Open world was a mistake. MEA lacks the subtle small things

Open World in itself isn't a mistake. In fact, if Bio manages to pull if off it's a goldmine and rightfully so. When done wrong however it can kill a game. Bioware's track-record when it comes to Open Worlds in ME:A and DA:I places them somehwere in the middle of these extremes, with a slight leaning towards the negative side. Bio's Open Worlds so far just have a really big MMO feel to them. (And I hate MMO's.) I would therefore argue that in the case of ME:A and DA:I, Open World was a mistake. For the future however, I would say that things can change. Bioware needs to think really hard about the place Open World has in their games. Does everything resolve around exploring this World or is the World there to support the grand narrative? The first option is more in the line with DA:I and ME:A. The worlds are big but they are filled with very basic and repetitive content which have nothing to do with the story. The second option is what I would like to see. An Open World doesn't have to hold infinite amounts of content in order to work. In fact, that is when I think Open World becomes a burden instead of a pro. I want to see smaller, handcrafted worlds where things are able to change thanks to the players actions and where sidecontent fluently connects with the story. No more 'could you please scan 5 terminals for me pathfinder because I'm retarded and can't do it myself' bulls@#$. No more I want 16 types of minerals scattered over the cluster quests. No more unresponsive NPC's. It's no problem if one or two fetchquests find themselves in a game but I just have the feeling that every minute spend developing these things is a waste of time compared to expanding on quests and details which actually matter. Bioware should just ignore these fillers and design the world in a 'less is more' type of philosophy.

So this is what I think about Open Worlds:

Meh Open World
- Extremely big world but devoid of content
- Content that's there is MMO-tier. Fetchquests (collect minerals, scan terminals), repetitive quests (vaults, placing the outpost, receivers), quests with no actual consequence (water or oil decision on Eos, military or scientific outpost), etc.
- Inactive NPC's just standing around forever. Some are literally standing still. Others are typing for eternity in a console (completely missing the keys by the way), others are bugged in a T-position.
- repetitive enemies. Not only in the way of animals and factions, but even in the way of bosses and mini-bosses. (I'm looking at you architect.)

Awesome Open World
- Smaller word where effort has been put into details. Just like when you go on a holiday, the best things to see are often the ones you don't expect. Same goes for exploring. Make places unique, create vistas to visit, scatter lore over the place and most of all: make everything as dynamic as possible. The players actions should have lasting consequences. Placing an outpost should change things. Activating a vault idem dito.
- Sidecontent should serve the main story and should tie in with the status of the protagonist. Important decisions made there which change the world around you should play out in new options opening up in the world. I really hate the fact that after placing an outpost you're just... done. It just instantly spawns and that's it. Building the place would have actually been the coolest part for me. Making decisions about resource- and workforce allocations and dealing with the issues coming from these would have been infinitely more interesting than activating another vault for the 4th time. Also, by making the protagonist important, like the inquisitor or pathfinder, it's just silly to add so many quests which other, more specialised, people could simply have done for you. As an example I'd like to use the game Spore. I love the Space Age in that game but it gets boring really quick. Why? Because you're the only person in your entire empire getting shit done. Starting a war? It's only your ship against an entire civilisation. Ecological disaster? You have to fix it, no matter where you are. Otherwise everything goes to shit. Spice trade? No-one wants to trade except you it seems. DE-LE-GATE is the keyword here. No more shearing sheep or collection rocks. You have people for these things. Use them.
- NPC's which actually feel alive. So no more idle animations which make NPC's look like they're the protagonist in a Bethesda game whilst waiting. We need people walking around. People having conversations or reacting to the protagonist. Day/Night cycle activities, more random encounters, crowds in busy spaces, work and progress etc. Make the world feel alive and interactive. Everything in my new outposts feels so sterile. I hate being there. There's nothing to do and everyone is just... standing there. I would love to see them actually work on establishing a home but whenever I check the outposts out I just get greeted by vacant stares from people standing in the exact same spot as the last time I visited the place.
- Take the time to craft enemies for specific locations. Especially more bosses and minibosses. Why should I explore when I get a really big 'been there done that' feeling from taking one single look at the biodiversity of a new planet? Why are there literally no unique enemies in normal gameplay? The most 'unique' enemy you fight is an upped variant of a creature you've killed a dozen times before. A good Open World uses unique designs to catch players off-guard. Making the player adapt to new situations and enemies keeps everything fresh and interesting.

These are just my two cents on Open World but I really hope that Bioware can do something with these 'tips' (not that I'm an expert on anything here so hence the quotation marks) in the future.


EDIT: Removed some grammar mistakes and overal sloppyness in the post. Also added a few more sentences to elaborate on certain aspects of my post. The central theme, however, stays the same.