Can anyone tell me Steam's definition of Open World?

[IllSpentYouth]

While I see the tag Open World applied to many games I own, many of them do not match the definition I have for an open-world game. To me, a game that allows me to go anywhere physics allows me to go is an open world game. An open world game does not contain 'invisible walls' that stop you from getting to the area beyond it, or force you to follow some prescribed path that the game maker wants you to follow. Nor will it flash an ominous message in red letters advising you to 'return from whence you came.' An open-world game will have obstacles of various types (electric fences, buildings, mountains, etc.) that can contain the player or limit further exploration in the direction they are going. Some, especially mountains or rock formations, may have certain areas accessible to more inventive players, but progress will stop at some point due to physical restrictions. Something like this seems to match the term Open World.

Am I overlooking something that validates they way that tag is being used? Does anyone else see things the same or similar to what I do? If you don't, please let me know why.

The reason I am so interested in answers to this is because this particular tag is not the only one I think is being misused. There are many games I own (out of 236 games and 291 DLCs) that I bought partly due to the use of certain tags that I thought were inaccurately tagged, even in an abstract sense.

Thank you for reading.

[plutone00]

It's a user-defined tag, other steam users apply it.

[Phantom]

Tags are user defined.

[Ogami]

Publicado originalmente por Robin3sk:

Tags are user defined.

The main 4-5 tags on the store page are set by the developer.
Only if you go into " show more" are you seeing user tags.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

If it's so important to you I'd advise doing more research than just "search by tag". They aren't precise terms. There are few games where the devs don't "channel" you at some points.

S.x.

[🍋 Lemonfed 🍋]

Open world is a non-linear game with a large map that allow exploration , but as other said tags are user defined.

[IllSpentYouth]

Publicado originalmente por Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

If it's so important to you I'd advise doing more research than just "search by tag". They aren't precise terms. There are few games where the devs don't "channel" you at some points.

S.x.

I would like to ask that, if you are going to adopt a condescending attitude, you just ignore my posts. Despite your prestigious (I'm sure) title, my question was answered in the first two replies. And even though they didn't include titles, that was all that needed to be said. BTW, before I buy a game, I go to the publisher's website, read reviews, watch gameplay videos, etc., besides looking at the tags. Part of the reason I made the OP is because the tags used here (on Steam) don't seem to match the videos or my own game experience.

Publicado originalmente por Lemonfed:

Open world is a non-linear game with a large map that allow exploration , but as other said tags are user defined.

So, basically, you felt that my definition was wrong and you needed to provide your own. Thank you, but I like my definition.

Thank you for the replies. I now know that Steam doesn't care if the games they sell are described correctly or not.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Publicado originalmente por IllSpentYouth:

Publicado originalmente por Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

If it's so important to you I'd advise doing more research than just "search by tag". They aren't precise terms. There are few games where the devs don't "channel" you at some points.

S.x.

I would like to ask that, if you are going to adopt a condescending attitude, you just ignore my posts. Despite your prestigious (I'm sure) title, my question was answered in the first two replies. And even though they didn't include titles, that was all that needed to be said. BTW, before I buy a game, I go to the publisher's website, read reviews, watch gameplay videos, etc., besides looking at the tags. Part of the reason I made the OP is because the tags used here (on Steam) don't seem to match the videos or my own game experience.

Publicado originalmente por Lemonfed:

Open world is a non-linear game with a large map that allow exploration , but as other said tags are user defined.

So, basically, you felt that my definition was wrong and you needed to provide your own. Thank you, but I like my definition.

Thank you for the replies. I now know that Steam doesn't care if the games they sell are described correctly or not.

Your opinion of what open world means has no bearing on what the majority feel open world means. You're more than welcome to search harder for whatever meets your criteria. With a little critical thinking though you'd realize your definition is the exact same as everyone else's just presented differently. An impassable fence is just a prettier invisible wall.

[Bobert]

If your looking for any games like what matches that. Scum and Dayz are really good open world games.

But crafting and looting and killing too. Some PVE servers but scum does offer single player which is great for learning the game and learning where loot spawns and such :))

[🍋 Lemonfed 🍋]

Publicado originalmente por IllSpentYouth:

Publicado originalmente por Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

If it's so important to you I'd advise doing more research than just "search by tag". They aren't precise terms. There are few games where the devs don't "channel" you at some points.

S.x.

I would like to ask that, if you are going to adopt a condescending attitude, you just ignore my posts. Despite your prestigious (I'm sure) title, my question was answered in the first two replies. And even though they didn't include titles, that was all that needed to be said. BTW, before I buy a game, I go to the publisher's website, read reviews, watch gameplay videos, etc., besides looking at the tags. Part of the reason I made the OP is because the tags used here (on Steam) don't seem to match the videos or my own game experience.

Publicado originalmente por Lemonfed:

Open world is a non-linear game with a large map that allow exploration , but as other said tags are user defined.

So, basically, you felt that my definition was wrong and you needed to provide your own. Thank you, but I like my definition.

Thank you for the replies. I now know that Steam doesn't care if the games they sell are described correctly or not.

your definition is confusing because if we refer to it even Grand theft Auto 5 is not an open world for having an invisible barrier that prevent anything that fly from leaving the island , just do it , pick a plane and fly away ... there is an invisble wall that make your plane crash once you've gone too far.

[zuppaclub]

imo open world is a fricking huge map ( for example, just cause, TW 3, mad max, GTA5 , etc )

[Narbera1]

Im open

[Lu]

Where some people get confused is with the difference between 'open world' and 'sandbox'.

'Sandbox' to me just means a gameworld where you have some freedom to explore and do your own thing as opposed to following set paths and corridors all the time. Sandboxes can still have some invisible walls and can still restrict players in other ways, like progressing through a narrative to unlock more areas and content.

'Open world' meanwhile suggests that the main focus of the game is to provide a seamless and immersive experience. A living, breathing world with no invisible walls,

Where it gets even more confusing is when features like fast-travel are applied to open world games like Skyrim. What the developers are effectively doing is catering to people who would be much happier playing a sandbox game or even a linear game. By choosing to teleport from one point of the map to another to get straight to the action, they are effectively breaking the map into pseudo-levels with loading screens.