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Game subthread.
Review of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader in the child comment here. (if putting it like this, let the mods remind me of not doing this)
What are some games that focus on exploration and vibes but with zero gamification elements? Something I’ve noticed is that games will try to nudge you into exploring an area by giving you an “exploration point”, or some other sort of positive reinforcer. But whenever this happens, it actually reduces your interest in exploring for its own sake, because the extrinsic reward interferes with the intrinsic reward processing. So when you get that point or that notification telling you that this is a new area, you now want to explore a new area already instead of actually taking in and experiencing the area you ostensibly have just discovered.
Is there any game that doesn’t do this? That encourages the intrinsic exploration element simply by not encouraging anything at all? (An old game which did this, that I recall playing briefly as a child, is The Endless Forest)
Peripeteia is an immersive sim that could fit. There are some elements like that, like there are some secret stashes, but overall you're given huge levels without much direction, and it's up to you to explore them.
It has a demo on Steam, which is the first level of the game. If you don't like the demo, you won't like the game. It is in early access, but the demo works well as a self contained experience too. I played it for 10 hours, when you can finish it in one pretty comfortably.
Otherwise for games with minimal elements like that you can look at Thief 1 and 2, or The Dark Mod fan missions. You still have a mechanical goal to accomplish to finish the mission, meaning obtain enough gold, and steal something specific. But otherwise you're free to explore.
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