It seems like everyone wants to get their dirty, stinkin' hands on our maps these days. A product whose real world counterpart is threatened by the GPS, video game maps are going the same direction: "Hey, you're doing that quest with the rats for me, right? Let me just put a dynamic, clickable, fast-travelable button here for you. There you go, right there. Yes, you haven't been in that region before -- just click the button, no need to wander."

So it might be a little exaggerated (or not, as revealed here), but you get the picture: NPCs are out to kill us.

Kind of.

The chiptune sounds that once emanated from within the walls of arcades have long faded into darkness; the affordable nature of modern console and PC gaming effortlessly decimated the away-from-home competition. It leaves something to be wanted, though - with virtually no reason to leave the house these days, especially with the explosion of powerhouses like Newegg and Amazon, gamers have to find a reason to converge at a common ground and compete. If our trip to this year's Raleigh MLG event taught us anything, it's that internalized competition is far more ferocious, and irrefutably more entertaining for even the spectators. This was proven yet again when I attended a small local tourney at Strafe for Halo: Reach. Although the prize money and attendance is far from anything like MLG or PAX Prime, the high-octane competition is the same; gamers want to give it all, and if lucky, walk home with a couple bucks more than they arrived with.

There comes a time in every gamer's life when walking from Leyawiin to Bruma is outright unacceptable; the journey is no longer the most fascinating, it's the most mind-numbing. Once you've seen the scenery the first time 'round, why bother walking through again? You're much higher level than any mobs you'll encounter in those zones, so experience isn't much of an incentive either. Our example gamer would much rather fast travel using some sort of boat, teleporter, silt strider, or The Nine forbid, a freakin' map that works from anywhere as long as the combat music isn't playing. Yes: walking in a video game becomes a tiring chore when infused with the "I want to get this quest done and go to sleep" curse. It's silly to think that the physical embodiment of the player character - the actual player - could reach a point of utter laziness such that holding down W is cumbersome. What's the matter -- is your index finger tired? You're sitting in a chair, not actually running. Don't be lazy.

Our new level design segment received such great traffic and feedback that I've decided to write a new piece, but don't fret, I will soon do a follow up of the Level Design Through Lyrics column. For this article, I am setting my sights on an old phenomenon within the RPG universe: "Open" RPGs.

The sentiment that a game world can be entirely open to exploration is not unique, nor is it in its infancy. Not surprisingly, the very roots of open world design can be attributed to pioneer tabletop games, the most widely known being Dungeons & Dragons and perhaps the Greyhawk setting, although adaptations have been made throughout the years to evolve these "pen and paper" interactions (seriously, who uses a pen for their character sheets?) into keyboard and mouse games. This feature can be applied to any sort of open world level design, but here are some examples you might like to employ:

• Naturally, using the article for your tabletop games.
• Repurposing ideas to fit Minecraft.
• Designing levels within your favorite level editors, such as UDK or TES Construction Set.
• Preparing for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!