Can roaming around exploring be considered gameplay?

[PlanetJosh]

I mainly into graphics in pc games and like looking at the scenery and structures. And I'm rarely a fan of gameplay except the times I got into online missions in ESO and Guild Wars 1 & 2. So I recently wondered if just walking and running (roaming) in maps to look around is also gameplay. Is that absurd? Just wanted to get a take on that idea.

For this argument roaming around doesn't include searching for keys or something like that if it involves regular mission gameplay to enter buildings. So for the most part the doors would have to be already open or you already have a key. Well if you left your key in an already opened chest on the other side of the map than it's ok to call it roaming to go get your key then go all the way back to the door to unlock it.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Hell ya, that was the best part about EQ1

 

[MongGrel]

I've done it in many games myself in the past, you can even get a lot of bonus point if ya don't get whacked.

I remember running a troll or two to dark elf land in EQ1, and other things in various games

Just running around with a level 1 in some games are fun.

 

[shortylickens]

If yur having fun, yes. Its a game. Minecraft doesnt have too much to explore but it has lots to build, so its good.

Subnautica has a decent mix of discovery and construction. Same with Space Engineers.

Terraria and Spacebound are both excellent.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I've done it in many games myself in the past, you can even get a lot of bonus point if ya don't get whacked.

I remember running a troll or two to dark elf land in EQ1, and other things in various games

Just running around with a level 1 in some games are fun.

Or looking for a bank to meet your friends or waiting on a boat for what seemed an eternity to get to the new continent like Kurnak. Good times.

 

[tidy]

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[MongGrel]

Or looking for a bank to meet your friends or waiting on a boat for what seemed an eternity to get to the new continent like Kurnak. Good times.

Just doing the chicken run to Rivendell for the cloak was a real time waster in LOTRO

 

[Stg-Flame]

Exploration is definitely considered part of a game, but if you load up Witcher 3 and spend two hours just looking at the countryside while intentionally ignoring combat and quests, then I would have to say you are no longer gaming, and just exploring.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I had fun wandering around Morrowind just to look at the scenery, which at the time was amazing. That was gameplay to me.

If a game has cheat codes / god mode you can always make it so you can ignore combat.

 

[tidy]

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[Craig234]

Check out "The Endless Forest"...

You're a deer. You walk. You walk. You walk. You see another deer. You look at each other.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Exploring is by definition gaming if you're exploring within a game.

PS. I'd say there's something wrong with you if you haven't spent at least two hours looking at TW3's countryside, because that countryside is absolutely stunning. So many screenshots.

EDIT: Just realised I have 970 TW3 screenshots, so maybe I have a problem.

I have around 300 screenshots of TW3's scenery, but what I'm saying if you prefer to just load a game and wander around looking at the scenery, then I don't call that gaming. Sure you're exploring, but if you're just exploring solely to look at things, then I don't believe that counts. I can recall loading TW3 several times and exploring the countryside, but every time I visited Points of Interest, looted chests, played Gwent, or at least chased down a drake I saw in the distance.

 

[HitAnyKey]

Spent many hours roaming in EVE Online. Pretty much a central part of PVP gameplay back in the day. Leroy the gate and go for roam. Good times!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Has anyone ever created a 'game' (which is not really a game) in which all the attention is to intricate detail and extensive mapping, purely for the purpose of letting the user explore?

I don't play games any more, but the immersive visual experience was the thing I was into most of all. I would buy worlds that I could explore for days or months at a time. Couldn't care less about killing enemies and dragons or competing online against fat gamers in some other city.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Has anyone ever created a 'game' (which is not really a game) in which all the attention is to intricate detail and extensive mapping, purely for the purpose of letting the user explore?

I don't play games any more, but the immersive visual experience was the thing I was into most of all. I would buy worlds that I could explore for days or months at a time. Couldn't care less about killing enemies and dragons or competing online against fat gamers in some other city.

Sounds like you want No Man's Sky.

Also, I'm curious why you threw in the word "fat" when describing online gamers. Seems like you have an automatic disdain for online gaming or you just view all gamers as overweight.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Also, I'm curious why you threw in the word "fat" when describing online gamers. Seems like you have an automatic disdain for online gaming or you just view all gamers as overweight.

Not the former, yes to the latter. But it was meant to be (a little) humorous.

 

[Craig234]

Not the former, yes to the latter. But it was meant to be (a little) humorous.

It's not humorous, it's insulting and offensive.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

There's a fair number of games who's sole purpose is to 'explore', at least to a majority extent. Some do have an 'end' or other purposes (explore and find the whatever or solve the puzzles) but it's not really an unusual concept. It could be argued that Myst was one of the first, (explore with some stuff locked behind a door, find the key!) and spawned a generation of exploration/puzzle style games.

 

[zinfamous]

Exploring is by definition gaming if you're exploring within a game.

PS. I'd say there's something wrong with you if you haven't spent at least two hours looking at TW3's countryside, because that countryside is absolutely stunning. So many screenshots.

EDIT: Just realised I have 970 TW3 screenshots, so maybe I have a problem.

Many of us have been there.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Depends.

Some games allow it, some don't.

You really should look around, that is the whole POINT of some of these engines, but if all you do is look around, you do not need to buy games with much plot.

There are several titles out (SubNautica?) whose whole PURPOSE is exploration.

But the bottom line is this:

Did you buy it?
Did you buy it to entertain yourself?
Did you have fun?

If you answered Yes to all three, do whatever you want with it.

'Nuff said.

 

[Craig234]

I've actually had an idea for travel videos I call "travel verite", what it means is, realistic videos showing what it's like to visit a place, warts and good things.

They'd be meant to say, for a small price see what it's like to see somewhere you're unlikely to go or want to see before deciding, and make enough to pay for the trips.

Instead of being highlights, it'd include more of the experience from the time of arrival, including things like traffic and neighborhoods actually seen.

Then it could include some nice restaurants or other things you can go to - but it'd be 'like the experience of going there', something not usually shown as much.

 

[Craig234]

From time to time I mention an obscure game named A Tale in the Desert, which is a multi-player community game set in old Egypt where you do crafting and building and various creative gameplay, like virtue missions.

The example I use for it is the task to gather a lot of valuable items, and then put them in a vault and give keys to several other players who can steal them for 24 hours, to prove you can identify who you can trust. It has a good amount of exploration.

 

[Staples]

Guess it is as legitimate as people running around in gta causing mayhem and not ever doing the missions.

 

[Rifter]

It worked for minecraft

 

[Modular]

I had fun wandering around Morrowind just to look at the scenery, which at the time was amazing. That was gameplay to me.

I always enjoyed that in Oblivion as well. I had that game pretty well modded and it was a blast to play. I have a friend who has wandered the entire map in that game looking for new things. I consider that gaming for sure and I think that it's more and more important as games continue to become task oriented or rail-feeling.

I hardly find the time to game anymore and when I do, it's typically something quick or some VR game on my Pixel, but reading these threads is inspiring me to get my butt back in the chair and finish a few old games that I started and never completed (The Witcher, Fallout 4, Dragon Age, etc.).