Brilliant. I feel like you express something that I've found expressed nowhere else before, and I think it's important.

This video is beautiful and reminds me of why i liked video games at first as a kid. Sure, the games i played had collectables, but as a child i never thought of them. I poked and prodded at the corners of digital landscapes because I wished to discover, and to meditate. I played pretend in false worlds, alone with my thoughts when I couldnt go outside to play. Games opened up whole new worlds to me, and now i realize i have a longing for those days, when moments didnt matter. When i could just be in a world, enriched and thoughtful.

What an incredible video. I feel like I'll be carrying it alongside me as I play video games for many years.

You NEED to be bigger. This is amazing.

This is beautiful and perfect. Thank you.

That was beautiful and this time I promise I'll try to stay on track with my comment. (addendum after the whole thing was written: Sorry for turning this into an essay!) Many years ago I've realized and accepted that there are very few things I can do for intrinsic reasons. I can't play goalless sandboxes for too long (Don't Starve is only interesting until I get to a point I can survive anything; I can't get into building pretty bases in games like Terraria/Dragon Quest Builders). I can't make games if I am not confident I'll later get attention and praise for it. I can't draw/play music for fun because I am not good enough to get external appreciation. And I remember when I was a kid, I was doing new game+ in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero like 6 times in a row, just to see if there is maybe some additional hidden story content if you replay it long enough. I'd play around in Klik and Play or Backbone (this one was on Amiga) making small silly games just for the fun of it. I'd draw for fun crappy comics and play on my 30 key tiny piano because it was fun. It all got lost somewhere along the way. I can only remember a few times in the past few years where I did things in games only because I wanted to do them. In Unpacking I somehow got a lot of satisfaction from moving things around and creating a space that makes sense. In Zelda: Breath of the Wild I'd often try to climb or reach something that was difficult to do just for the sake of the challenge. In Outer Wilds I'd try doing weird stuff just to see how the world reacts. One could argue those weren't real exploration of my own, I don't have a good argument here. But I have a small observation towards the video - it essentially states that the exploration for the sake of exploration is a good thing. But do the examples really match? When you explore the void in Obsolete, do you do it because you want to fly in the darkness or because you expect to find something hidden there? You yourself said that the reason you explored the ocean in Proteus was because you wanted to find something. When you explored the world in the atari flight simulator you did some in hopes of finding something. It seems that exploration for exploration's sake is not really for exploration's sake but, rather, for the sake of finding something interesting. Though maybe it doesn't matter? It still doesn't change the fact that for me, there must be some external goals or rewards to actually do the exploration. So why do I *need* the goal? Why can't I just explore in the hope of finding something interesting? On one hand it's probably just how my brain was wired while growing up. On another, if I think about it, it makes me ask - what's the point? Getting to the end of a game makes my brain go happy when it sees the end credits. When I see an achievement completion popup my brain goes happy. When I a number goes up in an idler and I can buy yet another meaningless upgrade, my brain goes happy. So why can't my brain go happy when I, I dunno, fire up MGSV and start exploring weird corners of the place? Well, it can, for a very short time. Actually scratch that, when MGSV: Ground Zeroes was released (the short prequel to the main game) I completed its core mission like 15 times using various strategies, trying out different things just to see what happens. But I am also a great fan of the series, love the gameplay, and just playing it is fun for me... ...Wait, just playing is fun? Why isn't playing Don't Starve past the Point of Guaranteed Survival fun? At this point I throw my arms into the air, defeated. I could go on about fixations, adhd, growing up but that's probably not the best place to explore these. I've pretty much accepted that that's how I am and I can't do anything to change it much. It's not a problem in day-to-day life, unless I am trying to finish my game or find someone on the internet telling me I am an inferior human being because of that. Beyond that I just have to wait for the next Outer Wilds or Kojima's game to truly enjoy doing things without an achivement, collectible or objective me to do something. Great video!

When Proteus was released I became completely lost during the final phase of the game. I'd headed out into the sea, thinking perhaps it might present a bridge to somewhere else now. The reduced draw distance instead meant I wandered, increasingly anxious and annoyed. The view remained consistent. I turned left and right, trying to coax some kind of change in the scenery. Nothing. Endless bleak wandering for what seemed to go on for at least half an hour before I eventually went through a process of turning a bit, going for 5 minutes, turn a bit going for 5 minutes, and so on. Eventually I managed to stumble upon the island again. This was the second time I'd played Proteus. The first time I'd played it was whilst it was in beta. It locked me out of my keyboard and computer and I frantically cursed the game and my machine for this predicament. I resorted to hard-resetting the machine, one of the few people to report Proteus sending them into a flying rage. When people insist a state of failure is required to be a game, I don't think they understand the scope of what failure can mean. That it can be something much more unpleasant than having to start over.

So glad I have stumbled across your channel dude, very glad. Thank you! xxx

This is fantastic, thank you!

this video is amazing in sooooo many ways

I have a nostalgia of these "old" videos

this is the most scientific explanation why collectibles sucks, and I loved it, great video you have there.

Great video! Very thoughtful.

This reminds me of NiesanceE. Although that game is fairly linear it really makes you feel like you are exploring a place where you are not supposed to be. I think its not just that rewards make the activity less satisfying, they are also a reminder thay you are staying within the boundaries of a predesigned space. Kinda like a kid whose parents let him go wherever he wants as long as he never leaves the house. Its can be fun, but it just does not convey that feeling of exploring the unknown.

Your videos are great. Subscribed!

Excellent video. Good choice of music too (there's no video that isn't improved by some Jerry Goldsmith in the background ;) ). I love a challenge or an engaging story, but exploration of the unknown is probably my favorite thing in games. Not even just sights and sounds, but also gameplay and the "rules of the world" itself. I sometimes find games lose some of their magic once you figure out the mechanics, what is possible and what isn't, the variables and the constants. When I try to think of my most memorable gaming experiences, most of them were not setpiece moments carefully crafted by a team of developers, but things that just... (seemingly?) happened by themselves. Like in my first game of Eidolon the game suddenly glitched (I think) so no berries or animals spawned anymore, so I kept travelling, desperately looking for something to eat. At one point I realized all hope was lost and I would soon run out of food, so I decided I would keep walking forward to my death. Slowly dying I traversed a mountain range, passed woods and lakes, and eventually ended up at a huge ocean, where I kept walking along the shore during the night. When the mist lifted and the sun started to rise I knew I would collapse very soon so I decided to wade into the water (the hunger would kill me before hypothermia anyway). In my final moments I noticed a small green glint at the horizon but I died seconds later. I quit the game and haven't played it since. It might sound strange but even though you rarely come across them, the game had a very different feel without the animals. Or maybe more accurately it wasn't the lack of animals, but _knowing there were no animals anymore_ that made the experience so surreal. Animals and food were a constant, the game had broken its own rules (or the rules I thought I knew at least). Also the feeling of an inevitable death (or loss) you can do absolutely nothing about (where it's not even mechanically possible to escape or 'win' I mean) is something I've rarely seen explored in games.

I couldn't agree more. Collectibles and "stuff to do" can easily rob spaces of their wonder and "dignity", even if they happen to be beautifully designed.

Dayoscript loves your videos

I guess I want to think of collectibles as making the world richer, enhancing the story and the meaning of that story because that's often what I play games for: a constructed story and world. And I've never really liked sandbox games. Does that mean my enjoyment/understanding of games was poisoned too early? Anyway, I really love the exploration of exploration here. It reminds me of how I don't really like way-points or plotpoint indicators in games like Fallout 4, since what I really love is venturing out and mapping the world in my head and finding those bits of story that exist without being told where they are.

This is simultaneously what I loved about Far Cry 3 and hated about Far Cry 3. I just wanted the missions to piss off and let me jump in a vehicle, drive as straight as possible, and then drive off a high cliff and see if I could survive the ensuing crash. But at the same time, the sandbox that we run around in and make our own fun in has to be filled with something. I wish designers would focus on systems that enhanced that feeling of exploration. I think Skyrim and Far Cry 3&4 have to some extent allowed that to happen with random dragon or wild animal attacks. Collectibles are generally stupid as there's rarely any relevance to them within the game world.

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I really would love to meet you in person and exchange ideas. Wonderful! About around 6:03, I'm really curious what would you think about the new Zelda game? Would you consider featuring it perhaps? People (myself definitely included) are hungry for your videos!

I think a games world should be crafted in such way that allows you to not just see and hear but also to interact with it. When I go to someplace new in real life, I explore but I also interact, sit at a place, buy something, eat something, touch stuff etc. I didn't like Proteus or Dear Esther because I believe what these games offer to the player is limited but yes, I do respect and appreciate these games more than those who aim to waste the player's time with collectables. Players generally need to find purpose in the virtual world they are interacting with and in most cases exploration by itself is simply not enough.

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Nice use of the soundtrack for Star Trek TMP. It was probably the only part of the film I liked.

We are told we have freedom and where to go and how to solve things, only to be shown it was all laid for us as one singular path (Bioshock) They then told us our decisions and conversations open up different ways and mattered, but we found those 'dialog trees' were nothing but narratives we were telling ourselves, of which made next to no relevance to the story or our journey (Mass Effect) Agency, a time limit in disguise, made us afraid to explore the surroundings freely when we felt like it. It put us in conflict as to what to do. What part of our exploration cuts us off from the rest of the world (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) The more freedom we're told we have, the more constricted the experience really was.

Great video essay once again Joel! Could you connect these concepts to Voidscapes? They also seem to be fairly focused on exploration and light on mechanics or collectibles, and multiple of your examples I think could be classified as voidscapes.

The orihaus download links are all dead! Where can I get obsolete, aeon, lumiere, cesure and xaxi now??! Can anybody upload it somewhere? I really want to play these games.

Have you ever considered getting into game development?

Mystery + choice + beauty = exploration game? You can drop beauty and still make a great exploration game, but you can't drop the other two. Is there anything you can add to make an even better exploration game? Maybe risk? And, how do you engineer mystery? Most of the best moments of exploration in games, at least for me, have been moments in which I am obviously breaking the rules and going places the developer did not intend. Tough problem!

Well, you sir are awesome, great job and huge props to you! By the way, do know that the only reason I was able to watch your vídeos is a great youtuber by the name Dayoscript, dont be surprised if there is a spike in views, he has a decently big. loyal audience.