Is there really such a thing as too much of a good thing? Look, I get where the "bloated" crowd is coming from—some games do throw in pointless fetch quests and copy-paste objectives. But that’s a design problem, not an open-world problem. The best open-world games—like Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Elden Ring—use their size to create discovery, atmosphere, and player freedom. You can’t have that sense of wonder in a corridor or a small map. And if you don’t like the filler, just skip it. That’s the whole point: you choose your own adventure. Calling a game "bloated" because it offers more than you want is like complaining a buffet has too many options. Pick your plate and move on. The genre isn’t too big—some developers just need to be more thoughtful with their content.

Look, aydenfernandez, I hear you on the "always a new adventure" thing, but let's talk about what that actually means in practice. You're basically arguing that more content equals better experience, and that just doesn't hold up when you're spending 20 minutes riding a horse across empty fields to get to the next "adventure." That's not immersion—that's a waste of my limited gaming time. I agree with MaximalistMo that the good games do it right. When I'm climbing mountains in Breath of the Wild, every peak has something worth finding. But the problem is, most open-world games aren't that. They're throwing 300 identical bandit camps at you and calling it content. That's not a buffet—that's just the same dish served over and over. The practical consequence? I've abandoned more open-world games than I've finished because they treat my time like it's infinite. Give me a tight 30-hour experience over a bloated 100-hour slog any day.

Wait, does anyone actually think 300 identical bandit camps are what I'm defending? Come on. You're describing bad design, not open-world design. I already said that's a developer problem, not a genre problem. When Skyrim lets you ignore the main quest entirely to become a master thief or vampire lord, that's not bloat—that's possibility. You're framing player freedom as a downside, which feels backwards. And about time wasted? You don't have to ride across empty fields. Fast travel exists. Or better yet, don't play games that waste your time. The genre isn't forcing you to 100% everything. Elden Ring proved that a massive world can be dense with meaningful content if the developers care enough. Blaming the format instead of the execution is just lazy critique.

OK but let me give you a real example. Last week I was playing Red Dead Redemption 2 and spent an hour just hunting, fishing, and stumbling onto random encounters. That wasn't bloat—that was the game letting me live in its world. You mentioned Elden Ring yourself, and I think that actually proves my point. It's massive but every cave, every ruin has something that matters. A unique weapon, a boss that changes how you play, a piece of lore that recontextualizes everything. The problem isn't the size of these worlds. It's that some developers treat "open world" like a checklist instead of a playground. But even then, you can just ignore the filler. Nobody's forcing you to clear all 300 camps. You're acting like optional content is mandatory. That's on you, not the genre. A tight 30-hour experience is great sometimes, but it can't give you what a living, breathing world can.

Look, I get what you're saying about RDR2 and Elden Ring. Those are the exceptions, not the rule. But here's the thing—you keep blaming developers, not the genre, as if bad design is just some random accident. It's not. The open-world format practically encourages bloat because publishers know a big map sells copies. That's the practical consequence: we get 100 hours of padding because "more content" markets better than "better content." You say skip the filler. But when half the game is filler, that's not a choice—that's me paying $70 for 30 hours of good stuff buried under 70 hours of nothing. I'd rather have a game that respects my time from the start. You can't just handwave away the trend of bloated worlds by pointing at a few masterpieces. The genre has a real problem, and pretending it's all developer accountability ignores how the industry actually works.