What’s the purpose of the open world if all I’m doing is holding z and tapping e to make my horse pathfind to the quest marker? The scenery is pretty, sure, but doesn’t serve a purpose. Am I really playing the game if I instinctively reach for my phone because doing anything else will slow me down from actually playing the game?

I’m not saying this because I want to bee-line the game. Quite the opposite, I want to complete all (but it ends up being most) of the major markers on the map. If there’s a tiny side quest with a silly premise, I want to see that. If there’s a treasure that inevitably contains a piece of gear worse than what I have, I still want to grab it. If there’s a collectible item that serves no purpose to me, I’ll still go grab it. These are all things I do to play the game.

But when I’m travelling the world, I’m not playing the game; I’m browsing reddit instead.