Column: 'A Journalistic Bent: The Ends Of Exploration'

The latest in Jim Rossignol's 'A Journalistic Bent' columns looks at 'the value of exploration', with the columnist arguing: "When gamers play something in the same way because a game is designed that way, the potential for their telling stories about their experiences is reduced." Referencing Valve founder Gabe Newell's comments in a recent interview that: "...people pay for the game, but don't get to play five sixths of the game, which I feel is a mistake. You spend all of this time to build stuff that most players will never ever ever see", it's suggested by Rossignol: "Newell's response has been nagging me all week. Is it really not a good use of resources to make a game open-plan? Some part of my brain deformed by a career in gaming isn't so sure. I've appreciated every second of Valve's scintillating output over the last eight years, but there's something about the games that do not have a single route from start to finish that inspires me just as much, if not more than the Valve exemplars. I wrote five versions of this column trying to pin it down." You can now read the full Gamasutra column on the subject for more insight on the issue (no registration required, please feel free to link to this article from external websites).