Pardon the length of the post.
Massive Multiplayer Online Games have a unique sense of discovery and exploration that honestly I don't find in any other game type. These are the best moments of the launch period when you are stepping out into the unknown world on a game launch or during an expansion by braving new lands and areas.
Themepark MMOs don't really achieve this with the worlds they craft since you follow the signposts, leveling paths, and unlock the dungeons when it is time to experience that story beat. Personally I adore the story telling I can get in a game like Final Fantasy XIV, but it is a game I can easily set down once I have finished the story campaign just like a single player game. Those are not games I want to explore every inch of the world and delve for secrets and mysteries.
Recently I have felt the excitement and sense of discovery in Destiny 2 in their most recent Season of the Lost. They added a new activity called Shattered Realm which is a combination of low stress combat, jumping puzzles, activatable utilities to bypass barriers, and a strong sense of exploration highlighting areas that you know you can't reach/access yet but will be able to in the future. The gameplay area is clouded in the dark and has chests that the game calls "mysteries" and ranks them based on the requirements to reach (trivial or enigmatic). These chests are either visible behind walls you cannot breach until you gain those abilities or completely hidden in plain sight until you gain other abilities. The design specifically intends you to return to the areas and experience them with new skills.
Week 1/Wing 1: First time there are no abilities / Repeat with a way to bypass special walls.
Week 2/Wing 2: First time can bypass walls / Repeat with a way to see hidden ledges/chests.
Week 3/Wing 3: First time can bypass walls and see hidden things / Repeat with ability to nullify a climate.
Week 4/Wing 1: Do you gain the unknown 4th ability here or just repeat the other two wings with all three abilities first?
This single activity is the most fun I have had in Destiny 2 in years simply because it scratches the itch of exploration and discovery and honestly this is the closest I have ever thought a First Person Shooter got to a true MMO style zone. While recognizing that describing this experience probably does not do it justice, I do think it is one that can be used to possibly help improve Pantheon by focusing down on the core concepts of what does and doesn't work.
Why does this activity work?
There is a single map, but there are three wings and you can only access a single wing per week as many times as you want. All three wings are visible in the distance from the start, just not reachable until their rotation.
As the activity progresses the abilities of the player is expanded through a metroid-vania style of unlocks that grant new abilities to reach new areas.
The game shows you there is more to experience in this realm if return once your toolkit has expanded.
You can reach areas through precise jumping that you are not intended to reach yet since you do not have the intended abilities yet.
There is a no real consequence of failure or experimentation as you explore the areas and strive to see what you can and cannot reach.
What are the problems with this style?
There is artificial time gating on abilities and as a result the activity effectively has an expiration date on when it is complete.
One can easily watch a guide or instructional website on where to go to reach every "mystery".
There is no true lasting impact of finding all of the secrets outside of filling an achievement checkbox on your character.
Impacts on Pantheon
If we focus it down to the core concept it boils down to "Show, Don't Tell" advice. Show the players that there is something important, but don't tell them what they need to do to uncover the mystery yet.
Set the clues that there is something important there, but not necessarily reachable or interactable with yet. Maybe this is via a NPC that makes a strange comment, but you don't have the information or quest item to capitalize on it yet. Maybe this is a perception trigger that this area is important, but until you reach this perception storyline stage is not directly interactable. Quest items need to drop from Mobs or ground spawns where appropriate regardless of whether the character is on that quest or not and they can decide if they want to explore the world to find how to use that quest item or give up and ignore it.
Big Dreams
But what if we want to dream big and actually build something that takes the strengths of the Destiny 2 example and overcomes its weaknesses?
An activity could be a combination of player skill and character skill that allows characters to either obtain rare trade-goods or reach areas that would not normally be reachable.
Imagine the mountain peaks are normally only reachable through a long bridge that requires acclimation to a frigid climate that only the most advanced players have become acclimated too, but in actuality there is a hidden cleft on the backside of the mountain that does not require acclimation but a strenuous climbing and jumping puzzle to reach that is discovered over time as players explore the world and connect the pieces.
A few key jumps are necessary to reach the top requiring player skill to overcome.
The character based climbing skill is necessary. Either an individual with a high enough climbing skill is required or a group of lower skilled players assist each other.
Scattered through the area are ore deposits that get rarer and more valuable the higher you climb.
There are various shortcuts in the area that require consumable quest items found from mob drops, ground spawns, or NPCs that are not directly implicated as being useful in this location.
For example you find a sack of pitons at the bottom of the mountain in an enemy camp or on a named mob that can be used to reduce the stamina drain on a stressful climbing section.
Possibly the perception system is used to interact with objects to find a hidden hermit in the mountainside.
Consequences of failure of losing your grip or missing a jump are loss of reaching those rare items and a slide or fall to the bottom of the mountain requiring a fight halfway up before they can restart the climbing section.
The requirement of character skill minimizes guide walkthroughs and providing access to in game items impacts the player economy by either allowing rare crafts or selling of items between players. It capitalizes on some of the differentiating factor of Pantheon by using the climates, climbing system, and perception system. The value in returning as characters grows stronger as they gain new abilities like the class ability of Druid: Vinewoven Bridge to ease crossing some gaps or returning at different times because the ore deposits are on random respawn timers. As these games are worlds that adapt over time the areas can be tweaked and adjusted with new quests or reasons to return to the area. A climbing quest might be a time limited test to see if the player can reach the top before the timer expires once it is viable solo.
You could easily apply this idea to an in game event such as a rare spawn fairy in Farethale that guards a giant towering tree. A raid defeating the guardian fairy causes a portal to spawn allowing players to climb the tree for a limited time. If a players reaches the top they can harvest a rare plant used in high level alchemy or rare food recipes. Those who fail the climb fall into the waters at the base of the tree and are locked out of the portal, yet they might have gained a few items as they made their climb. Shortcuts might be usable if players have the right items obtained from other parts of the world or the same zone. The key would be that for the area to be balanced properly you would likely be able to defeat the guardian before you have the skills to actually reach the top, but the lower branches still have something of value.
Conclusion
Maybe concepts like this is too concentrated an area and just simply not worth the investment of resources and I would not want to impact successfully launching a viable product. However at least reinforcing the proper groundwork for players connecting with the world by tantalizing and showing clues to those exploring and rewarding those who solve puzzles (small or large) helps make the game you want to come back to instead of feeling a once and done sentiment.
Maybe just a few smaller ideas need to make it into each zone hidden in nooks and crannies or reachable if you have the right tools that will give players a reason to return to previous haunts and past hunting grounds.
Are there other core features or mechanics that you find in games where you experience a similar sense of Exploration and Discovery?
My humble thoughts on your Big Dreams section:
In the Faerthale streams, we were introduced to the Sleepless in an area the GMs just used a portal to reach. As part of this zone, there was a windy climate that pushed the players who had to bound over a long series of floating rocks in orderto reach the area where the raid encounter was. Once there, they could still be blown off or "pushed" off the edge during the fight.
In the Amberfaet streams, the characters had to leap across a few breaks in the path up parts of the zone in order to get to other content.
We have the inclusion of climbing ropes for rogues to assist group members with climbs that may be too difficult for them on their own. We also have vine bridges to cross gaps as part of the druid skill set.
CP has already eluded to resource nodes being placed in regions where you MUST have sufficient climbing skills and gear to reach.
Also, there are areas that can not be explored even though the Perception system has hinted at where to go or what to do. This is managed by the Keeper journal that logs your Perception interactions so you can mark that place and come back at a later time when you have the ability to access it.
And now that we know how the terrain is generated for continents, we can infer that there will even be zone lines that are only accessible through either climbing or player skill by crossing a mountain or ravine or lowering down into a hole.
Bottom line, I think VR is well on their way to making a game that you can enjoy as much as running through Destiny 2! They've given us some insights into what is possible and the feedback that they are willing to use those tools to incentivize exploration and gate content that makes you want to come back when you're older.
Great article!
Nice post, I believe VR is already going into the idea of exploration with this mindset. It's always fun thinking of new scenarios that they could do!
When you were talking about people racing up the tree in Faerthale to access a limited time item I for some reason automatically went to the game Fall Guys lol, which could be a sort of fun mini-game to do.
The verticality could apply in other ways. For example there could be an underwater cavern which could be accessed by either swimming off the shore to reach by either having a good enough swim skill or enough air to breath, or perhaps there could also be a gap in the rocky shore to climb down that leads there as well. Or what if there was a place with lower gravity that supported floating islands and the only way to get to these floating islands would be to fight your way to a portal, or maybe just take off your equipped armor so you float upward easier. I'm just throwing around ideas, but it's fun to think about!