i don't like it in games like rpgs where the environment is providing a clear path to where you should go to next. i think whats more important than using the environment to guide the player is giving the player a good enough reason to want to follow what ever their quest was.
in fallout new vegas, for example, most players will probably follow the road down south avoiding the big dried up lake and mountains to the east. but on my first play through i left good springs and headed east before heading straight to new vegas. i was given a road to follow for the main quest and given people and places i needed to seek information from but i ended up ignoring that and ending up in novac before going straight to confronting benny. and that was fine, it filled the gaps in the story, in fact i could have skipped everything and gone straight to new vegas and thats where my story would start.
relying too much on guiding the player (in anyway, whether it be environment design or waypoints) pressures the player to play the game the same way everyone else does and you lose a lot of potential unique stories.
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