Effective Linear Design and Open Design

[winkio]

I just saw this video and thought that it was both hilarious and relevant to game design: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aip2aIt0ROM

Linear Design:
Do make thoughtful and challenging gameplay that rewards accomplishment, always offers something new, and minimizes grinding.
Don't make simple or tedious gameplay.

Open Design:
Do make grinding and repetition a fun component, with good animations, sounds, and small variation in normal battles.
Don't make boring backgrounds, plain gameplay, or endless wandering.

It's these core concepts that are sometimes lost in individual projects, and simply understanding them will go a long way towards making your game better.

[Blizzard]

I finally came around watching this. And I lol'd hard. xD

Yeah, there are a few very interesting observations and explanations. In today's fast paced world a game that plays faster is kind of natural. Everybody wants to save time by skipping the stupid and boring parts or making the pass faster and stay in the fun parts. Just an example would be Oblivion and Skyrim vs Morrowind. Morrowind didn't have fast travel. If you wanted to go to a city, you would have to teleport from one to another and then travel the rest. Ok, this part was done well obviously, because otherwise you would waste probably hours just for traveling between towns. But on the other side, it gave you that distinctive feeling that you have to organize yourself better. You come to a town and then you would do your stuff. Accomplish objectives of already started quests, start new ones or even finish quests by getting your reward. Then you decide where to go next and off you go. Games have truly changed over the years and the way they are played has changed even more. e.g. 10 years ago there were no "achievements" in games. I think that the concepts of linear and open design have changed as well or at least the way they are used and applied.