Rewarding exploration

In a lot of mmorpgs, exploration is rewarded with achievements and/or titles that always seemed very arbitrary to me. They basically turn into tick-the-box activities of "go here" "now go there" "congrats, you've explored the world" when all you really did was go from point A to point B to point C.

To me, this isn't exploration, especially when the world is basically the same no matter where you go. All the houses you go to look the same, all the creatures you find are at best re-colours of things you've seen in previous zones.

In order to truly reward exploration there needs to be interesting things to find, things that aren't found anywhere else, like a hidden waterfall in the middle of a jungle, or a unique creature that only lives in a specific part of the world, or a sunken ship that contains a little piece of lore.

TLDR: You don't need a tick-sheet or achievement to reward exploration, just give us interesting and unique things to find.

Question for you all: What kind of things would you like to find while exploring the world?

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McMackMuck

I'd like to find a plug at the bottom of the ocean.
Then remember the mantra "actions have consequence".

daveywavey

McMackMuck wrote: »

I'd like to find a plug at the bottom of the ocean.
Then remember the mantra "actions have consequence".

And, next to the plug, a big red button that says "DO NOT PRESS"...

maouw

Genshin Impact - for all its faults, did exploration REALLY WELL.
I was glued to that game for a while because I wanted to climb/glide over each hill/cliff to see what was on the other side.

3 things I think that helped with this:

Hidden - The world of Genshin Impact has HUGE verticality in cliffs and hills, inspired by Breath of the Wild. @Cathartidae made a really good post somewhere about how hills/mountains help to hide the world, and make it a grown-up game of peekaboo. Similarly opposite, this is why flying mounts break immersion and birds-eye-view is boring. This tickles my explorer's curiosity, because I want to see what I cannot see.
Natural points of interest - Why do dogs pee on certain things but not on others? I honestly don't know. But I do know that as humans we're curious about things like: what's at the very top of this hill/mountain? what's at the very bottom of this cavern? Is there something along the edge of this cliff? I swear there's something behind this wall. What is this curious thing doing here? There's a highway that I'm supposed to follow, but where does this small path go? Why is this tree a different colour? Can I go behind this waterfall? what's at the top of this waterfall? Where does this river start? etc. In genshin impact, they placed collectibles at these locations, and that alone was satisfying to the curious. They could have taken it a step further with rare mobs/gatherables, or a quest NPC, black market vendor, etc.
Secretive - there were no quests or arrows sending you in the direction of these places. No guide or explainer of what is there. No list of locations to visit. You could play the whole game without noticing they exist. But that's what made these places special.

Rinta

Gubiak wrote: »

To my experience a beautiful area with absolutely nothing in it ultimately will leave area forgotten by average mmorpg player...

I started reading your comment, and my first reaction was "well, that's the point - it's not for average players, it's for exploration nerds". But then your following idea was actually rather neat

Hemlocked

Hidden little messages or poems, found in a bottle washed up on a distant shore or left behind in a ruined village by an inhabitant before they were exiled. Things that only a few percent of players will ever find. Then again, with the internet, once somebody's found it, everyone's seen it.

Wedlen

To me one of the most important things is having a HUGE alive open world to explore. I am turned off by mmo's with small worlds or small zones. Knowing that I get to explore HUGE Vast lands with different biomes and possible rare rewards in each is exciting. Areas that are very difficult to get to or are rare to find that have 'rare, once in a game' rewards. Ive always loved ultra rare spawns. I love randomly running into a monster that most people havent seen before because of its rarity. That kind of exploration reward excites me. I dont care for the 100% exploration bonuses.

Dygz

Well...the great thing about Ashes, for Explorers, is that we can return to places we've already visited and discover a considerable amount of change as regions are affected by node progression and destruction.

zapper

I think games are about doing, not just going to various areas and seeing.

This means, to me, that meaningful exploration is meaningfully rewarding to my character, in things to do, useful items, materials, recipes, super powerful weapons (yes) or strengthens my character in some way.

Just filling in a map is boring as are exploration achievements.

Dygz

Ha!
My Bartle Score is: Explorer 87%; Socializer 73% ; Achiever 47%; Killer 0%
I love to fill in the map even without rewards. Though I like it when exploration gives xp and there are times when it would be nice to at least see some NPCs or mobs wandering around. Learning some lore about the location would be enough of a reward for me.

Sounds to me like you're more of an Achiever than you are an Explorer.

codewarlock

Of all the MMOs I've played in the past 20 years, I think RIFT had the best exploration experience. They did mention certain things (vaguely) in achievements like "Complete the Puzzle in [Zone A]" but more or less it was still up for you to find the area. This led to me scouring zones for hidden puzzles, jumping spots, or vantage points.

Many came with their own little rewards such as titles, or tabards, but it was just really cool actually finding some of these hidden gems tucked away in the fringes and borders of the zones.

Fairtale

For the rewards to be good, they have to be unexpected.

Examples:
- Enemies that only spawn in areas where players haven't been going much, and that after being defeated respawn in different locations;
- Increased resources in areas where players haven't been going much. When a player explores an otherwise 'useless' location, he is rewarded with extra ore and/or rare monsters;
- Mobs giving bonus XP the longer they have been left alive;

Advantages:
1. Real exploration would be rewarded (instead of reading some guide "this is where you find ore");
2. It would become much harder to create an online guide for the game, making it more unpredictable and having players spend time playing the game instead of browsing online guides;
3. The game would stop punishing players that "go out to explore with their friends" (looking at you, WoW);
4. Players would stop spam-grinding the same locations for XP. No guide would be able to say "this is the best way of lvling up" since on each server the XP locations would be different and change from one day to the next.

I think there is nothing worse for an MMO to have a webpage or youtube video with a "list of BiS items and best areas for farming", basically making the rest of the loot and content completely useless and "forcing" players into playing in just a very small part of the game.

IMO resources (and maybe even gear?) have to be something that happens by accident, and not something players read online about.

Does that make sense for others here?

Ravel

A collectors bag, and things to put into the bag.

Dygz

Unexpected mementos that are placed on a collector's page... hmmmn.
I mean, there a places I've gone while swimming around continents where I've wished I could have had something to show for my troubles. Doesn't necessarily have to be "rare" or sellable.

CROW3

I’d prefer rewards that will help my next exploration expeditions:
- a better kayak
- an improved sextant
- a more accurate compass
- a telescope
- a flag to plant on a peak
- some bonus to map making
- identifiable stars that are brighter to me than to other players
- Etc

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