Elden Ring, an open world game by From Software has used almost exclusively hiddenguidance systems to guide the players. This study provides insight on players’ experience ofplayer agency and freedom of choice. This is a pilot study into the subject of Elden Ring’ssuccess as an open world game while keeping visual guidance to the minimum. This researchwas conducted with a mixed methodology combining a quantitative survey for backgrounddata qualitative semi-structured interviews for further in-depth analysis. Data has shown thatall participants have experienced some form of player agency in Elden Ring, alongsideexperiencing different hidden guidance systems throughout different parts of the game. Thisstudy can be helpful for game developers and players alike to see how a successful openworld game guided players’ experience without using visual guidance. To conclude, based onthe data, it should be noted that the concept of agency is a construct that is decided by theplayer.

This master's thesis aims to investigate the narrative components inherent in open-world games. In this thesis, we will extract the narrative part of a game,analyze it, and compare the narrative part with other game design elements. The focus will be on the game "The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt," with specific portions of the game studied using AutoCAD and in-game playthroughs to extract data relating to narrative components such as items, characters, and locales. Data such as buildings, cities and objects referring to main-quest, sidequest, random interaction, cutscenes-storytelling, object interaction, and recurring characters are generated from the open-world game The Witcher III:The Wild Hunt using AutoCAD. Objects are used to mark narrative components during gameplay, and these elements will be exported into Excel for analysis using Tableau. The results of the research will be coupled with other parts of the level design. The collected data will be evaluated with Tableau, and a comparative study between the narrative part and the game-level design part has been conducted to uncover patterns and trends in the open-world game. This study investigates the narrative components found in the game world, examining their importance on various scales and their relationships with other game mechanics. According to the research, item interactions become more significant on the third floor and in larger cities, whereas cut scenes and narration are more common in big cities and on the first floor of buildings. The study also emphasizes the connection between main quests and side quests, indicating their strong relationship to the game's overarching story. The use of side missions, which frequently entail interacting with city objects, becomes increasingly important for encouraging player exploration. The study emphasizes the need for game designers to tailor their use of narrative components to the scale and context of each gaming setting, ultimately helping them to possibly create more immersive and engaging game worlds.

The open world game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) has been proven to follow a 40 second rule when placing points of interest for players to explore. The developers of the game said in an interview that the rule existed, and this was proven by a study made in 2021 by Cojanu and Jaber (2021). The 40 second rule means that whichever direction the player goes in, they will encounter a point of interest within 40 seconds. This study asks the question if Genshin Impact (2020) is following the 40 second rule. The researchers analyzed footage from four YouTube content creators to see if the rule was implemented in the game. It was found that Genshin Impact (2020) follows the 40 second rule since the points of interest were about 10 seconds apart. How the player decides to play the game slightly impacts the frequency of the points of interest and could be taken into account when testing the 40 seconds rule. It was found that points of interest found were more random at the start of the game and more intentionally found by the player later in the game. / Öppen världs spelet The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) har visat sig följa en 40 sekunders regel när det gäller placeringen av intressanta platser för spelare att utforska. Spelets utvecklare sa i en intervju att regeln fanns, och detta bevisades genom en studie utförd 2021 av Cojanu och Jaber (2021). Regeln innebär att oavsett vilken riktning spelaren går i så kommer de att stöta på en intressant plats inom 40 sekunder. Denna studie undersöker om Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln. Forskarna analyserade videomaterial från fyra YouTube innehållsskapare för att se om regeln implementerades i spelet. Det visades att Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln, eftersom de intressanta platserna låg ungefär 10 sekunder ifrån varandra. Hur spelaren väljer att spela spelet påverkar lite grann frekvensen av de intressanta platser och detta kan tas i beaktning när man testar 40 sekunders regeln. Det visade sig att de intressanta platserna var mer slumpmässiga i början av spelet och mer avsiktligt hittade av spelaren senare i spelet.