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

Mm-hmm.

matt-guest966_1_08-09-2025_145620:

gwent is awesome. The, the throne breaker is awesome, but there are so many pointless mini games that they're hoping will be the next big thing.

alex--she-her-_1_08-09-2025_145626:

so that was part of what diverted my attention, wanting to get good at this mini game, and getting frustrated that I couldn't work out how to play it. I got stuck trying to figure it out and going between the different versions of that and thinking, well, I'm never gonna complete this game now if I can't even do this mini game. And that, that threw up a big barrier for me. As far as I understand there's nothing like that in. Ghost of Tsushima. There might be in Ghost of vte, which is a sequel, but it looks quite a fun one. It looks slightly more manageable perhaps. I don't know, in less strategic. But again, that's for future me to find out. but yeah, I'm having a completely opposite experience with Ghost of Tsushima, and I'm able to take it in small chunks and feel like. Even if you play for 15 minutes and do a side quest, it's a very rewarding gameplay loop I'm maybe 20 to 30 hours in. Um, and even if I play for half an hour, I've got what I need out of that half hour. I've got a bit of combat, a bit of exploration. I've stroked fox. I feel good, you know, life is good. Those are my two sort of differing experiences there.

Okay. Well, I think that's a great note to pause this conversation on. We have really only just scratched the surface of all the open world games have to offer, so we will definitely be back with part two next week. For now, thank you for listening. Please let what you think world and any of the about on podcast and we will see you very soon..