Mainly I'm advocating that people explore this design-space more in general.
Sandboxes are cool in their own way, but aren't really the same thing
For me personally, the specific version of this that I want is a world to explore for exploration's sake, without anything quantifiable to be gained by doing so. The Stanley Parable is a good example of this, if you've heard of it. I use "world" and "explore" very loosely; exploring where you can go and what you can do as the engineer of a train would fall under this umbrella. Even if the answer is "not a whole lot", there's an aliveness and a wondering that comes from even such a tiny slice of a world.
But as soon as a performance metric is introduced there's this "should statement" hanging over my head, reshaping the whole experience.
I can relate. I strongly dislike score tables after levels which imply that my success was not successful enough - that I should now compete with the scores of other people.
It's all about different kinds of experiences for me. I love certain games that are heavily metrics-based, when that's what I feel like playing. Scoreboards sometimes make those games more fun because you always have a goal to keep chasing after for as long as you want to.
The problem is when every game feels the need to have metrics, even when they fly in the face of the rest of the experience. Sometimes I want something different.
Sandboxes are cool in their own way, but aren't really the same thing
For me personally, the specific version of this that I want is a world to explore for exploration's sake, without anything quantifiable to be gained by doing so. The Stanley Parable is a good example of this, if you've heard of it. I use "world" and "explore" very loosely; exploring where you can go and what you can do as the engineer of a train would fall under this umbrella. Even if the answer is "not a whole lot", there's an aliveness and a wondering that comes from even such a tiny slice of a world.
But as soon as a performance metric is introduced there's this "should statement" hanging over my head, reshaping the whole experience.