Former Rockstar developer issues warning about the industry and players ahead of GTA 6: “They don’t explore”
A challenge GTA 6 will need to tackle to make a stronger impact on players.
Open-world games have been a staple in the gaming industry for decades. Spanning various genres, they continue to captivate players while steadily evolving over time. Cameron Williams, former designer for Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online, recently discussed common issues in open-world games during a roundtable at the Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco.
“Players don’t explore, right? Whether it’s because the game is heavily action-oriented or simply doesn’t appeal to them. Or, [your game demands] a significant time investment, making it hard for players to pick it up and put it down. This is an increasingly difficult challenge, especially within the evolving ecosystem of free-to-play and live-service games, which monopolize everyone’s time and attention. We want to avoid creating a space so vast that players simply don’t know what to choose,” Williams highlighted, addressing concerns about “open-world fatigue,” which ultimately discourages exploration.
The challenges of open-world games
In addition to “open-world fatigue,” Cameron Williams also pointed out “exploration anxiety”, issues he knows all too well due to his experience working on these types of games. He concluded, “We want to avoid creating a space so vast that players simply don’t know what to choose.”
The time spent in open-world games can overwhelm many players, with countless icons on maps and significant distances between objectives. World designs often feel outdated, and it remains to be seen how GTA 6 will approach its map to overcome these hurdles.
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