Map Markers: An Explorer’s Guide to Open World Video Games

Imagine this for a second: a stranger arrives at a small fishing village, he’s cladded in a worn set of iron armor; a broadsword hangs from his hips, sheathed within an etched scabbard. The longbow slung across his back and the satchel clinging from his belt leave little reason to doubt that this is an adventurer, braving the world in search of riches and glory. Now, just like any experienced adventurer, his first instinct upon arriving at this village is to head towards the local notice board, places like this are always in need of a helping hand (or blade) and he is more than willing to lend it in return for a few pieces of gold. Sure enough, he finds exactly what he’s looking for nailed onto the board. It would seem a wolf is causing quite a bit of trouble in these parts. The creature has recently graduated from attacking the occasional sheep and chicken to ambushing unwary travelers.

“If any brave soul feels up to the task of slaying this vile beast, please come speak to the town bailiff!” the notice reads, “A fat pouch of coin and the eternal gratitude of our humble settlement await you!” And so, our brave adventurer goes to meet with the bailiff, upon arriving at his office he states his intentions to find and cut down the troublesome beast. The bailiff considers the man before him for a moment; he seems capable enough, certainly a cut above the average mercenary that wanders into town every once in a while. He agrees to give him the job, promising a reward when the adventurer returns. The two men shake on it. Our adventurer only needs to know one thing now: where can he find this damnable wolf? The bailiff happens to have an idea of its location, but how does he pass this knowledge onto our adventurer?

Well, if this scenario took place in a video-game that came out in the last few years, the bailiff would most likely mark the location on the adventurer’s map. A simple and convenient indicator that informs the player where they need to go to complete their task — a map marker.

Over the last decade or so, map markers have pretty much become an expected feature in open-world games, particularly open-world RPG games. But this wasn’t always the case. Pick up a game that came out in the early 2000’s and you’d be hard-pressed to find a single map marker. Roll back the years even further and you’d be lucky to even find a map in your RPG, with players having to resort to pen-and-paper to get a sense of direction. Now you might be inclined to simply say, so what? It’s just a sign of the genre evolving with the times; ridding itself of unnecessary complexity in order to become more accessible and enjoyable. But did it really do that? And even if it did, did role-playing games lose something else in the process; something unique and previously ubiquitous to the genre.

Immersion is word that the video-game industry loves to throw around lot these days. Look at any recent major game reveal — whether it’s a trailer or presentation — if it’s an open-world game, it’s a safe bet that the phrase ‘immersive experience’ will pop up. For the most part, this is done to hype up the scale and realism of the world that has been created for the players to explore. Now yes, world’s such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Ancient Greece and FarCry 5’s Hope County are nothing short of breathtaking when it comes to visual fidelity and sheer scale. In fact, the maps of these worlds are so large that they can even feel a bit daunting. What are the best places to explore? Where can I find the best quests? What areas do I need to visit first? It can be a tad overwhelming for a new player, never mind the most horrifying prospect of all — am I missing out on stuff? Fear not, for the developers have a clear solution for these concerns. You guessed it; it’s map markers. With a bunch of these strewn across the map, the player has all the information they need to go off exploring; the litany of question marks carving out a path of progress discovery. This may indeed be convenient — perhaps even enjoyable — after all, the player is systematically checking out all the points of interest the developers have planted in their world. Quite an efficient use of that ever-elusive free time. However, this most certainly is not ‘immersive’; that extraordinary quality that game company’s keep parroting on about.
I’d define a video game as immersive when as a player, I feel as if I’m someone who’s inhabiting the game’s world and playing a role within it. Map markers quite often tend to do the opposite, continuously reminding the player that they are in fact playing a video-game.

Let’s think back to our adventurer and his troublesome wolf and apply this modern game-design philosophy. So, the wolf’s location will be clearly designated on the player’s map, additionally the player might also see a bunch of map markers denoting hidden treasures, collectibles and maybe even a dungeon in the vicinity of the wolf’s lair. Equipped with this foreknowledge the player systematically visits each location; first going to the hidden treasures to gain some extra loot, then the collectible to gain some experience, then they venture into the dungeon and fight a few enemies, and at the end of the dungeon they are rewarded with a new weapon. Equipped with all this new loot and certain that there’s nothing else of interest in the area, the player heads of the wolf’s location and kills it. Now, is this good game-design and more importantly, is it an enjoyable experience? The answer of course, is quite subjective, isn’t it? Some players will like that the game provides all the points of interest in the area, ensuring that they don’t miss out on any content. Others might be annoyed that they are essentially being strung along on a set path, conveniently laid out by the developers.

Now let’s apply a different design to this scenario. The player is only given a set of directions to the wolf’s lair and a hint that there’s a dungeon nearby. All of this information is jotted down in the game’s journal. The player must now find a path to the destination using this limited set of knowledge and their own intuition. If they’re particularly attentive they might chance upon the hidden treasures and collectibles (perhaps a hint of their locations can be uncovered by completing the dungeon). All in all, this approach places a greater sense of agency on the player. You are no longer going an on-rails ride laid out by the developers, but progressing through the area organically. It’s by far the more immersive option, with players having to be observant of the world around them in order to make any special discoveries. In turn these discoveries do actually feel special now, instead of just being another tick off the to-do list. However, for some players the prospect of missing out on stuff can be a deal-breaker, even if they might prefer a more organic style of exploration. Time is another issue, not everyone can afford or want to spend their limited playtime inefficiently. Yet others might actually enjoy the checklist aspect of the earlier design approach. Simply put, when it comes to designing exploration in these types of games, there is no objectively correct way to go about it. What developers can and should do is offer choice. And therein lies the problem. Ever since map markers started to become an expected feature in open-world RPGs, developers have begun to rely exclusively on them, disregarding the more immersive approach altogether. Perhaps the best way to observe this over-reliance would be to turn our attention towards one of the most enduring franchises in the genre; The Elder Scrolls.

Throughout its lifetime, The Elder Scrolls series has earned almost unanimous praise for its world design, being lauded for presenting players with expansive worlds to get lost in with each new title. In 2002, Bethesda Game Studios released the third installment in the Elder Scrolls series: Morrowind. This title would go onto be a legend among RPG fans; endlessly praised for its seamless open-world, compelling quests and fascinating characters. Many fans of the series consider it to be the pinnacle of the franchise, perhaps even of the entire genre as a whole, and while that boils down to a matter of subjectivity (with a healthy sprinkling of nostalgia), there’s no doubt that Morrowind got a lot of things right. So then, how did it expect players to navigate its world; the eerily beautiful homeland of the dark elves. Well, for a start there were no map markers. Players had to rely on a combination of landmarks and road signs, along with getting directions from NPCs and constantly referring to their journal. Even fast travel wasn’t an always-available option, with players having to discover boats or silt-striders for quick transport in-between major settlements. And for the most part, it worked. This was of course, in no small part due to just how well realized and dense the world of Morrowind was. Sure, you didn’t have convenient markers on your map to easily guide you through to the next quest objective, but the world was so packed with content that even if you took a wrong turn as you tried to decipher the directions in your head, you’d more than likely stumble upon another exciting adventure to follow.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would release four years later in 2006. It would be the first game in the franchise to utilize map markers. These were not only useful to navigate around the world with, but could be used to instantaneously fast travel to and from locations — provided there were no enemies nearby. Importantly however, this new addition didn’t mean that the developers did away with established conventions. The player journal was as robust as ever, which in conjunction with landmarks, road signs and NPC interaction offered an alternative way to explore Cyrodil’s enchanting landscapes.
This simple availability of choice would not carry over to the fifth and by far the most commercially successful entry into the series — The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

As of 2016, Skyrim has sold well over 30 million copies worldwide, making it the single best-selling RPG of all time. It has been re-released onto new platforms to the point of becoming a meme, one that Bethesda themselves have made fun of. Even today, if you were to pull up the steam charts Skyrim still boasts a sizable player base. There are several major reasons for Skyrim’s continued success. It’s Nordic setting and introduction of dragons as major antagonists was an easily marketable premise. With its release, the modding scene which had been steadily growing since the Morrowind days exploded, pumping out new and exciting content that ensured Skyrim remain endlessly replayable. Bethesda also made efforts to make Skyrim accessible to as large of a player base as possible. This meant that a lot of mechanics synonymous with the franchise were streamlined and at times simplified. Character attributes were simplified to the trio of Health, Magic and Stamina; the schools of magic were reduced from six to five; weapon skills were condensed into to two broad skill trees of one handed and two handed, to name a few. Change like these meant that the barrier to entry for the series was lower than ever. As a result, even players who were not typical RPG fans could easily get into Skyrim and they sure did. The sales numbers are proof of that.
Trying to create a product that appeals to every single person has its drawbacks of course. Skyrim’s desire to be accessible meant that it strayed from features that had made the series successful in the first place. There was a belief among long-time fans of the series that in the quest for mega-stardom, the Elder Scrolls had cast away its own identity. Skyrim was in essence a great lake, vast and expansive on the surface but with the depth of kiddie pool, and while the changes it made to the character and progression systems are worthy of their own discussions, let’s take a look at how it handled exploration — the bread and butter of the Elder Scrolls series.
Skyrim has an absolutely incredible setting and traversing the frozen landscapes of Tamriel’s northernmost province can be an actual treat. Whether it climbing one of the world’s many jagged peaks, riding through giant infested tundra or delving into the foreboding ruins dotted around the landscape, Skyrim’s world design and the amount of environmental storytelling it delivers is simply astounding. It’s a great shame then that Skyrim’s main tools for exploration and navigation are so thoroughly uninspired.

Map markers are the name of the game when it comes to exploring Skyrim. Similar to Oblivion, map markers will denote the locations players need to travel to in order to complete quests or to follow up on rumors. Unlike Oblivion however, these are pretty much the only things you can rely on in order to complete quests. The in-game journal is threadbare; major questlines will at best get a paragraphs worth of summarization, minor quests boil down to a sentence explaining whatever the immediate objective is (with a convenient map marker, of course). Dialogue options to help with navigation are almost non-existent, with most conversations boiling down to “Here, I’ll mark it on your map.” All of this is further exasperated by the design of the in-game map itself, with most roads and paths not visibly marked on it. What this means that the map itself is pretty useless when trying to plot a course to a destination, instead players have to rely on their HUD compass. The compass is always present as the player explores Skyrim, always pointing out the direction of their map markers. The problem with relying on the compass is that all it does is point out the direction of the objective, not point out a path to it. Because of this, traversing the world often boils down to heading in the direction of a map marker, and not organically travelling through the world. It’s perhaps because of this that fast travel is such a popular choice among Skyrim’s players, using it to travel to the closest discovered location to the quest marker and then travelling in a relatively straight direction towards it. This is really a shame as Skyrim’s handcrafted world is littered with interesting secrets and locations for the player to discover, but unfortunately — unless they are denoted by a map marker — it’s a fair bet that a majority of players will simply miss out on them. Perhaps it’s telling then that one of the most popular mods for Skyrim is one that replaces the in-game map with a far more detailed one, complete with visible roads and paths.

Skyrim’s massive success and popularity only furthered the trend of map marker led exploration in open world games. In many ways this design choice also allowed developers to create world’s that got more massive with each installment, but were also far less dense when it came to content. Companies could boast how their game had the largest open-world yet, with only a handful of space filled with interesting content, safely pointed out to the player using map markers. Developers could have their cake and eat it too. One need only look at any recent Ubisoft release for proof of this. Games that are set in sprawling world spaces, yet are devoid of unique and interesting content to engage with. But perhaps it’s not all doom and gloom. As stated previously, a map-marker based exploration system is not inherently bad. What is questionable is the overreliance on it. Over the past few years, there have been a few titles that have placed the choice back in the player’s hands.

2015’s The Witcher 3 employs map markers, indicating quest objectives, points of interest and fast-travel points. However, the player can also turn these off if they so choose. The game map is quite well detailed, showcasing roads, major structures and landmarks. This in conjunction with a fairly detailed quest journal provide an alternative method to progress through the game’s quests and explore its world effectively and enjoyably. Kingdom Come: Deliverance, released in 2018, allowed players to experience the game in an optional hardcore mode. In this setting, all fast travel is disabled, along with the player’s map location and all compass elements, challenging players to utilize a beautifully detailed map to navigate around 15th century Bohemia. Both of these titles were commercial and critical successes and prove that giving players choice on how they go about exploring and adventuring is never a bad thing. So, here’s hoping that going forward, developers will put a little bit more effort into how they design their tools of exploration, while utilizing the convenience of map markers to draw in newer players into the fanbase.