Witcher 3 - Gamasutra On a Successful Open World

Gamasutra author Phill Cameron analyses why the CD Projekt Red's implementation of a believable open world in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a smashing success. A random snippet:

It makes sense that villagers wouldn’t know the technical name for a monster, especially if it isn’t a common one. It makes sense that a big portion of a Witcher’s job is actually dealing with superstitious, uneducated townsfolk rather than necessarily monsters. There are multiple occurrences of Geralt needing to counter ignorance rather than a blade, which often could be interpreted to be cheating you out of a combat encounter. Combat which itself is diffident to the world far more than the player.