Re: Free Roaming
Example: In the game, after finding the Archeologist, Maze contacts you and says:
"It looks like Knothole Glade is in some trouble"
From a roleplaying perspective, any self respecting (good) Hero, would go straight to the Guild, pick up the quest and complete it. Yes, you *can* spend a load of time doing whatever the hell you like, but it's hard to justify it for certain characters. There's no room "to breathe", you're being forced further into the story.
Put it this way, if in real life - your boss tells you to deliver a message - you go and deliver the message, you don't spend an hour wandering the workplace looking for other things to do in between.
"Breather" moments, would be those moments where there is no great plot point weighing down on your character, that are dictating what he should be doing next. The time between the White Balverine quest and the Arena is a "Breather Point", because there's nothing "Life or Death" about having to go fight in the Arena, you've got an excuse to just walk around Albion doing what the hell you like for a while.
But, *after* the Arena, the bandit walks up and says "Theresa wants to meet you at the Grey House". Considering that the Hero (whether good or evil) seems to give quite a large crap about his family - until the very end at least - there's really no excuse to not go meet her straight away. THEN when you do, she tells you "our mother is in prison, the archeologist knows the way in" - how can I justify my (good) character be spending time courting Lady Grey/getting married/fishing/whatever when his mother is in such pain? He wouldn't. Then, as soon as you release your mother - you're told you *have to go to the Darkwood cullis gate*... and you're into the final stretch of the game.
I thought that there was going to be something of a breather point between Fable and the Extra TLC stuff... but no. Straight away: "Get to the boasting platform quickly!", then "You must hurry to the Northern Wastes, there's no time to waste!"... gah.
Fable's storyline should have been broken up in such a way that you'd have two or three quests directly related to the storyline to do, then once they were done there would be a few quests unrelated to the storyline that weren't constantly being shoved down your throat but were just *there*. Once they were done, the storyline would kick in again. Repeat.
So, like, after the Arena, instead of a bandit approaching you telling you to meet Theresa, he wouldn't - and you'd just unlock a few more quests at the guild. Once you'd done all of them (or met a certain number) and probably married/exposed Lady Grey, THEN a bandit would appear and say "Theresa wants to meet you", and you could launch into the "rescue Scarlet" portion of the game.
i wasnt really a fan of Morrowind either BUT it did have some awesome ideas.
