Do Bethesda style open world games really even need a main plot and an ending of sorts? I gotta admit, even though I've played Oblivion, Skyrim, and more times than I can even count Morrowind, I've only finished a main quest in any of them once, and it was in Morrowind with a character so fully tricked out that it was trivial to stomp through the main quest to finally see what all the fuss with Dagoth Ur was about
Like. Would it actually detract from the experience at all if they just said "hey, here's a cool sandbox full of quests and places to explore, go nuts" and there wasn't a main quest?
@eniko I would've gotten bored out of it much much faster if there was nothing to direct me. I personally can't do much with just sandboxes, I guess I don't have enough imagination haha
@eniko@opponent019 I think the main problem with that is that, after a certain amount of quests done, "Do this quest, and we'll give you gold and/or new equipment." becomes less of an incentive to do any particular quest.
A main quest helps solidify "There will be another quest after this related to this one, and here's why you'd want to do this quest." - to some extent, the Guild Quests in Skyrim sort of fill that role as well, just...to a lesser extent.
@AT1ST Any quest or mission with a end goal is a grind, it's just some don't feel as much like it than others. The way to hide that well is to make the journey just as interesting (or more) than the final destination. Making a good sandbox is hard to do, it turns off many players because they need more than the playground, they need some guidance. Coming from Elite Dangerous experience, which had potential to be a rather deep sandbox, but it turns out most people like to be on some sort of rails, even if they hate the idea generally. And combat is the easiest of rails to make.
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