This year has seen the release of three great open-world games: Dying Light 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and Elden Ring. What do they all have in common? And what do they all do differently? This week, Kirk shares his new taxonomy for open worlds in video games and the Triple Click crew figures out what they like most in an open world.One More Thing: Kirk: Public DefendersMaddy: Elden RingJason: Steam DeckLinks:Steven Lumpkin's Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/Silent0siris/status/1498408412555747333Maddy’s articles about getting into Elden Ring: https://www.polygon.com/22948213/should-i-play-elden-ring-dark-souls-fromsoft-easy-hard and parkour in Dying Light 2: https://www.polygon.com/22941196/dying-light-2-stay-human-climbing-parkour-techlandSupport Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy a Triple Click t-shirt: https://topatoco.com/collections/maximum-fun/products/maxf-tc-tclogo-shJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ECOTAG: Kirk’s Open-World Personality TestVideo game open worlds can be broadly thought of according to three metrics: Emergent vs. Controlled, Opaque vs.Transparent, and Aesthetic vs. Gamey. IMPORTANT: These are gradients, not on/off switches, and they’re for categorizing the open worlds, not the games as a whole.EMERGENT→ CONTROLLED (How dynamic/simulated is the open world?)OPAQUE → TRANSPARENT (How mysterious is the open world?)AESTHETIC → GAMEY  (How involved is movement through the open world?)SOME EXAMPLESDying Light 2 = ETG (Emergent, Transparent, Gamey)Horizon Forbidden West = CTA (Controlled, Transparent, Aesthetic)Elden Ring = COA (Controlled, Opaque, Aesthetic)Red Dead Redemption 2 = EOA (Emergent, Opaque, Aesthetic)Outer Wilds = COG (Controlled, Opaque, Gamey (Jason convinced me))Gravity Rush: CTG Cyberpunk 2077:CTA (people expected more of an ETA or EOA)Subnautica: EOGSkyrim: EOAForza Horizon 5: CTG Divinity Original Sin 2: COASunset Overdrive: CTG Ghost of Tsushima = CTABOTW = EOGGTAV = EOAAssassin’s Creed = CTG (becoming more CTA lately)Ghost recon = CTAMinecraft = EOG